How can you avoid pitfalls using a gap analysis workforce planning model?

1 Pitfall 1: Not defining your scope and criteria

One of the first steps in conducting a gap analysis is to define your scope and criteria. This means deciding what aspects of your workforce you want to analyze, such as skills, competencies, roles, functions, or locations. You also need to establish the criteria for measuring the current and future state of your workforce, such as performance, productivity, quality, or customer satisfaction. Without a clear scope and criteria, you risk collecting irrelevant or inconsistent data, wasting time and resources, and missing key insights.

2 Pitfall 2: Not involving stakeholders and experts

Another important step in conducting a gap analysis is to involve stakeholders and experts. This means engaging with your managers, employees, customers, and external partners who have relevant knowledge and insights about your workforce and business needs. By involving them, you can gain a comprehensive and realistic perspective of your current and future workforce situation, validate your assumptions and data, and gain buy-in and support for your action plans. Without involving them, you risk overlooking important factors, facing resistance or misunderstanding, and losing credibility and trust.

3 Pitfall 3: Not using multiple sources and methods of data

A third pitfall to avoid when conducting a gap analysis is relying on a single source or method of data. This means using different types of data, such as quantitative and qualitative, internal and external, historical and forecasted, to assess your workforce gaps. You also need to use different methods of data collection and analysis, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, benchmarking, or scenario planning, to triangulate and validate your findings. Without using multiple sources and methods of data, you risk having incomplete or inaccurate information, making wrong or biased decisions, and missing opportunities or threats.

4 Pitfall 4: Not prioritizing and addressing your gaps

The final pitfall to avoid when conducting a gap analysis is not prioritizing and addressing your gaps. This means ranking your gaps based on their impact, urgency, and feasibility, and developing action plans to close them. You also need to assign roles and responsibilities, allocate resources and budgets, set timelines and milestones, and monitor and evaluate your progress and results. Without prioritizing and addressing your gaps, you risk losing focus and momentum, wasting resources and efforts, and failing to achieve your workforce and business goals.

Gap analysis is a powerful workforce planning model that can help you optimize your talent strategy and align it with your business strategy. However, to make the most of it, you need to avoid these four common pitfalls and follow the best practices of gap analysis. By doing so, you can ensure that you have the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time to support your organization's success.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?