Once you know the skills you have and have defined your framework for the skills you need, it’s time to bridge the gap. The knee-jerk response might be to start placing job ads, but let’s pause for a moment. Have you really made the most of the talent you already have?

Ensuring that your existing talent is able to fully utilize all of their current skills and develop their careers is a huge driver of employee engagement and business performance. It also matters for employee retention. In fact, three out of four high-potential workers say they would be attracted to a new job in a different organization if it offered better career development opportunities or enabled them to fully utilize their skills. (IBM Smarter Workforce)

Even when organizations recognize that clear career progression paths and successful job transitions are integral to business success, the reality is that most workers are left to their own devices to find new opportunities. While high-performing employees may be singled out for development opportunities, career coaching has historically been an extremely high-touch, human-driven process with a lack of tangible results.

According to a survey by the IBM Smarter Workforce Institute and UNLEASH one of the common barriers to greater internal mobility is employees’ lack of career information, either due to low visibility of potential opportunities, or no encouragement to pursue them. And while 79% of HR professionals believe internal mobility is important to their talent management strategy, only 30% are satisfied with their ability to meet goals in this area. This is where technology can help.

SkillDirector includes standard competency models with the Self-Directed Learning Engine that empowers users to perform career scenario planning they control. That is, they can see which roles have the best fit, and be presented with personalized learning to help them prepare for those roles. Users can even select those characteristics that describe what they do well and what they enjoy to find out what roles they should explore, even those they may not have considered. What if your skills make you a great fit for a career in sales, but you always thought of yourself as an HR person? With SkillDirector, you’ll know.