In the first part of our talk about skills audits, we created a picture of what is a skill audit and the benefits of a skill audit for organizations and leaders. Now, it is time to provide more detailed recommendations as to how a skills audit should be conducted.
Implementing a skills audit strategy can be easier than first imagined. In fact, there is no better way to ensure an ideal employee job fits better than a well-developed skills audit.
Generally, a skills audit comprises three main stages:
- Allocating obligations and responsibilities among the skills audit participants.
- Defining what skills and capabilities each employee must possess, preferably by job role.
- Deciding on a tool and method to conduct, collect, and analyze the information the skills audit provides, which often involves a detailed skills matrix to map out required competencies.
Allocating Responsibilities
One of the biggest mistakes made by managers in organizations is when they ignore the importance of their own and others’ responsibilities. In fact, defining responsibilities in skills audit is neither difficult nor costly. At the same time, it is through an effective distribution of roles and responsibilities that managers and employees participating in the skills audit can guarantee the efficiency and validity of its outcomes.
Within any skills audit, we usually define three groups of roles:
- Administration: skills administrators are central to any skills audit; they can operate individually or as a team of skills experts.
- Management: managers play a double role in skills audits – they monitor the way the audit impacts their subordinates and, at the same time, have their skills evaluated by chief managers.
- Employees: workers are the target population in any skills audit.
Defining the Skills and Capabilities Each Employee Must Possess
Once the responsibilities and roles are defined, auditors must determine the skills and capabilities each employee must possess. These are actually the criteria used by managers to judge the effectiveness and skillfulness of each employee. In addition, we have found that building the skills framework around job roles is a good way to start.
Each organization must develop a unique skills framework that reflects its business orientation, strategic objectives, and competencies. The benefits of having a skills framework are obvious. Organizations that have a skills framework, also:
- Develop a better understanding of the required capabilities and skills needed to meet their strategic objectives.
- Can help employees and managers develop a shared idea of how an “ideal employee job role” fit looks like.
- Enable a more powerful and empowered workforce.
- Rationalize skills and competencies to enhance the quality of the recruitment and selection process.
In order to develop an exclusive skills framework, organizations need to make two essential steps:
- Define the job roles and tasks associated with the job title – write down the range of skills and capabilities required to perform each task.
- Link these defined roles to tasks – assign a set of required skills to each task, thus completing the skills matrix.
Next, managers and leaders can switch to developing a skills measurement system
Honestly, no measurement system is perfect. Simultaneously, no system is universal. Organizations must develop a skill assessment program that fit in the unique conditions of their performance.
Conducting the Skills Audit
- Employees can evaluate themselves and their skills. It is always better to set a deadline for self-appraisals.
- Then managers can evaluate their employees and compare the results of their analysis and employee self-assessment. This combined evaluation is a critical part of comprehensive skills tracking.
- A tool can be as simple as an excel spreadsheet using emails, or as efficient as a skills database meant for this purpose, supporting robust skills tracking and analysis.
In conclusion, the goal of workforce planning using a skills audit is to ensure that your organization can achieve its mission by having the right people with the right skills in the right places at the right times. In the next article, we will go through the step-by-step implementation and analysis of a skills audit.
Read the final part: Analyzing Your Audit
FAQ
How do you implement a skills audit step by step?
Implement a skills audit in three stages: first, allocate responsibilities among administrators, managers, and employees. Second, define the skills and capabilities required for each job role. Third, select the tools and methods to collect, analyze, and report on the audit data.
What roles are needed to run a skills audit?
Three role groups are essential: administrators who serve as central skills experts and coordinate the process, managers who evaluate their teams while also being evaluated themselves, and employees who are the primary assessment population. Each group must understand their responsibilities before the audit begins.
How do you build a skills framework for an audit?
Define each job role and its associated tasks, then document the specific skills required to perform each task. Link roles to tasks and assign required competencies, completing a skills matrix that reflects your organization's unique business orientation and strategic objectives.
What makes a good skills measurement system?
A good skills measurement system fits the unique conditions of your organization rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach. It should be based on your skills matrix, support both self-assessment and manager evaluation, and produce data that is accurate enough for objective decision-making.
How do employee self-assessments fit into a skills audit?
Employees evaluate their own skills against defined competency criteria, ideally within a set deadline. Managers then independently assess the same employees and compare both evaluations. This combined approach produces more accurate and complete results than relying on either perspective alone.
Should you use spreadsheets or dedicated software for skills audits?
Spreadsheets work for small, simple audits but become unwieldy as organization size grows. Dedicated skills management platforms like SkillsDB are purpose-built for collecting, analyzing, and reporting on skills data at scale, delivering faster and more reliable results.
Why is a skills framework organized by job role effective?
Organizing by job role creates direct alignment between skills requirements and actual work responsibilities. It gives employees and managers a shared understanding of what ideal performance looks like and ensures the audit measures competencies that genuinely matter for each position.
What is the goal of workforce planning through skills audits?
The goal is to ensure your organization achieves its mission by having the right people with the right skills in the right places at the right times. Skills audits provide the data foundation that makes this level of strategic workforce alignment possible.
How does a skills audit improve recruitment and selection?
A skills audit rationalizes the competencies needed for each role, giving recruiters clear criteria to evaluate candidates against. This replaces subjective hiring with data-driven selection, improving the quality of new hires and reducing the cost of bad fits.
What does skills tracking add to the audit process?
Skills tracking turns a one-time audit into an ongoing capability by monitoring how employee competencies evolve over time. It enables organizations to measure training effectiveness, track development progress, and maintain continuous alignment between workforce skills and business needs.
How do you ensure skills audit results are actionable?
Make results actionable by linking them directly to business objectives. Use the skills matrix to identify specific gaps, prioritize development by strategic impact, and create targeted training plans with measurable goals. Data without a clear connection to business outcomes is just noise.