Skills are one of the major assets of a company. Therefore, an efficient skills management is often a competitive advantage.
However, artificial intelligence's fast developpement, leading to new professions emerging and others disappearing, is proof that professional skills are constantly evolving. More than ever, companies need to have a clear view of their internal skills to match their growth and keep up with the market.
In this article, we help you understand skills management and share how to implement it in an impactful way.
What is Skills Management?
Skills management: Definition
Skill management consists of managing the company's human capital. This involves the identification, assessment and development of skills.
Effective skills management balances available skills with business needs to achieve goals.
The Different Types of Professional Skills
The term skills refers to the set of knowledge, behaviours and skills that make it possible toperform a task. There are three types of skills.
Knowledge, which is acquired through professional training. It is easy to share and evaluate.
Interpersonal skills, which consists of adopting the right posture according to a given situation. This skill is difficult to teach and usually develops with experience. It is difficult to assess.
Know-how, which involves the ability to perform a task adequately.
Professional skills
Thus, the skills are usually technical or behavioral. We also talk about managerial skills to assess the ability to lead a team.
In addition, a distinction is made between individual skills – i.e. the knowledge, experience, know-how and interpersonal skills of an individual– and collective skills that concern a group.
Why is Skills Management Essential in Project Management?
A project's execution is possible thanks to the mobilization employees' skills on certain tasks.
Skills management therefore ensures the success of projectsand the sustainability of your business.
Skills Availability Overview
Skills management in project management is a must.
Indeed, it offers a global vision and an inventory of a company's skills, at a given time. For growth and anticipation strategies, such visibility makes it possible to establish a mapping of internal skills , which is useful in many respects.
Forecasting
This assessment helps to ensure that skills are available, but also to anticipate those that will be needed in the future. Thus, skills management is the data on which to base strategic decision-making.
Better Demand and Capacity Matching
Skills management is a key element in the development of a company because it allows the needs and abilities of employees to be matched .
To make sure you find the balance you're looking for, you can use a skills management tool. Stafiz, an all-in-one solution designed to improve sourcing and marketing management. resource planning, offers a feature that allows you to identify the most suitable profiles for each project.
Skills needs
Enter the skills needs in the search engine and the level required: Stafiz will indicate the most qualified profiles according to level and availability.
What Are the Goals of Skills Management?
Skills management has 4 main advantages:
better use of resources,
an increase in performance,
the professional development of employees,
the assurance of always having the necessary resources.
To take full advantage of it, develop a tailor-made management by identifying your objectives, and the areas conducive to improvement.
Optimizing Resource Allocation
Prioritizing needs
Skills management makes it easier toallocate resources because it helps prioritize and prioritize needs.
Indeed, it identifies any gaps in employees and training needs.
Staying competitive
Skills management ensures that talent remains competitive in the face of inevitable market changes and the company's growth ambitions.
Thus, this approach addresses theobsolescence of skills by anticipating the needs of the company strategically, in the short and long term.
Finding the balance
For the HR team involved in this mission, the exercise requires finding the ideal combination between:
the implementation of training to enable the acquisition of missing skills,
internal mobility,
external recruitment.
Improve team performance
Controlled skills management provides an overview of the skills to be improved as well as the skills gaps between teams and individuals.
Once corrected, they improve operational activities, contribute to more agility and provide a fertile ground for innovation.
Preserving the Company's Skills
Skills management involves the creation of a strategic tool: the skills repository.
This document lists all the skills available within the company, which makes it possible to quickly identify who to contact to find specific information. Thus, it helps to save time by limiting the number of trips back and forth, making communication and collaboration more fluid.
In addition, the repository provides transparency that helps limit losses when employees leave. It provides clear visibility into outgoing and replaceable skills.
Avoiding Skills Shortages
By clearly defining the skills needed for the business, skills management helps to anticipate succession planning.
In addition, it helps to retain employees because it values employees by offering training prospects.
Combined with attractive compensation and challenging assignments, talent management helps build team loyalty and limit losses due to employee turnover.
Fostering Employees' Professional Developpment
Skills development remains essential to the development of employees. Effective skills management supports them in their progress and the development of their potential.
Creating personalized development paths contributes to an environment conducive toprofessional growth. This not only develops qualifications, but also motivation, thus significantly improving productivity.
Building Competitive Advantage
Finally, skills management is strategic because human capital is the only element that the competition cannot imitate.
By retaining your talents through controlled skills management, you send a positive image that is useful for both recruitment and business.
How to Set Up Skills Management?
Step 1: Analyze Skill Demand
Every company has specific needs. For example, a consulting agency specializing in data must necessarily surround itself with insiders or experts in this field.
The specific needs of your company or each department are not always obvious. Take the time to discuss with your management teams to identify skills needs and thus be able to strategically anticipate resource needs.
Step 2: Create a Skill Framework
The competency framework mentioned above offers a map of the skills needed, at the individual and collective level.
This document serves as a company-wide reference to clarify expectations, and will also facilitate the criteria sought when writing job offers.
Step 3: Assess Employee Skills
A clear view of the skills available
The next step is to get a clear view of the skills available in the company.
Theassessment of professional skills thus makes it possible to photograph at a given time:
the professions,
services,
skills,
knowledge,
the interpersonal skills and know-how of your organization.
By assessing their skills, employees and their manager can then track progress in a given area. This is a godsend for employees who have a space to also indicate the skills they would like to develop.
💡 Think of this exercise as an opportunity for growth rather than an actual evaluation! Communicate to your teams the training objective of this approach. This could avoid any confusion of questioning, and remove apprehension.
Tools for assessing skills
Skills assessment can take different forms. Its result will remain unchanged: the development of an objective skills assessment.
The interview: the employee and his or her supervisor carry out an informal evaluation as part of a one-off or recurring oral exchange. This dedicated time encourages exchanges, and can sometimes allow people to speak freely on certain fears and subjects.
The skills test: ideal for testing the assimilation of new skills, it allows a precise and quantified evaluation. It is also an excellent way to analyze the quality of internal training and its understanding.
The 360° method: this is a complete assessment at 3 levels. It includes: a self-assessment, then a peer review and by the N+1.
The skills matrix: this clarifies the levels expected for a given position or profile. It assigns a level based on specific evaluation criteria. The competency matrix helps identify missing competencies and training needs.
Stafiz allows you to create skills assessment reports in relation to a given project. Each field is fully customizable. You can also build 360° reports by allowing your employees to self-assess.
Step 4: Create a Skills Development Plan
Filling gaps through training
The training plan lists all current and future training courses based on the needs expressed.
Training allows skills to be upgraded where gaps are found, individually and collectively.
They take the form of e-learning, mentoring, or sessions offered by external experts. Some training courses may also be pre-designed programs for obtaining certifications.
Encouraging knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing is essential within a company.
It can be formal through internal training, but also informal by facilitating exchanges within the company.
The use of skills management software
The training plan is an issue for skills management. Skills management software then brings together all the information to coordinate needs and planning.
Regular monitoring and flexibility remain essential. Monitoring employee progress and re-evaluating regularly will help you adjust plans in a meaningful way.
Here are 3 recommendations for proposing impactful skills management.
Stay flexible, as the needs of both the company and employees evolve.
Listen. Employees must feel confident enough to share their opinions, goals, and concerns.
Offer personalized routes. Each individual has his or her own needs and aspirations. You must offer solutions according to the strengths, weaknesses and desires of each person.
Skills management, which is essential in project management, improves team performance through optimal resource planning and better employee engagement.
Thus, skills management is beneficial to the company, but also to the employee.
More fulfilled and efficient thanks to an increase in skills, he will want to invest more.
However, it is essential to be flexible, attentive, and to offer personalized career development paths to your employees to keep them involved, all combined with an attractive salary.
Questions:
Good project management skills management must take into account the company's available skills. This involves two essential tools:
the competency framework, which lists the available competencies,
the skills matrix, which makes it possible to evaluate these within the company.
For effective talent management, it is necessary to draw up a realistic inventory that will allow you to anticipate needs.
In addition, flexibility and agility remain essential to be able to adapt to rapidly changing projects and market needs. Several solutions can be considered:
strengthen the offer of professional training,
call on subcontractors,
recruit
consider internal mobility.
The objective of skills management is to respond to all these issues.
There are three types of skills:
knowledge,
interpersonal skills, often associated with soft skills. It is a behavioral skill.
know-how, combined with hard skills. This is a technical skill.
The most effective method of skills management is the one that succeeds in finding the right balance between the needs of the company and the desires and aspirations of employees. Controlled skills management helps to develop the development of employees, thus strengthening their motivation and involvement.
