Workforce Capabilities Fall Short
Benchmarks: A Quick Look at Key Measures
How do your organization’s efforts to close skills gaps stack up?
Elissa Tucker
More than 75 percent of organizations responding to APQC’s Work Force Capabilities 2011 survey reported difficulty securing workers with the capabilities required to meet business objectives. As organizations pursue growth strategies, they need employees who possess global business skills and who have the ability to create and innovate. In today’s fast-changing knowledge and technology-intensive business environment, organizations also need workers with the most up-to-date skill sets.
Failure to secure workers with required skills adversely affects an organization. Employee retention, workforce productivity, employee engagement, and human resources (HR) spending have either already been impacted or will be impacted in the next 12-18 months if no action is taken to lessen difficulties in securing qualified workers, at a majority of the surveyed organizations.
Training and development are among the actions organizations are taking or plan in the next 12-18 months to manage workforce capabilities challenges. Eighty-six percent of organizations have updated or plan to update (in the next 12-18 months) the content of their training and development courses and programs to align with workforce capability requirements. Seventy-six percent utilize or plan to utilize technology (in the next 12-18 months) for employee training and development delivery.
Through these interventions, organizations aim to minimize the time it takes to close identified skill or capability gaps. APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking database provides data on the number of days organizations take to close skill or capability gaps through training. The database shows that compared to bottom-performing organizations, top-performing organizations spend 52 fewer days to close capability gaps at the senior manager/executive level, 23 fewer days at the middle manager/specialist level, and 30 fewer days at the operational worker/office staff level. (See Table 1.)
This benchmarking data demonstrates potential for organizations to improve their abilities to close skill gaps substantially. Realizing this potential will be critical for organizations avoiding negative consequences of sub-par workforce capabilities. Adopting training and development best practices is one way for organizations to close skills gaps. Analysis of APQC’s human capital management (HCM) research findings revealed the following best practices for developing and training employees:
- De-emphasizing training (a top-down intervention initiated by the organization) and emphasizing learning (an ongoing process in the domain of the individual)
- Providing readiness training for employees transitioning to different levels or areas of the organization
- Building an online, centralized learning/training management system.
About APQC’s 2011 Survey
In May 2011, APQC conducted a survey on the topic of workforce capabilities. Nearly half of the 55 responding organizations reported the greatest concentration of employees in the United States and Canada. Roughly half had fewer than 500 employees. More than two-thirds of the responding companies reported annual revenues of less than $500 million. A wide range of industries responded to this survey, with the greatest participation from professional/business services, education, and government/military. Elissa Tucker, human capital management knowledge specialist at APQC, assisted in the development of this article. Go to www.apqc.org for the entire survey report.
About APQC
APQC is a member-based non-profit and one of the leading proponents of benchmarking and best practice business research. APQC works with organizations across all industries to find practical, cost-effective solutions to drive productivity and quality improvement. Go to www.apqc.org for more information. About Benchmarks
An essential part of enterprise excellence is knowing where you are in comparison with where you’ve been before — and with what’s possible. Target selects materials from published research to provide a snapshot of informative points that you can use to assess your organization.
