Are you frequently resorting to last-minute hiring due to the absence of an up-to-date skill inventory system?
Are critical projects getting delayed due to unavailability of the right skills at the right time?
Do you find it challenging to identify training and development needs within your workforce?
If the answer to these questions is yes, it’s time to implement a skill matrix.
A skill matrix is a powerful tool that enables organizations to store and update workforce competencies in a centralized database. It allows them to assess current capabilities, identify skill gaps, and make informed staffing decisions.
Furthermore, a skill inventory enables firms to assess individual strengths and assign the best-fit talent to the right opportunities. This helps improve productivity and ensures timely project delivery. Therefore, a skill matrix plays a vital role in helping managers track and optimize workforce capabilities to deliver meaningful business outcomes.
In this article, we’ll dive deep into the skill matrix, exploring its components, benefits, and steps to create it effectively.
Let’s dive in.
What is a Skill Matrix?
A skill matrix is a structured tool used by organizations to map and assess the skills, expertise, and proficiency levels of their workforce. It provides a visual representation of employees’ competencies, allowing managers to identify strengths, skill gaps, and areas for development. At its core, the skill matrix consists of a table listing employees’ names or roles, as well as key skills relevant to their job or industry.
Moreover, each skill is assigned a proficiency score, making it easy for managers to evaluate expertise levels at a glance. Thus, the matrix serves as a centralized repository that enables companies to track employee skills, making it easier to plan workforce training, succession strategies, and recruitment efforts.
Now that we are aware of what a skill matrix, let’s understand its key purpose.
What is Skill Matrix Used For?
A skill matrix offers a comprehensive view of all the skills and competencies against roles, projects, and teams. It enables managers to understand whether their workforce has the necessary skills to complete a project successfully. Leveraging this invaluable insight, leaders can:
- Optimize team deployment
- Identify and bridge skills gaps
- Create effective training programs
- Devise targeted talent acquisition strategies
- Develop a succession planning strategy
- Enhance workforce agility
- Improve team efficiency
Thus, a skill matrix maximizes workforce potential, enables informed decision-making, boosts engagement, reduces employee turnover, and drives organizational success.
Now, Let’s jump to the next section, explaining its vital components.
Components of a Skill Matrix
Here’s a list of elements that should be included in a skill matrix to allocate tasks and responsibilities between team members better:
Employee Information
This section provides essential details about employees such as name, job title, role, department, team, years of experience, and reporting manager. This makes it easier to identify the best-fit employee for each task.
Skills & Competencies
The technical, functional, and soft skills required for each role or project are listed here. It helps managers evaluate the existing expertise and identify any skill gaps. Managers can further take corrective measures like training/upskilling to bridge gaps.
Read More: What is Skill Development? 10 Best Strategies to Build a Future-Ready Workforce
Employee Proficiency Levels
This part of the skill matrix defines each employee’s proficiency level by rating them as beginner, intermediate, and expert. This allows managers to determine who has the right expertise and experience to take up specific organizational roles.
Training Plans
This component lists skills that need improvement and courses or workshops to be conducted to bridge the gap. It also highlights training modes (in-person sessions, online courses, or on-the-job training), short and long-term upskilling timelines, and skill evaluation methods.
Read More: Top 10 Business Benefits of Training Scheduling Software
Certifications and Qualifications
Employees’ certifications, degrees, diplomas, and professional qualifications that validate their expertise in a given field are listed here. Moreover, certificates’ expiration and renewal dates are also mentioned here to ensure timely recertification.
Now that we’ve covered the components of a skill set matrix let’s understand it better with an example.
Skill Matrix Example
Let’s consider a scenario: a construction company is managing various projects, including quality control and site development. With a new project scheduled to start in two months, the company needs an expert team to ensure timely delivery while staying within budget.
For this, the project manager creates a skill matrix to assess engineers’ current expertise, spot skill gaps, identify training needs, and allocate resources effectively. This proactive approach ensures proper project planning, optimizes resource allocation, and helps identify any upskilling needs.
Here is a skill matrix for the scenario discussed above:
Proficiency level:
- 1 = No proficiency
- 2 = Beginner level
- 3= Intermediate level
- 4 = Advanced level
- 5 = Expert level
Interest level:
- 0 = No interest in applying this skill
- 1 = Interest in applying this skill
Having understood the skill matrix template, the following section clarifies the distinction between competency vs. skill matrix.
Skill Matrix vs. Competency Matrix
People generally think skill and competency matrices are the same, but that’s not true. A skill matrix visually represents employees’ skills, whereas a competency matrix helps map behavioral, interpersonal, and leadership qualities against technical expertise. Its grid format makes it easy to visualize competencies required for different roles and expected proficiency levels.
Let’s understand the key difference between these two:
| Components | Skill Matrix | Competency Matrix |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A visual representation of employees’ skills and proficiencies | A broader framework assessing employees’ knowledge, skills, and behaviors |
| Focus | Primarily focuses on technical or job-specific skills | Includes skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for a role |
| Purpose | Helps track skills, identify gaps, and plan targeted training | Evaluates overall capability, employee performance, and career progression |
| Evaluation Criteria | Skills are rated based on proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, expert, and advanced) | Assesses proficiency along with behavioral and cognitive competencies. |
| Usage | Used for workforce planning, task allocation, and training needs assessment | Used for performance evaluations, promotions, and leadership development |
| Scope | Limited to job-specific skills | Comprehensive, covering both technical and soft skills |
Now that we’ve distinguished between the two, let’s dive into understanding the key benefits of a skill matrix in the subsequent section.
Benefits of Using a Skill Matrix
A skill matrix is a valuable tool that helps organizations optimize workforce planning. Here are other significant benefits managers can’t miss:
Helps Identify Skill Gaps
A skill matrix provides a clear overview of existing capabilities versus the skills required for future projects. This helps identify missing skills and knowledge gaps and enables managers to take remedial action, such as upskilling existing employees or hiring a contingent workforce. Thus, the skill matrix ensures businesses have a future-ready workforce in a rapidly evolving environment.
Read More: What is a Contingent Worker? Examples, Benefits & Best Practices
Assists in Internal Mobility & Succession Planning
According to a Lever report, 67% of employees stated they would leave their jobs if their employer failed to provide opportunities for internal mobility.
This statistic clearly indicates that to retain employees, you need a succession plan in place. A skill matrix can prove indispensable here as it helps identify the best-performing employees for leadership roles. Moreover, it enables seamless internal mobility by mapping transferrable skills. Thus, it helps build a strong talent pipeline within an organization, reduces recruitment costs, and prevents high attrition.
Ensures Effective Resource Allocation
By leveraging a skill matrix template, managers can gain comprehensive visibility into the skills and expertise available within the organization. These insights help ensure that the right people with the right expertise are assigned to the task. It also prevents employee burnout by distributing workload efficiently, resulting in improved workforce morale and better project outcomes.
Read More: What is Resource Allocation, and Why is it Important?
Defines Clear Roles & Expectations
A well-structured skill matrix clearly defines what is expected from each role. This clarity helps resources understand their core responsibilities and performance expectations and reduces role overlaps and confusion. Moreover, it ensures that individual competencies are aligned with organizational goals, boosting accountability and transparency.
Promotes Objective Performance Appraisal
According to studies, 85% of employees would seriously consider quitting after an unfair performance assessment.
These numbers explicitly highlight the significance of following a precise structure to conduct unbiased performance evaluations. Utilizing a skill matrix, managers gain insights into employees’ abilities, skills, and competencies. It makes it easier forthem to assess employee performance objectively by recognizing individual contributions to project success, ensuring fair compensation.
Read More: 9 Effective Tips on Enhancing Employee Performance at Work
Facilitates Targeted Training Programs
Managers can utilize skill matrices to determine which employees require training and in what domains. Thus, they can implement personalized individual development programs (IDPs) to bridge the gap. This matrix also helps ensure that upskilling initiatives align with business needs and focus on high-impact skill development.
Improves Employee Productivity & Engagement
Managers can gain comprehensive visibility into employee skills and certifications using a skill matrix. It facilitates assigning tasks that match their expertise and interests, leading to high-quality output. Moreover, it also encourages self-improvement by highlighting skill gaps. As a result, this approach boosts employee productivity, fuels motivation, and strengthens loyalty.
Read More: 10 Effective Ways to Increase Employee Productivity in the Workplace
Given the rewarding benefits of a skill set matrix, let’s consider the mistakes a manager must refrain from while creating it.
Common Skill Matrix Mistakes to Avoid
While a skill matrix can substantially enhance your skill management strategy, there are key factors to consider when developing one. Let’s explore them below:
Overcomplicating the Skill Matrix
Overly detailed or convoluted skill matrices can make the information confusing for employees, project managers, and resource managers to understand. Consequently, they may struggle to find accurate insights and can extract inaccurate information. Hence, keeping it clear and concise is vital to maintaining clarity and precision.
Read More: What is Resource Manager? A Guide to Key Roles and Responsibilities
Relying on One Assessment Method
Relying solely on a single-skill assessment method lacks validation and may lead to flawed talent decisions. For example, self-assessment can be biased, and managerial assessment can be influenced by personal judgment. Therefore, combining multiple methods, such as peer reviews, performance data, & KPIs, can help develop a well-rounded skill matrix.
Failure to Link the Matrix to Other Business Systems
Failing to integrate the matrix with other existing systems, such as resource management tools, can make it challenging for managers to get a comprehensive view of employee development needs across the organization. This, in turn, leads to missed opportunities for upskilling, inefficient resource allocation, and gaps in workforce planning.
Emphasizing Irrelevant Skills
Organizations tend to list too many skills in a matrix, including those with little impact on business objectives. This creates unnecessary complexities and can even direct training efforts to non-essential skill areas. Thus, a skill matrix must be regularly updated to include only high-impact and relevant competencies.
Read More: 25 Business Objectives That Every Firm Must Measure for Success
Neglecting Regular Updates
Many organizations fail to update the skill matrix regularly, which causes skill gaps to go unnoticed. Neglecting frequent updates also results in inaccurate representations of employee capabilities, leading to wrongful decision-making. Hence, frequently reviewing and updating the matrix is essential to reflect new skills and capture the latest certifications.
Now that you know common mistakes to avoid, here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a precise skill matrix table.
How to Create a Skill Matrix?
The following is a quick rundown of developing an accurate skill matrix table:
Outline the Current and Future Skills Requirements
Start by listing the pertinent skills and core competencies required for a current and future project. For this, managers can utilize a resource management tool to view current and pipeline requirements, allowing them to assess workforce readiness to complete upcoming projects.
Additionally, it’s best to engage project managers, key stakeholders, and senior employees in the skill mapping procedure as they have experience working on similar projects and can guide better. This approach helps address skill gaps early and enables corrective measures like training or hiring to deliver projects in a timely manner
Read More: What is Resource Management? A Comprehensive Guide
Develop a Comprehensive Skills Rating System
This step involves creating a structured rating scale to assess employees’ skill levels effectively. Managers can choose from various options to rate the skills, such as the Likert scale, 0-3-point scale, or 5-point scale. This approach ensures consistency in evaluations, making comparing employees’ capabilities and tracking progress easier.
For example, on a 5-point scale, 1 represents a beginner, 2 indicates training received, 3 signifies the ability to perform tasks with supervision, 4 denotes expertise, and 5 reflects advanced individual proficiency. This structured evaluation framework helps in precise workforce planning and targeted skill development.
Assess Employees’ Current Skill Levels
With a rating system in place, managers can now evaluate team members’ existing skills. This can be done by combining different assessment methods like analyzing previous performance results, gathering the manager’s feedback, asking for self-assessments, and asking team members to rate each other’s skills.
By combining all these evaluation strategies, managers can gain an accurate understanding of their employees’ skills and level of expertise. Consequently, this leads to effective resource allocation, high-quality work, timely project delivery, personalized retraining, and upskilling plans to futureproof the workforce.
Read More: How Can Retraining/Upskilling Futureproof Your Workforce?
Evaluate Team Members’ Interest Level
Along with proficiency, assessing employees’ interests is also important. For this, managers can ask employees to self-rate themselves in each skill category to learn about their aspirations and gauge their interest levels. Using a simple “interested” or “not interested” indicator can help align their career growth with business goals.
For instance, in a consultancy firm, a business analyst may show Interest in learning data analytics tools such as Power BI or Tableau. If the organization plans to expand in this domain, investing in this particular employee’s training would be a win-win for both the individual and the company.
Compile and Visualize the Data in a Matrix
After gathering all the information, organize it into a structured skill matrix to view it effortlessly and take action accordingly. You can use a table format with employees’ names, skills, proficiency levels, and interest levels to visualize the data without any complexity.
Now, put the information into action by setting goals for what needs to be done. This may include identifying skill variances, assessing team strengths, training, and making staffing/training decisions. Lastly, organizations can use Excel spreadsheets or dedicated workforce management tools to create an interactive matrix that is easy to update and analyze.
Read More: What is Workforce Efficiency & How to Improve It?
Let’s jump to the next section, highlighting the role of resource management software in skill tracking.
How Does an Advanced Resource Management Tool Help in Skill Tracking?
SAVIOM’s next-gen resource management tool offers powerful skill-tracking capabilities to unleash the potential of the existing workforce. Here’s how:
- The tool’s advanced resource planner offers comprehensive visibility into employees’ expertise, experience, and availability across the enterprise, allowing for effective resource allocation.
SAVIOM’s All-in-One Resource Planner offers comprehensive visibility into employees’ expertise, experience, and availability across the enterprise.
- The multi-dimensional resource scheduler allows managers to assign, split, and reassign tasks with an easy drag-and-drop function.
- Its automated forecasting and capacity planning feature helps you predict future demands, identify capacity vs. demand gaps, and take proactive measures.
- The KPI forecaster provides detailed insights into metrics such as skill shortages, under/overutilization, and project vacancies. This enables managers to address gaps with upskilling/hiring and ensure optimal workload distribution.
SAVIOM’s KPI Forecaster provides insights into metrics such as skill shortages, under/overutilization, project vacancies, and people on the bench.
- With the tool’s real-time BI reports, managers can get invaluable insights into metrics such as utilization and availability for informed workforce planning.
- The software’s in-built competency matrix enables organizations to map employees’ proficiencies, skills, and interests, facilitating internal mobility, targeted training programs, and career growth opportunities
SAVIOM’s Competency Matrix enables firms to map, update, and track resource skills, qualifications, and competencies on a centralized platform.
Conclusion
A skill matrix is a powerful tool for assessing workforce competencies, identifying skill gaps, and improving productivity. Businesses can enhance talent mobility, upskilling initiatives, and long-term workforce planning by systematically identifying key skills, assessing proficiency levels, and continuously updating the matrix.
How do you currently track and manage employee skills in your organization?
The Glossary
Read More: Glossary of Resource Workforce Planning, Scheduling and Management
