“Why?” can be a hard question. I can’t count how many times an organization has asked for assistance with competency gap analysis, but when asked why, they don’t have a clearly defined vision for what they’re ultimately trying to achieve.

Competency gap analysis can be a powerful resource if approached with intention. This tool determines employees’ current levels of proficiency in job-related competencies and compares these assessments to an established or required proficiency level. Results can inform workforce planning initiatives and training priorities and give context to performance perceptions. They may also be used to provide developmental feedback.

The approach used to identify and collect competency gap data depends largely on gap analysis goals and involves careful planning and navigating complex decision points. Consider the following scenarios:

• Identifying Workforce Gaps in Cross-Cutting Competencies. An organization is interested in identifying common competency gaps that are both important for meeting overall objectives and relevant across occupations and career levels. It intends to use the results to develop an organization-wide training strategy and prioritize centralized investment in training to help address its most prevalent needs.

• Leadership Development and Succession Planning. An organization is focused on preparing the future generation of leaders. It wants to understand where gaps exist in important leadership competencies among its aspiring leader cadre. The results will help inform curriculum changes for its leadership development program and provide aspiring leaders with individualized feedback to shape their development plans.

• Keeping Pace With Changing Requirements. An organization believes that its cybersecurity professionals are not keeping pace with rapidly changing technology. It wants to understand the required levels of proficiency for emerging cybersecurity skills and the extent of their skill gaps at the entry, mid, and senior career levels. Developing training plans for each career level will help its cybersecurity professionals keep pace with changing technology and increased proficiency requirements as they progress in their careers. The organization also intends to use results to ensure they are recruiting and selecting cybersecurity professionals with the required emerging skills.

These are just three examples. Each involves gap assessment, but for different uses. The goals and intended outcomes described in each of these scenarios will drive decisions around the target population, what to measure, level of analysis, and how results are reported. Here are a few key questions to help think through how the “why?” might affect your assessment approach:

• What is the target population for the gap analysis? If the population is a small subset, such as employees in a particular occupation or role, the assessment could focus on specific technical competencies and identify nuanced training and development needs. Assessing gaps across an entire workforce might necessitate focus on a common set of competencies and identify cross-cutting training and development needs.

• Do you need to assess gaps in all relevant competencies or a targeted subset? Focusing on a targeted subset of competencies can help an organization focus on anticipated proficiency gaps or where gaps have serious organizational consequences. A targeted approach, however, risks missing important or unexpected gaps.

• Are you interested in understanding proficiency at the broader competency level or for more specific skills? If the intent is to use gap analysis results for broader workforce and succession planning purposes, assessing proficiency at the competency level may be most appropriate. Alternatively, focusing on specific skills that demonstrate the application of each competency can provide information for designing skill-based training to close gaps.

• Do you need to understand proficiency differences for each career level? Assessing gaps by career level (for example, early career to senior expert) can support development of career-level training plans or career maps. Identifying gaps across career levels can also offer a snapshot of employees’ proficiency gaps to support broader training or hiring strategies.

• Will results be reported in aggregate or at an individual level? Aggregate results are appropriate for most gap analysis efforts; however, discrete results can be useful for individual development, contributing to employee-supervisor discussions and individual development plans. It’s important to have a plan in place for managing individual information, including communication, distribution, and application of results.

Having a clear understanding of how you plan to use gap analysis results is crucial for developing an assessment approach that produces results to support desired outcomes. The next time you’re planning a gap analysis, start by answering “why?”