A key piece of information an organization needs to improve is to know what skills and knowledge the organization requires and what skills and knowledge the organization currently has. This information is essential for a number of reasons:
- It determines whether the organization can meet its goals.
- Without this information the organization doesn’t know where to improve.
- Training and development will be better targeted.
- Recruiting needs are better defined and more likely to result in the most appropriate candidate.
Skills audit is a process that can be used to identify the skill gaps in an organization. The outcome is a training needs analysis that identifies where training is needed.
So a skills audit results in:
- An understanding of the skills required and the gaps the organization currently has.
- A targeted analysis of development needs.
- A listing of people who need development.
- Data that can be used for purposes such as internal selection.
- Information that can be used for dynamic succession planning.
