How to draft a workplace skills plan
- Published on 26 Jun 2013
A workplace skills plan (WSP) is, according to the Services Seta website:
“…a strategic document that articulates how the employer is going to address the training and development needs in the workplace.”
Each employer must appoint a registered skills development facilitator who, with his skills development committee (SDC) will spearhead the process of developing your company’s WSP.
Develop your WSP in four simple steps
Step 1: Pin down what skills you already have in your organisation
The easiest way of doing this is to perform a skills audit, which essentially consists of documenting which skills you have in your business and determining which skills you still need.
There are a number of ways in which you can conduct a skills audit in your organisation, three of these being a:
1. Panel audit;
2. Consultant audit; and
3. One-on-one audit.
Panel audit: The panel, in a panel audit, is made up of managers, subject matter experts and HR experts. The audit is completed through discussion and is possibly the fairest method of completing an audit because it provides a well-rounded view of a particular company’s skills.
Consultant audit: During this type of audit, external consultants assess the skills in your company by interviewing both managers and employees.
One-on-one audit: This type of skills audit is similar to a performance appraisal where the person is rated against a pre-defined skills matrix and not his or her job description.
Step 2: Determine which skills you want to develop
In this step, you need to look at your company’s strategic development priorities and determine what the skills are which will allow you to fulfil these priorities.
Once you’ve done this, look at how best you can inject your organisation with the skills you require. For example, would it be best to send the employees you want to upskill on a specific course or would upskilling these employees merely consist of their line managers transferring the required skills to them?
Step 3: Decide how you are going to develop these skills
Jeff Sacht, in Guidelines for preparing a workplace skills plan, suggests performing this step by making a table similar to the one below:
In column 1, list all the occupational groups you have in your organisation. There are nine major occupational groups in the country:
In column 2, next to each occupational group, list the occupations you have – in your organisation – within a particular group.
For example, the professions under group 4 are bookkeepers, data capture clerks, accounts clerks, tax clerks, secretarial staff and typists, receptionists, cashiers/tellers, switchboard operators, administrative assistants, administrative clerks, filing clerks, post room clerks, printing assistants. So if you had any of the professions listed under group 4 in your company you would list these in column 2.
In column 3, detail how you will impart the skills to the employees in each of the occupations listed under column 2. For example:
- Will you need to give them a certain set of knowledge which does not currently exist in the business?
- Will you need to upskill them with certain skills which they currently do not have?
- Will you need to re-skill them with a different set of skills?
- Will you need to give them another set of skills so that they can provide multiple skills in your business?
- Do your employees need refresher training in the skills they currently use in their daily jobs?
- Do you have new employees who need initial training?
In column 4, you will list how you will ensure that your employees get the training they need. For example, you need to specify:
- How many employees will receive the training;
- If the training will be conducted in-house or externally, informally or formally;
- What the cost of the envisaged training will be.
NB: Make sure that you also indicate the number of disabled employees who will receive training as well as any difficulties you anticipate in undertaking the planned education and training.
