Unlocking Growth: Do Your Employees Have the Skills to Succeed?

The Potential vs. Readiness Gap

Employees are eager to grow, but career growth isn’t just about climbing the ladder—it’s about building new skills, taking on new projects that deepen their expertise, and exploring different career paths that could include lateral moves into a new function. Employees often overestimate their readiness because they don't have clear insights into the skills they need to develop to progress or visibility into opportunities so end up stuck in static careers, limiting their potential.

Organizations that fail to measure skills objectively risk watching key talent and in demand skills walk out the door. Without clear data on what skills employees have today and what they need to grow, companies end up overlooking talent or promoting people before they’re truly ready. Even when skills assessments highlight strengths and development areas, employees still need intentional development through structured learning opportunities to close the gaps.

Why Traditional Internal Hiring Falls Short

Most companies assume internal hiring solves the problem but too often it is based on experience, gut feel, or past performance rather than data-driven assessment of skills. This means employees miss out on opportunities because their strengths aren’t recognized beyond their current role. This not only hampers career growth but also affects business performance. By assessing skills gaps early, organizations can ensure employees are prepared when a new role, gig, or project needs filling.

The Power of Objective Skills Measurement

To overcome this, businesses need a structured, objective approach to skills development—one that ensures employees are not only engaged but actually equipped to move into new roles when opportunities arise. Measuring skills objectively helps employees understand what they need to work on before new roles open up. Assessing both skills and reskilling potential ensures internal promotions are fair, effective, and have a long-term objective.

From a strategic perspective, this approach enables organizations to have a more agile workforce, using skills data to make more accurate mobility decisions. It also provides the ability to pivot quickly and minimize any disruption that inevitable business transformation brings.

Empowering Employees with Personalized Development Insights

Personalized development insights are crucial in empowering employees to build their own skills. By providing tailored learning experiences that match employees' interests, strengths, and goals, organizations can enhance engagement and skill progression. Talent mobility solutions that offer visibility into career opportunities allow employees to map their career paths based on their skills and aspirations—this could be reskilling into more critical roles or projects that need attention, a lateral move to a role that better fits existing skills, or upwards mobility into a more senior role.

Addressing Skills Gaps will Unlock Career Growth

In today's competitive business environment, addressing skills gaps is no longer optional—it's essential. By adopting a data-driven approach to skills development and providing personalized development insights, organizations can unlock career growth for their employees. Promotions are based on actual readiness, reducing guesswork and increasing fairness. Employees feel valued and supported in their career aspirations.

This not only benefits individuals and engages the workforce but also drives strategic business growth by ensuring that the right people are in the right roles at the right time and aligned with business goals. It's time to bridge the readiness gap and empower employees to reach their full potential. 

Discover more about how you can assess workforce skills with objective, reusable data and develop employees’ potential with personalized skill-building.