Skills audits made simple: a practical tool for better recruitment decisions

Often charities are focused on hiring for what’s needed now. That makes sense when budgets are tight and teams are already stretched. But when recruitment is always reactive, long-term issues can arise. These can include overlapping roles, missing skills, or excessive reliance on certain people.

These gaps don’t usually appear overnight. They build slowly, often unnoticed, until they start to affect delivery, productivity, retention, or team morale. A structured skills audit helps charities take a more proactive approach. It provides hiring managers with the insight to identify risks early and make recruitment decisions with greater clarity.

Drawing on insights from TPP’s latest Non-Profit Salary, Rewards & Retention Survey Report,  this blog explores why skills audits are becoming a critical part of recruitment planning. We’ll look at how they help identify gaps before they grow and support more confident, long-term hiring decisions. If you're ready to run one, our follow-up guide covers the full process step by step.

Why workforce planning matters in charity recruitment

Charity Recruitment doesn’t happen in isolation. Every hire affects service delivery, team structure, and long-term funding plans. But while most organisations recognise the value of planning ahead, the process behind that planning often gets sidelined. 

Here’s where that lack of planning shows up:

• No clear owner for planning:
  TPP’s 2024 Non-profit Salary, Rewards and Retention Survey found that while 79% of charities value workforce planning, 48% have no formal strategy. This is often because responsibility is spread across multiple roles.
• Outdated or unclear job scopes:
  Without time to step back, jobs are filled as they were. This leads to overlapping duties, missed development, and recruitment that fixes short-term gaps rather than long-term goals.
• Higher pressure when someone leaves:
  Overreliance on key individuals makes turnover disruptive. Recruitment becomes urgent. Morale drops. Temporary cover adds strain to teams that are already stretched.
• Blocked internal progression:
  A lack of clarity around growth makes it harder to retain staff. TPP’s data shows that 35% of charity professionals feel their role negatively impacts their mental health, which is often tied to unclear structures and limited movement.

Workforce planning helps reduce the pressure on charity recruitment

When there’s no time to plan ahead, roles are often filled quickly, but not always with the consideration it requires to ensure the role is fit for purpose. Teams rely on the same people to pick up extra work, job scopes blur and development takes a back seat. Recruitment becomes increasingly difficult to manage and even more challenging to sustain.

Strategic workforce planning provides charities with the space to pause and assess what is actually needed. It brings visibility to where skills exist, where pressure is growing, and how roles could shift.

This is especially useful when:

• Job descriptions no longer reflect how services are delivered
• Funded roles change but team structure stays the same
• One person holds key knowledge without support
• Retention is falling but underlying issues aren’t clear
• There’s no clear route for internal growth or progression

Even simple steps can improve how recruitment decisions are made. Planning helps teams stay focused on structure, capability, and long-term impact, rather than reacting to what’s missing in the moment.

What is a skills audit, and why does it help?

Strategic workforce planning starts with knowing what your team already has. A skills audit gives you that starting point. It’s a structured but simple way to review what skills are in place, where there are gaps, and where change is likely.

For charity teams, this can help make recruitment less reactive and more aligned with service delivery. It’s not a formal HR process. Skills audits can be led by team managers, service leads, or anyone responsible for reviewing structure and future need.

Here’s what a skills audit helps you do:

• Spot gaps before they become urgent hiring problems, like when a key staff member leaves or a new service launches
• Decide when upskilling employees is a better option than recruiting externally, saving time and supporting development
• Identify duplicated or missing skills across the charity team, so structures can be adjusted rather than expanded unnecessarily
• Improve charity job descriptions by focusing on what the role really needs, not just what it used to include
• Align recruitment decisions with service delivery and funding changes, supporting more consistent growth
• Support internal progression, using data to shape realistic development plans
• Reduce recruitment pressure by using the skills already in the team more effectively

For charities facing complex hiring decisions or stretched budgets, a skills audit is a practical way to improve both recruitment and retention. It’s the first step in any meaningful skills gap analysis, and a foundation for stronger talent management strategies.

Simple tools that help spot skill gaps early

A skills audit doesn’t have to be complex or take a large amount of resources. There are practical tools that can help charities review team structures, understand current capability, and make better hiring decisions. Below are four frameworks that can be used individually or combined, depending on the level of detail you need.

SWOT analysis

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) helps charities step back and look at team strengths in context. It’s often used after a change, such as restructuring, new funding, or a shift in service demand.

What skills does this help assess?
Leadership, service delivery, bid writing, strategic planning, and cross-team collaboration.

Why it’s relevant now:

TPP’s 2024 survey found that 48% of charities have no formal workforce planning strategy, even though nearly 80% say it is important. Without visibility on current strengths and gaps, recruitment risks become harder to manage.

Skills matrix

A matrix maps each team member’s confidence or ability against key skills. It shows where capacity sits, where pressure points exist, and where upskilling could reduce the need to hire.

What skills does this help assess?

Back-office functions like finance, HR, IT systems, and reporting, as well as front-facing roles in fundraising and communications. It can also highlight potential in team members who could develop into new roles.

Why it’s relevant now:

TPP’s survey reveals that 76% of hiring managers struggle to find strong candidates for roles in legacy fundraising, finance, and digital. A matrix helps assess whether those skills already exist but are underused.

Competency frameworks

Competency frameworks define the specific skills, behaviours, and knowledge expected in each role. They bring structure to team development, job design, and internal progression.

What skills does this help assess?

Safeguarding, line management, budget responsibility, governance, and donor-facing communications.

Why it’s relevant now:

Frameworks support more consistent decision-making. This is especially important where job descriptions have changed frequently or roles cross between operations and service delivery.

Gap analysis

Gap analysis compares what your team can do now with what your organisation needs for the future. It supports longer-term hiring and development decisions.

What skills does this help assess?

Digital strategy, service development, compliance, policy insight, and income generation.

Why it’s relevant now:

The 2024 Charity Digital Skills Report found that 47% of charities say digital skills are a top constraint to progress. A gap analysis helps charities plan for these needs before they limit delivery.

Why skills audits help prevent bad recruitment patterns

Short-term needs will always come up. But without space to review what’s really missing, charity recruitment becomes reactive. For many organisations, this means hiring in a hurry, reusing outdated job descriptions, and missing the chance to build the right structure.

A skills audit offers breathing room. It provides hiring managers with a clearer view of what is needed now, what could be developed internally, and how new hires can support charity team building in the long term.

Here’s how audit insights can support better recruitment:

• Refine job descriptions
  Break down roles by skill, not just title. Understand what matters to delivery and what can be built through training. This improves hiring accuracy and makes roles more accessible.
  
  
• Build diversity through potential
  Focus on capability, not just career history. Skills gap analysis helps identify transferable strengths, creating more inclusive routes into charity jobs.
  
  
• Balance recruitment with upskilling
  Not every skills gap needs a new hire. A good audit highlights where internal development is possible and where upskilling employees could be more cost-effective.
  
  
• Improve internal progression
  Employee skills assessment helps map out development plans that feel achievable. This supports retention and encourages long-term career thinking across the charity team.
  
  
• Strengthen interview processes
  Knowing what the team really needs helps shape interview questions that reflect real work. This makes it easier to spot candidates who bring something different.

The challenge of balancing immediate needs with long-term strategy

In charity recruitment, it’s easy to get stuck in the cycle of reacting. When every vacancy feels urgent, there’s little time to pause and review what the team actually needs. Over time, this can lead to mismatched roles, overstretched staff, and missed opportunities to develop skills in-house.

According to the 2024 Charity Digital Skills Report, 31% of charities report a lack of confidence in using data to inform decisions about individuals and recruitment. When priorities shift, it becomes harder to feel certain about what the team truly needs next.

A skills audit helps bring that clarity. It gives you space to assess what’s already in place, where the pressure sits, and where change might be needed. At TPP, we support charities to take these next steps with confidence.

Final thoughts on planning and charity recruitment

Hiring well takes more than reacting to vacancies. It takes space to look at how your team works, where pressure is building, and what kind of roles will make a difference over time. A skills audit helps you take that step back and make decisions that support both the people you have and the ones you bring in.

It doesn’t need to be complex. Just asking the right questions early can lead to more focused recruitment, better development, and stronger team structures that last.

Our next guide will walk you through the process step by step, with tools you can use to run a skills audit in your own team. 

Need support with charity recruitment and planning?

TPP works with charities of all sizes to build teams that are resilient, well-structured, and ready for what’s next. Our consultants understand what works in the sector and where the challenges sit.

Get in touch to see how we can help you.