Flying start 2023 – how to succeed with your skills growth plan

New year has arrived and a unique opportunity for our talented people to sharpen their skills. As a manager and leader, you have a central role in supporting employees’ skills development. This being the basis upon which to strengthen your competitiveness and make sure you provide what your customers are looking for.

The Cinode Growth Plan makes it simple for employees to visualize their goals and to describe these clearly to your manager Below, you will find three steps to start up your growth plan.

Lack of skills can hit companies hard and slow down growth. To close the skills gap companies need to succeed regarding both recruitment and the establishment of continuous skills development.

Step 1. Competence inventory

Initially this is about making visible what skills you currently own within the business. You do this through a skills inventory. Then, as a manager or leader, you can answer such questions as; Do you have a clear picture of the company’s overall competence? What does your skills gap look like? What skills do you lack and need for the future?

Only then will you become aware of any potential skill gaps and the decisions management needs to make to achieve long-term success.

Step 2. Identify the competence gap by using your skill sets

Skill sets helps you define the group of competencies that you require. Perhaps this might concern what skills a front-end developer or a project manager should have to offer.

Now have a clear overview of your skills gap, can analyze the current situation decide what you need to achieve to move forward.

Step 3. Competence development plan helps you plan for future goals

Once you have a clear picture of your current skills supply, your skills gap and the problems you need to resolve, it is time to decide how to close the skills gap.

The competence and commitment of each employee is crucial to company success. A Growth Plan helps employees visualize their goals and communicate these to their managers and leaders. Once familiar with employee current skills, the job becomes easier to see how they can achieve their future goals by means of upskilling and reskilling.

Strengthen commitment within the company

By involving employees in creating their own competence development plan, you encourage them to use their own talents to control their own development, which strengthens commitment. At a later stage such information can form the basis for discussions and reconciliations with the manager/leader.

Examples of “competence goals” included in a competence development plan could result in employees wishing to raise their competence levels from 3 to 4 to become a project manager. These competency targets are based on skills listed in the respective employee’s profile.

“Other goals” might include things not directly connected to a employee’s role, such as finding a mentor, being a speaker at an event or learning n new language.

Transparency is the key to personal development. Once everyone in the organization has designed their growth plan, leaders and HR managers can then see how collective competence develops during the year. This will also allow you to effectively set your recruitment plan.