Small businesses focusing on new skills during pandemic
Most small business owners have had to take a serious look at how they operate and what changes might need to be made in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However, a report from Simply Business has found that, amongst the stat,s 25% of small business owners and their staff learned new skills during the lockdown. Here, we’re going to look at some of the approaches businesses are taking to fill the skill gaps in their business.
Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels
A greater focus on training
Both employers and employees have shown a renewed focus on training skills internally and with the help of third-party course providers and trainers. For instance, many employers have been working with interactive online course providers, with some of them seeing as many as an 88% traffic increase through the first half of 2020. Aside from building new skills needed to help the business, this training also has a positive effect on the relationship that companies have with their staff, such as increasing their productivity and improving morale and motivation. After all, providing training and professional development for your team is a method of investing in them. When employees feel invested, they are more likely to develop a sense of loyalty for the business doing the investing.
Finding the right people for the gaps
Training is not the only way to fill the skill gaps in your business. While some businesses are, indeed, scaling back their operations and the number of employees that they have, others are taking a different approach. With several small businesses closing across the country, there has been a steady influx of skilled labour making its way into the market lately. Those who have been considering setting up a recruitment agency could find themselves working with a market that is in demand of their ability to partner the skilled workers that they need with a range of positions. This focus on recruiting new members to fill skill gaps may become more prominent as recovery from the crisis continues.
Identifying the skills gaps
In order to make good use of either of the methods of filling skills gaps as mentioned above, it’s important for businesses to be able to identify exactly what those skills gaps are. Sometimes, the answer may be obvious as to what a business lacks, but performing a skill gap analysis can offer much more precise information about what kind of employees or training might be needed. This includes making use of employee assessments, key performance indicators to manage productivity within individual processes, as well as in-person observation of how employees handle different processes. Systematizing the way by which we evaluate skills in the workplace can also help be more precise in how we solve those gaps.
The reasons to invest in additional skills are multiple, especially in the face of a crisis. First of all, many businesses are looking at scaling back operations, which might require fewer but more specialized or widely-skilled employees. However, there are also businesses that have had to pivot their business model considerably.
