Based on the PwC report, the U.S. alone is anticipated to lose $8.5 trillion by 2030 because of the talent shortage and skills gaps.
According to Gartner, 2021, only 38% of technology organizations conduct an inventory of employees’ skills and competencies every year.
Lack of a clear understanding of the workforce’s current capabilities can result in skills gaps that slow down the execution of the organization’s digital strategy. Spreadsheets are frequently used by organizations to develop their skill matrices, but they aren’t always the ideal option. Spreadsheets quickly grow unnecessarily complicated and have a high mistake rate, not to mention the difficulties they have with version control. Keeping track of employees’ skill sets presents significant challenges. Leaders can utilize competency mapping and advanced tools that aid HR professionals in competency mapping to support strategic objectives and track employee skills development and professional growth.
Competency mapping
Competency mapping is a method based on the examination of employee competencies in an organization. Competency mapping aims to increase a company’s efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness. It starts with a set of high-level core competency requirements that all represent strategic company goals, such as innovation, creativity, technical expertise, quality, and a customer-oriented focus. These objectives become criteria for employee success through the competency mapping process. These measurements are used by managers to highlight areas that need the training to improve employee performance and productivity as well as the overall competitiveness and efficiency of the company.
There are various roles for which competency mapping can be useful. Managers, HR experts, team leads, and employees, of course, frequently use the information acquired throughout the process of mapping competencies.
A variety of methods, from spreadsheets to competency mapping software, such as EDLIGO, can be used to store and show competency mapping data.
Principal motives for using competency mapping
According to LinkedIn, 64% of L&D professionals said that reskilling the workforce to fill skills gaps is currently a top priority. Competency mapping is complex but effective in bringing employees into line with company objectives and creating a very productive workforce. It has grown in popularity, and many companies are realizing the necessity of developing a competency framework to increase employee productivity, skills, and readiness for the future. The necessity of competency mapping is illustrated by the following points:
· Building organizational culture
While job-specific competencies define the actions that guarantee each employee’s success, core competencies can be utilized to identify the fundamental actions that support corporate success. It is easier to express, enforce, and convey the behaviors that give the company its primary competitive advantage when core competencies are identified for the organization.
· Empowering employees
Competencies support a more collaborative approach to performance management and career development because they give an objective basis for evaluating performance. Additionally, competencies use a similar vocabulary to describe every job profile in the company, which motivates employees to take ownership of their careers, guide their personal growth, and explore their potential not just in their current function but also in future lateral or vertical roles.
· Increasing long-term viability
Competencies provide a higher level of protection from internal and external criticism by helping companies prevent errors in their HR activities. These procedures involve hiring, evaluating candidates, managing performance, and promoting.
· Ensuring consistency
All talent-management life cycle activities, such as hiring, development, and succession planning, are built around competencies. HR practitioners can improve consistency, coordination, and integration of all HR activities by using a uniform language to communicate requirements at the macro (organizational) and micro (job) levels.
Benefits of competency mapping
The advantage of competency mapping is that it generates guidelines for employee development that are especially suited to the organizational requirements. A competency map can be used to assess the abilities, knowledge, and skills required for the job position.
Benefits for the employee
Competency mapping has grown in indispensability since it first emerged. This is due to the numerous advantages it provides to the employees.
- A long-term strategy
Companies that analyze talents often have sophisticated planning abilities. They frequently employ competency mapping in conjunction with a well-defined growth strategy to reach their goals. The employees who can anticipate the future steps in their careers benefit from this on a smaller scale. People are more involved in their work when they are aware of the long-term strategy, mission, and vision of the organization.
- Control of expectations
Establishing the natural growth of an employee’s talent lays out clear expectations for them. It also illustrates how their career choices will be impacted by their actions. For instance, when it comes to employee evaluation, the evaluation of progress is based on predetermined, universally applicable norms. As a result, the evaluation process is less stressful.
- Opportunities for effective education
Employers can address skill gaps by implementing employee development programs that encourage the acquisition of new skills. Employees who are given the option to develop their abilities at work, whether through training, certification, or training funding, will benefit from this.
When it comes to attracting talent, education and certification options are strong challengers, especially in competitive industries. Education opportunities also have a positive impact on retention. According to LinkedIn Workforce Learning Report, 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in assisting them in their learning.
With EDLIGO, each employee can get a personalized recommendation of courses from the company’s LMS or other platforms such as Udemy or Coursera that the company is utilizing. The employee can also view suggested courses to fill in any competency gaps for the desired position.
Benefits for the employer
Organizational processes have been revolutionized by competency mapping, which has also demonstrated encouraging results in several HR interventions and practices. Employers can profit greatly from competency mapping.
- Creating highly effective teams
Understanding people’s competencies is critical when it comes to forming productive teams. Once their skill sets have been determined, people can be assigned to the right teams to improve their performance. Teams composed of individuals with complementary skills are often more productive in workplaces.
Managers with large teams have a hard time identifying skills gaps within their teams. EDLIGO dramatically improves this process by saving managers time on the selection of employees for new tasks, developing new skills, and selecting the right employees for new projects.
- Making knowledgeable hiring and training decisions
An organization’s current skills inventory can help plan hiring and training processes so companies can accomplish business objectives. Organizations don’t always need to hire or train someone to fill skill gaps. Simply ask the person who possesses this expertise if they’d be interested in taking on a different function by looking for them inside.
Employees frequently worry that if they admit to having extra skills, their workload will increase. These worries might be reduced by informing employees of the objectives of competency mapping. Once this is done, companies can make use of newly acquired skills to choose wisely when it comes to recruiting and training.
- Increasing the compatibility between an employee and a job
By examining the skills required to do a certain job, competency mapping increases the chances of finding the best candidate for a given position. Knowing the difference between desirable and necessary talents has a favorable effect on the size of the talented employees. The risk of making a bad hiring decision is decreased by being aware of the skills needed for this specific position.
EDLIGO platform assists with identifying the competencies that have the most influence on each position’s performance. Companies can decide what kind of profiles to search for when hiring for these positions by taking these competencies into account.
- Linking learning to business goals
It is easier for organizations to match their training objectives with the general goals of the company when they map the talents of their employees. By doing this, they ensure that their staff members are content and motivated, and they also help them develop the abilities the business needs to advance.
EDLIGO provides an advanced analytics solution that helps drive focused actions for corporates all over the world. Talent Analytics will help organizations get a clear, objective, and data-driven baseline of their people.
Companies cannot assist employees in realizing their full potential without mapping their skills and development. It’s easy to boost human resources efforts by using competency mapping.
Fortunately, EDLIGO Talent Analytics and Learning Analytics software aims to assist HR professionals in competency mapping. The EDLIGO platform can instantly improve the way to deal with skill-related data and gain new insights into employee development.
To learn more about our solution, contact our EDLIGO Talent Analytics and Learning Analytics team.