CRITICAL SKILL MAPPING AND

TRAINING NEED
IDENTIFICATION

If the power to do hard work is not

a skill, it is the
best possible
substitute for it
James A Garfield

OBJECTIVES AND
LIMITATIONS
Critical skill mapping is the process of mapping

those critical skills which are necessary for an

employee to work efficiently for knowing the
needs of training and development of the
employees.
The primary objective of the study is to map the
critical skills of the employees and to identify the
training needs.
The main limitations are ;
- the period of the study
- the study is restricted to the employees
of sales department of the organization.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN

Descriptive research which includes

fact finding, enquiries of different kinds
using questionnaire etc.
SAMPLING UNIT
Lower and middle level employees
of sales department.
SAMPLE SIZE
120 employees

 TOOLS USED IN ANALYSIS

Percentage analysis is used to analyze the data. Pie

charts and tables are used to represent the analyzed
data.
SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION

Primary Data - Questionnaire

Secondary Data- Books, Journals, Internet etc
OPERATIONALIZATION OF CRITICAL SKILLS

The basic critical skills needed for sales employees

were classified into 8 categories and assigned symbols
as follows:
C-1 Technical skill, C-2 Business awareness, C-3
Customer orientation, C-4 Execution skills, C-5
Communication skill, C-6 Influencing ability, C-7
Tolerance to change and stress, C-8 Creative thinking.

FIVE POINT RATING SCALE

The ratings that the respondents had to

assign for the behavioral indicators of
different critical skills (C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4,
RATING
INTERPRETATION
C-5, C-6, C-7,
C-8) is
categorized as
1
Poor
follows:
2

Below average

Average

Above average

Excellent

 QUADRANT IMPLICATION
Categor
y of
Quadra
nts

Implication

Poor in that particular

critical skill (scored
minimum marks of 4)

Below average in that

particular critical skill
(scored 5 8 marks)

Average in that particular

critical skill (scored 9-12
marks)

Symbol

Above average in that

particular skill (scored 1316 marks)
Excellent in that particular
skill (scored 17-20 marks)

METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

There are 8 critical skills which are to be

analyzed. Under each category of skill four

behavioral indicators are given to measure
the performance of employees.
A five point rating scale was used to gather

the responses from the team leaders. The

ratings given for each behavioral indicator
by respondent is combined to get a total
score for each critical skill of the employee.

If a respondent gives rating of 1 to the entire

4 behavioral indicator of a particular skill, the

total score for that skill of the employee would
be 1* 4 = 4. Similarly, if a respondent gives
rating of 5 to all, then total score would be 5*
4 = 20. Therefore, if we calculate the total
scores given by each respondent for each
critical skill in the same manner, the scores
would vary from 4 to 20.
Based on the total marks obtained, the

employees are categorized into five quadrants

for each critical skill.

MAJOR FINDINGS
Out of the 8 critical skills, the performance of

employees is very weak in the case of execution skill

and tolerance to change and stress.
The performance employees are also not much
satisfactory in the case of influencing ability and
business awareness.
Compared to other sections of employees, sales officer
trainees lack all the critical skills at a higher rate.
In the case of sales officer trainee category, the
performance level is low for critical skills like creative
thinking, tolerance to change and stress and
influencing ability.
In the case of sales officer category, the performance
level is low for critical skills like tolerance to change
and stress, creative thinking and execution skill.

In the case of junior sales officer category, the

performance level is low for critical skills like

creative thinking, tolerance to change and
stress, and execution skill.
In the case of senior sales officer category, the
performance level is very much satisfactory for
all the critical skills.
Compared to other critical skills, the
performance level of senior sales officer
category is low for critical skills like creative
thinking and execution skill.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The critical skill mapping study reveals the

various skills of employees in which they are

expert or they are lacking. Special training
programme should be arranged for those critical
skills which majority of employees are lacking.
Provide separate training for employees who
coming under different designation
It is found from the study that the sales officer
trainees are lacking in various critical skills.
Thus special attention must be given to these
employees.
The mapping is done by the team leaders of the
department. Thus it should be shared with all
the employees so that they come to know about
their skill level and try to improve it.

There should be provision for sending the employees

outside the company for training programme.

All training modules should be evaluated at proper
time and this activity should be carried out regularly.
Training should be as per work requirement and
should be given at the right time.
More emphasis on soft skill training should be given
especially to improve their execution skill, stress
management and work life balance etc
Advance skill programme for personnel should be
conducted.
It must have equal proportion of technical and
managerial inputs.
More and more outside party and consultants should
be invited to improve the quality of inputs.

CONCLUSION
Critical skill mapping helps to improve the

quality of work of employees as well as their

capabilities and attitudes. As it has been found
out from the survey and its analysis that the
training programme in this department is
effective, still some weaknesses have been
discovered for which some suggestions have
been given. But most of the employees
demand that they should be given more soft
skill training, which can be applied in a more
practical way in their work. So step should be
taken towards it fulfillment.

The salespeople who have the most all

rounded ability across the spectrum are more

successful than people who have more highs
and lows. But having weaknesses is not the
problem, its being unaware of them or ignoring
them that leads to failure. So training should
be given in such a way to provide the most all
rounded ability across the spectrum by giving
equal weightage to all the critical factors which
help to improve the performance of the
employees.

thank you