Client Name

K-Electric

Faculty Advisor

Dr. Nasir Afghan

SBS Thought Leadership Areas

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

SBS Thought Leadership Area Justification

This project fits in the Thought Leadership area of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and targets surrounding issues of workforce capability development within the framework of a Digital world. The project uses the widely adopted SFIA framework to evaluate the skills, competencies and skill gaps amongst IT professionals at K-Electric, and to create career pathways. The project includes a data driven analysis and innovative talent management practices to offer recommendations for employee development, retention, employer branding, and future workforce planning. The project enhances organizational capacity and helps with digital innovation, helping to build a more skilled, agile, and future-ready workforce.

Aligned SDGs

GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Aligned SDGs Justification

This project aims to improve the capabilities of the workforce by implementing a structured competency framework and will help achieve SDG 8, aimed at promoting jobs that are sustainable and decent. The project helps IT professionals identify their skill gaps, pinpoint career paths, and suggest development initiatives, fostering ongoing learning and progress and enhancing workplace productivity. The recommendations aim to boost the retention of talent and foster career progression, ensuring that K-Electric is equipped with a skilled and future-ready workforce contributing to its sustainable growth.

NDA

No

Abstract

An Experiential Learning Project was carried out in partnership with K-Electric and the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) Version 9 was used to undertake a skills gap analysis and create employer branding strategies for IT employees. The structured competency framework is more important than ever as K-Electric strives to become a digital company and ensure its workforce capabilities meet changing technological and organizational needs. The most threatening situation that was found is the lack of a common competency measurement system to assess existing IT skills, determine skill gaps, and inform future workforce planning, development and retention.

To tackle this challenge, we used a mixed methods research approach. The first phase consisted of a thorough literature search that provided the theoretical context for the development of competency frameworks, digital transformation, skills gaps analysis and employer branding. The second phase was a mapping of ten critical IT roles in enterprise systems, digital and analytics, infrastructure, application development and governance functions to SFIA responsibility levels 3 to 5. The third phase involved surveys and semi-structured interviews with IT professionals to gauge their current competency levels, determine the need for development, and understand factors that impact employee growth and retention.

The results showed that while employees have a good technical ability, there are gaps in competency in the areas of governance, strategic planning, leadership readiness, stakeholder management, digital transformation ability, and cross functional collaboration. Certification, learning experiences, real-world opportunities, career development, and equitable pay were also named as factors that help employees stay for the long term, as well as a positive culture. Cloud technologies, making decisions based on analysis, enterprise systems integration and governance skills also became evident as growing in importance across all IT functions at the SFIA mapping exercise.

The project recommends a framework for competency development that is structured and includes targeted training initiatives, career pathway models, leadership development programs, mentoring and retention strategies based on industry best practices. The comprehensive solution allows K-Electric to leverage its competency management system, align it with workforce development and employer branding strategies, and foster a more effective and engaged workforce, ultimately contributing to the organization's long-term success.

Document Type

Restricted Access

Document Name for Citation

Experiential Learning Project

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