First, What Are Skills?
A skill is when an employee is capable of performing a task, while a competency is when that task is performed with experience and knowledge. People acquire and develop skills and competencies through learning and practice.
How Are These Skills and Competencies Developed in the Workplace?
Competency development is the process by which an organization helps its employees acquire the skills needed to achieve its strategic objectives and gain a competitive advantage. This is accomplished by introducing skill-development activities designed to help employees strengthen specific skills and encourage their use.
The competency development process starts with identifying and documenting the organization's key competencies: these can include knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors, among others. Next comes identifying skills gaps, followed by planning how to develop those competencies within the organization.
Today, technology within organizations is growing exponentially. This continuous improvement of processes and innovations has forced organizations to change and adapt new business models, which has also created a competency gap, where the competencies employees offer don't match the competencies organizations actually need. At the same time, this has underscored the importance of competency development, since it helps employees seek out and find jobs that match their skill levels.
This is why organizations now need to take a leap forward and give employees opportunities to improve their competencies. Staying current with recent technology trends has become essential for the employability of any organization.
How Can You Start Closing This Competency Gap?
Organizations should view the skills gap not as a flaw or something negative, but as an opportunity to prepare their workforce for the future through competency development itself.
- Add a learning and development department: Organizations should establish and invest in a learning and development department, which can help them achieve short- and long-term objectives. This department will be responsible for performance reviews and training, which will ensure proper onboarding and competency-improvement procedures.
- Use a mix of learning formats: Organizations should offer a wide variety of learning opportunities and methods to close their employees' competency gaps. For example, formal, informal, digital, and in-person learning, among many other options. This way, you ensure you're addressing different learning styles.
- Assess future competency demands and design training accordingly: You need to consider short- and long-term competency needs. It's important to keep in mind what your organization will need in 6 months and over a 3-to-5-year range. That way, when project managers look at upcoming projects, they can assess and alert the resource manager about the skills that will be in demand.
- Ensure hands-on exposure follows theoretical training: Hands-on exposure is just as necessary as theoretical training, since it gives employees the opportunity to apply their newly learned skills in real-world scenarios. The main purpose of hands-on exposure is to ensure employees are ready to handle new responsibilities.
- Create an Individual Development Plan (IDP) for every employee: The Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a framework that helps organizations support their employees' professional development. It's unique to each employee based on their career goals and objectives. This helps managers understand each employee's competency gaps, career goals, and strengths.
