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In our other articles we have extensively discussed how skills work and how you can manage all settings related to skills as an Admin. In this article we show you how you can easily add skills to the skill set of your organisation.
How to add your own skills to your skill set
On the Skills page you will see 3 skill set by default. The top skill set is always in the name of your own organisation. In this skill set you can add your own skills, or import them from a Learned skill set.
When adding a new skill, a new screen will open. By typing in the 'Template' field, you create a skill based on a Learned skill. More on this later. You can also skip this field and add your own skill. You start with a name, a short definition and a skill category.
You can then subdivide your skill into different levels of expertise by formulating underlying behaviours. In short, what behaviour does someone show if he/she is skilled in this skill? Divide the behaviour over different levels to ensure that people can develop within a certain skill. Feedback is also given by choosing a certain level of the skill based on its behaviour.
How to import Learned skills into your skill set
Adding Learned skills to your own skill set works in much the same way as adding your own skills. You open the same popup in your skill set, only now you use the search field 'Template'. This search field allows you to search through the Learned skill sets you have activated. Both the 38 detailed interpersonal skills and the more than 100,000 skills are available as standard.
When importing a Learned skill, the behaviours are automatically filled in. You can adjust these per skill to your own liking, but you can also adjust the standard behavioural examples of the skill from the extensive skill database for all skills at once. The 'Edit levels' button on the Skills page allows you to adjust the default behaviour of the skill levels. The %SKILLNAME% component causes the skill name to be loaded.
Tip: With the 38 detailed Learned skills, 2 unique focus areas are always loaded for each skill level. You can edit this to your liking.
Best practices for working with skill levels
It is important to know that the set skill levels directly relate to the rating scale in the Learned review module. Therefore, keep the following in mind:
We recommend expressing each skill in multiple levels, for example on the 5 levels on which the Learned skills are also described. Try to express each skill level in about 2 relevant behaviours.
When linking the skill levels to the job/role profiles, we recommend not to link the first skill level. Because jobs/roles are linked at least at level 2, you can then review someone at level 1 if this person performs below expectations.
You can optionally choose to link skill level 1 to any profiles of trainees to indicate that they are not yet functioning at the level of the starting employees.
Skill levels can be expressed in behaviour, but also, for example, in certifications that can be obtained. If you work with certifications, we recommend that you add them to certain skill levels and combine them with the behaviours of that skill level.