Working Skills

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Clearly, not having all the working skills necessary to accomplish the team's tasks can impact work completion, conflicts, and other team issues. But quick decisions about how to address those gaps can be equally harmful, by committing to unneeded resources (new employees, contractors) or ignoring a team member's career goals, thus reducing satisfaction and engagement. Start by performing a "skills gap analysis" to specify what working skills are missing, when they are needed, and their impacts:

  1. Ask the team, "What skills are we missing to accomplish our work?"
  2. Brainstorm possible answers.
  3. Combine, delete, and revise the list to make it as short as possible.
  4. For each item, have the team answer these questions:
    • How soon do we need this skill?
    • How long will we need it?
    • Will we need it again? (If so, answer the previous two questions for the next needed period).
    • On a scale of 1 (low impact) to 5 (high impact), how much does not having this skill hurt our efforts?
    • Does anyone on the team want to learn this skill?
  5. Decide on the best method to fill each gap based on those answers.

For #5, be sure you are considering all of the options:

  • Hire a permanent employee.
  • Hire a contractor.
  • Borrow someone in the company.
  • Outsource the related tasks.
  • Transfer the tasks to another team.
  • Purchase machines or software that automate the tasks.
  • Get formal training for someone on your team.
  • Provide time for on-the-job training from someone in the company.
  • Provide time and materials (such as books or CDs) for self-training.

Consider, too, whether multiple solutions would be most cost-effective. For example, a low-impact skill you will need again might be a gap you can ignore or outsource until someone on the team gets trained. For a high-impact one you won't need again, it may make more sense to hire a contractor or borrow someone unless a team member wants to learn the skill and can do so in time. If the solution will require getting permission from another manager or department, you may want to perform a cost-benefit analysis to justify it.

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