HR Skill Mapping – The Solution to Your Problems

June 30, 2023
employee behaviour, employee flexibility, employee performance, fair work act 2009, hr managers, HRM
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Harrini Ratnanesan

HR skill mapping – it might be the best solution that you’ve never heard of.

As a manager or employee, have you ever caught yourself thinking, “Wow, I wish we had someone with that particular skill?”. If you have, then you might be surprised to learn that you’re not alone and that there is an efficient way that that gap you identified can be filled.

Deloitte has estimated that strategic workforce planning can save you up to $6 million for every 100 employees. That’s big.

What is Strategic Workforce Planning and Why Does it Matter?

Strategic workforce planning refers to the process of identifying and anticipating your workforce needs, and then taking action to meet those needs. It is a critical component of any business planning, and helps you make informed staffing, training and investment decisions

Strategic workforce planning promotes:

Stronger and more accurate forecasting
Better use of existing talent
Moving from reactive to proactive decision-making
Bridging skills gaps
Future proofing your business

What is Skill Mapping and How Does it Work?

Skill mapping is the foundation of any modern workforce planning, and involves visually identifying and assessing the skills of your current workforce as well as your current and future needs. It allows you to zoom out and get a better picture of all of your organisation’s resources, and see where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

By skill mapping, you can quickly assess your talent pool, identify gaps faster and make data-informed decisions about your staffing and training needs.

Skills maps are usually based on competency frameworks which you can create yourself based on existing roles, have created externally or where utilised for digital technological skills – rely on the Australian Government endorsed ‘Skills Framework for the Information Age’.

Skill mapping is a particularly powerful tool for businesses given recent employment and industry trends – for more on what’s been forecasted for 2023 and what employers need to change check out our article here.

Key Benefits of A Skill-Based Approach To Your Workforce Planning

Not only does skill mapping provide clarity and understanding of your staff’s strengths and weaknesses, it also allows you to:

triage and allocate work more effectively;
track performance progress of employees;
take advantage of internal capability and reduce the need for external recruitment;
reduce turnover by avoiding having existing employees going elsewhere to find opportunities they have aspired to;
identify employees who would benefit from additional training and support;
create role profiles (or position descriptions) that will meet your organisation’s needs; and
improve productivity.

Avoiding The Pitfalls of Skill Mapping

It’s necessary to keep in mind that before skill mapping can occur – you and your managers/HR team must be clear on your overall strategic vision and goals as well as your operating needs and environment. You also need to have a clear understanding of your employee’s skills. Most employers are unaware that desired capabilities are often lying dormant within their staff. Without understanding of where skills lie within an organisation, it’s almost impossible to identify and fill skill gaps – regardless the state of the labour market. Having conversations with staff is imperative to ensure that those dormant skills mentioned aren’t going unnoticed when skills mapping is occurring. Otherwise, any skill map created is inaccurate and will fail to reflect accurately where skill gaps lie within the organisation. Skill mapping is something all businesses should be considering at their EOFY planning table. For more EOFY considerations, check out this blog here!

We can help!

Incorporating skill mapping into your workforce planning is a proven way to unlock the people power in your business and drive success for your organisation. But it is a skill. Let us show you how to get the best results and do it together. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help, contact us on 03 9087 6949 or email support@workplacewizards.com.au.