Article by; Siân Dennis

The well-known saying voiced by Lynn Yates (and modified by Grant Bright) is shown in the image to this post.

You and I, either as owners or managers, form part of the assets of companies. How do we create an environment that is challenging, enabling and productive all at the same time?

Service delivery and productivity are high on the agenda of both public and private sectors alike, given looming provincial elections and a lacklustre economy.

I thought I would have a look at what it takes to manage human resources efficiently from the perspective of a skills audit.

This is not a once-off exercise,  to tick off the HCM* To-Do list and then shelve the results. Skills and knowledge auditing is an ongoing process at the heart of both training & development and the talent management function, and as such an exercise which deserves solid preparation and planning.

It is good to remember that the skills audit plan must meet the needs of both the organisation and the workforce, whilst complying with legislation and best practice standards.

Sadly, audits generally are often perceived as a threat by employees.  Negative responses may jeopardise not only the skills audit project, but also prompt labour relations issues in other spheres of the organisation.

It is imperative that employees experience the benefit of the skills audit conducted and the most tangible way that this can happen is to involve people from the start, give everyone a safe space to voice their opinions on the competencies that they possess (and those that they would like to have) and provide training and development opportunities for identified needs.

For more on the benefits of a skills audit and the critical elements for ensuring a fair and reliable process, see the article “Why the increased interest in skills audits?“