96% of organisations in a recent survey sponsored by John Matchett Limited said that assessment of skills and competency is important or very important, and 64% responded that they currently have a program in place.
This was most evident in The Netherlands, where 77% of the companies indicated that they had implemented a system. 68% of the firms contacted in France had a skills program in place. Only 25% of companies in the UK and Ireland had a system in place, although 63% stated that they thought a computerised system would add value to their organisations.
The survey, which was carried out by the European School of Management in Oxford, the ESCP-EAP, addressed its questions to four European markets: France, The Netherlands, England and Ireland. Organisations with 500+ employees were targeted, and interviews were carried out with senior HR personnel.
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The objectives of the questions were to determine the level of importance that a company considered skill and competency recognition and development of their current employees, how training needs were currently recognised and if the firm had already adopted a skills and competencies recognition programme, automated or otherwise.
The investigation revealed that in many cases companies did not keep adequate records of training and assessed skill levels. Often, only records of formal qualifications and training courses attended were kept, thus there were no indications as to whether these skills remained “fresh” or up-to-date. In many organisations, the intangible skills, such as man-management, were not usually monitored.
Findings differed greatly between public and private sectors. Even though organisations within the public sector stated that a computerised skills management system would add value, this did not necessarily translate into a willingness to purchase, due to budgetary constraints.
ENDS
December 2000
Notes for Editors: John Matchett Ltd offers SkillScape Competence Manager (SCM), the internet-based application that helps you to focus the skills of your employees on to the priority areas of your business. With SCM you can forecast, identify, classify, evaluate and analyse the skills, competencies and gaps in your workforce.
Elaine Priestley
