The Little-Known, Sure-Fire Way to Keep Training Relevant and Employee Engagement High: Skills Gap Analysis

By Jacqueline Holmes

September 28, 2023

In a rapidly evolving corporate world, ensuring employee training remains relevant and engaging is paramount. But how can organizations walk the fine line between comprehensive training and unnecessary repetition? The answer lies in a dynamic tool: Skills Gap Analysis.

This article delves into the transformative potential of AI-driven skills gap analysis in shaping the training landscape. From refining the learning experience of seasoned professionals to bolstering organizational productivity and promoting deep-rooted employee engagement, skills gap analysis stands out as the golden key. Furthermore, it demystifies the technicalities and showcases the practical applications of Knowledge Anywhere's innovative Skills Gap Analysis Tool. Read on to discover how this tool is revolutionizing the spheres of employee development, hiring, and engagement, catering to the unique needs of executives, managers, and individual employees alike.

The Dual Benefits of AI-Powered Skills Gap Analysis:

Optimizing Training Time:

Targeted Learning for Seasoned Employees. In traditional training models, experienced employees often sit through hours of content they already know, leading to boredom and disengagement. With AI-powered skills gap analysis, training becomes a bespoke experience. By evaluating each employee's unique strengths and weaknesses, the tool curates a tailored learning path. Seasoned employees can thus focus exclusively on areas where they need growth, skipping over redundant material. This approach respects their time and prior knowledge, ensuring they only take modules that add value to their skill set.

The Ripple Effect on Time Efficiency and Productivity. Time is a finite resource, especially in fast-paced corporate environments. When training is optimized, employees spend less time away from their primary tasks, leading to uninterrupted workflows and project timelines. Moreover, the time they do invest in learning is maximally productive, as they absorb new, relevant information that directly enhances their performance. This streamlined approach to training not only conserves valuable man-hours but also propels the overall efficiency and output of the organization.

Boosting Engagement Levels:

A Gallup poll found that only 34% of U.S. workers are engaged in their jobs

The Psychological Edge. Realizing one's knowledge gaps might initially feel unsettling, but it carries a silver lining. When employees identify areas of deficiency, it often ignites a motivational spark. According to the Dunning-Kruger effect, individuals with limited knowledge in a domain often overestimate their competency. By pinpointing their gaps through AI-driven assessments, employees experience a reality check, nudging them out of complacency. This newfound awareness can catalyze a genuine desire to learn and grow.

Fueling the Desire to Learn. Engaged learners are not just passive consumers of information; they are active participants in their own growth journey. When they recognize and understand their skills gaps, they approach training with renewed vigor and purpose. Instead of viewing learning modules as mandatory tasks, they see them as opportunities to bridge their knowledge deficits. This shift in perspective, from obligation to opportunity, transforms the learning experience, leading to deeper engagement, better retention, and a more proactive approach to personal and professional development.

What is a Skills Gap Analysis?

Skills gap analysis is an evaluation process that seeks to determine the discrepancies between the skills employees currently possess and the skills they need for optimum performance in their roles. By identifying these gaps, businesses can craft more targeted training strategies, ensuring their workforce remains competent, competitive, and aligned with industry demands.

How Does a Skills Gap Analysis Tool Help?

Benefits For Executives

For organizational leaders, the stakes are high. Their decisions mold the company's direction, and having an adept team is non-negotiable. Executives can use the Skills Gap Analysis tool to see a bird's eye view of the organization's competency landscape, aiding in long-term planning and strategy formation. Skills gap analysis isn't just a tool—it's a strategic asset. Here's why:

Drive Informed, Data-driven Decisions: Leveraging in-depth insights from skills gap analysis, executives can make nuanced decisions, ensuring that hires, promotions, and project roles are based on tangible competencies.
Align with Organizational Goals: It's essential that every professional development initiative directly complements the company's overarching goals. Through skills gap analysis, leaders can ensure training efforts are aligned, concentrating on areas that maximize both employee enhancement and positive business outcomes.
Maximize ROI and Budget Effectively: Considering the significant investments companies make in training (U.S. businesses alone shelled out $83 billion in 2019 according to Training Magazine), it's crucial that funds yield the desired outcomes. By pinpointing the most urgent training needs, skills gap analysis ensures budgetary efficiency.

Benefits For Managers

Managers can use a pre-course assessment to provide actionable insights into team strengths and weaknesses, guiding day-to-day operations and individual employee development. Here are a few specific ways that knowing skills before training can help make a Training, HR, or L&D Manager's job easier.

Shortens Hiring and Onboarding Time: HR Managers can now assess the skill level of new recruits before hiring or promoting them to new positions to determine if the candidates are ready for the job or if they need additional training. This can streamline the onboarding process and ensure their team is well-equipped for new roles.
Lessened Employee Pushback: When employees feel their professional growth is being prioritized, they show increased commitment and engagement levels. Luckily for Managers, self-motivated workers are much easier to supervise, taking one more thing off of their plate.
Engage Unresponsive Learners: Utilize your LMS analytics, determine which Learners are unengaged, and send them an assessment relevant to courses that they've studied within the training platform. This can quickly test knowledge (without much internal effort) and keep them on their toes in between training!
Ensures Training Departments are Proactive Rather than Reactive: A reactive approach to training, where courses are designed based on perceived needs or industry trends, often misses the mark. In contrast, skills gap analysis shifts training departments into a proactive mode. By pinpointing exact areas of need, they can design training initiatives that address current deficiencies and anticipate future challenges, positioning the organization a step ahead of its competitors.

Benefits For Employees

For every employee, navigating professional growth can be a journey filled with uncertainties. Skills gap analysis offers clarity, ensuring each step taken aligns with their strengths, needs, and the organization's goals. Here are a few examples of how this training platform feature can benefit Learners:

Individualized Growth Opportunities: Employees can identify the exact areas where they excel and areas they need to enhance, enabling them to undertake training that's genuinely beneficial. Skills gap analysis provides a roadmap for their professional journey.
Faster New Hire Process and Speedy Onboarding: Let's be honest - applying for jobs and interviewing is a rough process, and no one wishes that it was extended. When a company has a clear and straightforward development path designed for your needs, it shows that your organization is thriving and leaves a positive first impression... all while skipping irrelevant online courses and generic training programs.
Cultivates Continuous Learning: When training is personalized and relevant, it doesn't just increase knowledge; it fosters a culture of ongoing learning and development, furthering job satisfaction and skill development.

How Does Knowledge Anywhere's Skills Gap Analysis Tool Work?

Knowledge Anywhere's Skills Gap Analysis Tool is an excellent use case for our new Learning Management System (LMS) AI Assessment feature, which can scan your PowerPoints, text, documents, and PDFs to automatically generate relevant quiz questions with the ability to customize the results. If you want to tweak something, you can reorder, add, delete, or edit the AI-generated questions to align perfectly with your training goals.

The best part? This innovative tool integrates seamlessly with our Learning Management System.

And the value doesn't just stop with the skills gap analysis! Our AI Assessments can also be used a:

Candidate and New Hire Skill Assessment: HR Managers can now assess the skill level of new recruits before hiring or promoting them to new positions to determine if the candidates are ready for the job or if they need additional training. This can streamline the onboarding process and ensure their team is well-equipped for new roles.
Instant Translation Tool: If you have a document or text in one language and want to transform it into an Assessment in another language, this tool works perfectly! We've even tested it out with our multilingual friends and it passed with flying colors.
Microlearning Tool to Re-engage and Test Learners: Utilize your LMS analytics, determine which Learners are unengaged, and send them a quiz relevant to courses that they've studied within the training platform. This can quickly test knowledge (without much internal effort) and keep them on their toes in between training!

To read more in-depth step-by-step resources, please read our guides here: