Introduction
We all know how hard it is to keep any data updated manually in any system. An update of skills data is not an exception. It is even harder to maintain than some other systems. We all want to have our banks update our accounts in real time. If the bank has not updated our money status, we will certainly contact the bank and sort it out. Such pressures rarely occur with organization skills data. Still, it would be a great advantage to have updated and even real-time skills data available.
Employee skills data refers to any skills that they have, such as software development, marketing, or creative skills. In general, the skills data are associated with an indication of the skill level; one star indicates a lower skill level, and five stars the highest skill level. Often employees can also indicate what they would like to learn, even if they may not yet have the skills. Skills data is needed across the companies in various functions such as sales, human resource management, project management, and peer-to-peer activities.
For a complete guide on skills management, check our blog post: Skills management strategy: All you need to know
The benefits of updating skills data for businesses
There are several reasons why up-to-date skills data is relevant for businesses.
- Consultancy vendors can find in real time who can develop the project they are selling to the customer.
- Employees can easily find peer support for projects they carry out for the client. In customer projects, it is not uncommon for experts to receive requirements to implement new tasks with new technologies. With the help of the skills database, they can easily seek peer support.
- Human resource (HR) managers will get skill analytics at the company level that will support company strategy and business development.
- Project managers can easily and accurately resource projects that are either starting or already ongoing.
The uphill battle: Obstacles to update of skills
Managers might really feel the skills update to be an uphill journey. Despite the usefulness of the updated skills data, they face many obstacles why it is not easy to keep updated. Below are some examples.
Complex update process
Often, the skills data is stored in a system that is not used daily in the organization. The tool might be a separate HR system that you need to log in once or twice a year. The first obstacle is to remember where to find the tool, whether it is a cloud-based instance so you need to remember its address, or whether it is an on-premises solution and you need to install it on your laptop.
If you find the tool, the next obstacle is to remember the username and password. If you are lucky the system uses the single sign-on (SSO) and you can use your regular company IDs.
The next step is to find the actual place in the system navigation where you can update the skills. This may sound simple, but some big HR-systems have many functions and various structures, so finding the right place can take time. After you have located the correct place the update of the skills might take a surprisingly big portion of your time. Even smaller companies can have hundreds of different skills listed in the system. You need to find those skills that apply to you, add them to your skills list, and maybe also evaluate your level of proficiency in that skill as well as your enthusiasm to learn it.
Entering the skills data
Choosing skills and their levels is not always straightforward. For example, consider the skill of “communication”. There are hardly any jobs in the world that don’t require any communication skills. How should you measure its level? If you are a software engineer, you may be skilled in communicating with the team members and customers. On the other hand, your colleague working in marketing can have special training in written and public communication. How should you take this into account when expressing your level of communication skills?
Organizational culture hinders update of skills
There are many ways in which a company culture can restrict employee skills management. Cultural reasons can be also the hardest to overcome because they consist of many unspoken rules and behaviors that are so built-in in the workforce that it is hard for anyone, even managers, to question or change them.
The lack of a learning culture is one of the biggest reasons why the workforce is not updating their skills data. If everyone’s knowledge is static without major changes, it is hardly any benefit to list those skills or use time to update them. If people resist usage and learning new technologies, it also prevents them from learning new skills and there is no need to update them regularly.
There can be also a culture of communication from top management that does not encourage the learning and updating of skills. It can be as simple as managers not communicating enough about the importance of skills management. Also, if knowledge of skills is not utilized in daily work it does not make sense to maintain information of skills. Skills development and management also benefit only when you systematically do that and the longer term. If the company is mostly interested in short-term financial results, it might not have the patience to invest in skills management.
Lack of awareness
One of the simplest reasons why the employees are not updating their skills is that they are simply not aware that they should update their skills, and more importantly, why they should update them. If you do not have a clear understanding of who needs skills information, why, and what the benefits are, you most likely just fail to update skills, even if asked to do so. So be sure to effectively communicate the purpose for the skills update.
How often you should require updates of the skills data?
You may wonder how often you need to update skills to keep them useful. Some skills develop very quickly, and you need these skills for your employees’ skills capacity and use. The better you know your employees’ skills and the more confident you are that they are currently up to date, the better the overall picture will be for decision-making. For example, think about the current development and needs of generative AI skills. They are evolving rapidly, and if you only update these skills once a year, you are a year behind everyone else.
The edX 2023 survey found that “executives believe that nearly half of the skills that exist in today’s workforce, wont’t be relevant in 2025”. This emphasizes the importance of understanding the skills of the workforce rapidly and ensuring that the workforce is adequately trained for the new skills.
Guidelines for updating skills data
I can not give you a simple rule on how often you should update the skills data, but it depends on the industry, company size, and business type. Here are some perspectives to help you consider your own needs.
- Quarterly updates are needed for fast-paced industries for example the technology industry. This pace is adequate to stay agile also as techniques become outdated and replaced with better technology.
- Twice a year or annual updates can be sufficient if the industry is relatively stable. It may be difficult to find an example of an entire industry that doesn’t change much, but some administrative tasks in the public sector or healthcare can be considered relatively static, as well as insurance processes such as underwriting or claims processes.
- Event-driven updates can be triggered e.g. by the introduction of new technologies, company reorganization, or mergers and acquisitions. Such events can cause massive skills data updates in a short period. An event-driven model might be the worst choice to use if the change is rapid and there is no preparation for such a task. Moreover, even with the right tools updating all the skills in a short period ties up a lot of resources.
- Continuous self-reporting is the ideal way in industries that heavily use the skills data of their employees across the organization. The industries that often benefit from continuous self-reporting of skills are for example technology and IT, digital marketing and advertising, creative industries, fintech, research, and startups. Many of these industries offer consultancy services and their best choice is the continuous self-reporting.
Real-time update of skills
If your goal is real-time employee skills management, make sure you choose the right tool. It should support effortless skills creation, updating, and management. With real-time skills management, you want your employees to update their skills themselves and frequently. You can’t delegate this task to managers because it would be inefficient and undermine performance.
That’s why you must ensure that employees have easy access to the tool. Moreover, its usability should be at the level required for real-time updates. Skilby is one tool that targets competency-driven organizations that want to manage competency management in real-time.
Conclusion
While skills data can be difficult to maintain, finding the right tool that provides sufficient automation and support for continuous self-reporting can improve business performance. Skills are becoming more important in future working environments, and various company functions, such as sales, HR, and project management and employees themselves require up-to-date skills data. Moreover, in today’s fast-paced world skills are becoming outdated, and new skills are emerging in the time frame of months which makes skills management in real-time a necessity in skill-centric organizations.