Are high performing teams an engine room to closing skills gaps?

Chloe @ OneSource HR
Jun 2
4 min read

As business leaders, we naturally associate skills gaps with recruitment problems or training shortfalls. And while both play a role, focusing solely on external solutions, forces us to omit a more impactful and sustainable answer sitting right under our noses: the way we build and empower our existing teams.

At a time when many organisations, particularly in Yorkshire and across the North, are battling to secure the right talent, the real engine room for capability growth may not be solely your hiring pipeline, but the team environment you could create with who you have.

What are high performing teams?

A high performing team is a group of individuals who consistently deliver exceptional results through strong collaboration, mutual trust, shared goals, underpinned by a culture of continuous learning and accountability.

A high-performance workplace extends this concept organisation wide, fostering an environment where employees at all levels are empowered, supported, and aligned with strategic objectives.

These workplaces are characterised by clear communication, psychological safety, effective leadership, and a commitment to growth and development.

Research by the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has shown that high performance work practices, including team autonomy, employee involvement, and continuous learning, are directly linked to improved business outcomes and lower levels of skill shortages, as employees are more adaptable and internally mobile.

Further, a comprehensive study by the Harvard Business Review found that companies with high performance cultures achieved 682% revenue growth over 11 years compared to 166% in companies with low performance cultures.

These findings underscore that a strong workplace culture not only drives profitability but also significantly reduces the impact of skills gaps by unlocking the full potential of the workforce.

High performing teams are a foundation for skills growth

In high performance workplaces, teams aren’t just delivery units, they are the frontline of capability development. When the right culture and structure are in place, teams become active learning environments where skills are continuously developed, shared, and applied. This drives agility, reduces the need for constant external recruitment, and empowers individuals to grow where they are.

To move from reactive hiring to proactive growth, businesses should shift from traditional, formal learning cycles to more integrated, everyday development approaches.

Here’s what I would recommend:

Instead of relying solely on formal training cycles, aim for skills and capability development as a daily part of team culture, through feedback, coaching, and real time knowledge sharing.
Instead of annual reviews identifying gaps after the fact, aim for ongoing dialogue and reflection that helps team members identify areas for growth early and take action.
Instead of isolated upskilling efforts, aim for cross functional collaboration and mentoring that naturally spreads knowledge across teams and roles.
Instead of waiting for vacancies to drive learning needs, aim for using well defined competency frameworks to guide role clarity, expectations, and personal development pathways within the team.

Competency frameworks as skills gaps solutions

Competency frameworks are especially powerful in high-performing teams. They provide clear benchmarks for what good looks like in each role and support individuals to assess their strengths, identify gaps, and take ownership of their development. When embedded properly, they align personal growth with team goals and organisational strategy, ensuring capability is not just an HR objective, but a shared responsibility across the business.

I recently supported a client to develop a tailored competency framework aimed at future proofing their workforce and aligning capability development with the organisation’s long-term goals.

Key elements of the project included:

Defining four core competencies that reflected the behaviours, mindsets, and skills needed to deliver on the business’s strategic mission.
Applying these competencies across six distinct role types, ensuring relevance and consistency at every level of the organisation.
Creating a clear structure that helped managers and employees identify strengths, development needs, and progression opportunities.
Embedding the framework into everyday practices, including recruitment, performance reviews, and development planning.
Shifting the focus from tasks to capabilities, helping the business build resilience and adaptability for the future.

The result is a framework that doesn’t just sit in a document, it’s actively shaping how the business grows and becomes ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Internal mobility starts in high performing teams, not the org chart

Building on a strong competency framework, internal mobility becomes something far more dynamic than a formal HR process. In high performing teams, mobility is fluid and embedded in daily work. People naturally stretch into new areas, share expertise, and support one another’s development. When individuals are clear on what’s expected of them, and where they can grow, they're more likely to take ownership of their progression and support others in doing the same.

This kind of team culture reduces the pressure on top-down planning and makes capability gaps visible, and solvable, early. The result is greater agility, stronger succession planning, and a workforce that evolves from within. In this environment, the team itself becomes the engine of learning, adaptability, and long-term resilience.

High performing teams are a talent strategy

If you want to close skills gaps sustainably, don’t just focus on new hires and apprenticeships to build capability. Look at your teams.

Ask:

Are we enabling people to stretch and develop where they are?
Are our teams equipped to grow their own talent?
Do we reward knowledge sharing, not just individual performance?
Are teams structured to build capability or simply designed to deliver tasks?
Is this a safe place for curiosity and learning, or driven solely by outputs and deadlines.