HR departments focus on skills development to create a lean, capable workforce. The process includes needs assessment, identifying skills, validating skills, training, coaching, and assessing skills. Supervisors play a crucial role in coaching employees, and concrete measures like customer feedback scores and sales data measure skill development success.
Skills development has become a key focus of HR departments. With workforce shrinking and the need to be globally competitive, companies need a lean, capable workforce that can perform at the optimum skill level, knowledge level, and expertise. Effective training focuses on developing skills through training activities developed through instructional design principles. The best plan for skills development is to conduct a needs assessment, identify skills, validate skills, conduct training, coach skills, and assess skills. The process is ongoing and continues as new employees are hired, new skills are developed, and skills and knowledge require change.
The first step in skills development is to conduct a needs assessment. The needs assessment will determine the gap between performance standards and actual performance. Needs assessment helps determine which employees lack which skills. Evaluate all employees using the same methods and evaluate only the skills necessary to achieve the organization’s goals.
The next step in skills development is to identify which skills need further development. The needs assessment will highlight gaps in performance. Information about those gaps will determine which skills should be written. Write specific, measurable, achievable, and reasonable skills. Begin each skill with an action verb such as “Greet guests within three minutes of their arrival.”
Make sure the skills you are developing are valid. Once written, compile them into a survey and ask those performing the task, their supervisors, and their colleagues to rate the skills on how often they are performed, how difficult they are, and how often they need to be performed. This will help determine if the skill is valid and how urgent the training is.
Training improves performance by helping employees meet job skills. Focus on developing individual skills using training that can be easily customized and broken down into specific segments. Ideal vehicles for this include computer-based training, distance learning, individualized study, and mentoring. Whenever possible, create individual training plans that take into account the learning style of the person being trained and the type of competence being developed. Reading and self-study are excellent methods for knowledge-based competency development, while role-playing, simulation, and on-the-job training work best for skill-based competency development.
Once an employee has participated in skills development activities, further coaching may still be required to transfer the learning from training to the job. This is where supervisors play the most important role. They should provide active, supportive coaching that recognizes when an employee has met standards in a particular competency and when additional direction may be needed.
Finally, both the employee’s performance and competency need to be assessed. Determine if the employee meets competency standards. If so, determine whether the competency adequately meets the needs of the business. Measure skill development success through concrete measures like customer feedback scores, sales data, and achievement of financial goals.
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