The Skills Matrix

Power source farm or freedom prison

No one is the oracle and going to know everything. If your team is structured right though someone should know something related. Therefore, there shouldn’t be a need to mess with the unknown. But if there is a glitch in the workforce how would you know it’s there until it’s too late? And then you’re left with the choice of the blue pill and bliss ignorance of your gap in the workforce or the red pill with harsh knowledge of the added expense to draft someone in quickly.

Here comes in the Skills Matrix. A quick asset to:

• Understand the current skills and experience within your team
• Identify the skill gaps, where your team may be lacking skills and experience
• Find the single point of failures, where you are relying on one person to complete critical tasks
• Plan the way forward when trying to introduce new skills or approaches to your team
• Restructure your team to improve its effectiveness

The easiest way to create one is my trusty friend EXCEL!

1. Create a list of skills needed in your team down your first column. Include current and future skills for your team.
2. Across the top in your first-row list all the members of your team.
3. Finally, tick all the skills that each member has and leave the cells blank if they don’t.

Now use your knowledge to identify gaps and high-risk areas where only one person has the knowledge. Look to see how you can distribute knowledge across areas and finally look forward to future pursuits to see if your workforce can take the challenge.

Published by Rebecca Wootton on 18.12.2020

Becky is our Team Leader and Web Developer. She has been working within the Webteam since July 2011 and her role includes managing and supporting the whole team and developing the infrastructure of websites and ensuring sustainability. Becky also has Level 3 qualification in Education and Training, Level 2 qualification in Customer Service, PRINCE2 Foundation and Management Studies certificate.