How are business leaders filling their skills gaps in the current climate? The current climate has left many businesses feeling a little lost. With some having to let go of valuable staff members to stay afloat, whilst others are seeing less productivity due to motivational blocks, there’s no doubt that the current climate has created some skills gaps. However, as with any business change, the onus has been on business leaders to change direction and figure out ways to fill those skills gaps.
Deciphering whether you have a skills gap or an unmotivated team In some cases there is a major skills gap, a lowered budget and a sense of dread amongst business leaders whereby they realise that they physically do not have the people for the job. However, there is also another kind of skills gap that is emerging during this time, and that is where you do have the talent, but they’re just not working for whatever reason. This may be due to a lack of motivation and overwhelm, or it may be a management issue, however we always recommend that you assess whether you actually do have the skills there, but they’re just not being utilised. That being said, for most businesses during this time, that genuinely isn’t the case and their issue is much more likely the former – they do not have the skills that their work requires. In these instances it’s time to look at how to close that skills gap – and close it fast.
Here’s how the most innovative and successful business leaders have been doing that in the current climate. Upskilling the team they already have One of the most logical ways that businesses have approached closing the skills gap is to train their team. This makes sense – if you have the people without the skills, all you need to do is give them the skills and then you will have a skilled team. Right? Yes – this is true and as a long term strategy it can work really well. However in the current climate there is one major issue with this method – it doesn’t allow your business to close the skills gaps quickly.