I tend to mention in my posts, fairly frequently, the importance of undertaking a skills audit of your staff and I would like to explain why. But first, what is a skills audit? A skills audit is an audit of the existing skills that your staff possess. This can be designed around for their current job, concentrate on their technical skills, or what I encourage is to identify what skills they bring with them from previous employment and what they want to develop. A skills audit enables you to see what hidden skills and talents, what natural bent your individual members of staff have.

Utilising a skills audit can negate the need to hire in that particular skill, and demonstrates a genuine interest in the experience and talents of your staff. It can reduce the cost of hiring in talent (recruitment + salary negotiation + onboarding + probation + shadowing + gaining experience of company) that by investing in a staff member with existing knowledge of the company brings with them (knowledge of opportunities/restrictions + understanding of direction of company + understanding of culture + loyalty (+ salary negotiation due to recognition of additional value being added/increase in responsibility) + ability to enter discussion with solid company background). Just be careful that you provide your staff member with the time and space to take on this new strand to their role as you want to avoid overwhelming them. This could be an opportunity to do a minor reorg and see what latent talents other employees have to fill any resulting gaps.

I will be transparent and say that bringing in fresh talent brings in fresh perspective and occasionally shaking up a company culture in a positive way can be a good thing, but this can also happen with an existing staff member who sees the opportunity to express ideas, who begins to think about their work in a different way as they are using a set of skills that has lay dormant. Think about it…if you find you share an interest with a friend that you hadn’t previously realised you had, what happens? You discuss new ideas, you find yourself bouyed up each time you see them, you begin to plan in ways in which you can explore these further with your friend, and these begin to impact on your day to day life. The same thing happens with your employee.

For more information on Maslow’s theory above, see: Hierarchy of Needs .

So, this is why skills audits bring value. If you look to your existing staff before speaking to your recruitment team, you have the potential to save money, implement new plans sooner, engage your staff and create positive company culture. It can also create internal growth as if you are giving an employee new responsibilities, you open up to the rest of the team the chance to take on some of that employees work they no longer have the time to do. Be fair to your employee… new responsibilities warrant a pay review after an agreed period of time and performance metrics…and while that is an increase in your expenditure, what value is it creating for the business overall? Does it open up new opportunities? Is there justification to take on a new employee to fill any gap that is not currently met by existing staff or to ensure workload remains evenly distributed?

In my opinion a skills audit should not just take technical skills into account, although I see this happening all too frequently. Look at soft skills also and take into account what your employees are interested in. This takes time, I grant you that, but the savings and benefits you get from investing this time will pay you again and again and again.

So how do you conduct a skills audit?

• Create a spreadsheet where you ask your staff what skills they currently are using, and what they have used in the past.
  • Get examples of how theses skills are/were being used so you have additional context. This provides you also with an idea of how experienced your staff member is and how confident they are in their ability.
• Next, ask what skills they would like to develop and what their plans are for their future careers.
  • Could these skills be developed and be of use to your business?

And:

• Have regular one to ones where you get to know your employees. Demonstrate an interest in what they do outside of work (without making it feel weird and intrusive – sometimes just asking if they had a good weekend and what did they do will provide you with a wealth of information).
• Encourage learning for personal as well as professional development – be interested in both
• Create psychological safety by encouraging ideas and opinions from your staff. Showing them you listen, encourages them to speak up again.

Keep your skills audit up to date by regularly checking in with your staff. One to ones are a great way to do this. Just as your business grows, so do your staff and unless you remain interested in them, new skills they develop will pass you by. And likewise, any opportunities you have for your staff to develop new skills or further develop existing ones will remain unrealised and you will have done your staff, and yourself, a disservice.

If you would like to discuss skills audits further, please contact me at fiona@kanyini.co.uk.

©Fiona Doney 2025