A skills matrix for employees is a network map of the skills your workforce already has, or should ideally possess. Creating a skills database that updates itself as staff complete training courses is ideal. Using an employee skills matrix will allow you to see who has the skills to work on specific tasks at a glance. When curating a well-balanced workforce, it’s essential to arm your employees with both general and specific skills. Not everyone will reach the same level of expertise, and when you need mastery over a particular skill, you need to know who tops the charts. Sometimes, a project might require fair competency at several tasks, or you might need three different people with expertise in three different skills. Whatever the case, having a skills matrix showing the detailed competencies of every employee will help you choose the best person for any project.
Benefits of skills matrix building
Having a picture of the skills pool you can draw from has immense benefits across the board. When choosing members for a team or project, you can immediately see who is best suited for the job based on their available skillset.
Choosing people for tasks based on their skills is a fair and equitable way of sharing responsibility and shows that you value each team member’s skills. As best practice, your skills matrix should focus on choosing the best person for every job. This has several benefits.
By including the category of none in an employee skills matrix, an organisation may mean to indicate that they are moving into a new area of endeavour and developing new teams and skills. This is especially useful for companies that want to hire internally. Of course, these skill levels are open to alteration depending on the needs of your organisation.
Team cohesion
Putting people in roles they dislike or don’t feel qualified to perform breeds resentment and self-doubt. Team spirit and productivity will suffer as a result. It’s also bad for team cohesion if someone fills a role that other team members don’t think they’re qualified to carry out. Having a skills matrix to point to as the reason you made your choices allows everyone to understand that your motivations are above board and not based on favouritism or company politics.
Individual growth
People tend to stay in jobs where they feel appreciated. Offering ongoing training is investing in your current employees and showing that you will still find them valuable in the future. This makes each member of your workforce feel like an integral part of your team. Mastering new skills and taking on new roles offers exciting challenges and personal growth, improving job satisfaction across the board.
Employee retention
Since they have visible evidence of your appreciation, employees are less likely to jump ship at the first sign of opportunity elsewhere. Continuing skills training also gives them a tangible path towards promotion, which helps raise your retention rate. A ‘promote-from-within’ culture allows your workforce to feel confident that hard work and experience will pay off for them in your company.
Productivity
As skills improve, so does proficiency. Adding more skills to each employee’s repertoire will allow them to complete more tasks with less effort. This lowers their stress, improves their outlook and makes them less likely to look for a different job. Rewarding productivity (as sales roles often do) is an excellent incentive for employees to learn new skills they see as benefitting their work.
As you can see, building a skills matrix and giving your employees additional skills benefits everyone in your company. Equipped employees are happier employees – who perform better, complain less and stay longer. It’s a win-win scenario for everyone!
Skills matrix examples
Now that you know the benefits of creating a skills matrix, you might still be wondering what it looks like. We’ve added knowledge, skills and competencies examples below to help you grasp what a matrix can do for you.
For each skill that an employee in a given role should possess, you can rate their aptitude from ‘beginner’ to ‘expert’. You can rate from 1–5, 1–10, or use words like beginner, advanced, competent, expert and trainer.
The important thing is to set clear standards for each of your ratings and consistently apply them across every job role and skill set. Having a visual representation of each employee’s skill level will help you place and promote individuals more efficiently. It also allows you to apply the specific online training programme you need to address any skills gaps you might find.
1. Skills matrix for sales reps
Sales isn’t as straightforward as it can sound. It requires a variety of hard and soft skills that contribute to the overall success of each rep. Creating a sales skills matrix will help you determine which skill contributes the most to productivity and help you raise the proficiency of anyone who seems to be lagging. For sales reps, your skills matrix might include:
- Email sales: Written communication and reading comprehension.
- Phone sales: Verbal communication, empathy, ability to listen.
- Follow-up: Knowing the ideal interval before next contact, ice-breaking, being personable.
- Cold-calling: Being personable, low-pressure tactics, rapport building.
- Referrals: Networking, group-building, reciprocation.
- Value proposition: Communicating the benefits of the product to potential customers.
- Active listening: Understanding the customer’s pain point, acknowledging needs.
- Problem-solving: Finding unique solutions, innovative thinking, finding a way to please the customer, adjusting to a more digitally-driven sales climate.
Your matrix might rate each employee on general mastery of a skill, broken down into component strengths to assess which skills add most to productivity. Is your one amazing cold-call rep weak on timing but extremely personable? How much better would their productivity be if they could increase their ‘ideal interval’ skills too?
2. Leadership skills matrix
A leadership skills matrix may look different according to the specific needs of your organisation. You may need someone with specialised skills to lead a particular team or organise certain projects, but base-level leadership skills should look the same across your company. These skills are vital to managing both people and tasks:
- Project management: Prioritising, estimation, delegation.
- Time management: Arranging by deadline, accurate completion estimates, flexibility.
- Negotiation: Adjusting schedules, getting more help, making your case, extending deadlines.
- Task assignment: Giving tasks to qualified personnel, snap decisions, evaluation of progress.
- Employee management: Understanding who is best for a job, impartial judgment, reciprocated loyalty.
As you assess each of your employees for leadership skills, it’s important to nurture areas of strength and address places of weakness. Sometimes, those who are successful in a role compensate for a weak skill by being great at something else. This can work in the short term but lead to breakdown once you require more from the person filling the role. Periodic assessment and ongoing training can help address these inequalities to give you a better-balanced skills pool.
3. IT skills matrix
Again, depending on your particular needs, the skillset of your ideal IT candidate may vary. However, there are certain core skills you’ll want every IT employee to possess. You can customise any of the examples below to fit your company’s unique requirements.
You may have your own list of skills that you want your IT staff to possess, but common ones include Python, Javascript, Six Sigma, Microsoft Office Suite, hardware networking and repair, and customer service. Each of these skills might be necessary to troubleshoot your e-commerce store, assist customers with account problems, fix your internal network and other vital roles within your organisation.
How to create a skills matrix
So now you know what a skills matrix is and what it should look like. But how do you get started when trying to build one?
It’s best to start with a pre-existing template to save yourself time and trouble. A basic training matrix template will help you arrange your skills list into a chart. You need room for the employees you’re rating, their skills and their rating on each. Then, assign lessons based on the areas that need addressing and update each employee’s competency rating as they begin to improve. If you are evaluating productivity before and after assigning ongoing training, note this too.
You can also create a skills matrix template that organises by the skills required for each position to see how your employees stack up to their job roles. Good skills management software will let you change views with a few clicks, so you can evaluate either by position or by the employee. This will help you see the big picture and focus on improvement rather than perfection.
Looking at the technical skills and competencies of your employees will allow you to make better hiring and promotion decisions. Instead of hiring by general skillset or perceived competency, you’ll know exactly what you need to balance out each team. You can also identify opportunities to train someone who already works for you to fill a new role or take on added responsibility.
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Skills matrix software
First, the right software is critical. You need to consolidate information, track and manage skills and see everything you need with a few simple clicks. That’s where we have you covered.
If you find gaps in your employee’s skill set, or simply want to level up your team’s skills, Lessonly by Seismic can help. Our enablement software can provide continuous training and coaching for all customer-facing teams. With Lessonly by Seismic, trainers and managers can easily create, deliver and track training on key skills for entire teams and individual employees so everyone has what they need to succeed. Our powerful solution also enables team members to apply newly learned knowledge and hone skills through interactive practice exercises. See how teams train faster with Lessonly by Seismic.