Skills framework as a strategic tool

Technological innovations and socioeconomic changes are following each other at an increasingly rapid pace. They also bring with them new and complex issues. A person's experience, degree or job title less and less guarantees whether they can handle such issues. Often a certain talent or skill is required to take something by the horns. However, the race on talent makes available talent scarce and what someone can do well today doesn't matter tomorrow. With a skills-based approach, you focus on what skills you already have, where you can readily adapt them, and how to keep your workforce's talent up to date to keep up with the constantly changing world. You need a clear skills framework for this. You can read how to set this up in this blog by Ernst-Jan.

Whereas degrees and traditional job descriptions focus primarily on what someone once performed and experienced, skills focus on what someone can do now. This is exactly why organizations are now increasingly turning to a skill-based approach, where the focus is on skills that are needed by the job and employees now. By plotting skills in a skills framework, it becomes clear who has mastered which skills, which skills are sufficient and where there are "weak areas": the so-called skills gaps. This allows you to make strategic choices for targeted skills development among your employees.

A time-consuming gem

Despite the fact that designing, creating and completing such a skills framework is an enormously time-consuming and costly task, organizations find this investment more than worth it. Next Learning Valley, together with the Technical University of Twente, investigated how to build such a skills framework and summarized this in an advisory report.

Identify, measure and apply

Based on extensive scientific research, it appears that three aspects are crucial in establishing a skills framework:

• Skills identification
• Skills measurement
• Application of skills in the organizational context

In the identification (1) of skills, you collect relevant workplace information that is then clustered and classified into actual skills. Based on this, a rating-scale (2) is established with clear (review) criteria, which is used to measure and assess someone's skill-level (read: how "good" is someone at this skill?). Finally, skill requirements are specified at the career level (a middle manager possesses skills at substantially different levels than a CEO or someone on the shop floor) and you evaluate how an employee applies a particular skill in relation to what the organization intends. This provides a clear basis for next steps around decision making: assigning employees to certain places where their skills are needed or, conversely, focusing on employee development opportunities.

4 methods, because every organization is different

Because every organization is different and has individual needs, we and our university partner have described four methods for each aspect that will help you identify, measure and evaluate the application of skills. The methods differ in degree of time and cost investment: from a very smooth, user-friendly method to a very precise variant in which you take ample time to further build your skills framework.

This blog is not an advisory report

In this blog, we've only hinted at the insights from the advisory report. Want to use the advisory report as you build your skills framework? Let's look together at how we can harness the potential of your workforce and drive the growth of your organization. Contact us to request the advisory report. We'd be happy to come and explain it to you.

A shout-out to Isabel and Janine

The Internet is full of initiatives, good practices and scientific literature surrounding skills frameworks. But how to set up such a skills framework in a scientifically sound way was also a mystery to us until this advisory report. Next Learning Valley gave this assignment to Isabel Hempel and Janine Brinkmann as part of their master's degree in Educational Science and Technology at TU Twente. They have delivered scientific excellence in the form of the advisory report, which also contains four practical methodologies for setting up a skills framework. The course HRD and Technology in a Live Context, from which they drew up this report in collaboration with us, was completed with a 9! Isabel, Janine and your teacher Dr. Bas Kollöffel: thank you very much! You have provided the L&D profession (again) with fantastic insights and good practices!