Skills lag refers to the continuous gap between the skills an organisation's employees currently possess and the skills that sit at the cutting edge. This disparity is constantly shifting due to rapid technological advancements, changing market conditions and evolving organisational goals. Keeping employees at the bleeding edge of every area is essentially impossible, but it’s important to ensure they're armed with the skills required to meet the evolving demands of both their roles and broader industry expectations.
Skills lag is not a new phenomenon, but its impact has become more pronounced in recent years. The accelerated pace of innovation, particularly in fields such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics, has outstripped the ability of many workers to keep up. Traditional training programs have also failed to adapt quickly enough to these changes, leaving a gap between what employees know and what employers need.
Anecdotally, there is a correlation between skills currency and productivity. This is unsurprising given the logic that employees able to take advantage of the latest tech can work smarter and faster. For example, Digital Marketers can use automation tools to schedule email campaigns, social media and lead nurturing, freeing up time to focus on creative work and strategic planning. Similarly, Customer Support teams can implement AI-powered chatbots to manage basic queries while people focus on those that are more complex, boosting response times and NPS scores.
If employees’ skills don’t keep pace with others in their field, organisations will begin to fall behind their competitors, challenged with slowed performance and less time dedicated to driving innovation.
One of the most pressing challenges for L&D managers is ensuring professional development aligns with an organisation's strategic goals – in other words, it’s future-focused and geared towards reducing the skills lag. The challenge is that many organisations don’t have a clear view of the skills they have or the skills they need.
The first step to creating career development pathways that truly contribute to business success is through the comprehensive mapping of skills across the workforce.
At WithYouWithMe, our Potential platform draws on the globally-recognised Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) to map and measure employees’ skills in line with global industry standards and specific role requirements. We also take each person’s skills profile and enrich it with innovative cognitive and psychometric insights to deliver a holistic view of where they are now – and where they could go.
Next, the focus shifts to understanding the skills a workforce needs.
This is where the team manager plays a critical role in understanding the strategic goals of the business and how each person in their team can contribute to them by enhancing their existing skills or developing new ones.
When combined with AI-powered workforce predictions from providers like Faethm, the organisational knowledge of team managers can shape the ‘future workforce’ state an organisation seeks to achieve. Then begins the process of closing the gaps.
In the ever-evolving tech landscape, building a culture of continuous learning can be an organisation’s greatest weapon against skills lag, but that training also requires time and resources so it’s essential that upskilling efforts are targeted to areas where they’ll deliver the most ROI. This is where holistic employee insights come into play, insights that go beyond current skills to identifying future potential.
Armed with the knowledge of areas where people are likely to excel, we use our unique algorithm to curate professional development pathways that align with both business goals and individual strengths, ensuring people are constantly upskilling in the right direction.
Achieving this alignment has benefits far beyond reducing the skills lag, including maximising productivity and driving greater retention outcomes as employees are more engaged when they see a clear path for career growth.
The skills lag will remain a constant in the future of work, and the organisations capable of accurately anticipating future requirements and taking a proactive approach to building their workforce skills will be the ones that keep their competitive edge.
If you'd like to discuss how a skills-based strategy can help your organisation stay ahead of the curve, get in touch.
