skills repository: everything you need to know

The forward-looking managementof jobsand skills(now called joband career management) is based on the knowledge of the skills required for the company's performance. Nearly 60% of companies have a repository, creating it is the first step of a measurable and agile management policy of skills .

How to make it an effective strategic management tool? Where to start?

We present you all the steps to build this essential base.

What is a repository of skills ?

A reference framework of skills is a matrix that describes precisely what is expected of an employee in the performance of his or her activity in terms of knowledge (savoirs), skills (savoir-faire) and skills (savoir-être). Depending on the level of granularity chosen, these expectations can be described at the job, benchmark job or trade level. 

How to structure your repository of skills ?

Structuring the nomenclature requires a method in order to avoid the gas factory. We recommend integrating between 8 and 15 skills technical, behavioral and transversal skills per job.  

The 4 best practices to structure your tool

Many people have to restart their tool because its design has not been optimized. Here are 4 best practices to follow:

1. Create your central tool with several interlocutors. Involving business sponsors, business experts and managers contributes to the adhesion of the greatest number.
2. Anticipate emerging skills . Putting training on the move and overcoming the obsolescence of certain faculties requires keeping an eye on the skills of your sector.
3. Describe each skill in a consistent manner. We recommend using an action verb, a context and an object to standardize the approach and to create bridges between several businesses in the organization.
4. Opt for a hybrid approach. Structure the assets of the employees with the project committee made up of HR, business experts, Business Unit managers, and bring up the data on the skills needed to do the job from the employees themselves.

We recommend additional resources:

• How to avoid the gas factory.
• How to create a repository from A to Z
• How to make the repository more reliable?

How to save time in the development of your instrument?

To save time in developing your instrument, we recommend using the many external resources:

• The Répertoire Opérationnel des Métiers et des Emplois(ROME): the operational directory of trades and jobs, built by Pôle Emploi, is a valuable source: based on the jobs that exist within your company, you will find trade sheets and the associated skills . This is an invaluable time-saver for building your central tool.
• Job observatories: within the branches, the observatories are in charge of carrying out studies and analyses of jobs and providing companies with avenues for reflection. We have listed all the job observatories in this free access file .
• The OPCOs: the operators of skills provide job descriptions and lists of key qualifications. Do not hesitate to contact your branch OPCO. Examine these resources to complement the collaborative work with your solution provider.
• The ESCO classification of the European Commission lists approximately 13,500 skills of 3000 jobs. Here is the link to the ESCO reference system
• The Ministry of Labor's partners are grouped in a page dedicated to employment resources.

Our page "The different categories of skills" will allow you to know which data to include in your catalog. 

What are the benefits of a skills repository?

The creation of this major tool for the Strategic Workforce Planning The creation of this major HR tool goes hand in hand with the achievement of several objectives for HR players: employees, managers and HR teams (HRD, job managers, career management managers, training managers, etc.) and social partners.

Benefits of the repository for employees :

By describing the company's business environment, this central tool of the Strategic Workforce Planning By describing the environment of the company's businesses, this central tool of the company's management is used to estimate what the company needs in terms of know-how, in order to function and perform well. How is it a management tool?

• A better knowledge of one's strengths and areas for improvement: the levels of mastery on the skills expected offer visibility on the apprehension of the job of the employees. They can thus be actors of their own development.
• Continuous updating of his or her level of mastery: to evaluate the levels reached, the employee goes through an initial self-assessment. This can then be completed by taking into account the assessment of managers and colleagues, thus giving the employee a third-party opinion.
• Implementing an adapted strategy of Job and Career Management: all about this evolution since the Strategic Workforce Planning with our Page Jobs & Skills Management.
• Identify business bridges to shape an appropriate internal mobility or recruitment program. See our use case "Mapping and Internal Mobilities".
• Objectivize your compensation policy and your annual reviews.
• An opportunity to take ownership of internal opportunities : the employee can see the career paths and career bridges towards which he or she can move.

Thanks to the company's job directory, the employee can identify, among his or her current skills, the skills that can be mobilized towards other jobs and the qualifications to be acquired. For its part, the company benefits from a map showing the career paths and the business gateways.

The dynamic matrix of skills acts as a guide for internal trajectories.

The benefits of the framework for managers :

• A performance management lever: the performance of an employee comes from several sources, including the good adequacy of the level of skill of an individual within a business. Thus, the internal nomenclature makes it possible to explain and manage individual and collective performance.
• Individual adaptation of objectives : a manager now focuses on rational factors of performance and encourages the development of individual skills . The objectives are now more adapted to each person, resulting in a better individualization of the relationship with each team member.
• A lever for internal recruitment: all the assets sought are visible in an"Internal Talent Marketplace". Designed as a catalog of skills that can be mobilized for projects or permanent jobs, this platform gives the opportunity to make resource allocation more fluid. Beyond the level of skill , the manager will also be able to visualize the level of appetence of the employee to develop the skill which is the subject of the internal recruitment.

Benefits of the repository for the HR team:

• A pillar of Job and Career Management: the skills base is used to estimate what the company needs to maintain its performance. It is the answer to the "description of the economic environment" and the impact on the company's business of the Jobs & Skills Management that our partner Implid describes in his article"the lever of sustainable performance". The matrix gives a precise diagnosis of the skills mastered and the qualifications at risk by profession, populations, seniority...
• A source of rationalization for training programs : for a long time subject only to the orders of managers, training needs now benefit from reliable data. At the individual and collective level, the areas of skills that are in need of training are identified and then weighted during career committees to establish priorities. 
• A first step towards Tactical workforce planning: the planning of resources in the short or medium term consists of integrating business scenarios and breaking down the skills according to 4 areas.

What are the areas of skills to be integrated into your tool?

We recommend that you include 4 areas of skills in your tool:

1. The skills at risk. Learn more about"The risk of loss of skills "
2. The skills of the future. Our use case"Dealing with uncertainty" addresses this topic.
3. The skills transversal. They are at the origin of mobilities : "skills transversal and mobilities
4. The skills in need of development. How to detect them? Our article"Identifying the needs of skills" answers them.

The new tool becomes a lever for arbitration between internal recruitment, outsourcing or external recruitment.