Running an SME business comes with plenty of challenges; often staring you in the face, knocking on your door, popping up on your phone…
So a challenge that is characterised by an absence of something, may be more difficult to put your finger on; or even if you are aware of it, constantly pushed down your to-do list by more pressing matters.
A skills gap is defined as the skills you need in your business to operate well or grow, but do not currently possess in your workforce. Let’s take a look at what harm this can do to your business and, of course, effective ways you can remedy it.
What do skills gaps mean for business?
To start with the bottom line, overall skills gaps will end up meaning lower productivity. In a direct sense, employees lacking key skills may do tasks more slowly, make more mistakes or maybe not do certain things at all that could be drivers to productivity. An IBM training study found that training leads to a 37% increase in productivity in an organisation.
However, the drag of skills gaps could be far more pervasive. Good staff generally crave educational and development opportunities. After all, the more skilled they are, the better careers they are likely to enjoy.
So where skills gaps are not addressed, you may find that you lose employees who had great potential. In fact, according to the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, 94% of employees said they would stay longer at a company if it invested in learning and development.
If they go prematurely you’ll have to replace them and recruitment may be more difficult for a company with a skills gap problem. Or, if they stay, you may end up with a morale/employee well-being problem.
It’s not just staff that may get the hump. A company lacking in fully-skilled employees, may also find that their reputation suffers amongst customers, as bad service experiences or shoddily built products take hold.
You can also throw into the mix missed opportunities, maybe opportunities you are not even aware you are missing.
Fixing skills gaps in your business
If you are worried about skills gaps in your business, do not despair. There is plenty of action you can take relatively easily. And it is the kind of investment that if done correctly will yield tangible growth, more than justifying the expenditure.
You’ll always need to start by understanding where the gaps lie. This means carrying out a skills audit. Any business will have a base level of data to work with, so see what is accessible to you to begin with from your employee files. It may include current qualifications held, years of experience, and anything you hold on softer skills too, such as if you have performed personality testing, for instance.
Whatever you have got, you may then need to complement it with more data collection, via employee surveying or your latest round of appraisals. In this GDPR age, always make sure that this is done with privacy law in mind.
With your skills audit complete, you can introduce a targeted learning and development programme. Invest your budget where you understand it will make the biggest difference in your business. It could be management and leadership, digital skills, health and safety… whatever is right for you.
As well as the technical learning that is delivered, be sure to leverage your learning opportunities by making it part of your culture. Through positive peer pressure this will encourage your employees to improve themselves and the work they do, and can subsequently be used as a recruitment and retention tool.
A final point. A final benefit. Your new culture of learning and development should also help promote internal mobility. Instead of having to go out and hire more experienced staff, they can be “home grown” so to speak. It is yet another attraction for them joining you as more junior staff, with clearer pathways to career progression.
Extensive help from The HR Dept
If you know or suspect there are skills gaps in your business, there are many ways in which we can help you: from conducting formal skills audits, to offering a range of in-person and online training. Get in touch today if you want to find out more or get started.
