In our last blog, we spoke about the concept of skilling as a vital organizational priority in the face of rapid change. We said that achieving new skills that can be learned and applied quickly would remain critical to competitiveness. Skilling is not just an understanding of what is required but developing or acquiring these to adapt and thrive in an increasingly dynamic environment.
Building from the premise, this blog will outline the detailed process of skilling-building skills identification, assessment, and development within an organization. The act of executing these steps systematically requires organizations to move ahead of demands that change.
How does one ‘skill’? The current context indicates why skilling’s important, as a result of the increasing rate of change. This means that our ability to determine necessary skills, particularly going forward, and then assess our current levels, is a necessary precursor to being able to make a decision to ‘build or buy’.
As a consequence, assessing the current state of skills in the organization is increasingly a part of learning & development (L&D)’s scope of activities. L&D has typically been focused on developing skills, but determining the status of skill presence is increasingly a concomitant role.
Identifying Skills (analysis)
While identifying skills hasn’t necessarily been the responsibility of L&D, that’s changing. Organizations are going to have to look ahead, and it’s an open question where the locus of that activity will lie.
Kevin Wheeler, President of the Future of Talent Institute, has suggested that, increasingly, skills should be an ongoing strategic advantage. Organizations need to forecast forthcoming skill needs and work to address them proactively. If the identification of needed skills is a necessary precursor to assessing the spread of skills in the organization, making the determining of ‘buy or build’ requires having foresight in coming capability requirements.
There are several parts to this. The first step is identifying what needs to be done as the organization stands. While this would seem obvious, too often organizations have neglected this step and instead respond reactively, perhaps when problems arise. Instead, organizations are too frequently just asking for particular interventions as problems crop up, and not necessarily identifying the key gap.
In addition, one needs to know where one is going. This is a strategy and goes beyond the role here. What matters is understanding the direction the organization is going to support in developing a skills profile. Then, the directions need to be broken down into essential skills. With this foundation, the next step can occur.
Finally, there are the situations that emerge that aren’t planned or extant, but impinge on existing operations. New technologies can arise, as mentioned, or processes, or practices. Organizations have to be able to adapt to these, too.
Assessing Skills
The next step is, of course, assessing the current state of the necessary skills. For things that the organization is already doing, that’s likely accomplished, but it’s been idiosyncratic so far. As things change faster, organizations are going to have to be systematic in assessing skills as a core competency.
Koreen Pagano, Chief Product Officer at Thrive and author of a forthcoming book on skills suggests that this is the most challenging part of the process. While there are a variety of methods available, they each have strengths and weaknesses. As it stands, no one approach is superior overall, and contextual needs currently dictate the approach to be used in any organization.
However, organizations still need to accomplish this task. While approaches may emerge that are better, as it is organizations still need to see how they are, or are not, meeting needs.
Developing Skills
An alternative to developing skills is to source the necessary skills from outside the organization. While typically not in the remit of learning & development (L&D), sometimes it will make sense to acquire necessary and missing skills via recruitment. It’s an alternative to developing skills internally, which is typically in the realms of L&D. However, taking a high performer from elsewhere isn’t guaranteed to lead to high performance in a new context, so the development of necessary skills becomes a preferred solution.
When it comes to developing skills, frequently organizations have done this based on false assumptions. Done properly, L&D has been able to demonstrate systematic skill improvements. Too often, however, improvement has been purportedly demonstrated by learner’s self-assessments of the learning experience. Or, somewhat better, self-assessment of their own learning. However, self-assessments are notoriously inaccurate without rigorous design.
Thus, skilling needs rigor at each stage. When we identify, assess, and develop skills appropriately and in a timely manner, we’re delivering the capability our organizations need.
In conclusion, mastering the skilling process involves a comprehensive approach—identifying future needs, assessing current capabilities, and strategically developing or sourcing skills. Each step requires meticulous attention and a proactive mindset to ensure that organizations are prepared to meet evolving demands effectively. To delve deeper into how to align skilling strategies with organizational goals, explore our eBook, Skilling for Performance: A Strategic Imperative for Organizations. This resource offers valuable insights and practical guidance for navigating the complexities of skilling in today’s dynamic environment.
