Recently, our world has changed in many ways, social distancing, virtual meetings and more. The business world had already been changing. Constantly-evolving technologies mean people are doing jobs that didn't exist a few years ago, which means new skills are required. At Fast Lane, we know that skilled employees are the most important asset your company can have.

As you define your organizations’ strategic direction and future goals, you will need to define the skill sets necessary to achieve those goals. A skills gap analysis is an essential part of providing curricula and learning paths that fulfill the knowledge gap between where you are currently and where you need to be to optimize efficiency and ROI from your technology investment.

Fast Lane Consulting and Education Services is well-positioned to provide you with a full service of Training Needs Analysis and Skills Assessments. Based on the rapid deployment of disruptive services, the financial and business services expect a skills gap of around 3 million people in the next 3 years, and that over 50% already suffer from digital skills gaps.

Technical vs Soft Skills

A corporate learner may have in-depth knowledge and understanding on the technologies they support, but they may not possess the communication skills in which to troubleshoot common issues. Technical skill is typically one that is closely related to a specific field or technology. A soft skill, on the other hand, is a skill that helps them relate to others, communicate and collaborate.

Establishing the correct testing method for your organization requires an initial consulting phase to ascertain the size and scope of your requirement. Once this has been completed we will have identified which skills need to be assessed. While some skills can be assessed through written exams, others may require a more creative approach. Online scenarios and role play, for example, can also be used to assess skills. From our experience, audience research is essential as it provides an opportunity to understand the most effective way for your employees to succeed.

Understanding Your Skills Gaps

Gaining an understanding of your skills gaps is just the beginning. Solving for them can be done by hiring, training or a combination of the two. You can maximize the skills of current employees through reskilling and upskilling. The benefit of this is not only the development of your workforce to meet future business needs but it creates a sense of loyalty in employees who feel the company has invested in them.

While some of this training can be done using internal resources, an outside provider can add expertise in new technologies, past experience in skills analysis consulting, and scale-out to your existing training team to accomplish your goals more quickly.