Poor Problem-Solving Skills Hinder Business Agility

Measuring staff skills can build a more agile workforce

TRUMBULL, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The lack of problem-solving skills and low staff engagement are making it harder for businesses and organizations to adapt, according to a new report by Questionmark, the online assessment provider.

The new report “The myth of certainty”, explores how employers can create meaningful business plans in an ever-changing environment. It identifies four common “drag factors” that prevent workers from adapting quickly to changing business requirements:

1. Insufficient digital skills – employers need to be able to accelerate plans to deliver services and operations digitally. But they often lack the skills within the workforce.
2. The lack of problem solving-skills – the ability to deal with and adapt to unexpected problems became one of the most sought-after skills within months of the Covid-19 crisis breaking out.¹
3. Difficulties with working from home – despite much successful at-home working, some managers are struggling to effectively manage remote workers according to a Harvard Business Review study.²
4. Poor staff engagement – low employee engagement can damage morale and productivity. Research by Gallup found that only 36% of the US workforce is engaged with their work. And only 22% of employers understand what’s causing the problem.³

Lars Pedersen, CEO of Questionmark, said: “Employers have had to adapt quickly over the last year and ‘agility’ remains the watchword for the future. But an employer can only move as quickly as their workforce.

“By measuring the skills of workers, employers can make better decisions on training, recruitment and development. They can build a more agile workforce that has the skills to thrive for the future.”

The report explores how employers can build a more agile workforce and lay the foundations for future growth. It concludes that employers can only develop meaningful plans for success if they are constantly looking at how they adapt to changing circumstances. They must develop the skills and infrastructure to become more agile.

Getting a clear picture of the skills of workers will help employers understand how change-ready their workforce is. It will help them make better decisions on training, development and recruitment.

For more information download the full report: “The Myth of certainty: creating agility in the workforce and developing meaningful business plans”.

The report forms part of the “Questionmark Viewpoint” series which explores the challenges that Questionmark customers face, and how Questionmark helps address them.

www.questionmark.com

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Notes to editors

About Questionmark

Questionmark unlocks performance through reliable and secure online assessments.

Questionmark provides a secure enterprise-grade assessment platform and professional services to leading organizations around the world, delivered with care and unequalled expertise. Its full-service online assessment tool and professional services help customers to improve their performance and meet their compliance requirements. Questionmark enables organizations to unlock their potential by delivering assessments which are valid, reliable, fair and defensible.

Questionmark offers secure powerful integration with other LMS, LRS and proctoring services making it easy to bring everything together in one place. Questionmark's cloud-based assessment management platform offers rapid deployment, scalability for high-volume test delivery, 24/7 support, and the peace-of-mind of secure, audited U.S., Australian and European-based data centers.

¹ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/covid-19-jobs-key-skills/
² https://hbr.org/2020/07/remote-managers-are-having-trust-issues
³ https://screen.cloud/blog/employee-engagement-statistics-2020