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Talent gaps

Future skills are missing, key positions are hard to fill and critical knowledge sits with a few individuals.

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  • Siemens
  • Porsche
  • Bayer
  • BASF
  • Henkel
  • Sony
  • Metro Group
  • McDonald’s
  • E.ON
  • Dräger
  • Sennheiser
  • Schüco
  • WIKA
  • Currenta

Does this sound familiar?

Skills for the future are missing, key positions become a risk and business-critical knowledge sits with individual people.

Common questions from practice

  • Which tasks and roles will be critical to future success?

  • Which skills do you have, and where are gaps opening up?

  • What can you develop internally, and where do you need to hire?

Which capabilities does your strategy need – and how will you build, hire and pass them on?

An HR strategy starts with what the business needs. Competency profiles, job profiles and a strategic skills gap analysis help pin down that need. Recruitment, development and succession planning can then follow shared criteria.

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People transformation
Portrait of Kira Rempel
„Transformation succeeds when HR shapes the business rather than just administering it. transformis® develops HR into a business partner that gives the organisation strategic direction and enables the right people with the right skills to make an impact.“

Kira Rempel

Senior Consultant and Head of HR competence team

Lasting impact in your company

Make appointments and development transparent

Our services include aptitude assessment, talent management and development dialogues. Which we use depends on the role to be filled and the development brief. Beyond selecting individuals, what matters is how leadership and HR work together and how new capabilities can be put to use in everyday work.

Describe critical roles in concrete terms

Needs are derived from future tasks. Job profiles and shared criteria help assess existing skills. Current performance, development potential and the person’s own interests are considered separately before appointment decisions are made.

Link development with working conditions

Leadership and HR agree on suitable development steps. Applying new capabilities needs real tasks, feedback and enough room to make decisions. Where obstacles appear, the way work is organised is reviewed too.

Look at roles, people and development separately

Talent management starts with the strategically critical roles. Leadership and HR first describe their future tasks and requirements. They then assess which skills already exist, what potential people show for new tasks and where recruitment may be needed. Performance in a current role is not equated with development potential. A skills inventory, development dialogues and role requirement profiles can support this discussion. A people development audit adds the question of whether measures are tied to business goals and later transfer. The result is a prioritised decision on roles, development and appointments.

HR administration becomes future-proofing. Skills gaps become development paths. Talent becomes the power to renew.

Explore the topic further

Explore examples of our work and ideas for your own transformation.

Frequently asked questions

Who counts as a critical talent group?

People in roles that are especially important to the chosen strategy. Talent management therefore starts with these strategically critical roles: leadership and HR first describe their future tasks and requirements. Competency profiles, job profiles and a strategic skills gap analysis then define the need that recruitment, development and succession planning are aligned with.

Is high performance the same as potential?

No. Current performance in a role and the ability to learn new tasks are different things and are not treated as one. Performance, development potential and the person’s interests are considered separately before appointments are made. The transformis 360° feedback concept (2018) attributes 70 per cent of development to challenging tasks, 20 per cent to feedback and 10 per cent to training.

Which tools help with talent management?

Depending on the brief: a skills inventory, role requirement profiles, development dialogues and suitable aptitude assessment, chosen to fit the role and the development brief. A people development audit adds the question of whether measures are tied to business goals and to later transfer into daily work. The result is a prioritised decision on roles, development and appointments.

Does every skills gap have to be filled by hiring?

No. Development and a different way of organising work can also be the right answer. Leadership and HR agree on suitable development steps; applying new capabilities needs real tasks, feedback and enough room to make decisions. If obstacles appear along the way, the organisation of work is reviewed as well, not just the filling of individual posts.

How big is the gap between the skills you need and the skills you have?

A transformis study with East China Normal University (2015 survey of 218 German companies in China) compared how important 37 competencies were with how well they were met. On average, 78 per cent importance stood against 58 per cent fulfilment, with the biggest gaps in social and personal competencies. The figures apply to that period and sample, not to your company.

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Prefer to talk directly?

Or simply get in touch. We are happy to talk everything through in person – without obligation, in confidence and as equals.

Kira Rempel

Kira Rempel

Senior Consultant and Head of HR competence team

Your initial call

Let’s talk about your situation and what you want to develop in your organisation.

  • Your situation
  • What brings you to us
  • Possible next steps
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