TALENT

MANAGEMENT-
Recruitment & Selection
U N IT - 3
D R . N I VED ITA S I NGH
D E PA RTMEN T O F M A NAGEM EN T S T U D IES
 Talent management strategy
Organizations today recognize the need for an evolved talent strategy – one that doesn’t just align to business goals,
but also drives outcomes. Here are some examples:
Make workplace culture a top priority
When employees are happy and feel like they belong, they contribute more and stay in their jobs longer.
Provide plenty of growth opportunities
With very few exceptions, employees will leave their jobs unless they have visibility into their career progression
options and the right support to pursue them.
Ensure that employees are using their strengths
Understanding what each employee brings to the table and matching individuals to the roles and assignments where
they can contribute the most helps improve engagement and efficiency.
Compensate workers fairly
It’s critical for employers to have accurate, real-time benchmarks on compensation data specific to their industry and
geographic region if they want to attract and retain in-demand talent.
Hire diverse talent
By providing broader perspectives and new approaches, diversity can improve problem solving and it shows that an
organization represents the community it serves.
RECRUITMENT
AND
SELECTION
Recruitment is the process of finding candidates for the
vacant position and encouraging them to apply for it.
Selection means choosing the best candidate from the pool
of applicants and offering them the job. Recruitment is a
positive process aimed at attracting more and more job
seekers to apply
Recruitment Features

It is a process rather than a single act or event.

Linking activity as it brings together the employer and the prospective employees.
Positive activity to seek out eligible persons from which suitable ones are selected.
To locate the sources of people required to meet job requirements.
Ability to match jobs to suitable candidates.
A two way process between recruiter and recruited.
A complex job that involves lots of factors like image of the company, nature of jobs offered,
organizational policies, working conditions etc.
 Recruitment Policy
1.. Organisational Objectives: A recruitment policy must help the enterprise in achieving its goals. It is the manpower of the
enterprise which facilitates the achievement of objectives. While devising a policy which assists in employing most desired
persons, certainly helps in reaching organisational goals.

2. Identifying Manpower Needs: There should be an identification of number and types of persons required in the enterprise. If
workers are to be employed then they may be categorised into skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled and if supervisors are to be
employed then the type of qualifications and experience should be specified and so on. The type of jobs and the section or
department where they will be deployed should also be known before hand.
3. Sources of Recruitment: The sources from where the persons are to be recruited should be specified. There may be internal or
external sources or both. The type of persons to be recruited from different sources should form a part of recruitment policy.

4. Criterion for Selection: The criterion for selection should also be a part of recruitment policy. There may be guidelines from
government e.g., reservation of posts on caste basis, reservation for minorities etc., which will also form a part of recruitment
policy.

5. Cost Factor: The cost involved in recruitment process should be taken into consideration while framing a recruitment policy. It
may be very costly if every post is advertised in newspapers. Instead, recruitments through employment exchange may be very
cheap. The cost involved in recruitment process should be properly assessed before making that process a part of policy.
 Factors Influencing Recruitment
1. Size of the Enterprise - The number of persons to be recruited will depend upon the size of an
enterprise. A big enterprise requires more persons at regular intervals while a small undertaking employs
only a few employees. A big business house will always be in touch with sources of supply and shall try
to attract more and more persons for making a proper selection. It can afford to spend more amounts in
locating prospective candidates. So the size of an enterprise will affect the process of recruitment.
2. Employment Conditions - The employment conditions in an economy greatly affect recruitment
process. In under-developed economies, employment opportunities are limited and there is no dearth of
prospective candidates. At the same time suitable candidates may not be available because of lack of
educational and technical facilities. If the availability of persons is more, then selection from large
number becomes easy. On the other hand, if there is a shortage of qualified technical persons, then it will
be difficult to locate suitable persons.
3. Salary Structure : The wages offered and working conditions prevailing in an enterprise greatly
influence the availability of personnel. If higher wages are paid as compared to similar concerns, the
enterprise will not face any difficulty in making recruitments. An organisation offering low wages can
face the problem of labour turnover.
4. Rate of Growth: The growth rate of an enterprise also affects recruitment process. An expanding concern will
require regular employment of new employees. There will also be promotions of existing employees necessitating
the filling up of those vacancies. A stagnant enterprise can recruit persons only when present incumbent vacates his
position on retirement, etc.

5. Goodwill of Firm - Image of the employer can work as a potential constraint for recruitment. An organization
with positive image and goodwill as an employer finds it easier to attract and retain employees than an organization
with negative image. Image of a company is based on what organization does and affected by industry.

7. Demand and Supply - The availability of manpower both within and outside the organization is an important
determinant in the recruitment process. If the company has a demand for more professionals and there is limited
supply in the market for the professional demanded by the company, then the company will have to depend upon
internal sources by providing them special training and development programs.

8. Competitor - The recruitment policies of the competitors also effect the recruitment function of the organizations.
To face the competition, many a times the organizations have to change their recruitment policies according to the
policies being followed by the competitors.
 Formulating a Recruitment Strategy
 Identifying & prioritizing jobs
 Candidates to Target
1. Performance level required
2. Experience level required
3. Category of the candidate
 Preferred Sources of Recruitment
 Ensures Competent recruiters
 Evaluation & Follow-up of candidates
Preparation of Recruitment Plan

Revise the Job Description

Conduct a Skill Gap Analysis
Visualize a Hiring Activity
Review the Hiring process
Create a Recruitment Budget
Think in terms of Teams
 A skills gap is the difference between skills that employers want or need, and skills their
workforce offer. Conducting a skills gap analysis helps you identify skills you need to meet
your business goals. It can also inform your employee development and hiring programs.
Here’s how to conduct a skills gap analysis:
Step 1: Plan
You can perform a skills gap analysis on two levels:
Individual: You can identify the skills a job requires and compare them to an employee’s
actual skill level.
Team/company: You can determine if your employees have the skills to work on an
upcoming project or if you need to hire externally. This analysis can help you target your
employee training programs to develop the skills you need.

Step 2: Identify important skills

◦ Identify the skills you need by answering two questions:
◦ What skills do we value as a company?
◦ What skills do our employees need to do their jobs well now and in the future?
Step 3: Measure current skills

To measure skill levels, you could use:

 Surveys and assessments.

 Interviews with employees.
 Feedback from performance reviews
Step 4: Act on the data
There are two ways to fill skills gaps: training and hiring. Decide which approach (or
combination) works best for each skill gap.

Train for skill gaps

More than half of companies train and develop their staff to fill open positions. Offer
training for employees in skills you’d like to strengthen
Retirement

Internal Job posting

Former Employees
 Contingency or Retained ?
• On the surface, it appears to be simply an issue of how the recruiter gets paid.
• A contingency recruiter earns a fee only when the organization hires someone.
• A retained search consultant, on the other hand, is paid in advance to conduct a
search that usually results in a hiring—but not always.
• The retained search firm is being paid to conduct the search.
• They therefore undertake a much more exhaustive process.
• The contingency search firm is paid only when someone gets hired.
• Their search process is skewed to producing results rapidly since the more time
spent the less profitable the mandate.
Searching/Downloading Applicant Profile by using
Job Portals
Go to job portals & go for employers zone
Enter the log in details (Job posting & Resume Search)
Select/click Resume Search tab
Type the key word of the vacancy(designation)
If company wants desired location than enter desired location
Enter desired experience
Click Search. Many profile appears
Click those profiles to view the full resume-Check the appropriate one
Once a suitable resume founds, save it in the job portal inbox and it can be download as & when it
required.
 E-Recruitment

Recognize the Need of E-Recruitment

Create an Attractive Job Advertisement
Select appropriate Online space for Recruitment advertising
Design the application process
Consider the method of applying(ATS-applicant tracking system)
Respond the applicants
Formulate a Response System
Initiate Process
Calculate ROI
(Job
boards, Job Portals, Web Logs, Career Websites, General Employment
Websites etc. are the methods of E-Recruitment)
Assessment centres are places where individuals are judged on their future ability to
perform a particular role. Assessment centres used to be more common for senior
positions, but with the increasing number of applicants per role, they have become more
common across the board. Assessment centres vary widely in duration, format and
content. More intensive assessment centres may last two days.
Assessment centres involves a number of elements which are assigned to assess the
competency areas that are essential to perform a job. These are
• Psychometric tests,
• business games,
• case study,
• group discussions and
• in tray exercise
• Written exam
• Role paly
Candidates are normally reimbursed for their travel and overnight expenses when attending
assessment centres, particularly in the case of larger firms or when the assessment centre is part of
a normal recruitment drive
Objectives
• Filling the vacant positions in the organization in the near future and to ensure that these
positions are filled by competent individuals
• Ensuring right kind of employees at right profiles & fully utilising employee’s potential by
identifying & developing it to the fullest possible extent
 ADVANTAGE DISADVANTAGE-
Develop Participants Need highly skilled Observers
Offer Valuable Feedback Time Consuming & Expensive
Provides Unbiased method of Assessment Results in Demotivation
Supported by Management
Greater Validity
Provides Training
Minimise Business Costs
 Formal Education

Experience and Past Performance

BASIC
SELECTION
CRITERIA Physical Characteristics

Personality Characteristics
 Selection Methods

1. Testing

2. Gathering Information

3. Interviewing
1. INFORMATION GATHERING : Common
methods for gathering information include application forms and
résumés, biographical data, and reference checking.
  Generally ask for information such as
Application address and phone number, education, work
experience, and special training.
Forms and
Résumés  At the professional-level, similar information
is generally presented in résumés.

Biographical  Historical events that have shaped a

Data person’s behavior and identity.

 Involves contacting an applicant’s previous

Reference employers, teachers, or friends to learn more
Checking about the applicant Issues with reference
checking
 2. TESTING
Selection test is a device that uncovers the
information about the candidate which is not
known through application blank and interview.
In this way, selection test is an adjunct to a
selection method.

TESTING TYPES

Ability Achievement Intelligence Judgement Interest Personality

Test test Test Test Test Test
 Reliability & Validity of Tests
Test reliability and validity are two technical properties of a test that indicate the quality
and usefulness of the test. These are the two most important features of a test. You should
examine these features when evaluating the suitability of the test for your use.
What makes a good test?
An employment test is considered "good" if the following can be said about it:

 The test measures what it claims to measure consistently or reliably. This means that
if a person were to take the test again, the person would get a similar test score.
 The test measures what it claims to measure. For example, a test of mental ability
does in fact measure mental ability, and not some other characteristic.
 The test is job-relevant. In other words, the test measures one or more characteristics
that are important to the job.
By using the test, more effective employment decisions can be made about individuals. For example, an
arithmetic test may help you to select qualified workers for a job that requires knowledge of arithmetic
operations.
The degree to which a test has these qualities is indicated by two technical properties: reliability and validity.
Reliability refers to uniformity of selection tests. Any test is said to be reliable if it is consistently
producing the same results.
Some possible reasons are the following:
Test taker's temporary psychological or physical state. Test performance can be influenced by a person's
psychological or physical state at the time of testing. For example, differing levels of anxiety, fatigue, or
motivation may affect the applicant's test results.
Environmental factors. Differences in the testing environment, such as room temperature, lighting, noise, or
even the test administrator, can influence an individual's test performance.
Test form. Many tests have more than one version or form. Items differ on each form, but each form is
supposed to measure the same thing.
Multiple raters. In certain tests, scoring is determined by a rater's judgments of the test taker's performance
or responses. Differences in training, experience, and frame of reference among raters can produce different
test scores for the test taker.
 Interpretation of reliability information from test manuals
and reviews
• The reliability of a test is indicated by the reliability coefficient.
• It is denoted by the letter "r," and is expressed as a number ranging between 0 and 1.00, with r = 0
indicating no reliability,
• and r = 1.00 indicating perfect reliability.
• Do not expect to find a test with perfect reliability.
• Generally, you will see the reliability of a test as a decimal, for example, r = .80 or r = .93. The
larger the reliability coefficient, the more repeatable or reliable the test scores.

Table 1. General Guidelines for

Reliability coefficient value Interpretation

.90 and up excellent
.80 - .89 good
.70 - .79 adequate
below .70 may have limited applicability
 Types of Reliability Estimates

Test-retest reliability indicates the repeatability of test scores with the passage of time. This estimate also reflects the
stability of the characteristic or construct being measured by the test.

Some constructs are more stable than others. For example, an individual's reading ability is more stable over a
particular period of time than that individual's anxiety level. Therefore, you would expect a higher test-retest
reliability coefficient on a reading test than you would on a test that measures anxiety.

Alternate or parallel form reliability indicates how consistent test scores are likely to be if a person takes two or more
forms of a test.

A high parallel form reliability coefficient indicates that the different forms of the test are very similar which means
that it makes virtually no difference which version of the test a person takes. On the other hand, a low parallel form
reliability coefficient suggests that the different forms are probably not comparable; they may be measuring different
things and therefore cannot be used interchangeably.
Inter-rater reliability indicates how consistent test scores are likely to be if the test is scored
by two or more raters.

On some tests, raters evaluate responses to questions and determine the score. Differences in
judgments among raters are likely to produce variations in test scores. A high inter-rater
reliability coefficient indicates that the judgment process is stable and the resulting scores are
reliable.

Internal consistency reliability indicates the extent to which items on a test measure the same
thing.

A high internal consistency reliability coefficient for a test indicates that the items on the test
are very similar to each other in content (homogeneous). It is important to note that the length
of a test can affect internal consistency reliability. For example, a very lengthy test can
spuriously inflate the reliability coefficient.
3. INTERVIEWS:
 The interview is the most frequently used selection method.

 Interviewing occurs when applicants respond to questions posed by a

manager or some other organizational representative (interviewer).

 Typical areas in which questions are posed include education,

experience, knowledge of job procedures, mental ability, personality,
communication ability, social skills.
 Situational
Interview
1. Structured
Interviews Behavioral
Interview
Types of
Interviews

2. Unstructured
Interviews
 1. Structured 2. Unstructured
Interviews Interviews
Uses a list of predetermined
questions. All applicants are Interviews-open ended
asked the same set questions. questions are used such as “Tell
There are two types of me about yourself”
structured interviews.

SITUATIONAL BEHAVIORAL
INTERVIEW INTERVIEW • This allows the interviewer
to probe and pose different
• In which the • In which the
interviewer asks sets of questions to different
questions focus applicants.
questions about on the
what the applicant
would do in a applicant’s
hypothetical behavior in past
situation situations.
 Selection Errors
The False Positive Error
False Positive Errors- a decision is made to hire an applicant based on predicted success,
but failure results
An organization that makes a false positive error incurs three types of costs.
 The first type of costs are those incurred while the person is employed. These can be
the result of production or profit losses, damaged public relations or company
reputation, accidents due to ineptitude or negligence, absenteeism, etc.
The second type of costs are those associated with training, transfer, or terminating the
employee. Costs of replacing the employee,
the third type of cost, include costs of recruiting, selecting, and training a replacement.
Generally, the more important the job, the greater the costs of the selection error.
.
False Negative Errors
In the case of false negative error, an applicant who would have succeeded is rejected because failure was
predicted.

Factors Affecting the Importance of Selection

Effective selection methods and procedures can result in fewer selection errors and their associated costs, and
increased levels of performance and productivity due to hiring highly qualified applicants.
The selection function takes on increased importance:
(1) when a job's base rate of success is low;
(2) when a job has greater importance to an organization; and
(3) when the selection ratio for a job is low.

Base Rate of Success.

Generally, the selection function is more important when a job's base rate of success is low. A low base rate of
success indicates that relatively few employees reach an acceptable level of performance in a job. Improved
selection procedures can raise base rates of success, thereby reducing costs associated with selection errors.
5 recruitment strategies to attract top talent
1. Create a candidate persona for hard to fill roles

The candidate persona can be defined as a template for your ideal hire for a specific role. It brings together your
recruitment data on previous hires and informed assumptions about your preferred hire’s experience, motivation,
and career aspirations. A candidate persona isn’t required for every vacancy but can be used in every recruitment
strategy for:
Roles that are recruited for in volume or on a frequent basis.
Highly skilled, hard to fill positions, such as specialist tech roles.
To develop your candidate persona, review the common traits of the most successful hires in a particular role (or
across all positions for a new hire), including their career history, why they applied for your jobs and where they
entered your recruitment funnel.
Your applicant tracking system should be able to provide you with this information. Follow up with a detailed
analysis of their experience, background, work/life balance, likely leisure interests, their personal and professional
aims, and what they expect from you as their employer.
Implement these details into your recruitment strategy for each specific role where you use a candidate persona
2. Ensure a seamless candidate experience

Getting the candidate experience right is essential for effective recruitment strategies.
From the first impression of your careers site through to the time it takes to make a
job offer, that experience has to be seamless and promote a positive impression of
your company. The way in which you handle unsuccessful candidates post-interview
also has an impact on how your business is perceived.
Support your entire recruitment process with recruitment software which takes care of
the repetitive, routine tasks, enabling you to focus on building the employer-candidate
relationship.
3. Develop a successful employee referral program

Research shows that employee referrals provide a better quality of hire. These hires
stay longer with your company and are usually a better cultural fit. When developing
an effective recruitment strategy aim to make employee referrals your top source of
quality hires.
As with a candidate persona, focus on the jobs where talent is harder to source initially
and use the tools within your ATS to enable social sharing of your open jobs. Always
provide feedback on why a referred candidate didn’t make the grade to your
employees and incorporate referral requests in your onboarding process too. An
automated hiring process also enables you to fast-track highly qualified and referred
applicants
4. Work on reducing bias

Unconscious bias remains a high-risk factor in making a final candidate selection as gut-feeling is still
the number one influence in hiring decisions. Work on reducing the bias in your hiring process to create
an effective recruitment strategy by:
Reviewing your job posts: Choose gender-neutral language in your job posts to attract as diverse a
talent pool as possible. Recent research shows that by replacing the word ‘manage’ with ‘develop’ a job
post is regarded as more female-friendly. Analyze the male-female applicant ratio in your ATS to
evaluate the impact of language in your job posts.
Analyze your data: In 2017 Vodafone discovered that highly qualified female applicants were applying
for its tech vacancies but not being invited for an interview. Again, recruitment analytics will reveal
potential bias within your own recruitment strategy.
Implement evidence-based recruitment: Support all of your hiring decisions with the data gathered in
your ATS during the recruitment cycle
5. Understand what talent wants

An effective recruitment strategy means the pressure is on to get it right first time with every hire.
Understanding what talent wants from you can help. Mercer’s 2018 Global Talent Trends study
identified three key areas that candidates look for in their next employer.
Flexible working options: Nearly 9 out of 10 applicants look for flexible working as a preferred option
in their job search. At a time when multiple job offers are the norm for highly qualified candidates,
flexible working options could transform your potential talent pool.
Commitment to health & well-being: A greater focus on well-being can attract more talent to your
business and promote a more positive employer brand. Gallup found that a positive culture attracts
the top 20% of candidates.
Meaningful work: 2018 is the year of the employee experience and part of that experience is
providing your employees with meaningful work. Mercer notes that engaged employees are three
times more likely to work for a company with a sense of purpose. Being clear – and consistent – on
your culture, values and purpose across your careers site and throughout your hiring process will
attract more qualified candidates to your job posts.
 How to Strategically Hire for Senior
Executive Roles
1. Create a plan and market map before you recruit
So it’s crucial you have a hiring plan and market map in place before your team invests time and
resources into recruiting for these roles.
Market mapping refers to using an outline—or a map, if you will—that helps your organization
understand the current landscape of your market regarding both your competition and the
supply/demand for candidates. By using a market map, your hiring team can dive deeper into
information and data around talent availability, compensation, future business needs, and
recruiting opportunities.
And market mapping is helpful for more than just understanding what you’ll need to offer a
senior exec to win them over; it can also give recruiters a holistic view of why they’re sourcing
candidates for this role and what your organization needs in its next senior executive hire.
For example, before your team reaches out to potential candidates or actively sourcing talent for an
open role, they’ll need to answer questions like:
What challenge or problem will this senior executive help us solve?
What level of experience does the executive need in order to be successful?
Do we need a seasoned candidate with experience scaling rapidly growing companies?
How many people will this role oversee, and what level of hiring responsibility will they have?
Do we have one or more internal employees who could be a fit for this open exec role?

Keep in mind that, when you hire for senior executive roles, you must align every stakeholder
involved in your hiring process to the ‘why’ and ‘what’ of the role—this goes for hiring from within,
too
2. Define the leadership role(s) you’re hiring for

This ties back to your market map and hiring plan, however, when defining a role,
you’re answering specific questions about the role, how it will function in your
organization, and the long-term goals you have for the role.
Knowing this, you can break down defining a leadership role into 3 aspects:
Organizational stage: Most companies experience growth at various stages, where
one or two quarters will see staggered growth whereas others will focus on
consolidation. If you’re growing, you’ll want growth-focused and experienced execs,
while other companies may require someone who can help them build the foundations
of their organization. Where does your next senior executive role fall?
Short versus long-term goals: What goals does your company have that a new
senior executive or leader can help you solve? For one company, this could be a
seed round, but for another, it could be expanding to several more locations or
pivoting by producing a new product for a new vertical.
Internal and external challenges: Between a pandemic, changing market
conditions, political landscapes, and more, there are many internal and external
challenges that force your organization to hire leaders that help with change
management.
Of course, there is a myriad of other factors that will influence how you define a
senior executive role—knowing how the role must function to drive your business
forward will help your hiring team recruit the right senior executives
3. Work on your talent pipeline strategy
What this really means is that your hiring team needs to recruit these roles early on—not just when
you’re in desperate need of replacing a senior exec.
This is where your talent pipeline strategy comes in.
What is a talent pipeline strategy?
A talent pipeline gives your company access to a consistent source of qualified talent that you may
want to hire in the future—whether in place of employees that have left your organization or when
new roles and opportunities emerge.
You can think of a talent pipeline as a pool of candidates you have vetted in the past or who have
communicated with your company before. By keeping this pipeline consistently full of qualified
talent, your recruiting team can make more effective (and faster) hiring decisions.
A talent pipeline strategy comprises the tactics your hiring team uses to build a repository of qualified
candidates you can source from for current and/or future roles. In other words, it’s the process your
team goes through to source, attract, and recruit talent so you have a wealth of candidates on hand.
When you hire for senior executive roles, it’s important that your talent pipeline strategy
considers the following:
How you’re nurturing relationships with candidates—Do you stay in touch with past applicants;
do recruiters focus on building their networks; do you leverage referrals; do you make past
applicants aware of new roles?
What internal mobility looks like in your organization—Whether you have an existing internal
mobility program or you’re working on one, sourcing internal candidates for a senior exec role
will require a different process versus sourcing externally.
The data your hiring team uses when recruiting for senior executive roles—Your team can
leverage recruiting data and HR analytics to better understand the gaps that need to be filled
when hiring for senior executive positions while looking for opportunities to expand upon the
diversity of your senior leadership.
4. Focus on nurturing candidate relationships
It’s tempting to post a role and let LinkedIn or another job board do the heavy lifting in attracting candidates,
but relying on these tools alone won’t get the job done (no pun intended).
Instead, recruiters should focus on doing their due diligence in nurturing candidate relationships by doing their
own research. For example, using a third-party service to hire senior executives specifically, or sending
LinkedIn InMail messages won’t allow you to do the research you need to perform in order to vet a senior
exec.
On the same hand, you can’t hope to attract these experienced professionals to your open roles if you have no
intention of nurturing them. So, here are a few ways you can do your due diligence before you nurture a
relationship with a candidate:
Identify people in the candidate’s previous company(ies) and contact them. Ask them questions based on the
candidate’s expertise, skills, and business intelligence—don’t rely just on culture fit questions, if at all.
If the candidate is active on networking channels like LinkedIn, talk to people in their network and deep-dive
into the content they share. Are they thought leaders or influences in your industry? Do people in their
network have a positive view of their reputation?
Ask your internal teams about the candidate, and whether they’ve heard of/interacted with them in the past.
Maybe your CEO knows the candidate, your Marketing Manager has worked with them before, or the CFO
has networked with them.
Once you’ve researched the candidate, build a connection with them using personalized outreach. This
requires you, as the recruiter, and your hiring manager to leverage things like personalized email
communications or social media messaging (perhaps even SMS, with consent).
5. Consider hiring from within using internal mobility

When an employee leaves an organization, it’s not only costly to replace them but their knowledge and
expertise around your company, too. When an executive leaves, that loss can be tenfold, especially if they
managed a large team.

That’s where leveraging an internal mobility program to hire from within can benefit both your
organization and its existing employees.
What is internal mobility?
Internal mobility refers to the movement of employees within an organization. An internal mobility
strategy takes this a few steps further by implementing a process or framework for moving existing
employees between roles, vertically and laterally.
For senior executive roles, internal mobility can help your team hire not just for skill, but for potential.
Given how high churn rates can be for senior roles, not to mention the impact the Great Resignation has
had on recruiting, it’s crucial you optimize your existing talent.
Hiring from within is also an effective way for employees to upskill while contributing what they know
about your organization to their work.
How can you use internal mobility to hire senior executive roles from
within?
To make the most of your teams while offering employees the opportunity to grow within your
organization, consider leveraging these internal mobility practices when hiring for a senior role
from within:
Use data and insights from 1:1 meetings and performance reviews to determine whether an
employee had the skills to be a high-forming contributor or a people leader.
Pay close attention to what others have said about the employee—not just their manager. For
example, do their direct reports and/or colleagues feel positive about their project management
abilities? Have people performed better or produced better results when working with the
employee? Does the employee consistently receive good feedback from others?
Consider the employee’s career trajectory, and what they’ve expressed interest in pursuing.
If an employee has clarified that they want more leadership responsibilities or would like to move
positions or departments, dive deeper into these conversations.
6. Conduct effective and fair interviews to find the right candidate
You want to hire the best candidates for your senior executive roles, but how effective is your
interview process in helping you achieve those recruiting outcomes? Structured interviewing has
been shown to not only be more reliable but also more effective than traditional hiring, where
interviews are unstructured. The crux of structured interviewing is putting a process in place that
standardizes how you interview, in turn nurturing more equitable and productive hiring.
 Employee Engagement= Workplace alignment of Individuals +

Employee
Mission & Priorities of the workplace

Engagement Employee engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right

conditions for all members of an organization to give of their best each
day, committed to their organization's goals and values, motivated to
contribute to organizational success, with an enhanced sense of their
own well-being.

“This is about how we create the conditions in which employees offer more
of their capability and potential”.
- David Mcleod

“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your
best customers.”
–Stephen R. Covey
An “engaged employee” is one who is fully absorbed and enthusiastic about his
work and takes positive action to boost the organization’s reputation and interests.

Quantum Workplace – Employee engagement is the strength of the mental and

emotional connection employees feel toward their places of work.
Gallup – Engaged employees as those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and
committed to their work and workplace.
Willis Towers Watson – Engagement is employees' willingness and ability to
contribute to company success.
Aon Hewitt – Employee engagement is "the level of an employee's psychological
investment in their organization."
Employee engagement is based on
• trust,
• integrity,
• two way commitment and
• communication between an organisation and its members.
It is an approach that increases the chances of business success, contributing to
organisational and individual performance, productivity and well-being.

What’s employee engagement for you and me as employees?

• Employee engagement is about understanding one’s role in an organisation, and
being sighted and energised on where it fits in the organisation’s purpose and
objectives.
• Employee engagement is about being included fully as a member of the team,
focussed on clear goals, trusted and empowered, receiving regular and
constructive feedback, supported in developing new skills, thanked and recognised
for achievement.
What’s employee engagement for you and me as employers?

• Employee engagement is about positive attitudes and behaviours leading to improved

business outcomes, in a way that they trigger and reinforce one another.
• Employee engagement is about our employees feeling pride and loyalty working for our
organisation, being a great advocate of the organisation to our clients, users and
customers, going the extra mile to finish a piece of work.
• Employee engagement is about drawing on our employees’ knowledge and ideas to
improve our products and services, and be innovative about how we work.
• Employee engagement is about drawing out a deeper commitment from our employees so
fewer leave, sick absence reduces, accident rates decline, conflicts and grievances go
down, productivity increases.
• Employee engagement is about organisation actions that are consistent with the
organisation’s values. It is about kept promises, or an explanation why they cannot be
kept.
Generally speaking, employee engagement is a workplace method designed to improve an
employee’s feelings and emotional attachment to the company, their job duties, position
within the company, their fellow employees, and the company culture. HR departments can
use employee engagement tactics to boost wellbeing and productivity across all company
levels.

What is Employee Engagement in HR?

While all departments throughout the company can and should execute various employee
engagement measures, HR departments are particularly vital for employee engagement
approaches to be successful. The impact of employee engagement on employee retention, as
well as wellbeing and productivity, is something which HR departments must keep at the
forefront of their initiatives. There are five key roles that every HR department should fulfill
when it comes to improving employee engagement.
1. Executive Leadership: As the employee engagement champions, the HR department should take an
executive leadership role when it comes to identifying and investing in ways to improve engagement
tactics. The HR department is also responsible for ensuring transparency and understanding in regards to
the company expectations for each employee.

2. Employee Engagement: HR professionals within the company should be experts in what employee
engagement is. They are the ones who understand the importance of employee engagement in HR, what
methods best drive employee engagement, how these tactics can be measured, and what steps must be
taken to continuously improve engagement approaches.

3. Training: HR is also responsible for training, guiding, and coaching department managers in how
they can better engage their staff. As employee engagement consultants, HR needs must also lead by
example when it comes to maintaining an open dialog, regularly addressing causes deterring the success
of employee engagement approaches, pointing out and applauding progress, and looking past scores and
metrics to focus on the betterment of the employee.
5. Activities: Though employee engagement is a serious element of business success in which HR plays
an important role, it’s also their duty to fulfill the role of engagement humorist by bringing enthusiasm,
excitement, and inspiration to the process. By introducing, implementing, and organizing employment
engagement activities, HR can foster a stimulating workplace that values the individual contributions of
each employee and recognizes productive collaboration.
6. Measurement: Lastly, the HR department must play the role of gatekeeper for employment
engagement. Regular surveys, department check-ins, and other means of measurement, help HR pros
develop and implement specific action plans that can be frequently discussed and addressed with team
managers. Instead of focusing solely on data, analytics, benchmark goals, and ranking numbers, the HR
department must place strict emphasis on the specific dialog and methods that positively influence
employee engagement.
All in all, employee engagement in HR helps to ensure that all employees feel engaged and empowered
to put their best foot forward. Employees who feel engaged are proven to not only be more productive
and content in their job role, but they are also more loyal to the company and more driven to contribute to
overall business success.
https://www.bamboohr.com/webinars/employee-engagement/
Employee Engagement Process
1. Prepare and Design: The first step in the process is about discovering the specific requirements of your
organisation and deciding the priorities. After that a customized design of carrying the whole process can be
designed. It is recommended to seek advice of expert management consultant in order to increase the chances of
getting it done right at the first attempt.

2. Employee Engagement Survey: Design the questions of the employee engagement survey and deploy it with the
help of an appropriate media. It can be either in printed form or set online depending upon the comfort level of the
employees and your questionnaire evaluation process.

3. Result Analysis: It is the most important step in the entire process. It is time when reports are to be analyzed to
find out what exactly motivates employees to perform their best and what actually disengages them and finally
compels them to leave the organisation. The results and information can then be delivered through presentations.

4. Action Planning: ‘How to turn the results of the survey in to an action’ is a challenging question that
organizations need to deal with the utmost care. Coaching of line managers as well as HR professionals is very
important in order to tell them how to take appropriate actions to engage employees. They should also be told
about do’s and don’ts so that they can successfully implement the changes.

5. Action Follow-up: Action follow up is necessary in order to find out if the action has been taken in the right
direction or not and if it is producing the desired results.
Characteristics of Engaged Workforce
The 3 C’s of Employee Engagement
 The 3 C’s of Employee Engagement
Career: When individuals join an organisation, they expect to build a career with it. If the top management and immediate
managers spend dedicated time in carving out the careers of its employees, they will feel that they belong to the
organisation. They feel engaged when they receive support from the management in growing their careers.
An organisation can provide its employees with opportunities to grow professionally through job rotations, indulging them
in significant tasks, challenging assignments and promotions. They should also be given a specific level of authority and
autonomy to take their decisions on their own. The organizations prepare an entirely new breed of employees if they
genuinely invest in developing the careers of their people.

Competence: Competence is all about the ability to grow. Regular workshops and training sessions must be held in order to
help employees acquire a higher level of skills and competencies. The focus should be on developing for marketable skills.
Most employees after spending a few months look for competence-boosting opportunities with the organisation so that they
can grow and move to the next level of their careers. While the career focuses on the actual growth in terms of designation,
wages and perks and authority, competence is the ability to grow utilizing the opportunities.

Care: Sitting at the topmost, care is regarded the finest art of the managers by which they can make employees feel an
indispensable part of their organisation. The managers need to be empathetic and sensitive towards people and understand
their personal problems. Showing small day-to-day caring gestures towards employees make them feel that they belong to
the organisation and organisation belongs to them.
 Employee Engagement

Person-Job Fit: The match between a person’s knowledge, skills and

abilities and the requirements (competencies) of a specific job
(“demands-ability fit”). Related to higher performance and lower
turnover.
Person-Organization Fit: The congruence of an individual’s
personality, beliefs and values with the culture, norms and values of the
organization. Related to job satisfaction, commitment and turnover.
Review core competencies (knowledge, skills, and attributes) for the position.

Observe or ask someone doing the same or a similar job to help validate.

List and prioritize the essential and desirable competencies.

Essentials:The job cannot be performed without these essential KSAs (e.g., experience
running X, Y, and Z reports in Siebel’s CRM application).

Desirables: Not essential to perform the job, but can be used to differentiate candidates
(e.g., fluent in German).
Acquisition Talent (Person-Organization Fit)
 Person-Organization Fit
Personality and work group (cultural fit):
• Conscientiousness (careful, hardworking, organized, etc.)
• Agreeable (cooperative, good-natured, tolerant, etc.)
• Extroversion (sociable, gregarious, talkative, etc.)
• Emotional stability (anger, worry, insecurity, etc.)
• Openness to experience (flexible, curious, open to ideas, etc.)

Personal values and organization values.

Personal interests and organization opportunities.
Expectations and rewards.
Followership and management style.
https://blog.vantagecircle.com/components-employee-engagement/
 Employee Engagement Strategies to Build An Engaged
Workforce

(A). Strong Hiring Strategy

A 2018 job survey from Jobvite indicated that “33 percent of new hires leave the
company within the first 90 days”
Hiring, keeping long term employee engagement in mind can help you retain for a long
haul. A strong hiring strategy includes:
•Identifying and recording attractive job descriptions
•Developing a uniform and competitive salary structure
•Sound on-boarding process with clear communication on expectations and deliverables
•Pacing the learning and hand-holding during the initial days of the employee to ensure
he/she is well-aligned with the company’s goals.
(B). Open Communication

Transparent and open communication is the threshold of trust and loyalty. An

open, positive and constructive communication establishes an emotional
chord of loyalty and legitimacy between the employees and the employer.
The emotional need of being heard is basic and makes you feel valued.
Effective communication not only helps solve any chronic issue within the
system but also strengthens the overall culture in the organization.
(C). Employee Recognition And Incentive System
While financial rewards are basic to meet survival needs, a study shows that employee engagement is beyond
satisfying just the monetary needs of the employees.
Employee recognition is a terrific tool to foster a positive relationship between employee and employer and
fulfills the need for job satisfaction through esteem and recognition as per Maslow’s Hierarchy. People want to
be acknowledged for their contribution at work and feel motivated to even go the extra mile if they know they
are being appreciated.
This can be achieved through:
A Frequent routine of monthly or quarterly recognition models.
Having engaging recognition activities weekly to promote peer to peer appreciation network.
Make Appreciation a more ingrained part of the culture more than just a structured practice.
Create Recognition programs that address any disparity on any grounds and fosters an equal opportunity
model.
Also Read: Excellent Ways to Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day
(D). Create A Value Culture Through A Defined
Purpose
An organization’s culture is the collaboration of the beliefs and
behaviours that defines interactions between employees and other
key stakeholders, both internally and externally.
Culture manifests in things like hours, dress code, benefits,
workspace, turnover, and customer care and satisfaction. It is a less
tangible asset but describes the commitment or vibe that people bring
to work each day and the mindset that drives them to work. While
culture is an organic transformation that gets developed over some
time, setting the right actions in place fosters employee engagement.
This can be further enhanced through pillars of P.A.C.E
Conduct regular team interactions to promote collaborative working.
Organize team retreats, off-sites, and team building activities to
foster a positive value culture.
(E). Health and Wellness Programs
Health and Wellness is a critical employee engagement strategy and significantly impacts the
productivity and general well-being of the employee. As per the Gallup Study,
A whopping 62% of respondents believe that their positive engagement at work has noticeable effects
on their health.
Employee Wellness is not just a perk or extra initiative but an important business decision today having
a significant impact on absenteeism, attrition, and productivity at large.
There are various ways to promote and encourage good health and wellness for employees. A few
are listed here
Organizing Group fitness Challenges, Boot Camps, etc. to encourage healthy competition and peer to
peer interactions.
Have regular gaming sessions to stimulate innovation and cognition.
Providing optimum work-life balance initiatives for employees to attend to personal obligations
without affecting work.
Organizing Yoga or meditation sessions to take care of the mental health of the employees.
Providing access to healthy meals and snacks throughout the workday.
(F). Well Defined Roles and Responsibilities
The Clarity of goals at the organization level is key in building an engaged
Workforce. To contribute effectively, an employee needs to know how much is
valued and how valuable is his contribution.
Having clear job roles is to instil clarity and align the employee with the mission and
vision of the company. Without this, employees run risks of disengagement,
confusion, and burnout.
A focussed leader needs to educate the purpose of driving the business forward and
make sure that every employee is well-aligned to it. To achieve this:
Define clear Job Roles.
Determine weekly or monthly goals.
Conduct assessment training to monitor and analyze the skill mapping with job
requirements.
(G). Friendly Workspaces
A big role of having the right kind of workspace for your team is to show them that
you care and want to make a place that they’ll enjoy and will promote their growth.
Ideal office workspaces reflect their company’s brand and cultural values and are
conducive to the types of behaviours and activities that support the business. They are
drivers of creativity and performance. For this:
Create spaces that reflect and match your company’s value system.
Have the right blend of open spaces for collaborations and areas to focus and work in
solitude.
Add the fun elements like a snooker table, football, etc. to up the recreation factor and
provide a balanced atmosphere for employee engagement.
Create break rooms for positive collaborations, connectivity and community building.
(H). Encouraging Personal and Professional Development
With the new age era and the paradigm shift in how industries function today, there is a transition in the
way how the workforce is perceived as. There is a change from defining people as Human Resources to
‘Human Capital’. Employees are no more just resources for achieving business goals but valuable assets
that determine the future of the company.
So it is imperative today to see how the Human capital is functioning and growing within the system.
That’s why having a personal and professional growth strategy for your employees is an integral concept in
employee engagement, and something you can’t ignore.
This is no more an option but a necessity if the companies want to build a good talent pool and control
attrition. Following are a few action ideas:
Promoting skill-specific certifications to harbour professional development that will ultimately benefit the
organization at large.
Encourage employees for small breaks and sabbaticals to pursue personal passion, travel and experience
new adventures. This refuels their energies to gear up for larger contributions at work.
Organize regular seminars and workshops for employees to leverage and upskill themselves.
Conduct games, quizzes writing exercises, etc to stimulate agility.
Finally with all the strategies in place, the most important step is to create an action plan for the same. A
systematic approach in achieving and enabling the Employee Engagement plan lays the foundation for
thriving organizations.
 A Few Pointers to Execute The Strategy Top 11 Employee Engagement Survey
Includes Tools To Help You in 2021

Some of the best survey tools are

Audit the current communication and culture structure. discussed below:
•ProProfs Survey Maker
Conduct engagement Surveys to identify what plan can be
•CuteHR
formulated.
•Qualtrics
Finalize and build a concrete strategy based on the inputs •Survey Monkey
received through surveys. •TinyPulse
•Podio
Communicate the new strategy to identify the preparedness •Google Forms
of the team for the same. •Energage
•Zoho Survey
Launch and execute engagement programs with equal
•Typeform
involvement of managers and other stakeholders.
•Glint
Assess the synergies and participation.

https://www.cutehr.io/employee-engagement-survey-tools/
 The term talent development means building the knowledge,
skills, and abilities of others and helping them develop and
TALENT achieve their potential so that the organizations they work for
DEVELOPMENT can succeed and grow.

Talent development encompasses all of your company’s

activities and initiatives that support employee learning and
growth. Successful talent development involves processes and
programs that are tailored to match organizational needs
together with team members’ goals and interests.
 Why should your organization prioritize talent development?

By focusing on employees, “this fosters learning, employee engagement, talent management and
employee development to drive organizational performance, productivity, and results.” It’s not a
one-size-fits-all effort, however. Talent management is best handled when individual employees
receive guidance and customized career paths that include learning as they advance.

1. Future-proofing the organization

Preparing your workforce to face an uncertain future is the number one goal of any talent
development program. You can help empower employees to develop their skills and
competencies. In turn, these will help the organization gain a competitive advantage. You are
making sure that your workers have the skills and capabilities to help you reach your business
goals.
This also takes the pressure off constant recruitment from replacing obsolete or unhappy
employees.
2. Improved employee engagement
When employees are actively engaged in their work, they are happy and productive. Employers can boost
engagement by designing a career path for each employee. This path should take into account their skills
and interests, then creating a learning program for them to succeed.
3. Generating new ideas and business opportunities
If you want to increase innovation, take on bigger and better clients, and become more profitable — a
talent development program has the ability to support these factors. Employees who are encouraged to
learn new things bring their ideas and knowledge to the table. This can identify new sources of income
generated from previously undiscovered opportunities and clients.
4. Developing more effective managers
Talent development isn’t just for new hires; it’s for managers to build solid careers too. According
to Jocelyn Stange of Quantum Workplace, “Managers play an important part in defining and driving the
employee experience. But they might not be equipped to make an impact without support from leadership
and ongoing training.”
5. Increased employee retention rates
Employees who appreciate the investment you’re making in their career are more apt to be loyal
to the company. One study by LinkedIn indicated 94% of employees would stay at a company
longer if it invested in their careers. This is significant in a time when employers are doing
everything they can to keep employees connected while they work remotely. In short, ample
talent development opportunities will help you keep top talent on board longer.
 6 actionable talent development strategies

1. Identify existing skill gaps and how to fill them

Consider your company’s immediate needs and long-term objectives. What roles and skills does it need
to achieve them? Does it currently have enough team members for those roles, and do they have the
right experience? If not, you’ve just identified a skills gap. When it comes to filling skill gaps,
recruitment is an obvious choice, but it’s also important to look within your own team. With additional
education, they can meet the challenge while bringing institutional knowledge and engagement that
external candidates may lack.
Upskilling, reskilling, and cross-skilling are three great strategies for addressing skill gaps:
Up skilling involves providing an employee with more advanced skills within their role or area
through additional education and training.
Reskilling instead helps an employee learn the new skills needed to be successful in an entirely
different role.
Cross-skilling gives employees the training they need to perform multiple job functions at your
company.
2. Recognize employees who grow and meet their talent development goals
When you’re lucky enough to have team members that are excited about learning new skills and
growing at your company, make sure they receive plenty of recognition. Recognizing positive
actions like these makes it more likely that employees will repeat them. While big milestones
like receiving a new certification or completing a lengthy training program should be rewarded,
don’t stop there. Showing appreciation frequently is a key part of boosting the impact of
recognition. People recognized weekly are over 5 times as likely as those never recognized to
say they rarely think about looking for a job elsewhere — and almost twice as likely as the
average among all respondents.
3. Solicit and implement feedback on your talent development program
Your leadership and HR teams have created talent development initiatives they’re proud of — and
that’s great! But what do the team members actually participating in the program think?
Communication between team members and leadership is critical, and how your organization
facilitates that communication is just as important. Employees are more likely to be honest when they
can provide feedback anonymously in surveys than when discussing things directly with a leader. If
you don’t get honest feedback, you won’t know what the consensus is on your talent development
program. Look for an employee engagement platform that provides anonymous, always-on feedback
channels team members can use from anywhere.
After receiving and analyzing team members’ input, act on it quickly to show your employees that
their voices matter. Adjusting your company’s talent development program as a result of feedback is
essential if you want to reap its benefits. Ninety percent of employees say they are more likely to stay
at a company that requests and acts on feedback. Prioritize any issues identified by their potential
impact on your team and organization. Team members appreciate even incremental changes when
they’re deployed in tangible ways that demonstrate your company truly values employees’
perspectives.
4. Train managers to coach rather than micromanage
Micromanagers supervise their team excessively, watching and often criticizing them as they
perform routine tasks. They don’t teach team members to work independently, leading to feelings
of stress, a lack of confidence, and low morale. Micromanagers may be able to deliver short-term
results, but over time this approach limits productivity for both employees and managers.
On the other hand, leaders who see themselves as coaches help team members achieve their
personal goals through collaboration and mutual trust. Coaching helps both team members and
their leaders develop the skills they need to improve their performance. It leads to a better culture,
stress reduction, and stronger relationships. Leaders who coach have a deep understanding of their
team members’ individual experience, skills, and goals, and these insights can help inform your
talent development plan in both large and small ways.
5. Adopt a learning management system
Tying all your talent development efforts together is much easier with a
centralized solution like a learning management system. These platforms offer
HR and leaders the ability to easily administer personalized programs and see at a
glance how team members are progressing. An LMS makes things equally easy
for learners, giving them the flexibility to engage with materials when and where
they prefer. They’re also compatible with a wide array of online courses, saving
your organization the time and money of hiring external instructors or crafting
training programs from scratch.
6. Build development into every part of the employee lifecycle

The employee life cycle reflects the stages that individuals move through during their
time with your company. Its six steps — attraction, recruitment, onboarding, retention,
development, and separation — map out the employee journey. HR professionals,
managers, and other leaders at your company can use this framework as a guide to
engaging employees and maximizing their performance during their entire career.
Development is a key component of the employee lifecycle, taking both employees
and organizations to new, exciting places. But it should be a part of every step
employees take at your organization. A reputation for talent development is a great aid
when attempting to attract and retain the best talent, and developing new employees
should be a primary goal of the onboarding process. And if a team member chooses to
eventually move on from your company, they’ll be much more likely to act as an
advocate for your organization if it was a place of growth for them.
 NEEDS ANALYSIS

Development needs analysis (DNA) A process of gathering and analyzing information to identify where
there are gaps between how a role should be performed, and how it is being performed.

Need Assessment

A needs assessment is the first step in developing any solution, including training. When a skills gap is
detected, assessment serves as the foundation for determining instructional objectives, design, training
method, and measurements of new skills gained by participants.
What is a skills gap analysis?
A skills gap is the difference between skills that employers want or need, and skills their workforce offers. Conducting a
skills gap analysis helps you identify skills you need to meet your business goals. With a skills gap analysis template, you
can also inform your employee development and hiring programs.

First, it’s important to understand the difference between a skills gap analysis and a training needs assessment. The primary
distinction lies in their purpose and scope.

Both a skills gap analysis and a training needs assessment are techniques for exploring the gap between the current knowledge of
individuals, teams, or organizations and the knowledge that is needed.

A training needs assessment compares the knowledge or skill requirements for a particular role to those of current incumbents with
the aim of determining whether there are any gaps between “what is” and “what should be,” and whether training is the optimum
way to close them.

A skills gap analysis is an important tool for strategic workforce planning.

A skills gap analysis, on the other hand, is more forward-looking, aimed at determining the gap between current skills and skills
that will be needed to meet future organizational goals. With a skills gap analysis, the options for closing any gaps may include
acquisition of new talent, redeployment or up skilling of current employees, succession planning, job redesign, and other L&D
interventions.
 How to conduct a skills gap analysis:
Step 1: Preparation and planning
First, decide who will be involved in the skills gap analysis. Be sure to include key
stakeholders — organizational leaders, HR staff, business managers, and those who are
likely to champion change. The project leader should focus on developing a mindset
that supports skills gap analysis without preconceived ideas of what the solution should
be. This begins with transparency about the process and its goals.
If skills gap analysis is new to an organization, it should be preceded by internal
discussions about the skills that are needed to carry out the organization’s work, not on
the requirements of particular positions. That kind of thinking can constrain decision-
making about the best way to close gaps.
Other key considerations in the planning stage include establishing a project timeline
and determining how skills measurement data will be collected and analyzed.
Step 2: Identify skills needed
The objective of step two is clarity as to what skills the organization needs
to retain, develop, or acquire in the near future. Looking forward five to ten
years, create an inventory of the skills the organization is likely to need.

Competency models and skills taxonomies can be a good starting point, as

are reports from organizations like the World Economic Forum and
McKinsey & Company. There are several software packages for skills
identification and management (reviewed here) which may be of help as
well.

Looking forward 5-10 years, create an inventory of the skills the

organization is likely to need.

The project lead can also ask the executive team about any major initiatives
or projects that are in the planning stages. Then, consult with frontline
managers and talent acquisition staff to obtain their opinions regarding the
skills that will be necessary.

Finally, map the list of necessary skills against organizational objectives to

make sure the list is complete. It can be helpful at this point to rank the list
of skills by importance and by the level of skill required (basic,
intermediate, or high).
Step 3: Measure existing skills

In step three, determine the extent to which

the needed skills already exist within the
organization. Begin with data that can be
acquired easily from performance reviews,
360-degree feedback, or resumes submitted
by employees, for example. To measure skill levels, you could use:
Additional data can be collected through a •Surveys and assessments.
•Interviews with employees.
combination of self-assessments, surveys, •Feedback from performance reviews.
interviews, focus groups, KPI analyses for •Skills management software, like Skills DB
Pro and TrackStar that can make a skills gap
teams and individuals, and so on. Be sure to analysis much less time-consuming.
have managers review and confirm their
team’s self-ratings.
Step 4: Identify the gaps
Once all data has been gathered, compare the results of steps two and three to identify
all of the needed skills that are not adequately represented in the inventory of current
skills. One best practice is to create a skills spreadsheet for each team and each
individual. List the skills needed for success and for each skill, identify its importance,
the required performance level, and the actual current performance level, all on a five-
point scale.
A team skill rated “high” in importance and “high” in required performance level, but
“low” in actual performance would represent a skill gap for the team as a whole. A
similar disparity between required performance and actual performance of an
important skill for an individual team member indicates a gap in that individual’s
skills.
The outcome of step four is a comprehensive, prioritized list of the skills necessary to
support team and individual success that are lacking throughout the organization.
Communicate these findings to all stakeholders and ask for feedback before acting on
the results.
Step 5: Close skills gaps
Step five may involve multiple projects and continue over an extended period of time.
There are several primary ways to address a skills gap that has been uncovered:
Acquire the necessary skills through targeted recruiting and hiring
Redistribute skills through structural changes and/or redeployment of certain employees
Cultivate the necessary skills through L&D initiatives
L&D initiatives might include creating professional development plans for individuals and
offering courses, conferences, or certifications. L&D staff may also participate in the hiring
process by administering skill assessments or taking part in panel interviews, for instance.
Train for skill gaps
More than half of companies train and develop their staff to fill open positions. Offer training for
employees in skills you’d like to strengthen, for example using SAP or Excel. The right training
can help you close gaps between current and desired skill levels.
You can use professional training firms to arrange workshops, training sessions and seminars for
your staff. Along with formal training, you can also offer:
Subscriptions, online courses and educational material.
Voluntary employee mentorship programs.
Opportunities to attend events and conferences.
Opportunities to obtain certifications like Project Management Professionals (PMP)
or Professional Certified Marketer (PCM).
Hire for skill gaps
If your skills gaps are too wide to minimize with training, consider hiring to bring new knowledge
and skills into your company. You could:
Modify your hiring process to screen for skills your company needs. For example, you can
add skills assessments (like writing samples) and numerical reasoning tests.
Use structured interviews to reduce biases and ensure your criteria for choosing a new hire are
strictly job-related.
Source passive candidates. Often, candidates who have the skills you need aren’t looking for a
job. Use effective sourcing techniques (like recruiting on Twitter and sourcing using boolean
logic) to find and contact promising candidates.