How Does Addressing a Specific Skill Gap Help in Employee Training?

The skill gap in employee training refers to the gap observed in an employee’s performance because of the absence of a particular skill set while at work. In addition, the difference between the ideal performance and the actual performance of the employee may also hint at skill gaps. Focusing on this aspect is indispensable, as it will directly influence employee development, thereby contributing to the overall productivity of a business.

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Employee training and development form an essential part of modern organizations. According to a study, 94% of employees prefer to stay with a company longer when it takes care of their training and development—it emphasizes the importance of dedicated employee training, which can eliminate skill gaps. Let’s explore the way businesses can address a specific skill gap in employee training and its role in improving productivity.

The skill gap in employee training – What does it mean?

The skill gap in employee training refers to the gap observed in an employee’s performance because of the absence of a particular skill set while at work. In addition, the difference between the ideal performance and the actual performance of the employee may also hint at skill gaps. Focusing on this aspect is indispensable, as it will directly influence employee development, thereby contributing to the overall productivity of a business.

A dedicated employee training activity can rely on filling these skill gaps and reducing the difference between the ideal and real-time performance. While short-term goals can eliminate the effect of the skill gap on business productivity, the long-term goal helps identify the causes of skill gaps and works to improve business processes.

Benefits of addressing the skill gap in employee training

There can be many advantages of taking care of this vital aspect in employee training:

Gives direction to the company’s hiring and recruitment plan.
Helps to invest in the proper employee learning and development techniques.
Enables the management to understand the skills of the existing workforce.
Keeps the organization on track for future digital transformation.

Addressing the skill gap in employee training

Businesses can follow several quick steps to address the specific skill gap in employee training. Here are the prominent ones:

1. Understanding the company goals

Identifying skill gaps begins with an in-depth understanding of the company goals. These goals can be short-term or long-term, based on the business needs. These goals are what sets the foundations of the training program roadmaps.

It is essential to define if there is any technological gap depending on the competition. Businesses can improve the existing processes and add new ones. This also helps businesses make decisions regarding upgrading or investing in new technologies. This allows companies to create a smooth layout of the dedicated employee training.

2. Roles identification

After defining the company goals, the next stage is role identification. It is essential to eliminate the over expectations and under expectations which may contribute to the skill gap in employee training. Expecting a large part of the work from a single role won’t be justified. Instead, the bifurcated approach within managers and teams can work in the right direction to align responsibilities to different positions.

This step helps companies overcome the challenges of overqualified or underqualified employment. In addition, role identification can create clear job descriptions, improve the recruitment process and help talent managers identify any skills gap.

3. Managing skills inventory

Recruitment agencies can help businesses manage specific skills inventories, which they can harness according to their needs and access as required. Any skills inventory must offer clear insights into the type of skills and levels of mastery. This can help businesses prepare for future digital transformation. In addition, the access to skills inventory can enable companies to look for different recruitment channels based on their needs.

4. Access current skills of employees

The next step in addressing the skill gap in employee training is to assess employees’ current skills. Companies can abide by some of the positive approaches in this regard:

They can access the 360-degrees reviews based on the feedback of colleagues and managers.
Companies can collect data from the employees about their recently earned skills or certifications.
They can opt for strict monitoring of workers during daily jobs and accessing employees’ performance during role reversal.
They can also benchmark the employees against the existing top performer.

All these points can give businesses a real-time view of the skill gap in employee training and allow for detailed skill gap analysis.

5. Detailed skills gap analysis

The skills gap analysis is the detailed process of evaluating the differences between existing and required skills for any department. Companies can perform it using specialized software or with the help of a digital transformation company. One of the essential parts of this step is to identify employees with exceptional skills who can be the next skills expert within the organization. This step can help businesses obtain a real-time report on reality versus expectations. Companies can start working on eliminating the specific skills gap from their organization training initiative.

6. Closing skills gap

The last and most crucial step to address the skill gap in employee training is closing the skills gap. Businesses can implement recommended measures after going through different stages in this line. It will be easy for the HR team to understand the existing workforce and quickly transform the business. Any skill gap analysis focuses on investing in the proper employee engagement training and development strategies. In addition, it can channel the generalized training initiatives which hint at improvement.

Wrapping Up

With more than 93% of employees agreeing that a well-planned employee training program affects their performance, addressing specific skill gaps becomes essential. The quick list of steps mentioned above can do the good work and help businesses work on their skill gap in employee training.

While looking for the match from the available options, businesses can rely on Apty for enterprise software adoption at scale. Multiple companies aiming for digital transformation have successfully collaborated with Apty to bridge the skills gap during employee training. The software helps employees learn new skills without the need for an instructor.

The onscreen walkthroughs and workflows are self-sufficient to help the employees know about the software’s working. They can also learn about their specific role-based responsibilities in the software. This simplifies the understanding of business processes and helps to make them productive.

Author: Revanth Periyasamy

Revanth is a B2B Marketer who has a definite flair for outreach and networking, alongside being a prolific writer. As an author, he enjoys exploring all things related to digital adoption and transformation. When the ‘B2B Marketing ninja’ mask is off, Revanth is an ardent tech geek, a lover of road trips, and a sports enthusiast who plays badminton, cricket, or any sport, really!