It's a truism to say that a lot is changing in the business world: We've got ongoing economic problems, Baby Boomers preparing to retire en masse, technological innovations, and the rise of the Net Generation and social media to name just a few salient factors that have an enormous impact on the way organizations do their work. And all of these factors are probably contributing to the skills gap in your organization.

So what's the skills gap? Basically it's the difference between what your organization wants to achieve and what it actually can achieve given its current capabilities. Its implications include hampering the performance and growth of your organization and, worse, harming the economy on a global scale.

A new Infoline from ASTD Press takes on the skills gap by providing a six-step action plan for managing that discrepancy between goals and capabilities. "Addressing the Skills Gap" summarizes much of the research that ASTD has done over the last seven years to identify the causes of the skills gap, which include economic conditions, changing jobs, Web 2.0 and the Net Generation, and the gap between educational attainment and the need for skills.

The skills gap action plan provided in the Infoline includes these six steps:

• Step 1. Understand the key strategies, goals, and metrics

• Step 2. Identify competencies that map to strategies and metrics

• Step 3. Assess the skills gap

• Step 4. Set goals and prioritize the path to filling gaps

• Step 5. Implement solutions

• Step 6. Monitor and measure results and communicate the impact.

To learn more about the skills gap and get case studies from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and IBM, check out "Addressing the Skills Gap", Infoline no. 251011.