We all want our business to run well and our employees to hone their skills to the best of their ability. Sometimes you are faced with the need to address skills gaps in your company.

To understand what you’re dealing with and how best to address the situation, let’s get to know what skills gaps are and how to approach them.

What are skills gaps?

The general idea of the term “skill gap” refers to a lack of skill required for a certain task which can lead to a decrease in work performance.

The lack of required skills for the workplace can also result in a lack of development and actual employee performance and growth.

How to address skill gaps?

The long-term goal of addressing employee skills gaps is to improve the overall development and production of an employee. You want their work performance to be the best it can be. So how do you address this?

Start by gathering data about the employee. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Where do you think they could improve? What are their strongest skills and where are they lacking?

Gathering employee data can be done with methods such as:

• Assessments/tests
• Surveys
• Performance reviews
• Group discussions and interviews
• Observation
• Benchmarking performance

Now that you know how to identify possible skill gaps, it’s time to look into how to address them.

Training

Although it may seem like a nuisance to take time out of work hours to train an employee, the long-term effect is well worth it. If you don’t have the skills or time required to train the employee yourself, ask one of your other high-skill employees to teach them a few things or offer valuable tips while on the job.

Asking an existing employee to help with the training is both cost-effective and time-efficient.

Create a learning platform

It’s a good idea to create an environment in which your employees can learn while they work. This can be done by introducing a series of workshops to improve their skills, holding in-house training, setting up conferences and discussions or allowing them a few hours out of their workday to focus on training and studies.

Encourage employees to continue learning

As with the above point, encouraging an employee to continue learning is a great way to fill a skill gap. Offering them advanced courses, or helping financially with further studies and courses will really show your employee you’re serious about them being a successful and productive part of the company.

This also brings us to the next point…

Network with educators

It’ll truly help to network with local educators, programs, colleges etc. and build relationships with people that can assist and help your company and employees go further.

Conclusion

Make an effort to find and fill the skills gaps in your company, and address them in the most suitable way for your business. This can help ensure your employees are able to use their skills for maximum performance.

Use methods such as interviewing, assessments, surveys and observation to determine skill gaps and address them as soon as possible.

Remember, your employees are an investment for your business and should be able to contribute to every skill they have to help your business grow and succeed.