It’s every recruiter's obligation to find the right talent to help organizations achieve their business goals. However, how can we identify desirable talent when we’re unsure of the talent we need? This is where skills gap analysis plays an essential role in every company’s recruitment efforts.
Skills gap analysis allows businesses to identify the skills they need to prepare for the future and stay ahead of trends in their industry.
What is a Skills Gap Analysis?
A skills gap analysis identifies what you need to match your business goals to the skills your employees currently possess. When there is a discrepancy between the two, we refer to this as a skill gap. Identifying a skill gap early allows businesses to shift priorities and change how they recruit to attract the right candidates.
Performing a skills gap analysis requires team collaboration amongst leadership and the recruiting teams to identify business goals, potential industry trends, and the necessary skills to accommodate those trends. From there, you must examine your current staff, accurately evaluating the current skills.
Once your company’s skill gap is identified, you can begin to decide how to best close those gaps. These methods can include changes in recruitment, training programs, and more.
Why is a Skills Gap Analysis Useful?
As we’ve discussed, the expressed purpose of a skills gap analysis is to determine what skills your employees need to remain competitive in the future. In essence, it’s meant to ensure that your workforce is ready to meet any changes and challenges that will face your industry in the future. A practical skills gap analysis will, therefore, expose your latent staffing problems so that you can address them.
In the process, the analysis will help your business to map out the necessary steps to take to create a more productive and effective workforce.
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How a Skills Gap Analysis Can Change Your Hiring
Skill gap analysis isn’t a one-and-done process. It can be done on a semi-regular basis to keep your business from falling behind your competitors. In fact, it should be done regularly to ensure that your workforce always has the skills to measure up to what the market demands.
Successful skills gap analysis ensures that your recruiters understand the exact skills the business needs. That information can tailor your entire recruitment process, effectively providing a road map for all your hiring endeavors. It’s only a matter of applying that information to rethink your recruiting approach.
For example, once the desired skill is identified, you can change your job descriptions to attract and retain the talent you are looking for. These can include anything from employee perks to shifting your employer brand to appeal to said talent.
Revamping your interview tech can help you review more applicants, thus finding the right fit. Qualifi’s on-demand phone interview platform helps businesses mitigate bias in their hiring process and effectively diversify their talent pool. By reaching more candidates, your team gains access to a greater supply of skills and talent.
What’s more, Qualifi makes adjusting automated phone screening questions to pivot your recruitment efforts as needed when you find gaps in your talent.
For more on how Qualifi can help your recruiting process, check out the four benefits of on-demand interviews.