Filling skills gaps – now and for the future

Filling skills gaps in your business is a growing challenge for many leaders. As technology evolves rapidly and business needs shift, having the right skills in your team is critical for both current performance and future success. To stay competitive, you must adopt a proactive approach to bridging skills gaps—both in the short term and long term.

The rapid pace of technological change is driving a transformation in the workplace. According to Gartner, the number of skills required for a single job is increasing by 10% year on year. In fact, 30% of the skills that were crucial three years ago are becoming obsolete. This highlights the continual need for you to reassess the skills within you workforce and prepare your business for the future.

Developing your people

Addressing immediate skills gaps often involves hiring, but this can be expensive and time-consuming. Recruitment alone is costly, with fees, advertising, and onboarding expenses piling up. However, before jumping straight into the hiring process, you should consider upskilling your current employees. It’s often more cost-effective to develop the talent you already have than to recruit new staff. When you are hiring keep in mind that you want people who are keen to develop new skills and remain agile to learn new technologies.

Identifying gaps

We advise businesses to carry out regular skills and succession planning audits to identify those people that can be nurtured and promoted to  more senior positions within the next 12-18 months. ‘Grow your own’ strategies, such as internal training, mentoring, and career development programmes, not only help to close skills gaps but also makes your business sustainable and stable by transferring knowledge gleaned by experienced team members to other generations, which improves employee retention, as employees are more likely to stay with a company that invests in their future. You do not need to be put off by the thought of training costs;  there is a proven framework called the 70:20:10 rule—where 70% of learning comes from on-the-job experiences, 20% from social learning, and 10% from formal training—which can help build a culture of continuous development. This succession planning exercise will also help you picture how the structure of your organisation needs to develop for you to achieve your goals in the long-term.

Predicting future needs

Looking ahead, you need to be proactive in planning for future business skills. You need to identify emerging trends, such as the rise of AI and automation, and understand how they will impact your industry sector. Take some time to map out the competencies that will be needed and create strategies to acquire or develop them.

For the last 14 years, our People Directors have been advising businesses on long-term workforce planning that can adapt to changing demands. This approach ensures your business remains future ready, competitive, agile, and equipped to succeed in an ever-evolving market.