TIME POOR STAFF GET OPPORTUNITY TO RAISE PRODUCTIVITY One-to-one training and consultancy to bridge skill gaps

TIME POOR STAFF GET OPPORTUNITY TO RAISE PRODUCTIVITY
One-to-one training and consultancy to bridge skill gaps

Lilley Information Systems is offering one-to-one training and independent consultancy for busy staff in financial services companies, to raise productivity that is being dragged down by skill gaps, as revealed in several surveys.

Research carried out by the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) on key findings from the National Employers Skills Survey, shows the main two skill gaps as Communication skills (56%) and Customer Handling (55%). Areas with a much higher than average skill gaps are; General IT User Skills (41%) and Office Administration Skills.

The commonly experienced IT to business communication gap is verified by the IT, Telecommunications and Contact Centres Sector part of the survey. This gives it the second worst communication skills gap out of all sectors, at 61% of respondents. Also, the Annual IT Skill Trends Review from The Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS) shows average pay for project management rose by nearly seven per cent. This indicates a shortage of project management skills.

"So financial services companies are faced with communication skill gaps internally and well as externally from IT suppliers, plus a lack of project management skills across the board," said Vic Lilley, Director of Lilley Information Systems, an independent training and consulting company. "This should make firms particularly cautious in managing offshore outsourcing, where the potential communication problems will be much higher."

The impact of skills gaps and hard-to-fill vacancies, given in the FSSC survey, includes; increased workload for other staff, increased operating costs, difficulties meeting customer service objectives and required quality standards, difficulties introducing new working practices, loss of business to competitors, delays developing new products or services, and increased pressure/stress/health problems for staff. While the main barriers to developing/maintaining a proficient team of staff, were lack of time and cover for training.

"I was told by the FSSC that there is a strong demand for one-to-one training because staff do not have the time to spend in group training," commented Lilley. "However, I think these needs may be best met by a combination of training and consultancy, because training alone may not be enough, because of time and risks factors. For example, training can be provided on-the-job, while consultancy is being carried out."

Lilley thinks that while basic communication skills, like listening, can improve productivity, these are ineffective if people do not have the information to communicate back, because of poor systems training and poor systems. He thinks that customer handling skills and office administration skills are similarly affected. For example, if systems are right and used properly, there will be fewer customers ringing or writing in with questions, so less customer handling and communication skills are required. "To improve communications the business needs to be understood properly in the first place. You can’t do this, for example, by seeing IT as something separate. The business must be seen as a whole, as a system. Otherwise the parts will not contribute optimally to the whole and you will lose potential productivity." "Systems thinking needs to be applied, not to just IT, but covering business and technical processes (manual and automatic procedures), technology, organisation and people."

"People need the skills to operate and change the business. This is at all levels, from the Managing Director down. The business should be understood as a system and properly documented. If it isn’t, the skills needed will be difficult to acquire, and the business will not be effective and efficient, and productivity will be poor. So our training and consultancy in systems will do much to bridge the skill gaps and raise productivity." Said Lilley.

For further information telphone Vic Lilley at Lilley Information Systems on +44 (0)20 8573 3911 or email vlilley@lilleyinfosys.co.uk.