|
Encyclopedia of Interventions for Performance Improvement
|
by Mourad Chirchi
|
According to the Wikipedia, skills management is “the practice of
understanding, developing and deploying people and their skills.” It
involves identifying the skills that go with certain jobs, the skills of
individual members of an organization (employees), and any gap
between the two.
Within the concept of skills management systems, a skill is
“a learned power of doing something competently,” (as defined by
Merriam Webster). Language skills and information technology skills
are two widely tracked skills in workplaces. Skills are defined in
terms of frameworks that list the ability to perform individual tasks
and the definitions of these tasks, along with scales for measuring
people’s ability to perform these tasks.
A skills management system, or SMS, is an online system that
identifies the skills of each organization member and each job
category. It is a database of skill sets that are assessed and updated
regularly through self-evaluation or at appraisal time. The data
provided by such system is then reviewed with a focus on the
extent to which a person’s skills are aligned to his or her job role
and business needs. Once this process is generalized across the
organization, people can monitor their progress towards their
professional goals, supervisors can understand the strengths and
weaknesses of those reporting to them, and management can
prioritize areas for skills development.
In addition, a management team can use a skills management
system on an organization-wide scale to determine which skills
the organization has, who has them, who needs them, and
develop strategies for addressing any gaps identified.
Skills management systems ultimately track the inventory
of capabilities within an organization much the same way as
other systems track other types of inventory, such as the
inventory of hardware, software and furniture, and allow
for similar types of analysis of the inventory.
The general concept of skills management goes by many
other names, including competency-based management,
capability management, human capital management, workforce
asset planning, and talent management. Note, however, that
each of these concepts has unique definitions that are slightly
different from one another.
Top
Use skills management systems in these instances:
- To align skills with current business needs. Skills management
gives an idea about the skills that exist within an organization. When
reading a report of these skills, individuals can consider how their
skills can meet organizational goals; managers can do the same
considering the issue from a unit-wide level. The reports on skills
management provides a structured and systematic way for assessing
the readiness of particular areas to address particular issues, and
to evaluate the capabilities and readiness of the current staff to
address upcoming needs with the skills available.
- In strategic planning, to align skills with future business needs.
In this case, organizations assess the gap between current skills and
those needed in the future.
- Locating and recruiting the right people, so teams can form
faster. This is the case when a new project arrives requiring a team
of people with specialized skills and talents, such as the ability
to work with certain software and technology, or communicate
in certain languages. An SMS can help management identify
people in the organization who already have the sought-after skills,
or could have them with some training. Managers just type the
sought-after skills into a search engine in the system and in a
moment, the system displays results with the names of “experts,”
and their skill profiles and contact information. If no suitable
candidates are provided among the results, then the same search
can be conducted with resumes in the database of job applicants
to locate potential candidates.
- Moving from centralized to tailor-made training. According
to Don Taylor, the strategic alliances director of InfoBasis, a
leader in SMS solutions, “[m]ost commonly, the SMS will help
[an organization] produce a training plan and, for each individual
within the system, an individual training plan.” Directly linking
training to identified skills gaps leads to a better targeting
of training resources.
- Following a merger or takeover. An SMS can help management
locate the skills present in a merged organization, when the management
team is not yet familiar with its new parts or the capabilities of the
additional staff.
- Meeting regulatory requirements. In many countries there are
laws and regulations on performance management and training.
Some countries require that organizations employ skills
management techniques to ensure equal access to training
opportunities. In South Africa, for example, companies are
required by law to complete and submit skills audit reports to
ensure that equal opportunities for skills development have been
provided to men and women. Other countries impose such rules
with the aim of establishing a clear and consistent process of
planning and assessing training and development needs, linking
the whole process to the goal of improving performance and
provision.
Further benefits of skills management systems include:
- Making appraisal and recruitment systems fairer and more
open by using the skills framework as a point of reference.
- Establishing a link between organizational and personal
objectives by highlighting the specific skills that are sought after.
- Providing a common vocabulary for discussing skills,
because the use of the system requires that singular terms
be used.
- Making members of an organization aware of the skills
their jobs require, and helping them identify any skills
gaps that they have.
- Providing members of an organization with a map
of the behaviors that will be valued and rewarded.
Top
To make sure it receives the full benefit of an SMS, organizations
should consider the following issues when implementing one:
- Which skills to include: “softer” behavioral skills, such as communication
and interpersonal skills or “hard” technical ones, such as using a particular
software? No clear answer exists. Certainly workers need technical skills
to perform well in a given job,. For example, each job category has a number
of key technical skills that workers need, such as information technology
skills needed by IT staff and medical knowledge needed by various
types of medical workers.
But workers also need other broader skills such as the ability
to work collaboratively with others and communicate. Such “softer”
skills become increasingly important as interacting with others
becomes a more significant component of the job, such as in
team leadership and management.
- For skills management systems to be effective, managers and
employees must both be actively engaged in their design
and implementation. Start by holding group briefings to explain
the process and its benefits for all parties involved. Continue
with training about how to optimally use the system.
- Watch out for these “gotchas:”
- The skills management effort becoming over-elaborate (by
over-specifying jobs in too much detail) and bureaucratic (having
too many levels of approval and involvement).
- The language used to describe skills—make sure that
everyone agrees with it and finds it to be acceptable. (Sometimes,
people are offended by the language used.)
- Failing to update the skills framework. Like most other
circumstances in organizations, the skills needed change over time.
Consider, for example, how the PC skills needed in jobs have
grown over the past decade. In other words, the skills needs
of organizations change over time and should be re-evaluated
regularly. At the least, organizations should review the list every
2 to 4 years. At the most, organizations should recreate the skills
lists every 5 to 7 years.
- Watch out for the description of soft skills. Make sure
that they reflect skills people can develop, not personality
traits over which people might have little control.
- Try to develop assessment and measurement systems
that leave as little to opinion as possible.
- The last issues to consider when implementing a skills
management system are those of privacy, freedom and
human rights. Although skills management systems have
the potential to help people work at their fullest potential,
they also have the propensity to have workers seen as
assets or property--resources in the most demeaning
sense of the word.
Top
Consider these examples of real-world uses of skills management systems.
Consider, first, the case of the British Army. Realizing that its long-term
success depended heavily on having highly skilled IT professionals, the
organization decided in 2001 to re-describe the skills of its Information
Systems professionals using the Skills Framework for the Information
Age. To classify the skills of its IT Professionals, the British Army
used the Web-based skills management application developed by
Infobasis: Enterprise Skills Infrastructure to, first, identify the skills
needed, next, assess the skills of its IT professionals, and last, to
analyze the report and determine how to proceed.
But skills management can also be used in nonprofit service
organizations. Consider the case of Shaw Trust, a UK-based charity
that provides employment services to over 60,000 disabled people.
The organization needed a better understanding of its 1,200 staff
members to deploy them more strategically. In 2005, it started
using Infobasis Enterprise Skills Manager in order to gauge
competency levels within the organization. In a couple of months,
it was able to see improvement in performance. Commenting on
the charity’s decision to extend the contract with Infobasis,
Juliet Adams, National Training Manager, describes what
happened: “The benefits to our staff have undoubtedly been
reflected upon our clients. By combining skills and capability
management with improved skills and management training,
we have more than doubled participation in training and
development activities across the organization. The introduction
of InfoBasis ESM 4.5 has helped us improve the development
and performance management of staff across the Trust.”
Top
1. Vaughan Waller, Locating your Skills Capital,
http://www.learningtechnologies.co.uk/magazine/article_full.cfm?articleid=92&issueid=11§ion=1
1. Bob Little, Do we need management systems?
http://www.trainingreference.co.uk/learning_management_systems/management_systems4.htm
1. infobasis.com
1. Darin E. Hartley, Talent Management Tools, ASTD’s Learning Circuits, April 2004, http://www.learningcircuits.org/2004/apr2004/hartley.htm
1. CIPD, February 2006, Performance management: an overview, http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/perfmangmt/general/perfman.htm
1. CIPD, August 2005, Competency and competency frameworks, http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/perfmangmt/competnces/comptfrmwk.htm
1. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skills_management
1. Donald Taylor, InfoBasis – Skills Management Methodology White Paper. 2005.
1. Bernd Novotny, Case Study – Skills Management, January 2001.
Top
List of interventions