Identifying your Human Resources Development requirement (basic level).

This tool aims to help you identify the basic level of Human Resource Development to help you start planning to make your organisation more sustainable.

Step 1

Identify all the jobs, roles and activities required from people in your organisation or business to make it function, such as making & delivering the product or service, selling to the market, managing finance etc.

Step 2

A job or role is made up of a number of key tasks. For each role write a bullet point list of what tasks the job entails. Remember to keep it simple and focus on key tasks rather than detail.

Step 4

Compare tasks the enterprise requires with tasks that people can perform. Some organisations carry out a skills audit to inform this process. 
 

The areas that cannot be currently met, or cannot be realistically met because people do not have enough time to do all of the tasks they match are your human resources development requirement.

A grid like the one below can be used to map out the existing capacity and identify gaps. Put all the team's initials in a column under the “people” heading. Tick off in each person's column the jobs or roles they perform.

For each person's job or role, tick off the tasks they are able to perform.

Step 5

Decide how to meet the requirement.

If there are any jobs that are not allocated, this may indicate a need to recruit or buy in the expertise (e.g. accountant to do year end). In some cases a member of the team may be interested in upskilling to take on the task.

If there are tasks that are not ticked off, you may decide to upskill the person whose job it is. Alternatively another team member may be able to share that task, or you may be able to buy in a complementary service (using an accountant to complete the year end is a good example).  The frequency with which someone carries out a task and the cost of buying it in can be compared to the cost of training & development to inform your decision.  Consider also the added benefits of having those skills in your team.  Do they offer opportunities?

If you decide to upskill, what skills or knowledge does the person need to develop to be able to carry out the task?

How can they develop those skills? Consider

• Training courses or workshops
• Self directed learning (e.g. reading on the internet)
• Experimentation (Note it is advised to assess the risk entailed)
• “Sitting next to Nelly” I.e. learning from someone else who does the job
• Mentoring
• Advice from a support organisation
• A manual/written procedure

Job/role	Task or activity	People				Development requirement: Skills/knowledge required (which and for who) / Recruit / Buy in.
		initials	initials	initials	initials