Skills Gap Analysis

What is skills gap analysis?

Skills gap analysis is the process of comparing the skills your people have today against the skills they need to hit business goals. It shows you exactly where to focus training, hiring, and development. 

Example: The L&D team conducted a skills gap analysis to identify which employees needed additional training before building a sales-enablement course. They surveyed reps, reviewed performance data, and learned that many struggle with objection handling. That insight shaped the final course.

You’ll see gap analysis show up early in workplace training projects and e-learning design. It’s the step that turns a vague “we need training” request into a clear, focused plan you can actually build.

Why a skills gap analysis matters 

When requests pile up, and everyone wants their course yesterday, a skills gap analysis tells you where to focus first and build time building training that people actually need. Prioritizing by skills gap saves hours and gets the right course to your team faster.

It also helps training teams prove impact. Tie a course back to a specific gap and show leaders the before-and-after: the skill was missing, you built the training, and the numbers moved. Real behavior change will earn you trust and budget for the work ahead.

How to run a skills gap analysis

Start by defining the skills each role needs, then measure where people stand today through surveys, assessments, manager input, and performance data. Map the gaps, rank them by business impact, and turn the top ones into learning objectives. From there, you can move fast: draft a course in minutes with AI Assistant, build responsive lessons in Rise or custom interactions in Storyline, and roll it all out through Reach so you can track who’s closing the gap. Revisit your analysis regularly, since skills needs shift as fast as the work does.