Applications of Skills Gapping in Organisations

Introduction

The greatest challenge for organizations is to identify the workforce which will meet its needs in terms of service provision. Many organizations find it difficult to match the job opportunities they have and the workforce to employ. Each area of the organization requires different skills and expertise to ensure there are high returns.

Definition of skills gapping

Skills gapping is the process where the differences between the skills need to be required by the company and the skills possessed by the applicants in a specific field. This difference should be determined to ensure the satisfaction of the employees and thus their ability to give optimal results (Stevenson, Para, 9). This skills gapping analysis has the following roles in organizations (Wilby and Natalie, 2003);

1. It enables the organization to acquire the human resources that match its labor needs thus enabling it to achieve its corporate objectives.
2. Recruitment, selection, and training mechanisms are based on this analysis thus the organization can expand its needs and scope of the workforce.
3. Since it can be done on companies, teams, individuals, etc it enables the constitution of effective and efficient combinations which yield optimal results.
4. The resources can be effectively and efficiently allocated to the required workforce and any changes in the macro-environment can be efficiently dealt with.

Organizational Applicability

In any form of employments skills are the major determinants of any ability to perform the expected tasks, this shows that the organization should select and suitably train their employees to give optimal results. This can only be achieved by performing a skills gap analysis. This will help the organization identify the skills the employee needs to perform a given task. This process can be applied in the following sequence in any form of organization;

1. Performing an analysis;

In this process, the organization can identify the skills that they need for specific tasks and thus use this knowledge to select the employees best suited for those tasks. Critical and non-critical skills that are suitable are identified. After this process, the organization uses various procedures to identify the candidates with the selected qualities. The critical skills are important in the completion of successful tasks while the non-critical ones are important for efficiency and credibility (Q finance, Para 11).

Academic skills are not the only ingredient used by today’s managers in the recruitment process. Other skills are also necessary. Skills gap analysis can be applied across the board i.e. for companies, individuals, departments, sections, etc they aid the recruitment of the workforce by helping in the identification of the employees with skills that match those needed by the organization in specific areas. The employer’s goal is to acquire reliable employees, problem solvers, those with social skills, and good interpersonal skills (Q finance, Para 17).

2. Use of assessments and interviews;

This process can also be supported by the interviews and the skills assessments such as aptitude tests, interviews, etc. In this process, the employees are samples to identify some additional skills required in the organization e.g. interpersonal skills, technological skills, etc. This analysis can be incorporated in the training and development stages of the recruitment process i.e. orientation stage.

3. Continual analysis and assessments;

This is where the organization due to the ever-changing environment both on the internal and the external scale the organization needs adaptation mechanism and thus the employee’s needs and expectations are shaped in the required manner.

Conclusion

Skills gapping analysis is used in the assessment of the employee’s capabilities and thus the organization should carry out this process to ensure that its workforce is optimally utilizing the resources to enable the organization to achieve its corporate goals (Q finance, Para 22).

References

1. Stevenson, P. “Undertaking a skill gap analysis.”
2. Q Finance. Performing a Skills Gap Analysis.
3. Wilby, P., & Natalie, B. (2003). “The skills factor: A revolution in education and training.” Supplement to New Statesman issue 10.