Increasing Capability and Skills in Your People
‘Development plans’, or lack of them, are one of the most often-cited reasons for good people to move on from a company and seek greener pastures. Capability and skills development are items that regularly fall to the bottom of the priority list, swamped by day-to-day concerns.
Yet good capability roadmaps deliver value for organisations as well as individuals. A highly skilled, versatile team that takes ownership of its contribution towards the profitability of the business is an asset that pays dividends to the bottom line every day.
But what does a good capability roadmap look like and how do you implement one?
Know your destination
What knowledge and skills does your team need in order to achieve maximum performance? What does an ideal capability and skills checklist look like?
Some thought starters to get you going:
- Do you need your teams to understand and apply shopper behaviour knowledge in strategy making?
- Gain a greater understanding of what makes retailers tick and how to negotiate?
- Is it best practice in-store marketing principles you need your people to apply?
- Do you need to standardise what ‘brand marketing’ actually means and ensure that your marketers know how to do it with excellence?
- Or does your focus need to be on processes and tools everyone can use for cross-functional communication and teamwork?
- Category or channel strategy know-how?
- Range, space, pricing and promotions analysis and reviews?
There are many areas for development (shameless self-plug here – Shopportunity has comprehensive capability roadmaps across the whole gamut of FMCG skill sets and departments, and also develops tailored programs from scratch. OK that’s done – ’nuff said). The challenge here is to prioritise which are the most important capabilities and skills first. Which leads to our next point.
Link your roads
Ultimately a successful capability roadmap needs a context rather than attempt to exist in isolation. It needs to be book-ended by your other programs and linked to any other training (external or internal) your people undertake.
It also needs to directly relate to performance KPIs and scorecards (or the KPIs and scorecards need to be updated to include content from the capability roadmap).
You will probably find, once you have prioritised which are the most important skills your team needs to have, that there are still a number of different areas. It may be that each of these areas needs its own roadmap, and these are all linked together in an ongoing program of learning.
Use signposts
Furthermore, within each area there are likely to be different levels – skill number 9 relies on knowledge about number 3 and so forth.
So a good roadmap will take a specific focus area and create learning for a team across a number of levels over time. For example:
- Introductory – an orientation and context to make sure the basics are covered (it’s surprising how many times they’re not because it’s always ‘assumed’)
- Core – the fundamental things people need to know
- Intermediate – the capabilities and skills required to move from ‘adequate’ to ‘competent’
- Advanced – higher level skills and thinking to move towards ‘excellence’
- Leading Edge – ahead of the curve thinking for maximum competitive advantage
Along the way, ‘signposts’ recognise achievement and knowledge gained. Signposts for each of the five levels can help participants acknowledge their own learning process. Checklists for each level can help them to revise and ensure they know how to apply everything they’ve learned. And, back to ‘link your roads’ – this needs to be reflected in KPIs and scorecards.
Avoid dead ends and one way streets
A good capability roadmap allows for maximum interaction and engagement. It offers a high degree of clarity about ‘the way we do things’, but it is not about ‘lecturing’. In fact, people that come in to your company with knowledge and skills gained elsewhere may also have contributions to make to the roadmap itself – so it becomes a two-way continuous improvement process for the company and the individual.
A clear capability roadmap also helps you avoid getting buried down rabbit warrens with your people. When you have already agreed on your destination, what the most important ‘big ticket’ items are to achieve your business goals and how to get there (the roadmap), you won’t be tempted to waste time, money and resources on learning programs and ‘pet projects’ that don’t achieve your strategic objectives.
Focus needs to always be on what will deliver maximum impact to the business.
Know what ‘getting there’ looks like
Signposts along the way are handy, but how do you know when you’ve reached your destination? You need a picture of what your destination looks like, and a way to measure and review on an ongoing basis that you are still there.
A good capability roadmap will include ‘pictures’ of success for future reference.
For more information about ShopAbility’s capability roadmap programs, contact Peter Huskins on 0412 574 793 peter@shop-ability.com for sales training programs, or Norrelle Goldring on 0411 735 190 norrelle@shop-ability.com for shopper marketing, brand marketing and insights training programs.
