How Can We Effectively Plan Skill Upgrades for Our Production Supervisors? Urgent Help Needed

Hi all,

I need an urgent suggestion from you. We are an Auto Ancillary company, wherein we are in the process of upgrading the skills of the Production Supervisors, enhancing their management skills, etc. We have conducted a written test for all the supervisors and graded them. Now, we need to analyze the gaps and create a plan.

Please assist me in preparing the action plan for the same. It's very urgent, and I need help.

Thanks & Regards,
Sudipta

Dear Friend,

Please clarify the following so that I can suggest something:

On what aspect did you test your production supervisor?
How did you grade them?
What exactly is your requirement from the exercise?

Thank you.

Hi,

Skill gap analysis is an activity where you should tabulate the required skills on all three fronts - Technical, managerial, and Behavioral parts for each position. Then, compare the required skills with the skills each individual possesses (rated on a 1 to 5 scale). Once this analysis is complete and you have a clear picture of the skill gaps, discuss with the Head of Department (HOD) to identify training needs, prepare a training calendar, communicate it, and organize the training sessions. It is important to follow up on a monthly basis to track the progress of employees, monitor their learning, and improvement in related skills. The faster an employee learns, the quicker the skill gap diminishes, making them a more skilled employee ready for higher responsibilities.

Thanks and regards,
Kameswarao

Dear Chandru,

We are actually finding out at what level they are presently. Gave some general questionnaires to check whether they are aware of their JD, behavior of the operators and seniors with them, and how cooperative they are. Also, we are assessing how they handle critical situations, etc. Even then, we found out that most of them are unaware of the situation or scared of giving realistic answers.

We are conducting the process to upgrade or degrade them. What should be done next is my question.

Thanks and Regards,
Sudipta

You will get vague answers for such exercises. Please frame the questions where you can get clear answers. For example, for a job profile, questions can be framed like: Do you have a written job profile? When was it last updated?

To counter the feeling of fear, employees need to be communicated on the purpose of this exercise and its benefits to them.

Not able to understand "upgrade or degrade them." Skill gap analysis is a training and learning initiative. For upgrading or degrading, you need to use a performance management tool.

Written tests would cover only the knowledge part of the competency. Have you measured the skill/competency level of your supervisors in the previous year? If so, compare the present level of skill with the previous year. You have to determine various levels to assess these gaps.

Regards,
Shijit.

Other than this, have you tried to gauge their attitudinal quotient? How do they approach their job? How invested are they? How much sincerity have you been able to capture in their hearts? Because it's the heart over the head that can work wonders.

PM