The ability to produce Chris21 gap analysis reports is one of the key features of the Chris21 Training and L&D modules. These reports allow you to analyse your organisation’s training effectiveness by identifying gaps in employee training requirements. Simply put, Chris21 gap analysis reports will show any gaps between the skills required for a position and the incumbent’s current skill set.
Chris21 already includes a quite extensive training module which will allow you to enter training data and produce gap analysis reports. In Chris21 this report is called the Skills Comparison (SKR) report. Some example output from this report is shown below:
As you can see, the employee shown above has attained some of the skills that are required for this position but there are still many skills yet to be attained. With this information at hand, training can be targeted so that this employee can work towards attaining the remaining skills.
A further benefit of configuring your system this way is improved HR21 functionality. In HR21, gap analysis information is displayed so that employees can view their own gap analysis information. They can then apply to attend relevant training courses. On the other hand, employees can view other positions. For instance, an employee may be considering applying for a vacancy within the organisation. In HR21 employees can get the information about how their own skill set is matched to vacancies before applying.
Of course, the downside is that your Chris21 database needs to be correctly configured to be able to display this information. I say downside because it will take a significant amount of effort to configure this properly.
Steps to Configuring your Database for Chris21 Gap Analysis Reports
- Populate the Position Skills (PSK) form to include all of the skills required for each position in your organisation.
- Create either Course Skills (CSK) or Session Skills (CSS) records. These define all of the skills that will be attained when a course is successfully completed.
- Create Training History (TRH) records when employees have completed courses.
- Run the Update Skills (SKU) process to assign skills to employees.
You can read my blog Updating Skills in Chris21 Learning and Development for more information and help with the above steps.
While it will take some significant resources to ensure your database is correctly configured, you will reap the benefits when you run your Skills Comparison reports. Once you have this setup it is a straightforward process to update employee skill records. In fact this can be automated further by scheduling the Update Skills process to run automatically on a regular basis. For more information about scheduling reports see How to Schedule Reports in Chris21.
The good news is that ongoing maintenance will be minimal. Maintenance will only be required when you add new positions and new courses in Chris21. New positions will mean creating the associated Position Skills records, while for new courses you will have to enter new Course Skills of Session Skills records.
If you can find the time and resources to set your Chris21 database up this way you will find that you will be able to run very valuable and informative reports. Being in a position to run Chris21 gap analysis reports will give you an overall picture of how well your training delivery is meeting organisational needs.