Skills Gap Analysis Toolkit

Gathering Input and Support

To ensure maximum value for the workshops, preparation should be done in advance as this will help ensure the discussions are spent focusing on the important topics and aspects of the framework during the workshops. Below are some tips to help you gather the best of what is available.

Current Work Activity 

• Purpose of the business area and its contribution to revenue / cost
• Type of work and how it gets done
• Key performance measures that are in place (what does good look like?) 
• Dependencies on the wider organisation and / or the role of suppliers or external resource in supporting the work 
• Use of technology and tools to support the work

Current Roles, Headcount and Resource Mix 

• Current roles / jobs (these might be available from a system, an organisation structure or people report) 
• Total heads / FTE in each role and where those roles are located 
• Number of external resources (contractors / agency staff / consultants / partners) being used in each role (the resource mix)  
• Demographic characteristics, in particular the proportion of the workforce approaching retirement

Current Skills and Proficiency Levels  

• These can be found in role descriptions, on a learning management system or you can get an indication from the structure of an induction programme.
• If needed, an expert in the area (e.g. an HR Business Partner or Capability Lead) could help you build a rough starting position 

Planned Changes/New Work Activity 

• One of most critical inputs is an understanding of what is likely to change that will impact the way that employees work over the short, medium and long term. This could be driven by changes to: customer behaviours / demands, new products and services, technology use, policy, process or regulation and operating model and who is doing the work (in particular, the use of internal vs external resource).
• The best way to source this information is directly from the identified business leads. It may be confidential or a work in progress, but it will give you a direction of travel and assumptions about where the business is going. You can use this as a baseline for the strategic workforce plan.

Planned Changes to Headcount and Budgets 

• Start by understanding any pre-planned changes to FTE / Headcount which can be found in the operational plan or budget forecast for the year ahead. 
• This will be based on expected levels of attrition and/or previously made commitments to reduce or increase headcount or onboard new resource e.g. apprenticeships or graduates. 
• Any additional changes in workforce identified as a result of input 4 – see table in cell above – should be made incrementally (unless of course input 4 forces those previously agreed changes / commitments to be reviewed).  

Workshop 1 Objectives

• Understand the current work undertaken by your Business Area​
• Identify 10 – 15 Key Roles that comprise c. 70 – 80% of the workforce in your Business Area​
• Identify Key Skills that colleagues currently need to be successful in these Key Roles​
• Identify the proficiency levels (Foundation, Proficient, Advanced) for each of these Key Skills for colleagues to be successful in these Key Roles

This workshop is baseline for everything in the skills forecasting

​In this workshop, we take time to understand the current work being undertaken across your business area. This will allows us to understand the purpose of the work undertaken by the team, how it is structured, the business units and the key roles required to deliver the work NOW. Through this workshop we will achieve the following:​

• What is the current purpose and work being undertaken by the team?  This allows the team to create and renew a shared understanding of what the team does​
• How is this work structured? We will map out how the work is organised into business units and roles​
• What are the key roles to achieve this work? We will identify those roles which are key components of your work and team​
• What skills and proficiency levels are required for the key roles? ​

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Workshop 2 Objectives

• Understand the Skills Gaps Analysis and the importance of forecasting future skills​
• Confirm an understanding of the current Key Roles in your Business Area, the work they do today and the Key Skills required in the roles​
• Understand what new activity (if any) that these roles may be expected to perform in the future (short, medium and long term) alongside any planned changes to proposition, process or technology that might impact how they perform their current role​
• Understand any expected changes in headcount (including how we might use temporary resource / external partners to help resource work) and what the drivers of this change might be (e.g. increased automation, increased business demand, retirement of systems etc.
• Given these changes, understand what will be the priority skills for the future (and which current skills might decline in importance)

This workshop builds upon the first workshop and will help you understand where you need to be in the future​

​In this workshop, we take time to understand the importance of forecasting future skills and the reason we need to have one eye on the future at all times. Following this we will focus on both the internal and external drivers for change that will impact across your business area, which will in turn support us in understanding the expected changes in skills and potentially headcount for current roles.

Workshop 3 Objectives

• Confirm understanding of future work, future workforce mix, Key Roles most impacted by the change and priority / declining Key Skills and the approximate size of the gap between current and future over the short, medium and long term​
• Discuss and agree the action types required to proactively close each of the gaps – will the focus of our efforts be on building, buying, borrowing, retaining or redeploying skills?​
• Work with the relevant HR Specialists (Learning, Recruitment, Talent, Graduates & Apprenticeships, Redeployment etc.) to identify potential actions against each of these action types (Build, Buy, Borrow, Retain and Redeploy) to help close each of the gaps ​
• Agree what actions we intend to take forward, who will own then and when they should be completed

This workshop is about identifying actions and developing an action plan. It ties everything together and ensures there is a clear understanding of future work and the key roles and skills that are being most affected within your business area​.

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Implementing the Skills Action Plan

Compiling and analysing the outputs from the workshop are as important a step as any, where an understanding of the findings is put together as well as any relevant changes or actions that may be required as a result.

Key next steps: 

• Prioritise your actions 
• Set realistic timescales and give ownership to each action 
• Track and measure the progress of your action plan 

Closing your skills gaps requires ownership, accountability and continuous action