How it works

Bringing workforce planning into a skills-based level of assessment requires cataloging the skills required by the positions to be included, identifying the availability of those skills in the current workforce, determining future needs, and creating a gap analysis to reveal the requirements for subsequent skills acquisition and development. Skills are defined as the ability to use knowledge in the successful completion of a task. Examples include problem-solving, collaboration, use of a tool, etc.  

looks_oneCreate a detailed skills taxonomy

A skills taxonomy defines, measures, and organizes all relevant skills into a hierarchy. This is created in one of four primary ways:  

1. Reviewing the job descriptions for all targeted roles and extracting the skills required in each into a database. This should provide most of the skills currently existing across the organization. 
   
   
2. Reviewing job listings from social networks and identifying the skills noted in positions with job titles similar or the same as those used within the company.  
   
   
3. Purchasing access to an existing skill taxonomy and selecting those relevant for targeted jobs.
   
   
4. Leveraging the taxonomy or "ontology" that is available in an existing HR Information System (HRIS) or Talent Management system (TMS) and selecting those associated with each role in the organization.