When people in HR talk about the “Skills Gap” they are generally referring to people who will retire from an organization, taking valuable “skills” or “experience” with them. It is believed that the cohort of workers born from 1946 through 1960, a big “bulge” in the population, will start retiring soon, and there’s a lot of speculation on what that means.
It’s commonly believed that it will cost a lot to replace this loss. Replacing the lost skill or experience requires:
1) that the organization knows what knowledge or skill is required for the work
2) that it anticipates the loss of the worker
3) a process for capturing and passing along the knowledge\
4) that a new worker is selected who is suited for the knowledge
Running such processes is becoming a part of the parvenu of the “Training Department” and people are looking for best practices like mad.
In reviewing the presentations I have seen in the past year about wiki’s, podcasts, bulletin boards and threaded chat, it occurred to me that the replacement workerbees might benefit from some basic polish-up in their memory skills and reading skills. Afterall, what part of your organization’s workforce ever took a memory course? What part ever took a speedreading course. And who expects their memory or reading skills to get better just by using them? And is your golf game improving each time you play the game?
If you’re puzzled by the above, it’s worthwhile to take a look at these free pages from MindTools.
I recently checked-out some books from the library on speedreading techniques. Most offer a threefold improvement in speed and comprehension. Like your golf game, improvement takes time invested in doing some simple drills.
This falls in the category Steven Covey would call “Sharpening The Saw” except, as mastery learning skills, they really deserve to be called “Sharpening The Saw Sharpener.” I’m amazed at how much speed improvement comes with just a bit of practice.
Now for those rusty typing skills…
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