A quarter of all jobs are expected to change in the next five years, finds the World Economic Forum. This means that 25% of us who are extremely skilled at our jobs today may no longer be so by the end of this decade.
If they’re not already struggling, every organization will soon face skill issues. It is simply a matter of time. Therefore, the ability to identify and proactively address skill issues in the workplace can become your biggest competitive differentiator.
Let’s see how you can do that. 📚
How to Identify and Address Skill Issues in the Workplace
Summarize this article for me pleaseUnderstanding the “Skill Issue”
The term “skill issue” originated in the gaming world, often as a pejorative for those who couldn’t scale difficult levels in the game. “Sounds like a skill issue” is a bit of a jibe in gaming communities.
Since then, it has evolved to become ubiquitous in the business world—a description of a business challenge.
What is a skill issue?
In the workplace, a skill issue is the difference between an employee’s current abilities and what is needed to perform their role. The gap can be in a person’s technical skills, knowledge, competence with tools, behavioral skills, etc.
What causes skill issues?
There are various internal, external, and market forces that cause skill issues for organizations. Here are a few of them.
Technological advancement
Technology is evolving so rapidly that keeping up can be difficult. For instance, during the digital transformation era, there was a huge skill gap around cloud technology, even as the highly prevalent competence in mainframes was becoming redundant.
Business evolution
Business models and operational structures are changing. Remote teams and hybrid teams are now everywhere.
Suppose someone is uncomfortable using text-based collaboration tools like Slack, or video conferencing software like Zoom, or working asynchronously with a remote-first team. In that case, they might have a behavioral skill issue.
The emergence of new systems
A prime case in point is GenAI. For instance, with AI art tools creating designs at an unsurpassed speed and quality, the skill of a designer will evolve toward being able to prompt well. Those who can’t work with text or learn prompt engineering may have skill issues.
The need for new skills
Knowledge work is the most rapidly growing kind of job across the world today.The Wall Street Journal finds that ”knowledge work occupations have been adding more jobs than any other year since the 1980s—about 1.9 million per year.”
This change is creating a growing need for cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, logical reasoning, persuasion, etc., which are not only difficult to find but also challenging to evaluate. The impact of these skill issues on employee productivity can be immense.
How does a skill issue impact business?
Fundamentally, if one does not have the skills to do a job, they will fail. However, the business dilemma of a skill issue is not so black and white.
Let’s look at a few ways in which it manifests.
Bad output: The deficiency of a skill in any field will produce poor results. A customer service executive without problem-solving skills will likely create dissatisfaction among users. A salesperson with skill issues will close fewer deals. A writer with skill issues will create content that isn’t persuasive or engaging.
Delays: Skill issues can cause delays in delivery as the individual in question needs to learn how to complete the task. For instance, a developer might know how to code with Python but not understand its application in data science use cases. Learning and catching up take time.
Quality issues: Without the right skills, the quality of delivery will be lower than ideal. If the designer of an app is not skilled enough to translate their intent clearly and hand-off to the developer, the finished product will be substandard.
Loss of opportunity: Exciting opportunities might be lost without the skills to embrace them. If a team with skill issues takes twice as long to deliver a project, they may make only half the potential revenue.
Business leaders understand this and have begun creating systems to address it. A key change is that of performance metrics.
In addition to traditional measures of productivity, organizational leadership is pushing for the use of employee surveys, 360-degree feedback, role profiling, etc., to bridge the skill gap. Yet, this is just a start.
To effectively overcome skill issues, organizations must build sustainable capabilities to identify and address them. The first step to that is knowing what kinds of skill issues can emerge.
Summarize this article for me pleaseTypes of Skill Issues in the Workplace
Not all skill issues are created equal. Depending on the nature of work, skill issues come in innumerable varieties. We’ve covered the most common types.
Technical skill issues
Technical skill is the specialized knowledge, expertise, or core competency related to a particular task/job. For a writer, knowledge of the rules of grammar and syntax is a technical skill. For a developer, mastery of a programming language would be a core competency example.
This is the foundational skill for any job, without which you can’t be productive.
Knowledge gap issues
Knowledge gap is when a person does not have all the information they need to complete their work. To be clear, this isn’t about the company not sharing internal information, but the employee not possessing the foundational knowledge that would be expected of someone in their role.
For instance, a marketing manager unfamiliar with Instagram or a lawyer unfamiliar with the latest regulations will have skill issues.
The knowledge needed for each role is the intangible context that everyone on the team works within. Knowledge issues can create confusion, misunderstanding, and chaos, dramatically affecting output.
Soft skill issues
Soft skills, also known as behavioral skills, are interpersonal abilities that create smooth, fruitful interactions, collaborations, and communication. For a project manager, poor organizational skills are an issue. For a team leader, the inability to give constructive feedback might be an issue.
These skills form the glue that holds an organization together. A lack of soft skills is not always a complete hindrance, but it can significantly affect productivity, quality, performance, and team morale.
Adaptive skill issues
In today’s disruption-prone business landscape, adaptability is the name of the game. If you can’t adapt, you’ll find it hard to grow. This means that you need to build skills across various aspects of adaptability, including critical thinking, logical reasoning, decision-making, continuous learning, and more.
For instance, a knowledge worker without task management skills or a product manager who tends to be indecisive and is slow to make decisions both have adaptive issues.
Adaptive skills are necessary to navigate the everyday workplace. Without them, an employee is likely to feel overwhelmed, stressed, or burnt out, often never seeking help.
But how can you say if someone lacks the technical skills to make a decision or the adaptive skills to imagine its consequences? Let’s find out.
Summarize this article for me pleaseHow to Identify Skill Issues
As we’ve been seeing, skill issues are inordinately complex and difficult to pinpoint. They are also subjective and emotional because we’re making judgments about people. To eliminate any type of bias. it’s necessary to have a clear and objective process to identify skill issues.
Here’s a framework you can use.
Conduct job role analysis: Examine every job role in the organization. Identify their short and long-term goals. Make a list of the corresponding skills each role currently needs and will require in the future.
For instance, you can find a list of product management skills here. Using this as inspiration, you can conduct skill analysis for roles in your company.
For job-specific capabilities, try the ClickUp Technical Skills Matrix Template. Beginner-friendly and highly customizable, this template allows you to track each employee’s skills and identify gaps on a regular basis.
Collect stakeholder input: Ask managers and team leaders for a list of all the skills their teams have. Collect qualitative feedback on where they see skill issues. If you can, consult with clients and external stakeholders on your findings to get a bigger picture.
Survey your employees: A thorough survey of employees will help you understand where they see themselves.
Run assessments: When in doubt, administer skill assessments like quizzes, practical exams, and gamified simulations. You can also use employee monitoring software to track time or processes followed.
Organize your findings and glean insights using ClickUp’s Skills Gap Analysis Template. This intermediate-level template allows you to categorize skills, assign importance, set target scores, and define potential action items.
Map these skills: Now, compare the necessary skills and available skills side by side. Make a list of the skills you lack now and what you might struggle with in the future.
That should give you a clear view of your skill issues. Now, it’s time to deal with them. If you’re looking to hire as a way to address skill issues, try ClickUp’s Skills Mapping Template to improve candidate quality.
Hiring is not the only solution, though. You want to upskill your existing workforce as well and set them up for future success. Let’s see how.
Summarize this article for me pleaseDealing with Skill Issues
If you’re thinking, “I know we have some skill issues, but it’s bound to happen and we’re doing just fine,” think again. The World Economic Forum calculates that addressing the skill issue could result in a GDP uplift of $6.5T by 2030.
So, let’s get moving. Once you’ve identified your skill issues, the only response is to develop the skills. Here are some ideas and ways to execute them with corresponding tools like ClickUp for knowledge management.
1. Design targeted training programs
Most of the skill issues you’ve identified can be resolved with focused training and education in whatever format suits you best. Some examples are below.
Interactive workshops: Communication challenges in the workplace can be solved with workshops. You can bring together the team for a collaborative session where the moderators can demonstrate responses for various scenarios.
Organizational playbooks: You can set up frameworks and best practices for how to improve written communication skills at work. This could be as simple as setting up a style guide, or giving your team a checklist to follow in written communication like sales emails, marketing campaigns, social media posts, etc.
ClickUp Docs is a great place to consolidate your playbooks and make them accessible to relevant team members. You can also bring together subject matter experts to collaborate on the material.
External certifications: To teach someone how to become a better programmer, you can enroll them in external training courses. You can also sign them up for certifications on tools like AWS or Microsoft Azure to bridge the knowledge gap.
2. Foster mentorships
Mentoring provides a structured way for employees to receive guidance and support from more experienced colleagues. The relationship can help mentees identify their skill gaps and develop strategies to overcome them independently.
However, if you’re looking to resolve specific skill issues with mentorship, it is important to have a strategic approach. Here’s how.
Design your mentorship program
Define the structure clearly. Include the following:
- How mentors and mentees will be paired
- How often they’ll meet
- How long they’ll meet for
- How they’ll meet, whether one-on-one or in groups
Set goals and expectations
The primary goal of this mentorship is to address skill issues. So, encourage the mentor and mentee to set targets for that. For instance, a target might be, “Learn to make decisions and present it confidently to senior management by February 2025.”
Based on this, the mentor can train the mentee in self-management skills, decision-making practices, persuasion, communication, etc.
Use a tool like ClickUp Goals to make these targets visible at all times. You can also break down these targets into tasks, the completion of which rolls up to goal attainment.
Train mentors
The ability to mentor can also be a skill issue. Prevent that with regular training for mentors on:
- Active listening
- Encouraging feedback
- Collaborative problem solving
- Sharing personal experiences
- Tailoring the mentorship approach to the mentee’s needs
- Measuring progress and optimizing
ClickUp Dashboards is a great tool to measure progress across various metrics. Customize the dashboards with widgets of your choice and monitor updates in real time.
3. Foster a culture of continuous learning
Businesses that provide continuous learning opportunities are 92% more likely to innovate and 37% more productive, finds Deloitte. To effectively address skill issues, create a culture that values and supports continuous learning.
Add learning to your company goals: Include learning as part of an employee’s KPIs. You can set aside 10-15% of one’s key result areas for upskilling.
Encourage curiosity: Create a safe space where you and your employees can ask questions, explore new ideas, experiment, and learn from mistakes, free from any fear of judgment. This needn’t be pushed to all-hands or meetings.
These conversations can happen in real-time and contextually with a collaboration tool like ClickUp. The ClickUp Chat view consolidates all conversations for easy access for mentors and mentees to focus their attention on later.
Enable self-learning opportunities: Pay for subscriptions to e-learning platforms or certifications so your employees can learn and grow their skills. It also helps to have budgets to buy books, attend conferences, etc. which enable informal learning. A learning and development allowance or stipend tells your employees that you’re invested in their growth and future-readiness.
For example, a newly promoted team leader or the engineering head from another industry might need support on how to develop leadership skills. In such cases, self-learning might be the most effective way.
4. Create learning-driven reviews
People work toward what they know they’ll be evaluated on. Make learning and upskilling a key performance metric for your team.
For instance, if the end-of-year performance review does not include learning objectives, there is no incentive for someone to upskill. Leverage a skills management software to consistently do the following:
- Include learning goals for each employee
- Regularly review progress toward learning goals
- Get them to apply learning to practice and evaluate performance improvement
The above might feel like the full-time job of a learning and development team. In many ways, it is. However, investing in addressing skill issues offers extraordinary benefits.
Summarize this article for me pleaseBenefits and Challenges in Addressing Skill Issues
Addressing skill issues empowers an organization with:
- Increased productivity from being able to do work faster and better
- Improved team efficiency as a result of more meaningful collaboration
- Better problem-solving skills throughout the organization’s hierarchy
- Happier employees energized by growth opportunities
- Greater job satisfaction, morale, and reduced turnover
It is not roses all the way, though. Addressing skill issues also presents a number of challenges.
For starters, a ‘skill issue’ isn’t always a pleasant thing to discuss. Telling an employee that they have a skill issue sounds like a reprimand. Overcoming that needs empathy and persistence.
Often, organizations don’t have the resources to train/mentor people. Managers and senior employees are also stacked with work, affording them no mind space to help others.
And then, there is the fundamental problem of identifying the skill gap itself. Add to that the Dunning-Kruger effect, where individuals with low ability or knowledge overestimate their competence. The bias perpetuates skill deficiencies and limits opportunities for development.
Summarize this article for me pleaseMake Skills a Non-Issue with ClickUp
Change is inevitable, they say. Technology is going to change. Transformational tools like GenAI are going to keep emerging. Much of the non-creative work is going to be automated. Skills popular today are going to become outdated pretty soon.
Therefore, for any organization that wants to be successful, addressing skill issues is non-negotiable.
More importantly, skill issues need to be addressed in a strategic, organized, and people-centric way. You need to lay out their training plans, create educational material, create learning projects, set goals, manage progress, and more. That’s the only way to create a sustainable path to solving your skill issue.
To do all this and more, you need a robust project management tool like ClickUp. With solid knowledge management, task management, time management, numerous skills matrix templates, and a powerful AI, ClickUp has everything you need to prepare for the future.
Effectively plan, manage, and upgrade the talent within your organization. Try ClickUp for free today.
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