Problem Solving Methods
Part 1: Skills inventory
Part One: Describe five skills that should be addressed.
In this section, list and describe five skills that you think the company should address to solve the skills gap problem. Be sure to refer to your readings to inform your choices.
Answer the following questions for each of your selected skills:
- Why is this skill important?
- What problem does this skill address? For FirmX, what are some potential consequences of not learning this skill?
Skill 1:
| Innovativeness |
Skill 2:
| Proficiency with a point of sales system |
Skill 3:
| Diverse perspectives |
Skill 4:
| High creativity |
Skill 5:
| Efficient soft communication skills |
Part Two: Explain the different ways that other companies are using data or best practices to address the problem.
In this section, describe specific ways that other companies are addressing skills gaps, referring to your readings.
Answer the following questions in your responses:
- What are two different ways we can train employees on this skill?
- How are other companies attempting to fill this skill gap?
Skill 1:
| The first way to train employees on innovative skills is to promote trust. The second way is empowering the employee to make their own decision without being intimidated or fear (Aghion et al., 2017). Other companies have attempted to fill this gap by reducing the layers that employees have to go through for their ideas to be approved and also letting employees participate in decision making. |
Skill 2:
| The first way is training staff directly on the new online POS so that they can gain hands-on experience. The second way is for the company to provide a benchmark where employees can observe how the system is being used for them to gain proficiency in using the new POS system. Another company approach to this skill gap is giving employee enough time to acclimate by offering enough training time. |
Skill 3:
| One way of instilling diverse perspective skill in employees is through establishing diversity and inclusion training program where different skills are endowed (Barak, 2016). Another way is customizing diversity and inclusion training to the company to suit the specific company. Other companies fill this gap by making it a part of the company’s onboarding process and mission statement. |
Skill 4:
| One way is for the company to stress the importance of creativity for the businesses, and another way is training staff on creative problem-solving such as brainstorming, mind-mapping and lateral thinking. Other companies fill this gap by challenging the way teams to work by encouraging them to look for a new approach. |
Skill 5:
| One way of developing soft communication skills in employees by creating awareness of soft communication skills in customer communication and allowing employees to have a self-reflection and identify the soft skills that they lack (Cao, 2016). Other companies’ approach is conducting an on-sight training on soft communication skills. |
Part Three: Rank the five skills in order of complexity, explaining the reasons why.
In this section, rank the five skills you selected in part one to solve the skills gap problem. List them from the most difficult to learn and measure to the least difficult. Be sure to refer to your readings to inform your answers.
Answer the following questions in your response:
- How easy is it to measure this skill?
- How long will it take for employees to learn this skill?
| 1. Diverse perspective skills. It can take months to obliterate the discriminatory behaviours of employees, as some are inherent. 2. Innovativeness skills. Instilling innovation in employees takes time as it involves altering organizational structures. 3. Creativity skills. Gaining a creative workforce requires altering the culture and mindset that has been adopted in the company. 4. Soft communication. These are the easiest to attain since employees who lack them can be recognized and taken through a training program where they gain these skills. |
Part 2: Email Response
I encountered a similar problem-solving experience in my profession as I was hired to solve the same problem in an electronic firm that had dominated the industry as automated manufacture over the years and could not compete favourably with emerging companies. The emerging companies had better technologies and also efficient supply chain management that this company lacked, and also the company could not meet the changing customer preference for quick delivery. The approach that I gave to this company was that it should reposition itself in the market given that its numerous years of being electronic manufacture had endowed to it the technical know-how of electronic designing. Hence, my first suggestion was the company to reposition and shift into electronic designing instead of manufacturing. Another idea was for the company to reinvent itself and adopt the current technology to scale up its production and also to train its staffs on the modern processes of production. Modernizing its facility and training its employees to embrace the current method of production and even supply chain management was the best solution to the problem as it granted to this company competitive trait which it could utilize to remain relevant in the industry.
My preference for teaching new skills does match the strategies that other companies are using to reinvent themselves to the current industrial production and customer demand. A similar approach of training employees to be innovative is used since across each sector of various industries companies are embracing the current method of doing business with just minimal difference. The idea of filling the gap of lack of innovativeness by reducing the layers of communication and bureaucracy in an organization is an alternative approach that I can consider in imparting innovative skills to employees. The second approach of filling a lack of proficiency in the new POS system by giving employees enough time to acclimate their skills is a considerate step that I would also embrace. The third approach of other companies ensuring their they gain diverse perspective skills on their employees through making diversity a requirement during their onboarding process is another recommendable approach to take that given the result that it brings. The last two methods that other companies take in filling the gap of creativity and soft communication skills by encouraging employees to look for a new approach and conducting on-sight training are recommendable courses to pursue in fixing the challenges in company X.
Amongst the five skills, the ones that are most relevant to me are soft skill communication and innovation. Gaining efficiency in smooth skill communication is essential as it encompasses all the skills that are needed handling a diverse customer base. Soft skills will address the issue of serving culturally diverse customers as it will bestow personal touch to employees enabling them to reflect these attributes to the customer experience that they create. Through soft skills, customer service providers will show compassion and understanding to the diverse customers and be able to relate to them in a personal way. Innovation, on the other hand, will allow employees to adopt new operation techniques and embrace new technologies efficiently. It will also encourage new ideas sprouting in the company. Hence, I would improve customer delivery by ensuring that employees have been trained and are equipped with soft skills to address customer need and create a unique customer experience that will draw customers back to the company. The least approach that I would focus on is instilling proficiency in the new POS system in the workforce. Innovation allows technology to be embraced and undertaking another program that would address proficiency of using technology would be a waste of time and resources.
References
Aghion, P., Bergeaud, A., Blundell, R., Griffith, R., & Market, A. B. L. (2017). The innovation premium to low skill jobs. Unpublished manuscript.
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.
Cao, Z. (2016, July). Discussion of Effect of Training Programs on Improving Employees’ Communication Skills-from the Perspective of Intercultural Communication. In 2016 International Conference on Economics and Management Innovations. Atlantis Press.