Skills assessment : Fact or Fiction??

Organisational development and skills assessment has hit my to do list again. In the SME and Corporate world there is a need to ensure that the skills sets and business processes are in line with the needs of the business.
It never ceases to amaze me though, that the way in which this is done varies considerably between businesses, and the criteria for deciding what works can be arbitrary to say the least.
Applying 360 degree assessments to a lifestyle business where everyone built their skills around volunteering to do tasks and learning on the job leads to the inevitable missing link.The issue becomes the  lack of definition of what good looks like.
We start off judging and categorising people in terms of their usefulness but not what the business actually needs and therefore assessing all employees in a grading and pay structure that works both for the business and the individual is vital to make genuine productivity gains.
Repeatability of performance, Right First Time customer service and profit growth are the ultimate measures of how successful a business is, but leaving people development to chance can lead to significant problems