Growth and development aren’t always the top priorities of a business, but it could be just what they need. An employee development plan is beneficial for both employees and their employers.

Before you implement a plan, you need to discover what skill gaps your workplace has. Use these five ways to help determine where those gaps lie.

How to pinpoint skill gaps

Before we jump into how we determine where skill gaps are, we need to set a basic understanding of what they are. While there is no fixed definition, they are deficiencies in performance caused by a lack of skills or development opportunities in the workplace.

Having an employee development approach will help you bridge the gap. In order to determine these skill gaps, you have to take a closer look at the performance of your employees. This requires data on where they are excelling and what areas require some improvement. One significant way to discover these strengths is by utilizing an employee assessment. For example, the Caliper Profile is an employee- and applicant-assessment instrument that accurately measures an individual’s job performance potential.

However, there are multiple other ways to gather employee data. By layering these factors, you can get an even more accurate view of your employees’ performances.

Here are five helpful ways to collect information on your team:

1. Employee Assessments – By using assessments, you can get insight on your employees, and often get actionable items for development.
2. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – KPIs are one of the best sources to use to identify skill gaps. Also, they help determine career progression, compensation, rewards, benefits, and retention.
3. 360-Degree Reviews – 360-Degree reviews provide peer and self-feedback. From this feedback, you can gather qualitative data to use in the development stage. And when you embed the insights of an employee assessment, like the Caliper Profile, into 360s, you get an even deeper look into performance and potential.
4. Observations – As simple as this sounds, observing your team can give you insight on how different factors come into play when there are apparent skill gaps.
5. Benchmarking – Benchmarking builds off of observations. You can identify skill gaps in the workplace by benchmarking the performance of the organization’s top performers. This sets a point of reference on what skills are needed for success in the workplace.

Employee development approach

Now that you know how to identify skill gaps, let’s pivot into how we can use this data to build an employee development approach. As a manager, you want to be able to set your team up with the skills they need to be confident in their jobs so you can shift your focus to your other duties. To start a practical approach, you first need to work on yourself. Before you can develop your team, you need to build yourself.

Once you’ve sharpened your development skill, you need to build a basis of trust with your team. If you already have this, great, skip onto the next step! If not, this is important to ensure you and your teammates have trust so they don’t think you’re highlighting their weaknesses.

Now, you’re ready to use the data you’ve gathered on skill gaps in your workplace to begin creating learning opportunities. Coach your teams by delegating assignments in areas where your employees need development, introducing other members who excel in those areas, and turning meetings into learning opportunities. Most likely, they will not succeed their first time around and may need additional help, but this creates a learning experience.

Another way you can develop your teams’ skills is by setting them up in a development platform or by using development tools. Caliper Precision Series aids your team in their specific areas of development through a self-paced, technology-hosted learning experience. This allows your team to work on developing their skills on their own time and schedule.

So, in short, here’s how to establish a developmental approach:

• Determine where skill gaps lie.
• Develop yourself before you work on your team.
• Form a basis of trust with your team.
• Create learning opportunities.
• Set your team up in a developmental program.
• Repeat as needed.

Ready to develop your employees, but don’t know where to start? Give us a call at Caliper and let’s discuss your situation.

About Caliper – For nearly half a century, Caliper has been helping companies achieve peak performance by advising them on hiring the right people, managing individuals most effectively and developing productive teams. The accuracy, objectivity and depth of our consulting approach enable us to provide solutions that work for over 25,000 companies. To find out more about how Caliper can help you identify and develop people who can lead your organization to peak performance, please visit us at www.calipercorp.com  or call them at 609-524-1200. Email editorial@mhwmag.com to contact Caliper.