Learning and development (L&D) has long been underestimated in the business world. However, this mindset is shifting, with 64% of L&D professionals agreeing that it’s no longer just “nice to have” but “need to have”.
Understanding employees’ skills and interests can help you to develop custom training programs. Creating a skills matrix is an effective and efficient way to do this while enabling you to keep track of employee progress, strengths and weaknesses.
What is a skills matrix?
A skills matrix refers to a framework, usually developed by an organization’s HR and hiring teams, that’s used to assess an employee’s skills and capabilities for specific roles or projects.
Creating a skills matrix is an effective way to identify the expertise, knowledge and general competence that’s needed for certain positions within your organization.
In practice, a skills matrix can be presented by something as simple as a two-dimensional table in Excel, or through a more visual design using Harvey balls to depict skills levels. There are also various software platforms that you can use to track and assess your employees’ skills, such as Think Eleven or TalentGuard.
Using a skills matrix is extremely valuable for companies of all sizes. It helps HR managers and L&D teams to create training programs that are customized to the specific needs of employees. This can reduce overhead costs, facilitate progression and enhance employee satisfaction in the workplace.
Benefits of a skills matrix
According to a LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, 94% of employees agreed they’d be more likely to stay at their jobs longer if employers invested more in their learning and development.
There’s no doubting the value of a skills matrix for helping employers and employees identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for upskilling and career progression.
The top benefits of implementing a skills matrix framework into your organization include:
- Enabling you to effectively assess the strengths and weaknesses of your employees
- Allowing you to address skills gaps for particular roles so you can fill them faster and attain a competitive advantage
- Helping you to create tailored learning plans for employees
- Allowing you to better track skills and capabilities of people across your organization
- Providing employees with an overview of their role and responsibilities
How to create a skills matrix to assess, optimize and strengthen your teams
1. Outline which skills are required for a project or role
First things first, you’ll need to define a list of skills required for the project or role. Remember to give equal importance to soft skills such as emotional intelligence and teamwork and hard skills like programming and technical knowledge.
You’ll want to categorize and even sub-categorize these skills. Some of examples of skills you might want to assess include:
- Communication
- Problem solving
- Technical skills
- Time management
- Marketing
- Project management
- Presentation skills
- Web analytics
- Writing
2. Create a grading system
Next, you’ll need to create a grading system for analyzing your employees' key skills and competencies. Depending on your business, the levels of competence in your grading system can vary.
You might also implement different grading systems across your company for unique departments and projects.
3. Assess the skills and interests of your employees
How employee skills are assessed will vary across organizations. Some ways you can do this include:
- Manager's feedback
- Employees’ self-declaration of skills, interests and level of proficiency
- Team or client evaluations
- Graded assessments
- Certifications
Using a combination of these methods will allow you to get a fuller picture of your employees' skills and the areas they want to improve.
4. Visualize the data in your skills matrix
Once you’ve assessed all the skills, it’s time to visualize the data in your skills matrix. The simplest and most common way to do this is to create a table in an Excel spreadsheet.
List the skills in the first vertical column and write down each team member’s name horizontally. Next, you can add in more columns like “Expertise” and “Interest” underneath.
Once your skills matrix is set up, all you need to do is fill it in with the data values you’ve collected. This will give you an overview of everyone’s competencies and allow you to pinpoint areas for improvement.
5. Identify training requirements and assign projects or roles
Armed with this information, you can start developing training programs that’ll empower employees to improve their abilities across a range of skills. Once these skills are at an adequate level, you can start assigning employees to particular roles or projects that they’re best suited to.
Remember to reassess your skills matrix frequently. Industries are constantly changing, so ensuring employees always have the right skills is key to helping them succeed and progress in their positions while also drawing attention to any improvements that leadership needs to make.
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