4 Types of Competency Gaps in the Corporate Landscape

Key takeaways

Competency gaps arise when skills and business needs shift at different speeds, and structured analysis and development help teams grow in tandem.

• A competency gap can form quickly when new technologies or industry shifts change the skills required for a role.

• Competency mapping doesn’t just diagnose gaps; it creates a shared framework for performance reviews, targeted training, smarter hiring, and clearer role expectations. 

• You can create a competency map to compare required skills with your team’s current capabilities and pinpoint exactly where development or hiring is needed.

Explore four types of competency gaps in the workplace, including technical skills, leadership and management, communication, and change management gaps. Then, explore the courses and certificates offered on Coursera for Business, which support you and your team with a wide range of skills development opportunities. On Coursera for Business, employees can explore exciting business certificates in project management, business intelligence, e-commerce, and more.

Leaders at 4,300+ companies develop their talent with Coursera

Learn more

What is a competency gap?

When you have a discrepancy between the skills your company needs to succeed and the skills your employees have, it’s known as a competency gap. Also commonly referred to as a skill gap, it can happen for many reasons, but technology is a typical driver. Whether it’s a new technology that your employees need to learn, technology changing the nature of how Americans expect to show up for work, or just industry changes fueled by innovations like AI and machine learning, a skill gap can quickly emerge between the skills your employees have and the skills your company needs to achieve its organizational goals. 

Why are competencies necessary for business?

Creating a competency map and examining your team’s skills is a way to proactively identify problems before they occur and plan for the future through training and development or by hiring new employees with skills not currently present on your team. Some of the benefits of competency mapping include:

• Employees and employers both understand the role better: Competency mapping explains exactly which skills employees need to succeed in their roles, including those that might not be obvious.

• You have a framework for talking to employees about their performance: When it comes time to deliver performance reviews, you can refer to your competency guidelines as a metric for evaluating your employees' performance.

• You can tailor learning and development experiences to employees’ needs: Competency mapping helps you easily understand which roles at your company would benefit from training and development. For example, if you had the opportunity to train anyone in your company who uses a specific tool, you could use competency mapping to identify which job titles would benefit from that training.

• You have more information for smarter hiring: You can use competency mapping to identify which skills new hires should have before onboarding.

• You can assign work to those with the proper skills: Competency mapping can help you understand which of your staff have the skill set that best matches the needs of any given project. 

Empower teams with access to world-class content from 350+ top companies and universities

Learn more

How do you identify competency gaps?

Identifying skills gaps requires structured, evidence‑based approaches that reveal where your current capabilities fall short. You can typically rely on several complementary methods to identify these gaps:

• Job analysis: You can compare the competencies a role requires with the skills employees currently demonstrate, helping refine job expectations and training needs.

• Skills assessments: Use structured tools to measure technical, interpersonal, and leadership abilities and highlight areas needing development.

• Performance reviews: Surface strengths and weaknesses over time, especially when aligned with a clear competency framework.

• Industry benchmarking: Compare internal capabilities against market standards to inform hiring and training decisions.

• Succession planning: Identify future leadership requirements and uncover gaps that could disrupt continuity.

4 types of competency gaps in the workplace

When you want to determine whether your company faces competency gaps, it can be helpful to consider different types, including technical skills and knowledge gaps, leadership and management gaps, communication and interpersonal gaps, and change management and agility competency gaps. Although you may find other types of competency gaps in your company, many fall under the following four categories:

1. Technical skills and knowledge gaps

One common type of competency gap is a technical skills or knowledge gap, which occurs when your employees need more training on a new tool, resource, or industry standard. For example, many retail stores now offer customers additional payment methods, such as mobile pay or through other digital accounts. When you implement a new point-of-sale system in your company, you will need to provide your employees with proper training on how to use the machine.

Depending on your industry, you will have a unique set of requirements for your staff to be competent in, including:

• Critical thinking

• Problem-solving

• Automation and robotics

• Cybersecurity

• Proficiency in specific software or tools

When you discover that employees don’t have the proper knowledge or skills, take steps to address your technical skill competency gap to prevent problems from happening in the future. 

2. Leadership and management competency gaps

Another competency gap you may encounter is a leadership or management gap, which occurs when your team needs stronger capabilities in these areas to move the company toward its goals.  It can happen for various reasons. For example, your company could experience a pipeline competency gap,  as it expands rapidly and doesn’t have enough internal leaders to fill newly created roles. Another example of a management gap is intercompany gaps, where individual departments become siloed, and your company lacks a leader to unify operations.

Leadership and management competency gaps can also arise from new technologies, shifting business models in disrupted industries, and outdated leadership models. Some companies develop management gaps when they don’t offer enough training and development to prepare staff for leadership roles, and senior employees retire. 

3. Communication and interpersonal skills gaps

Communication and interpersonal skills are essential in every industry and career, from customer service to collaboration with colleagues. At the same time, leaders regularly identify these skills among those they need. Interpersonal competencies can include skills such as articulating new ideas and conveying messages effectively in writing. These skills have always been necessary, but they take on new significance in a post-COVID world, where virtual meetings and messaging are now more common.

Communication and interpersonal competency gaps can arise for many reasons, including a lack of training in managing interpersonal relationships with colleagues, cultural differences, or issues rooted in company culture, such as employee engagement, attitude, or motivation to do well. These gaps can also indicate that your employees need better and more effective communication tools.

4. Adaptability and change management gaps

An adaptability and change management competency gap exists when company leaders aren’t prepared or don’t have the project management knowledge to successfully guide the company through changes. For example, a company’s leadership might understand how they want to change but lack the skills to organize and plan the transition from the status quo to future goals. Or your team might have the opposite problem: include team members with the skills needed to make the change, but not the skills to create an overall strategy and vision for how the company should change.

All companies experience change, from shifts in staffing to evolving regulations and industry standards. Your company’s ability to adapt to changes will help it stay relevant for years to come.

Read more: Why Your Company Needs Management Development and How to Start

Benchmark your talent with global skill insights

See how millions of learners in 100 countries are strengthening critical skills.

Global Skills Report

How to close competency gaps? Strategies to overcome gaps

Regardless of the competency gap you want to overcome, you can take steps today to mitigate the associated risks. Some tips to help you close any competency gaps in your company include:

• Complete a competency map and a competency gap analysis: Understanding what your company does well and areas where your team could improve is essential. The first step is to create a competency map of the skills your company requires and the skills represented in your current team.

• Develop training programs that emphasize future leadership: By fostering your employees' skills and providing opportunities for personal and professional development, you can prepare for future leadership competency gaps.

• Communicate clear expectations: Convey this to all staff about their job role and performance requirements. Clear guidelines about each person’s responsibilities help both employees and employers. Doing this allows employees to take the initiative to improve skills they lack and provides employers with a framework for evaluating skills.

• Match employees in mentorship and coaching programs: These programs are beneficial for establishing lines of succession and planning for future agility. You can leverage the expertise of more senior staff members to nurture the professional development of less-experienced staff.

• Create individualized learning goals: You can utilize your competency map and succession planning to create learning and development pathways individualized to each team member, considering their specific career goals. 

Upskill your employees with in-demand capabilities

With Coursera for Business, your employees will have access to learning opportunities from over 350 leading companies and universities to gain in-demand skills and valuable experience that they can bring to your business, all while earning industry-recognized credentials. With customizable learning opportunities, you can equip your workforce with the skills they need to succeed.

• Discover the most critical skills employees need to perform at a high level in today’s jobs with the Global Skills Report.

• See Coursera in action with our demo video.

• Training a smaller team? Explore Coursera for Teams, designed to meet the needs of teams with five to 125 employees.

Train teams across your organization in the skills that matter most in today’s digital economy with Coursera.