1. Perform a skills gap analysis

Organisations often don’t have people with all the skills they need to achieve particular tasks. In most cases, this results in organisations outsourcing their work to contractors or other firms with the skillset to get the job done. Outsourcing in the short term can be effective, but it cannot be relied on as a long-term strategy.

The first step to performing a skills gap analysis is to understand what skills are critical to the success of the organisation or team. Once these are identified then you will need to analyse if you have people with the skills highlighted. The ideal situation is to have most of the people in your team possess the skills you need. However, if this is not the case, then you need to create a learning plan. If there are a few team members with the skills, you can arrange cross training. On the other hand, if no one in the team has the skills then you may need to contact an external provider like Skill Farm to help you upskill your team.

You can also use data from previous tasks to better understand the learning and development needs of your team.

2. Give people tasks that elevate their capabilities

Pushing your team to go outside their comfort zone will allow them to gain new skills that will greatly benefit the team and organisation. Learning in practice is much better. After identifying the skills that are missing, you can help your team acquire the skills quickly by setting up tasks and mini projects that require the skills. During the tasks and projects, it is important to provide constructive feedback, so the people understand the progress being made and why the tasks/projects are important to the success of the team/organisation.

3. Encourage knowledge sharing between departments

In many organisations, departments operate in complete isolation. In some cases, this is a regulatory requirement, but most of the time it is just the way things are. The issue with this is that it becomes hard for other teams to know what the other teams do and how their work is related. Knowledge sharing between teams helps to add clarity and enables people to understand why a certain function exists and its purpose.

As an organisation, you can encourage your teams to upskill each other. This will make them feel empowered and involved. Research shows 45% of people are likely to stay at a company that provides learning and development opportunities. If people understand why they are doing something, there are more likely to be engaged and perform better.

4. Hold regular training workshops

Holding regular training workshops shows that you are proactive and serious about learning and development. It is very important to ensure people are continuously stimulated at work. Training workshops can help to break routines and inject fresh perspectives into the team. Learning from an expert can save you countless hours and money spent trying to fill skill gaps.

Subject matter experts can upskill your teams in a few weeks and improve outcomes for your organisation. The training workshops should be fun, engaging and interactive to increase knowledge retention and value of the training.