The Smartest Human Resources Officers are 'Knowledge Smart'

According to www.Prospects.ac.uk (the UK's leading student and graduate careers advice service) Human Resources (HR) Officers must have a clear understanding of their employer's business objectives and be able to devise and implement policies which select, develop and retain the right staff needed to meet these objectives.

The smartest HR Officers are therefore subscribing to KnowledgeSmart to assess the CAD and BIM skills of new hires and to guide skills improvement over time.

We use KnowledgeSmart to enable our clients to recruit smarter candidates and to prove their ability; we find that it ensures better outcomes. By replacing guesswork with the KnowledgeSmart skills assessment, our clients know precisely how and where their candidates will add value to their organisation before they hire them.

Mike Johnson Managing Director, JohnsonBIM, London, UK

In addition, HR Officers use KnowledgeSmart skills assessments to:

- Liaise with team leaders to identify skills gaps and improve staff performance;
- Interview and select job candidates;
- Develop and implement policies for performance management;
- Advise on pay and other remuneration issues, including promotion and benefits;
- Plan, and sometimes deliver, training - including inductions for new staff;
- Analyse training needs in conjunction with departmental managers.

With subscribers spread across 6 continents KnowledgeSmart online skills assessments are used by architects, engineers, construction firms and contractors, to great effect.


Using KnowledgeSmart Skills Assessments to Inform Annual Appraisals

At HOK – a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm with a network of 24 offices on 3 continents – the HR team actively supports staff to be the best they can be. This in turn delivers significant value for individuals and the organisation at large. With a focus on continuous improvement, HOK's skills assessment results are reviewed annually as part of the appraisal process and continuous improvement is rewarded through the company bonus scheme and through improved promotion opportunities.

We have learned lots of back-end lessons using KnowledgeSmart. Most notably, we have realised how and where we can improve productivity and profitability for the whole company.

David Ivey Building Smart Manager, Chicago, USA

HR teams, operating at the highest level within HOK, welcome this approach to integrated assessment and support the Building Smart Managers in their work. With similar motivations for improved service and performance, Stantec – a 15,000-person strong professional services firm – is embracing KnowledgeSmart to proactively make skills development a corporate initiative.

We have made the employee and his supervisor responsible for identifying goals and for measuring progress as part of the annual review process. This empowers and supports teams and enables individuals to reach their full potential and KnowledgeSmart is an invaluable ingredient.

Susan Clark-Serdiuk HR lead at Stantec, Toronto, Canada


HR Officers are Increasingly Knowledge Smart when Hiring New Staff

Smart recruitment firms and HR Officers are turning to KnowledgeSmart for insight when hiring. Gone are the days of simply sifting through CVs and arranging interviews, firms now demand more from their recruitment teams.

Hiring new staff without first assessing their BIM and CAD skills is an extraordinarily expensive way to do business as many firms may not learn how bad the new recruits have performed until much damage is done to the project's data quality. With KnowledgeSmart BIM Skills Assessments we gain the insight we need to make the right decisions.

Senior Director of Professional Services, US CAD, California, USA

To avoid such unnecessary expenditure and to reduce their risk, California-based US CAD invites all job candidates to complete a KnowledgeSmart BIM skills assessment and makes it clear from the outset that there is no intention to fail anyone. US CAD openly uses the BIM skills assessment results to better plan for training needs and to benchmark a candidate's assessed-ability against his own claimed-ability to better understand the individual.


HR Officers are Bringing KnowledgeSmart Results to the Project Resourcing Table

At RTKL – a worldwide architecture, engineering, planning and creative services organization – 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.

HR generally 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.

Andrew Victory Associate, RTKL, London, UK


Identifying Skills Gaps for Training Needs Analysis by HR Teams

Australian-based A2K Technologies – one of the largest Autodesk channel partners globally – finds that HR Officers are very often involved in purchase decisions for training. Furthermore, A2K finds that HR Officers are very interested in benchmarking for greater insight into team performance; enabling them to extend their role beyond welfare and Health & Safety.

As the recession fades and growth again is the driver for change, firms are increasingly motivated to retain their best staff. KnowledgeSmart helps HR Officers measure their teams' software skills as part of their culture to support, reward and retain value-adding staff.

Sean Twomey ANZ Consulting Manager, A2K Technologies, Sydney, Australia

A2K also believes that KnowledgeSmart provides younger staff with targets to aim for; finding that KnowledgeSmart results can contribute to the building of a framework for ambition and career growth.

If you are a HR Professional, looking for a better way to measure staff skills and interviewee experience, why not get in touch and request a free trial of the KS tools?

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