Skills gaps are quietly holding many companies back in 2026. In fact, a recent McKinsey HR Monitor 2025 survey found that only 30% of companies believe their employees have the skills needed to meet evolving business goals.
So, why do so many teams struggle despite hiring more staff or investing in new tools? The answer usually lies in missing skills, such as critical abilities, that are overlooked until problems become obvious.
In this post, you’ll learn how to spot skill gaps before they hurt productivity, slow growth, or derail business performance, and what to do once you identify them.
What Are Skills Gaps
Skills gaps are the difference between what your employees can do today and what your business needs them to do to hit its goals. If your strategy requires data-driven decisions, but your team cannot analyse reports or dashboards, that is a skills gap.
When these gaps are ignored, the impact shows up fast. Work takes longer than it should. Over time, strong employees burn out because too much depends on them, while others feel stuck and disengaged because they are not equipped to perform.
Research backs this up. The McKinsey HR Monitor 2025 reported that many organisations struggle to meet performance goals because workforce skills have not kept pace with business needs.
To fix the problem, you first need to recognise how skills gaps show up inside your business.
Signs Your Business Has Critical Skills Gaps
One clear sign of skills gaps is missed deadlines or repeated errors. Tasks that should be routine take longer than planned. Work comes back for corrections because people are unsure of the right process or tools to use.
Another warning sign is over-reliance on a few employees for key tasks. There is always “that one person” who understands the system, prepares reports, or handles complex clients. When they are absent, work stalls. This creates risk for the business and pressure for the employee.
High turnover in specialised roles is also a red flag. When people leave soon after being hired, it often means they were expected to perform skills they were never trained for. Replacing them becomes expensive, and the same problem repeats.
You may also notice productivity dropping even as you hire more staff. This usually means new hires are added without fixing the underlying skills gaps in the team.
How to Identify Skills Gaps Before They Hurt Performance
Identifying skills gaps works best when it is done in steps. A clear process shows you exactly where the problem is and what to fix.
Step 1: Conduct a Skills Inventory
Start by listing the skills your business needs to meet its 2026 goals. Then map these against the skills your employees actually have. This should go beyond job descriptions. Look at real abilities, such as using specific software, analysing reports, managing projects, or handling complex client issues.
Pay close attention to critical areas like technology, finance, and marketing analytics. These are often the fastest-changing skills and the easiest to overlook.
Step 2: Evaluate Team and Individual Performance
Next, compare expected results with actual output. If a role is consistently underperforming, ask why. Is the target unrealistic, or does the person lack a specific skill needed to deliver? For example, a sales team missing targets may not lack effort, but may struggle with data tracking or customer segmentation.
This step helps separate performance issues caused by skill gaps from those caused by workload or poor systems.
Step 3: Review Future Business Needs
Skills assessments should not focus only on the now. Look at what your business plans to do next. This could include expanding into new markets, adopting new software, or meeting new compliance requirements. If these plans require skills your team does not yet have, those are future gaps that need attention now.
Step 4: Seek Employee Feedback and Self-Assessments
Ask employees where they feel undertrained or stretched beyond their current skill level. People often know where they struggle but are rarely asked. This feedback can reveal gaps that performance reports do not show, such as a lack of confidence with tools or unclear processes.
Employee input also increases buy-in, because people feel involved in the solution rather than blamed for the problem.
Step 5: Prioritise Critical Gaps
Not all skills gaps carry the same risk. Identify the gaps that will most affect productivity, revenue, or compliance in 2026. Once these are clear, decide the right response. Some gaps require training. Others may need hiring or redeploying existing talent.
This final step ensures your effort goes into fixing what truly matters, not everything at once.
To simplify this process, we developed a skill assessment template to help you map employee skills, spot gaps, and prioritise which areas need action first. Download it here.
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Conclusion
Identifying skills gaps early is essential for keeping your business productive and competitive in 2026. When gaps go unnoticed, work slows, mistakes multiply, and even new hires cannot fix the problem.
By taking a systematic approach like conducting a skills inventory, reviewing performance, aligning with future needs, and gathering employee feedback, you can see exactly where your team needs support. Prioritising the most critical gaps allows you to train, redeploy, or hire strategically, rather than guessing or reacting to problems.
Start closing your skills gaps today with our Skills Assessment Template. It gives you a clear roadmap to ensure your team has the capabilities needed to meet business goals and thrive throughout 2026.
