The world of work is changing, as are the needs in skills. 85% of the jobs in 2030 do not yet exist according to the Institute of the Future: how to define skills requirements of the company?
To identify the needs of skills of the company we identify 6 steps:
- Design an updated mapping of your skills
- Formalize the company’s future objectives
- Detect emerging skills in your ecosystem
- Measure current know-how
- Adapting HR development programs
- Encourage an individualization of the rise in skills
Step 1: Design a skills framework
The analysis of skills (soft skills, hard skills) available within your company must be carried out at two levels: at the individual level and at the collective level. The starting point of this approach is the implementation of a reference system of skills. This is a collaborative process, and we recommend that you involve the team leaders of the various departments to help you develop and structure the skills repository associated with each job in your company. You probably encounter several obstacles to initiate your approach: your files are obsolete, your managers do not use the tools, you think that once your repositories are completed they will already be obsolete…
To help you, we have designed a checklist that will guarantee the sustainability of your HR project.
Step 2: Define your organization’s future goals
Where do you want your organization to be in one year? Three years from now? Given your current workforce, how can you develop the strategies necessary to get to where you want to be? What are the skills you need to demand from your employees? What can you implement through your HRIS? In what areas do you lack knowledge or resources? What are the skills and professional qualities that your future employees will need to have in the future? These answers can be found in the Strategic Workforce Planning and its animation. Here is a summary of the employability levers contained in the approach Strategic Workforce Planning :
Step 3: Identify emerging skills in your ecosystem
To remain competitive, every organization must adopt new technologies and practices to ensure its growth.
“59% of French employees think they don’t have the necessary assets for tomorrow”: identifying tomorrow’s key skills is the essential factor for their employability.
Regulatory changes, automation, and sustainable development are having a strong impact in sectors such as aerospace, tourism, financial services, and healthcare. Conducting a gap analysis of skills with current levels is a first step that needs to be completed with emerging skills.
Claire Menguy, Head of innovation, at Neobrain joins Alexandre Lam to give us their advice on this aspect in a replay available below:
Step 4: Measure current know-how
To measure the skills of your employees, there are many ways:
- Review each employee’s key performance indicators to determine priority employees.
- Conduct skills assessments, surveys and/or employee interviews.
- Implement a 360 degree feedback process. The employee’s ecosystem is involved: peers, supervisors, etc.
- Review individual and team performance reviews to see where employees and teams are lacking in certain skills.
Your HRIS can help you collect and evaluate the performance and satisfaction rates of your employees.
Step 5: Adapt HR development programs
Identify the specific challenges your company faces (or will face) in terms of skills the workforce. So where might the developments lie? Here are some examples to give you a better idea:
- 70% of retail employers have difficulty finding in-store candidates with the technical experience required for the position.
- Over the next three years, the financial and business services sector is expected to experience a talent gap of nearly 3 million workers due to a rapid increase in technology adoption. This shortfall will be the result of a lack of qualified candidates capable of using these disruptive technologies. By 2030, these gaps will result in a deficit of 10.7 million employees, which equates to $1.3 trillion in lost revenue.
- 54% of companies already suffer from a deficit of skills related to digital tools.
Step 6: Encourage individualized skills’ trainings
Once you have discovered your employees’ gaps in skills, you can begin to plan how to fill them. You can do this by combining training with hiring. This will allow you to close the gaps between their current skill level and the desired skill level. You will benefit not only by developing their current skills , but also by training them for future business needs. They will feel supported and will tend to become more and more involved in the company. Some steps to take to meet these needs skills :
- Provide training yourself or use the expertise of professional training companies to organize workshops, training sessions or seminars for your employees.
- Invest in subscriptions to industry publications to keep employees abreast of new and emerging technologies.
- Implement employee mentoring programs to facilitate the transfer of skills and knowledge.
- Involve employees in industry-specific events or conferences to gain much-needed new skills .
- Develop apprenticeship and internship programs to attract young people to join you.
- Evaluate the skills to be used in the recruitment process.
- Use freelancers.
It is important to identify the needs in skills. Depending on your sector, it may be worthwhile to look for information in magazines or on specialized websites. But you should also work with your team leaders. Each of them will be able to identify their skills and this will help you to propose corrective measures using your HRIS. By 2022, emerging jobs will account for 27% of employment, while other jobs will decrease in number. By conducting a gap analysis of skills needs, you will avoid the unwelcome surprise of having workers with skills inadequate skills on your side.
New development tools have been developed over the last few years. Read about these levers in our article:“The new opportunities for growth skills“.
