Getting the Right Skills for 2019
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With only 2 weeks until Christmas (can you believe it?), we are continuing our focus on planning for 2019. December is the perfect month for this, so you can come back into work in January with clarity on what you need to achieve. In our previous blogs this month we have focused on wider business planning and today we turn our focus towards the skills that you need in your business for 2019 and beyond.
Many organisations don’t spend time thinking about what is needed, often relying on job descriptions which are not detailed enough to clearly outline what is required. Its good best practice to spend time reflecting on the roles within your organisation to consider what skills are needed every year. Here are some steps that might help you:
- Think about the roles you have, how have they evolved in the last year and how might they evolve in the coming year. Remember, roles shouldn’t change dramatically (if they do then you may need to follow an HR process) but the skills needed to undertake a role often do. For example, you may employ customer service operators, historically this might have been a telephone role but over time customers may wish to use web chat services, you may, therefore, need to develop skills in this area).
- Think about what has changed or might change in your business. What new skills are going to be needed?
- Think about your industry and competitors, what new services are they offering that you might want to consider in your business. What skills will be needed?
- Will you be recruiting new people next year, what skills are you looking for?
A skills matrix is a fantastic tool to help you work out what is needed in terms of development. Think about what skills are needed and then use this to have conversations with your people to discuss areas for development which can be built into a development plan. Please contact us if you would like a template development plan.
Finally, look for patterns, what areas are a number of people having difficulty with where you could invest in some training to help? There is a proven link between training and engagement. When was the last time you invested in your team?