Lets have a look at some recent news articles from the BBC:

• Skill drive to boost workforce
• Most London firms hiring overseas
• Half of new jobs go to migrants
• London skills shortage worsening
• Many graduates lack soft skills

From the above articles, apparently there is a skills shortage in London, yet it has the highest unemployment rate!  This leads to companies hiring overseas.

The young generation are investing thousands into a higher education, but graduating with incomplete (yet essential) skills.

The government is on a mission to provide 7 million training places to increase literacy and numeracy standards.  It has been argued that this points to failure in the education system.

Crucial questions need to be asked!

• Why aren’t companies investing (more) in local talent?
• Is the education system staying the same whilst the world around moves on?
• Has the education system forgotten to encourage people to learn, rather than pass tests?
• Do degrees fulfill the need of employers?
• Will the under educated really be interested in yet another literacy or numeracy course?  The education system has failed them before, will it happen again?
• Why are there so many under skilled people in the UK?
• What talents are hidden within the unemployed? How can the government, organisations, communities people ignite their passion to learn?
• The role of technology is increasingly important to facilitate learning from an organisational and personal point of view.  How are you or your organisation using technology to optimise talent?
• With talk of the future being multipational, the ability to learn on the go is increasingly important.  How flexible and open should people be when it comes to their day to day job?

We believe it is important to ask questions, without them answers will not be found!

People are core for businesses. Finding the right people is a
challenge. Knowing if the skills are available can be difficult.
Educating them is another challenge. Replacing them can be a nightmare!

And that’s just the beginning.

Succession planning for your business

Succession planning is preparing your business for staff changes.

On paper it may seem like a pretty straight forward issue to address, but in reality it’s like a very big puzzle with lots of very small pieces. The bigger your company, the more complex the challenge is. The more complex a puzzle, the more risk, potential problems and solutions it may bring.

Staff challenges you may face

You’ve got your army of staff, but how well do you know them? How prepared are you for the future?

No matter how big or small your company is, you need to address the following:

• how quickly can your company react to a resignation? or long term illness?
• who are key assets to the company, and how are you going to ensure they stay with you?
• Do you know what the career progression looks like for your employess?
• If someone moves up the ladder, who will replace them?
• Are there any skills gaps needed by your company?
• How much will it cost you if you are not prepared?

And we could go on, but we won’t.

Technology to solve the puzzle

Now, the question is, did you know that technology is extremely good at helping you out with succession planning?

Leading tools are now very capable of helping you make and informed decision, for example:

• GAP analysis of staff skills
• ability to compare staff profiles, side by side
• integration with performance management modules
• ability to search on individuals or groups and create graphical reports.

The difference, now, as users and organisations, is we now have confidence in the technology.

Changing times

Times are a’ changing. The expectations of users and businesses now consist of the following:

• We want the ability to try before we buy
• We want things easy, no technical headaches please!
• Integration should be simple.
• When a decision is made, we want it now! next month or year is too late.
• We expect quality customer support.
• Don’t underestimate the ability of the user…

This is called Software-as-a-Service or software as a subscription model.

Take Flickr for example, it’s
free to sign up and use (with limitations). The attractive point, apart
from not needing technical knowledge or hardware, is the monthly subscription cost of about $2 is hardly going to break anyones bank. The current user base for Flickr is massive.

OnDemand Learning and Performance Management

With the success of user based subscription models, it was a matter of
time before businesses had similar options. But let’s be clear, we are
not saying that you will get hosted learning and performance management
for $2 a user!

A look at the leading learning and performance management companies shows:

• SumTotal launched ResultsOnDemand
• Plateau offer Hosted and Managed services, where on demand solutions are playing their part.
• Saba are on board OnDemand  and Hosting services

In addition we have Success Factors who provide Talent and Performance management purely as a “software as a service solution” for small, medium and enterprise
companies. This is quite significant as it truly means that Talent,
Performance and Learning management is no longer just for the big guns.

Software as a service – the benefits

Whilst all these services will differ, their aims and benefits are similar:

• Rapid deployment of a learning and performance management solutions
• Ability to adapt more quickly to business demands
• Low cost of entry
• Leaves responsibility to the vendor for all the hardware, software and techincal issues.
• Allows your business to focus on what matters.

Whilst the target market for OnDemand solutions appear to be SME’s, larger corporates are known to have taken up this option whilst experiencing significant change (e.g. mergers, lack of internal resources).