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Gaps or differences always create problem weather in life, relationship, organization or skills. Inculcating the culture without differences and gaps always fosters. To excel professionally, what matters the most is to match and have the desired level of skills and if gaps found that must be bridged at earliest. Let’s check some more details here.

What is Skills Gap Analysis?

Skills gap analysis is a tool used by HR professionals to evaluate the difference or gap between the actual and future state of goal. Organizations need to identify the current skill set that an individual employee possesses but not necessarily can carry out a future job or to perform certain tasks effectively with the same skill sets. Hence, the skills gap analysis is a way to find out which skills and knowledge are lacking among the employees in the organization. Once this information is tapped, HR can address the skills gap in the organization and can plan accordingly.

Advantages of Conducting Skill Gap Analysis

• Identifies employee weak spots: People have both strengths and weaknesses. By performing a skill gap analysis, it can be identified where employees need additional training to upgrade the existing skill level.
• Growth & development: If an employee he/she is lacking a certain skill, they will usually not speak up, whereas they may know that they want additional training on certain skills and feel their company is not offering this training in such case, they start looking for a company who cares more about their career path. So it’s important to perform a skills gap analysis for employees. This will provide an overall development plan for each employee.
• Helps human resources: Performing a skill gap analysis helps your human resources department as it helps understanding what skills are needed for a certain role. This helps HR write well the customized job descriptions leading hiring of better candidates and ultimately stronger new team members.
• Nurture Career Growth: More growth always leads to a better future and great career prospects covering all the employees from all the levels. Analysing the gap and taking a next step forward always nurtures career growth.
• Increased productivity: Probably the foremost advantage of skill gap analysis is productivity will increase. Identifying the skills needed within training, in such case, the company becomes better at time management, work planning, and stays on project budgets more effectively. All these factors make the corporate stronger at fullest and better at achieving goals.

Methods to Identify Skill Gap Analysis

1. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): KPI or Key Performance Indicators offer measurable values that demonstrate how effective an organization is at achieving key business objectives. However, KPIs are often applied to employees to gauge how effective their job skills are at contributing.
2. Assessments: This way to help find skill gaps is with assessments. Using proper assessments where skills need to be added per employee and to an entire team.
3. Observations: No one likes to feel watched or like they are being micromanaged. But sometimes viewing how employees react within a given situation will help determining what skills are missing. Observations are a great way to determine skill gaps for employees because one can see what problems are at first-hand .
4. Review process: Employee review time is another good way to collect feedback for skills analysis. Instead of a one-sided review gathering feedback from any direct reports, their managers, and also their team member peers. This gives a better snapshot of strengths and weaknesses for each employee in terms of skills.

How to Perform Skills Gap Analysis?

Step 1. Chalking company objectives: Before beginning the analysis, chalking down the list of company or department objectives is must as objectives will determine what skills need to be gained by employees. Also, it will help prioritize what skills are most important to the company. This makes it easier to plan for training.

Step 2: Level for execution: Skills gap analysis can be performed at two levels:

• Individual
• Team/organization

Step 3: Identifying the essential skills: The skills required can be easily identified by answering the following questions:

• Which skills does the company value?
• Which skills do the manpower need to do their jobs both now and in the coming times?

Step 4: Measuring the current skills: To measure the skill level of  current employees with the skills identified as being most important. Measures like KPI, observations, MBO’s, reviews, assessment etc leads forward for the next step.

Step 5: Taking action: There are two ways in which the skill gaps can be filled either with training or with hiring. Therefore, based upon the need of time HR needs to determine which approach works best for the specific skill gap.

• Training: Most companies train their employees to fill vacant positions. The perfect training helps in bridging the gap between the present and the desired skill levels.

• Hiring: If training cannot reduce the skills or required talent gap, an organization can consider hiring new employees with the knowledge and skills they are looking for.

I hope you got an idea of what is the skill gap analysis. Comment down below if you have any queries or suggestions related to the above article.

Leadership is a term that all of us use very often without completely understanding the meaning of it. When asked who is a leader, most people take a moment to pause and recompose their ideas to answer. Is it an absolute term or is it dynamic? Does it have multiple definitions or one binds to all aspects and all situations? Let us find out.

Who is a Leader?

A leader is a specific individual who is responsible for influencing and guiding a group of people towards a certain predefined objective or set of goals. A leader is required to motivate all the others following him. In order to do that, the leader himself/herself must be committed to the job that he/she wishes to accomplish. Without personal commitment towards an objective, a leader will fail to motivate his/her subordinates thereby leading to a failed outcome. The leader also has a clear vision and effectively communicates it to his/her subordinates.

People make leaders. Without people, the leader would not be successful. Hence it is important for the leader to cultivate support and form a group of subordinates. In order to do that, a leader has to have excellent persuasion and communication skills. A leader must also assert his/her credibility. A leader will only cultivate followers only if the followers believe in the credibility and capabilities of the leader.

Also Read: Difference between Leader and Boss

What Does It Take to be a Good Leader?

Every leader to be where he/she intends to be must have a number of qualities that he/she must possess. Even though has varied roles in varied scenarios, some generic qualities of a leader are a must.

• A good leader should be able to gain the trust of his/her followers. Hence honesty and integrity are one of the most important traits a leader must possess.
• Good communication skills are what makes or breaks a leader. If a leader is not able to communicate his/her ideas clearly, he would not succeed.
• A leader must himself be committed to the cause that he is promoting among his/her subordinates.
• A leader must have quick decision-making skills. Since a leader is responsible for leading and motivating a group, unsurity from his/her end disillusions the entire group.
• A leader must be empathetic. He/she must take into account the problems of his subordinates and address them with importance.
• A leader who is arrogant and treats his/her subordinates the same never succeeds. Hence, humility is an important character trait of a leader.
• A leader does lead and influence but he also has to make his/her subordinates important and accountable for themselves. In this case, the leader must practise delegation in authority and empower his/her followers.
• A good leader should be transparent about all the information to the followers/subordinates.

Are Leaders Born or Made?

For years immemorial this has been a raging topic of debate. Is a good leader born or made?

Is it possible for a person to take birth with all the skill-sets and qualities of a good leader? Or is it possible for a person to learn all the skills that a leader is supposed to have and emerge victoriously? Numerous researches and studies have been taken up and conducted to come up with a concrete result. However, there still remain areas which are debatable, on a majority scale it has been established that leaders are made and not born.

A leader should possess a number of behavioural, personality and attitudinal skills that drives him to be the proper definition of a good leader. Most of these traits are learnt through vicarious learning. Vicarious learning is subject to constant development and change. The personality or attitudinal traits that a person acquires depends on his environment, his experiences and his/her willingness to learn.

It is not most likely that a person will have high-end skills in delegation, team-building, or good-communication. A person can only learn them through years of experience. Only when a person is exposed to different scenarios and understands the need for these traits can a person actually put efforts to acquire them. A good leader is made by a person’s drive to personal development and accomplishment.

However, it has been established by behaviour theorists that leadership is not completely but ‘mostly made’. It can be said that a good leader is  two-thirds born and one third made. From a practical viewpoint, a leader has to work in various kind of scenarios. This will include, corporate organisations, educational institutions, intelligence bureaus and even military units. Leading these units can be significantly complex jobs and a person is not born with the traits to cater to these complex needs. Understanding these group dynamics play a major role in making these great leaders.

As already mentioned, assertiveness, risk-taking and empathy are the required characteristics to become a good leader. These are not inherent traits. Most researches show no relationship between genetics or heredity and for a person to have these skills. Through a person’s development either through childhood learnings, peer groups or adult self-development, a person acquires these skills.

However, intelligence is also an important parameter for measuring the effectiveness of a leader. Here comes the context of heredity. People generally have a significant amount of heredity contribute to his/her inherent intelligence. But even then there is a glitch in the matrix. A good leadership no wonder needs intelligence which is partly hereditary, but general IQ is not what is detrimental to it. A good leader needs social intelligence skills to cultivate humility and resilience in his lead and motivate his followers while also giving them a feeling that they are important.

Even the required emotional intelligence is developed through various life-experiences of a person. Hence it rules out the idea that introvert or less-assertive people cannot be good leaders. Everyone can be a good leader as long as the person is open to learning, understanding and self-development. Leadership in itself is not a trait. It is a self-acquired quality of individuals.

Numerous great leaders once started from scratch. They did not come to this planet as a great leader. They learnt to be one. They had experiences, worked on themselves, believed in their causes and were determined to give them definition. That is what gave their leadership recognition. However, it is true that some individuals would be more brushed up in their leadership skills than the other. But it only portrays individual differences in capabilities. It does not portray the disadvantage by hereditary traits determined by birth.

As it is universally said, “people don’t leave the company, people leave people,” and HR is all about the people. Since HR is a fascinating job then it could be said it is a movie where recruiting is just the first part, but ‘retaining’ the employee is the climax which can only have a happy ending if employees stay in the company happily ever after.

So for a happy ending or can be better termed if said as a constant fresh start, what matters the most is observing the finest HR Practices. Generally, these two concepts HR activities and HR practices are misconceptualized or rather many times treated as the same, but precisely they are not.

HR activities are the routine activities inclined with the strategies determined for HR practices. They allow the goals of the HR department to be carried out. HR activities include:

• Payroll
• Feedback
• Selection and Recruitment
• Development and Training
• Compensation and rewards
• Relations of employee
• Retention
• Security and health
• Employee attendance
• Overtime and bonuses

Whereas HR Practices is the emerging concept in the changing world of human resources is, with an increased sense of purpose and focus on activities that add value to the business as a whole. HR nowadays is not merely an administrative or reactive field; rather it now leads the way in terms of positive business change. HR Practices are clear plans, principles, or ideas that are accepted universally by companies offering them with the best business execution. This is regardless of which company, industry, or niche is it applied to. In simple words, HR practices try to identify business needs and build plans around it, and HR activities are responsible for executing the plans that meet business goals.

Benefits of Good HR Practices

• A higher rate of employee productivity: It has proven nowadays that employees can perform at a much higher rate of productivity when supervisors and managers pay more attention to them.
• Maintains organizational culture: The culture of business impacts every person within the company. The HR department ensures that all employees are well suited to the company’s culture. With a healthy company culture, it obtains employee retention, an honest reputation, increased productivity, and quality.
• Increases employee satisfaction: Effective HR management supports employees, understands employee motivations, and ensures the best employee experience is being met.
• Training and development: Training needs of an employee are identified. Needs that fit in with your broader business strategy. Continual learning will mean that employees can keep their skills updated and convey valuable and innovative ideas back to the corporate.
• Ensures retention and better brand name: Best HR practices always results in higher retention. It not only serves to be beneficial for employees but also acts as a base of a better management system, which ensures brand value and more goodwill.

Top 10 Best HR Practices

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Top Ten HR Practices that help in achieving organizational goals:

1. Safe, healthy, and happy workplace: Creating a safe, healthy, and happy workplace ensures that employees feel at home and stay with the organization for a very long time and capture their thoughts through frequent surveys.

2. Performance linked bonuses: Awarding bonuses or including a variable component in compensation as an incentive based on performances. Bonuses must be designed in such a way that employees understand that there is no payout unless the company hits a certain level of profitability. It is good for employee retention also.

3. Flexible Timings: This is something that has been gaining a lot of buzz in many companies these days. People are becoming big fans of flexi-timings as we believe that employees do more work when they are not busy looking at the clock. We have a 12-hour clock during which an employee can come in and work for 9 hours. As long as the work is getting done and it does not affect coordination amongst teams.

4. Dress Code: No proper dress code policy. People should always be judged by the work they do, how they do it, and the value they bring to all the company, Employees’ liberty to wear whatever they want when they come to the office. The only criteria are to use their good judgment when dressing for meeting any external entities like clients or vendors.

5. Fun at Work: It is realized that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and that’s to host fun programs, ranging from pizza lunches to potluck parties and movie evenings. These are the major things that ensure employees happiness so that they do things that make clients happy.

6. 360-degree performance management: The notion of carrying out an annual performance appraisal between managers and employees has been turned for a while now. The 360-degree performance management focuses on gathering objective and relevant feedback from a range of an employee’s contacts, including their manager, colleagues, subordinates, and external contacts. It’s a useful way of achieving a well-rounded and objective view of performance management from a variety of sources. It can help an employee address performance concerns in specific areas, also be rewarded for excellent performance in others.

7. Employee feedback mechanisms: Agile approaches of organizations recognize that feedback works in two ways. While providing employees with the proper feedback to enhance their performance is vital, so is allowing staff to present their opinions about the business to drive improvements. Staff surveys can be useful to gauge employee morale in general, as well as give individuals an opportunity to confidentially voice problems or concerns. Managers use this feedback to tackle issues about the working environment or management style, to help employees feel more valued.

8. Owning unused vacation: Vacation days are technically an employee’s to us as he or she sees fit. If they don’t use them, for whatever reason, the fresh idea is to allow them to donate them to rest employees. Perhaps the beneficiary for preparing for a life-changing event. The point is that HR acknowledges the employee earned these days and can donate them out without company involvement.

9. Giving nap time: The best method to maintain health and work ethic is to get enough sleep by getting at least seven to nine hours or taking a nap during the day. Napping helps to enhance concentration, productivity, and helps reduce anxiety. Many companies encourage napping in the workplace.

10. Offering referral bonuses: As per research by Jobvite, referrals are statistically higher for hiring better employees with higher retention rates. Recruitment by referrals works well because employees at the company are familiar with the work culture and values. High performing employees will be more likely to refer candidates with similar qualities.

Picking the best practices discussed above relevant to the organization can achieve higher employee preservation and happier employees who contribute their best.

A professional workspace includes many employees working at different capacities as they are instructed to do. It becomes really important to showcase a few qualities that can make the entire process of working together easier. As different people are working in different capacities, it is natural for them to exhibit various qualities. One of them may be leadership; people exhibiting these qualities are called leaders, making them accountable, responsible, and patient. However, there is a difference between leadership as a quality and the leadership which comes with a designation.

The designation associated with leadership is often said to be the boss, the personality who heads a particular department or a section. Often, the bosses portray a great sense of leadership and command, but there are times and instances when you will come across a personality who is unfit for the role of the boss since the lack of leadership is quite evident in his work ethics. It is, therefore, very important to know the difference between a boss and the quality of leadership to accommodate yourself in the work environment better. For this purpose, it becomes imperative to understand what is ‘leadership’ and what is the role of ‘boss,’ how they overlap, and what are the differences.

Meaning of Leadership

As mentioned earlier, leadership is a quality rather than a designation. The designation is not a definitive indicator of leadership as a quality. It can be possessed by anyone who finds himself at par with everyone else in terms of position but still can exert a constructive command to give directions or shape to the project they are working on. One of the main attributes of leadership remains that the person is free of bias, approachable, and open to criticism. The person should be able to look into the challenge clearly and devise and strategy based on equal participation by every team member.

During the time of any crisis, the person should be able to pull the team together, prevent disputes and miscommunication, and deliver the very best that they can manage to do.

Definition of Boss

Boss, unlike a leader, is a term for a designation given to a person who can command a certain level of control over its subordinates. The attributes associated with this designation are somewhat considered negatively connotated when it comes to working in a team.

A boss is often unapproachable, refuting, commanding immense control, and refuses to hear criticism. The power bestowed upon him is often utilized by him negatively, which instead of promoting harmony and hard work, promotes subordination and insecurity amongst team members. The boss is only concerned with results and refuses to partake in the procedure of manufacturing. Most of his power is utilized in silencing and ignoring new ideas and instructions from peers, which makes the team uncooperative and dismissive of their leader. Lack of communication and trust also seeps into interpersonal relationships.

Difference between Leader and Boss

Comment down below if you have any queries related to the above article.