In a world where the pressure is on to build future skills, one needs to take stock of what you already have. As time is of the essence, you need to know what skills you require and then measure current skills to allow for the fastest upskilling process.
To measure current skills is fairly easy. All people would need to do is an assessment, but herein lies the challenge. Do a quick assessment and all is done.
The question should be: tell me more about the different types of assessments. One of the first two questions one has to ask would be: What are you measuring against and is the assessment worth anything? Good question! The assessment needs to be looking at international trends. ‘Looking’ in this instance implies that there has to be a good set of research that determines what the specific skills and related questions are that need to be asked. One therefore needs an assessment that isn’t cobbled together quickly, but rather consists of content to be measured against an international benchmark of people in specific roles.
Secondly, there needs to be a direct link between the skills that you will require (article 2 in this series) and the assessment. Ultimately you want to know what you need and then quantify what you have. The organization responsible for the assessment needs to have experience in determining both what is needed and then make the link to the assessment. And lastly – and this is probably the most important ingredient – the ability to make sense of the first two pillars to allow them to point to a solution that will ensure that you can reach your end goal.
In summary – determining current skills levels must be based on a science and not on the skills people believe they have.
In the next article, I will address the specific set of learning interventions as well as the golden thread of a continuous assessment process.
The LRMG group of companies specialises in igniting the high performance of people. We have a 25-year track record in partnering with high-consequence industries.
