West Lothian Council,
situated in the central belt of Scotland, administers what is predicted
to be its fastest growing area over the next 20 years. With it's booming
economy, West Lothian ranks as the 12th most enterprising area in
Britain.
In 2006, the Council won the top category of UK Council of the Year at
the Local Government Chronicle Awards. The competition, which received a
record number of entries from local authorities, highlights and
celebrates the work of the country's leading and most innovative
councils.
The Council is striving to be even more customer-focussed and
customer-friendly and is in the process of applying to be the first to
achieve all-council Chartermark, the national standard for excellence in
public services.
Most recently, the Council has been using York-based MyKnowledgeMap (MKM)
to analyse soft-skills. The tool helps to highlight skills gaps within
the organisation as a whole, for specific departments and individuals.
The bespoke, easy-to-use system developed and provided by MKM contributed
towards seeing it awarded the Institute of Customer Service 'Centre of
Excellence'.
Claire Frame, human resource advisor in the Council's Organisational
Development Service, has been overseeing the skills gap assessment at
West Lothian Council.
"Organisations such as ours face a growing challenge in evaluating the
skills and competencies needed to perform to maximum capability," she
says. "This tool is invaluable in identifying skills gaps to allow us to
manage relevant training and development to order to address these gaps."
The system is in effect an online profiling tool for identifying specific
competencies and knowledge areas (with both hard and soft skills)
important for each job role, and directing each individual to appropriate
development opportunities.
A portfolio section encourages employees to provide evidence of how they
have improved a knowledge or skill area so that that team leaders as well
as individuals can track progress.
"We have now introduced the system to operational departments as a means
of assessing the skills, knowledge and behaviours for staff in relation
to customer service and communication," says Claire.
"'Soft skills' development is not always the main focus for managers,
especially where their services are not external customer facing. However
the tool sets out the expectations we have for staff and even allows for
different targets depending on the role the individual has."
Claire sums the skills diagnostic software used by West Lothian as 'a
very powerful and important organisational development tool delivering
assessments that help take services and individuals forward'.
Implemented by professional, educational and governmental organisations
on over 20 different projects in recent years, its success has prompted
MKM to introduce an off-the-shelf variant of the skills gaps system:
called Capability Matrix, it is launched by MKM at London's HR Software
Show in June (2007).
Ends
