Creating a Company Skills Matrix

A skills matrix, or competency framework, is a table that displays all required skills, tasks or abilities for a team or organisation, in one easy to view interface.

A training/competency matrix is a tool used to document and compare required competencies for a position with the current skill level of the people performing the roles. It is used in a gap analysis for determining where individuals have important training needs and as a tool for managing people development.

Benefits

•         Provides a comprehensive list of key skills the company has identified as worth cultivating.
•         Aids in managing training budgets because it identifies skill gaps across your organization.
•         Assists with planning by helping identify and target new skill areas that you might need.
•         Helps managers with development planning by identifying required skills.
•         Allows managers to add skills to employee profiles and set, monitor and change their level of expertise.
• Allows employees to view the skills and skill levels their manager has attached to their profile.
• Provides managers with clear areas for employee development that are directly connected to the organization’s identified HR priorities.
• Enables managers to automatically include skills in review meetings.

Irrespective of what labels or names these levels are given, basically the levels mean: beginner level, learner level, skilled level, expert or master-skill level.

How to Build a Skills Matrix

1.    List the key roles in your organization.
2.    List the competencies required for each role.
3.    List the names of each individual for each role.
4.    Determine how you want to code the matrix to indicate skill level, training needed, etc.

Possibly use a colour coding system where:
Red = No skills in this area (1)
Amber = Partly trained in this area (2,3)
Green = Fully trained in this area (4,5)
Blank = N/A

5.    Fill out the matrix for each person to indicate current skills and any skill gaps.
6.    Look for patterns, opportunities, and areas of need.

In our summer release, we will be adding skills matrix functionality to our user pages area, enabling KS customers to create an easy to access database of searchable user skills and abilities.

R