How to Identify Skills Gaps Before Corporate Training

Abstract:

Skills gaps are one of the biggest challenges facing Ontario organizations today. Statistics Canada reports that over half of Canadian employers say their workforce is not fully proficient in the skills needed for their jobs, gaps that span both technical expertise and soft skills like communication, leadership, and problem-solving.

This blog outlines why identifying skills gaps before training investments is essential, offering HR teams a step-by-step framework, practical tools, and the importance of follow-up assessments. It also highlights how BEVA Global Management consulting-led approach, combining diagnostic assessments, tailored training, and bilingual delivery, ensures that organizations can close these critical gaps to build a workforce that is resilient, future-ready, and strategically aligned.

In today’s rapidly evolving economy, no organization is immune to skills gaps. Whether it’s a leadership team struggling to manage hybrid workforces, employees adapting to new technologies, or managers needing stronger communication skills, the distance between what employees are equipped to do and what organizations need them to do is growing.

Skills gaps indeed present a real threat to competitiveness. However, they also represent an opportunity. With the right approach, your organization can turn these gaps into strategic roadmaps for growth. The key lies in identifying them clearly before investing time, effort, and money into corporate training. The overall outcome of a strategic approach will be a better use of your resources on programs that deliver measurable results.

This blog will guide HR teams and business leaders through:

Why identifying skills gaps matters and the risks of ignoring them.

A step-by-step framework for uncovering workforce development needs.

The importance of follow-up assessments to track progress.

The tools and resources that make skills gap analysis effective.

And finally, why partnering with BEVA Global Management ensures your training initiatives are not only targeted but also transformational.

The most important message you will get from this in-depth article is that, beyond an HR exercise, identifying skills gaps is a business-critical process that shapes organizational resilience, talent retention, and long-term success.

Why Identifying Skills Gaps Matters

Failing to identify skills gaps before rolling out training is like navigating a ship without a map. You might move along the waters, but it’s unlikely you’ll reach the desired destination. Without a clear picture of where skills are lacking, investments in training can be misaligned, with resources spent on low-impact areas while critical gaps remain unaddressed.

According to Statistics Canada’s Survey of Employers on Workers’ Skills (SEWS), 2021, more than 56.1% of Canadian businesses reported that their workforce was not fully proficient in performing their jobs at the required level. Among those reporting gaps, technical, practical, or job-specific skills topped the list of skills that needed the most improvement (57.5%), followed by problem-solving (46.2%).

Here are some of the tangible risks and costs of ignoring these gaps:

Reduced Productivity: When employees lack necessary skills, tasks take longer, quality suffers, and inefficiencies multiply.

Lower Employee Morale and Retention: Employees who feel unsupported or ill-equipped are more likely to become disengaged or leave.

Higher Recruitment Costs: If internal talent does not have the required skills, companies must hire externally, often at a higher cost.

Misaligned Training Investment: Without knowing what skills are missing, organizations may invest in trendy or generic training rather than what’s strategically needed.

Skills gaps are a reality for more than half of Canadian businesses, and ignoring them can lead to lost productivity, disengaged employees, and wasted training investments. For HR leaders and executives, the question isn’t whether gaps exist; it’s how to identify them effectively. In the next section, we’ll explore a step-by-step guide for HR teams to uncover and prioritize skills gaps, along with the tools and resources organizations can use to make the process more strategic and data driven.

Step-by-Step Guide for HR Teams

Identifying skills gaps doesn’t have to be an overwhelming undertaking. By following a structured process, your HR team can ensure its training investments address the right needs at the right time.

Here’s a practical roadmap:

Step 1: Collect Employee Feedback Through Surveys and Self-Assessments

Employees are often the first to recognize when they lack confidence in a particular skill. Anonymous surveys and self-assessments can identify areas where staff feel underprepared, whether that’s public speaking, data analysis, or leadership.

At BEVA®, our training approach doesn’t start with a course catalogue; it starts with understanding your organization’s unique needs. Every engagement begins with a diagnostic assessment to identify the real skills gaps that matter. BEVA’s consultants and facilitators then work with your HR teams and leaders to align training with business priorities, culture, and workforce development goals.

Step 2: Use Manager and Peer Evaluations

Managers and peers provide a different perspective than employees themselves. Performance reviews, 360-degree feedback, and peer evaluations can highlight blind spots. For example, an employee may believe they collaborate well within their team, but peers may flag instances and patterns of communication breakdowns.

BEVA® integrates manager and peer perspectives into its assessments, ensuring that feedback reflects real workplace dynamics. With this insight, BEVA® designs customized training programs, such as Conflict Management or Team Building for Managers, to directly address these challenges.

Step 3: Align Identified Gaps with Business Objectives

Not all skills gaps carry equal weight. HR teams should prioritize those that most directly impact performance and competitiveness. For example, if your company is investing in digital transformation, emerging technology skills such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, or Information Security may be critical to building long-term resilience.

BEVA’s consulting team works with leadership to align each training initiative, with business goals. This ensures that training programs deliver measurable outcomes, improve decision-making, and future-proof your workforce.

Step 4: Benchmark Against Industry Standards

Comparing internal skills to industry standards helps organizations see where they stand relative to competitors. Professional associations, government data, and consulting partners can provide benchmarks in areas like leadership readiness, technical proficiency, or customer service quality.

With decades of consulting experience, BEVA® benchmarks client organizations against industry best practices and global standards. This allows training solutions to not only close internal skill gaps but also position organizations to compete effectively in their sector.

Step 5: Build a Training Roadmap

Once key priorities are identified, your HR team can design a roadmap that combines short-term learning with long-term development. This plan should mix live sessions with self-study courses that allow employees to learn at their own speed while maintaining productivity.

Through the BEVA Learning Institute, organizations can access flexible programs, all of which are internationally recognized and available online. These courses are ideal for employees seeking globally relevant credentials without disrupting their work schedules.

BEVA’s team supports organizations in building blended learning journeys that combine immediate impact with sustainable growth, creating a culture of continuous learning.

The Importance of Follow-Up Assessments

Identifying skills gaps and providing training is only half the journey. What follows next? The other half is ensuring that your employees are applying what they have learned and that your organization sees measurable results. This is where follow-up assessments play a critical role.

Effective follow-up mechanisms can include:

Post-training surveys and quizzes to measure knowledge retention.

Performance reviews that focus on whether employees are applying their new skills on the job.

Manager feedback loops to assess improvements in areas like communication, collaboration, or leadership presence.

Ongoing skills assessments to track development over time and identify emerging gaps.

By scheduling follow-ups at intervals (e.g., 30, 60, 90 days after training), HR teams can evaluate the sustained impact of training outcomes and make adjustments if needed.

Turning Skills Gap Insights into Lasting Results

Identifying skills gaps is a strategic investment in organizational performance. By following a structured approach that includes employee feedback, manager evaluations, alignment with business objectives, benchmarking, and roadmap creation, organizations can target the skills that matter most. BEVA’s consulting-led approach brings these elements together into a continuous improvement cycle. From diagnostic assessments to tailored training programs and structured follow-ups, we ensure that Ontario organizations build a workforce that is resilient, future-ready, and aligned with strategic goals. In the next section, we’ll explore Tools and Resources for Skills Gap Analysis, the platforms, metrics, and methods HR teams can use to make this process even more effective.

Tools and Resources for Skills Gap Analysis

While the step-by-step guide explains how HR teams can identify skills gaps, the right tools and systems make the process more accurate, scalable, and data-driven. These platforms and resources are not training providers themselves, but can support your HR teams in collecting and analyzing the data needed to make decisions that are better for your workforce. BEVA® then builds on these insights to design and deliver training that closes the identified gaps.

1. Digital Skills Assessment Platforms

Specialized platforms allow organizations to evaluate employee competencies directly through quizzes, simulations, and scenario-based exercises. These tools provide objective benchmarks instead of relying only on self-reported data, making them an essential first step in identifying skills gaps.

Examples of supportive platforms:

LinkedIn Skill Assessments – Quick, standardized tests that allow employees to demonstrate proficiency in technical and soft skills.

LinkedIn Learning Skill Evaluations – Self-evaluation modules that help employees gauge confidence levels across various skills.

TalentGuard Talent Assessments – A platform offering skills mapping, assessment tools, and analytics to identify gaps and recommend development paths.

2. HR and Talent Analytics Dashboards

Analytics dashboards built into HRIS or talent management systems give organizations visibility into trends such as productivity, turnover, and engagement, all of which may highlight underlying skills gaps. These dashboards provide useful data, but to truly drive change, they need strategic interpretation.

Examples of supportive platforms:

BambooHR – Provides workforce analytics and performance tracking.

Workday – Offers advanced HR insights, including talent and performance data.

ADP Workforce Now – Delivers analytics on employee performance, payroll, and retention.

3. Learning Management Systems (LMS) with Tracking

An LMS not only delivers training but also tracks progress, completion, and post-training performance. While these systems provide valuable analytics on learner engagement, they don’t replace the need for customized program design and alignment with business strategy.

Examples of widely used LMS platforms:

Moodle – An open-source LMS that enables customizable course delivery and tracking.

SAP SuccessFactors – A cloud-based solution offering learning management integrated with HR data.

TalentLMS – A user-friendly LMS designed for small and medium-sized organizations.

4. Consultant-Led Benchmarking Reports

External benchmarking reports provide context by comparing an organization’s workforce capabilities against industry standards and best practices. While firms like Gartner or Mercer can offer global data, local partners are better positioned to contextualize those insights for Ontario’s business environment.

Examples of global benchmarking providers:

Gartner – Offers workforce and skills benchmarking across industries.

Mercer – Provides HR consulting, including talent and skills benchmarking studies.

5. Continuous Feedback Loops

One-time assessments are not enough. Pulse surveys, micro-assessments, and regular check-ins create continuous feedback loops that monitor whether your employees are applying new skills and progressing over time.

Examples of platforms that enable this:

Culture Amp – Specializes in employee engagement and feedback tools.

Qualtrics – Offers advanced survey and feedback analytics for HR teams.

Turning Data into Action

These tools are valuable enablers; they help organizations collect data on skills gaps, but they are not designed to close those gaps. This is where BEVA Global Management adds unique value. Every training engagement begins with a diagnostic assessment that draws from employee surveys, HR data, benchmarking insights, and feedback loops. We use the insights gained from the assessment to develop customized bilingual training programs aligned with organizational strategy. Our goal is to ensure that insights delivered by these tools translate into lasting results.

Closing Skills Gaps with Confidence

Skills gaps are inevitable in today’s fast-changing workplace, but they don’t have to hold your organization back from achieving its full potential. By recognizing why these gaps matter, following a structured approach to identify them, using the right tools to gather data, and implementing follow-up assessments, your HR team can transform skills gap analysis into a strategic advantage.

The exercise and the detailed process involved will strengthen individual employee performance, but more than that, it will help your organization build stronger teams, improve talent retention, and remain competitive in a market that demands adaptability and continuous improvement.

This is where BEVA Global Management stands apart. Unlike generic training providers or stand-alone software platforms, BEVA® combines the rigour of management consulting with the breadth of corporate training. With meticulous diagnostic assessments that uncover the skills that matter most, we develop tailored, bilingual training courses to fit within the framework of your organizational goals. With over 700 courses spanning leadership, communication, project management, data analytics, AI, cybersecurity and more, BEVA® ensures your training programs deliver the maximum return on investment.

Choosing BEVA® means choosing a partner that offers a slew of courses aimed at promoting a continuous improvement cycle. From gap analysis and benchmarking to training delivery and post-program follow-ups, BEVA® helps Ontario organizations close gaps and build a workforce that is resilient, future-ready, and aligned with long-term strategy.

Contact BEVA Global Management today to discover how tailored training and consulting can help your organization identify and close critical skills gaps.

Resources:

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/18-001-x/18-001-x2022002-eng.htm

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221003/dq221003d-eng.htm

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a507663/linkedin-skill-assessments?lang=en

https://www.linkedin.com/help/learning/answer/a1406059

https://www.talentguard.com/platform/talent-assessments

https://www.bamboohr.com/

https://www.workday.com/

https://www.adp.ca/en/what-we-offer/products/adp-workforce-now.aspx

https://moodle.org/

https://www.sap.com/products/hcm.html

https://www.talentlms.com/