Personnel review and skills audit

1. What are the current capabilities your workforce?
2. How well do your personnel perform?
3. How do you know how well they perform? (For example, you might have a system of KPIs and reviews.)
4. How effective is your system for managing personnel?
   • staff planning
   • recruitment and induction
   • training and professional development
   • career structures
   • succession management
   • staff retention
5. Do your staff have all the skills they need to do their current jobs?*
6. Are any staff under-employed? (I.e. that have higher level skills than they use in their jobs.)

* This is called a skills audit, and it is highly advisable. Its results will probably surprize you, because:

• Smaller organizations often muddle through with up to 80% of their staff being inadequately skilled.
• Many organizations to not bother to check their skills needs.
• Senior managers often don't know what skills their staff actually need for optimum performance.
• Many senior managers believe that they've got it right and go into deep denial.