5 Characteristics That Define the Modern Skills Matrix
A few weeks back we explored the 4 technological limitations that spell the end for the traditional, Excel-based skills matrix (you can check out the full article here). And while the old way may be gone for good, the skills matrix itself isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – it’s too ingrained in the way HR professionals, managers, and project leaders operate on a day-to-day basis. However, as organizations seek to modernize the way they make workforce planning decisions, tools like the skills matrix need to evolve to keep up.
This week we’re examining the 5 characteristics that define a modern approach to building skills matrices. These matrices need to be built to handle the growing demands of modern business and able to arm businesspeople with access to insights about the skills and competencies of their people. What’s more, they also need to be flexible and able to scale as a business grows. Let’s take a look at the 5 characteristics that we’ve identified as critical components to building a truly modern skills matrix.
Tightly Integrated
Tying individual skills matrices back to a single, centralized repository for skills is a critical requirement for a modern skills matrix. Without the ability to pull information from a trusted, up-to-date data source, the overall utility of a skills matrix to an organization is severely limited.
Dynamic
As organizations seek to embrace data and analytics as a key factor in human capital decision-making, the ability to quickly and easily update a skills matrix to reflect changing organizational needs will be critical. A modern skills matrix should give the user the ability to dynamically control the people, skills, and proficiency levels to be analyzed in each visualization.
Automatically Updated
A modern skills matrix simply cannot rely on periodic, manual data entry for upkeep. Gone are the days when a one-off skills matrix was “good enough”. As skills matrices become an increasingly important part of an organization’s operational decision-making and strategic planning processes, ensuring that the data being displayed is accurate and up to date will become a critical concern.
Consistent
As organizations roll out broader skills management initiatives, the need for managers and executive leadership to speak a common language around skills will become increasingly essential. The modern skills matrix should be flexible enough to provide unique insights into individual departments or teams, while delivering a consistent layout, look and feel, and user experience, which will allow for effective cross-departmental communication, collaboration, and analysis.
Highly Scalable
Scalability should be at the top of mind for every decision-maker when it comes to selecting software solutions. The rapidly changing technological and business landscape means it is more important than ever before to leverage modern, cloud-based solutions that can grow and evolve with the needs of your business. The modern skills matrix should be able to easily add new people and skills, change proficiency definitions to define thresholds, and seamlessly handle large volumes of data so you can expand the scope of your deployment without starting from scratch.
There you have it, the 5 characteristics that, taken together, define what a modern approach to building scalable skills matrices would look like. If you’re interested in learning more about a powerful alternative to the traditional approach to skills matrices, check out our new whitepaper The Modern Skills Matrix: A New Take on a Classic Tool where we introduce a new way of thinking about building integrated, scalable skills matrices.