In today’s job market, consisting of highly skilled and experienced  professionals, hiring an individual with a specific skill set is very easy. The challenge comes when hiring needs to be done in a manner that is in accordance with the pre-existing skill set of the organisation and the teams within.  According to the Global Talent Trends by Linkedin in 2019, 57% of companies struggle to assess soft skills accurately and 92% of talent professionals say soft skills matter as much or more than hard skills when they hire.

So, how can organisations hire exactly what they need? They can use a talent dashboard!

What is a Talent Dashboard?

 A Talent Dashboard is a simple tool you can use to track the existing skill set in your organisation/ team. It is a fairly easy and visual guide which does not require any extra effort to make. An example outlining the steps required in creating a talent dashboard  from Harvard Business Review is as follows:

Following this example human resources and administrative staff can apply the same before they begin the hiring process. This process will help them identify what they need before the need ever arises, thereby instilling proactiveness in their hiring.

They can start by creating a list of the skills needed in the particular job/organisation, map out which ones and in what quantities they already have them and then figure out which skills the organization lacks and hire accordingly. 

How does it help?

• Neatly arranging the skill pool of an organisation helps not just the human resources team but also the organisation as a whole to figure out which areas they are lacking in or have loopholes in and which area of their business requires more attention.

•  It also helps in avoiding over staffing or having too many people with the same skill set assigned to one job. 

• It is a tool that can be used in both proactive and reactive hiring and can be used  regardless of the size of  the organisation, from startups to big organisations, anyone can prepare such basic data and analyse it to maximise  the productivity and profitability of their organisation.

•  This method works better than having to individually troubleshoot teams in an organisation and wait for team/project leaders to create a demand for a  specific skill and then begin the process of hiring. 

• It also allows the organisation to track and maintain its balance in not just hiring areas but can have applications in areas like Diversity, Equality and Inclusion as well, which are matters of rising concern.

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