An overview of the value of KnowledgeSmart

The abounding value of assessment and strategic data capture to drive: better recruitment, effective project resource planning, productive training and development plans as well as strategically focused human resource management teams.

The abounding value of KnowledgeSmart (3-part series)

KnowledgeSmart helps businesses calibrate the data they need to answer the 3 most important strategic questions for any business:

• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to be?
• How can we get on track again?

Let's focus on the first question.

KnowledgeSmart and 'Where are we now' question

During an assessment KnowledgeSmart captures data that can, together with your results data, influence your analysis and strategic decision making. This data includes: Number of years experience, Primary Learning Method, Learning Country, Frequency of use 

Primary Industry/Discipline, Self-Rating Data, Primary Role and more. 

KnowledgeSmart User Data Capture

Additionally companies get to customise 5 unique datafields to capture further information that might be of value in filtering or grouping their results or users e.g.Project Team,Project Experience,Office Location,Certified (yes/no),Current Manager.

KnowledgeSmart Data Query Tool

Strategic planning is not only about having a clear direction to steer towards, but also about building resilience and agility to respond to change. KnowledgeSmart data can be an instrumental part of your environmental scan and evaluation of your current strengths and weaknesses.

Look out for part 2 soon.

New Test Title - Newforma Fundamentals

KnowledgeSmart's skills assessment library helps AEC businesses capture evidence of individual and corporate skills capability, across a wide variety of essential technical software titles.

This includes popular software products from major vendors, including Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Graphisoft, Oracle, Adobe and Microsoft.

One of the most popular requests in recent months has been to create assessment content for Project Information Management tool, Newforma.

This assessment looks at knowledge of using Newforma, across a range of core functions, and is written primarily with novice users in mind.

Modules covered include:

User Interface
My Projects
Email Management
Info Exchange
Transmittals

We will also be adding content for intermediate and advanced users, in the coming months.

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BIM Implementation Workshop - 25 April - London

Evolve’s BIM Awareness Workshops help AEC businesses prepare and develop a strategy for adopting BIM on design and engineering projects. KnowledgeSmart will be talking about the importance of skills assessments, measuring BIM capability and capturing key business metrics to support a wider learning and development framework.

Through interactive one-day workshops presentations, best practice advice, discussion, and hands-on project-based exercises the Evolve team make sure AEC firms appreciate how BIM integrates with existing workflows and production of project deliverables. By the end of the day, teams will be able to identify key actions and prepare a company-wide, office or project BIM strategy.

DEFINING BIM
Assessing what Building Information Modelling really means and how it applies to your business.

BS1192
Understanding the basic requirements for data production & exchange.

PAS1192
Understanding the expectations of BIM Level 2 and managing projects.

THE PILLARS OF BIM
Additional documentation designed to align BIM methodologies across design teams.

COLLABORATION
Appreciating the issues of digital production and data exchange.

INTERNAL UNDERSTANDING
The education process; maintaining production while minimising risk.

NEXT STEPS
Formulating an action plan and the necessary strategies to implement BIM.

Join Evolve and KnowledgeSmart at Evolve's offices on WEDNESDAY 25 APRIL 2018 for this powerful opportunity to drive your BIM understanding and adoption.

Click here to book your place. KS customers and partners can enter the code KSBIM01 for a 20% discount at the checkout.

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KnowledgeSmart for Human Resources Management

This new video focuses on the tremendous benefits Human Resources Departments can expect from a KnowledgeSmart Subscription. 

How would it be if you could:

• Liaise with team leaders to identify skills gaps and improve staff performance (backed up by inter-company and global benchmarks)
• Interview and select job candidates and add reliable, objective skills assessment data to the selection criteria
• Develop and implement more effective policies for performance management
• Advise on pay and other remuneration issues, including promotion and benefits based on valuable metrics
• Plan, and sometimes deliver, more effective training - including inductions for new staff based
• Analyse training needs in conjunction with departmental managers using an intuitive, intelligent data query tool

 

10 Best Practice Tips for Writing Custom Assessments

KnowledgeSmart offers companies a flexible solution for assessing their teams.

Choose from a wide range of 'off the shelf' test titles, for design and engineering software or write your own custom assessments from scratch.

We have put together a handy guide with 10 best practice tips for writing custom assessments.

4 WAYS TO GARNER MANAGEMENT SUPPORT FOR YOUR SKILL ASSESSMENT PLAN

The most critical element of any skills assessment activity is to draw together support from management to drive the process and ensure a successful deployment and adoption.

Experience shows that it is helpful to gain support from the following key business areas:

• Human Resources and Learning & Development
• Technology and Building Information Modelling Management (to ensure alignment with company CAD / BIM standards and protocols e.g. BIM Level 2)
• Senior Management

Without collective management support, your skills assessment activity might turn into a very frustrating, futile exercise.

Clarify the concept of skills assessment

People’s perception of skills assessment may be very different. Make sure that you define your interpretation of skill assessments, keeping in mind the priorities for each business division and ensuring alignment.

Once the definition is clarified it is substantially easier to explain the resulting benefits. Since most people have an adverse reaction when the word ‘test’ is mentioned, it is often a good idea to start with a quick comparison between ‘test’ and ‘assessment’. In most cases, the purpose of most tests is to assign a score. They offer limited diagnostic information to identify areas for improvement. Users often report feeling judged when tested and fear results might be used for other purposes than skills development.

To achieve the ultimate purpose of assessment - to improve learning and development - we need to answer not only questions on how our teams have learned but also questions on how they learned and why specific results occurred. Thus, an assessment is a far-reaching concept, focalising its efforts on learning, and serving the purpose of enhancement and development through a variety of ways.

Demonstrate the benefits

Firstly, your influencing skills will be tried and tested. There is no doubt that you will have to demonstrate how a skills assessment process can help your organisation with quantifiable benefits.

Linking the skills assessment benefits to a current strategic goal will undoubtedly go a long way towards helping to spark and keep management attention.

The most important benefits typically focus on the company’s recruitment process, efficient use of training budgets, productive skills development plans and optimised project resourcing. The challenges that each business division face might differ, but you will often find they are symbiotically interlinked.

In some cases, it is best practice to identify a ‘pilot’ group within the company first and develop a compelling internal case study before rolling out an assessment plan across your whole organisation. Stay aware of the tangible benefits of each business division. It is not productive for managers to continually fight fires. A successful assessment process shines a light on the root causes of some of the challenges faced. A successful skills assessment plan allows for the necessary course correction to be identified and implemented.

Catalyse improved management with improved data-driven decisions

Make sure you understand how your management team is measured and what their current strategic deliverables are. Connect the outcomes of the assessment programme to the overall metrics that management needs for reporting and to the overall strategic priorities and you will have a better chance of getting approval and buy-in. 

At RTKL – a global architecture, engineering, planning and creative services organisation – HR leadership challenged its BIM management team to source a BIM skills analysis tool to help the firm make smarter, more well-informed data-driven decisions about people’s CAD and BIM skills when resourcing project teams. The team reviewed the market and selected KnowledgeSmart based on reasons described by Andrew Victory, an Associate at RTKL, London, UK.

                              

HR now understands ‘why’ people were hired and provides a high-level view of the firm’s talent base, but historically it has not fully appreciated some of the finer details about CAD and BIM skills. The nature of project-centric resourcing determines that individuals are moved from one project team to another as the workflow rises and falls across a project’s lifecycle, and their BIM skill-levels will critically influence their ability to contribute to their new team. With KnowledgeSmart results and analysis in hand, HR now has perhaps the most comprehensive oversight of all staff and their skills.”

Remember the financial benefits

Remember that a big priority for any successful management team is to show a good return on investment or prove financial benefits. Make sure you illustrate how the outcomes of your proposed assessment plan can lead to those management priorities. 

A quick cost-benefit analysis focusing on one of the following factors could be helpful:

• the cost to employ inappropriate personnel over a 3-month period the cost of losing top performers (due to lack of recognition, support or training)
• retaining an under-performing user (due to poor performance management)
• project productivity gains due to identified performance improvements (being able to deliver on projects faster or with fewer resources

KnowledgeSmart is an invaluable tool for professionals that helps businesses capture knowledge on a wide range of software tools, workflows and, standards. More information is available at www.knowledgesmart.net