For young people joining the workforce, hybrid and remote work and recent innovations within technology have made it all the more difficult to choose and acquire the essential skills that will stand their careers in good stead. How can HR professionals address these gaps?
What’s the issue?
High demand among employers and educators for essential skills has been reported by organisations such as the CBI, CIPD and Sutton Trust for decades. Tom Ravenscroft, Founder and CEO of Skills Builder Partnership says “What we are witnessing now, is how quickly technology is making technical skills outdated. This places further emphasis on the development of highly transferable skills because traditional, specific training, or knowledge alone just isn't enough.”
The CIPD’s Good Work Index 2023 found a lack of skills appears to be a bigger problem than lack of qualifications.
The mismatch between the skills that will be required in the future and those that are currently being developed presents “a huge strategic challenge” for employers, according to The National Foundation for Educational Research in its report, The Skills Imperative 2035. For one, skills gaps are increasingly seen as a constraint on growth and in productivity.
So, how can HR professionals invest in their learning and development strategies to ensure that young people get the transferable skills they need to succeed?
The eight essential skills
Skills Builder Partnership identifies eight essential skills all employees need to help themselves and their organisations succeed. These are highly transferable, separate from technical know-how, and go beyond basic literacy, numeracy and digital abilities.
The eight essential skills are:
- Listening: The receiving, retaining and processing of information or ideas
- Speaking: Oral transmission of information or ideas
- Problem solving: The ability to find a solution to a situation or challenge
- Creativity: The use of imagination and the generation of new ideas
- Staying positive: This is the ability to use tactics and strategies to overcome setbacks and achieve goals
- Aiming high: This covers the ability to set clear, tangible goals and devise a robust route to achieving them
- Leadership: Supporting, encouraging and developing others to achieve a shared goal
- Teamwork: Working cooperatively with others towards achieving a shared aim.
Each skill has 16 steps to provide tangible direction for their development. For example, the Framework takes the broad concept of teamwork and outlines the 16 measurable steps from being able to structure team meetings, to resolving conflicts, or allocating tasks and resources.
Communicating in a professional environment is one of the key shifts new starters have to make on entering the workplace. Another, is the transition from being independently assessed to working as part of a team.
What’s in it for employers and employees?
Employers who invest in the training of early career employees’ essential skills see higher retention and productivity levels.
For employees, building these essential skills drives greater life satisfaction, better job satisfaction, improved performance and reduces the likelihood of them finding themselves out of work. Research by Skills Builder Partnership, published in its 2023 Essential Skills Tracker, revealed an essential skills wage premium for the average full-time worker in the UK of £3,600 to £4,600 each year.
“Individuals whose employers have invested in building their essential skills are likely to be more satisfied and connected with their job and company,” says Ravenscroft.
How to plug the gaps
“Development of these skills requires deliberate focus,” says Ravenscroft. He suggests a number of actions HR professionals can take:
- Guide new recruits to understand what tangible essential skill steps are needed in their role, by explicitly referencing them in their line management.
- Incorporate feedback from colleagues and managers on specific essential skills to help new recruits to assess their own strengths, identify gaps and plan for progression.
- Offer skill-based training that supports early career employees to learn, apply and master specific skill steps.
Ravenscroft suggests employers provide multiple learning opportunities for employees to build their essential skills throughout their whole career; and promote and recognise the development of these skills through appraisals, reviews, and by rewarding progression.
The essential skills provide that missing piece for talent to thrive. “It’s only with a good level of essential skills that people are able to unlock the full potential of their basic skills, qualifications, or experience,” he concludes.
Skills Builder Partnership works with Learning & Development professionals across more than 100 businesses to transform the essential skills of their early talent. Learn more and how you can get involved at skillsbuilder.org/employers.
