e. Create a Skills Matrix

Use a Skills Matrix to confirm the skills and knowledge.  A Skills Matrix is a table that displays employees proficiency in specified skills and knowledge. It can as well as display their interest to develop their know how in different areas.

The first step is to stop thinking of “skills” and begin thinking about what your business needs – people to complete activities effectively. Skills are the underlying ability, but if you think about the activities that need to be performed, it is easier to identify weaknesses that can be addressed.

Once you have created a list of activities for a team, match them in a matrix layout with all of the employees who are on the team. Then quickly evaluate each employee and their capability in completing each activity. Best practices use the following scale:

3 = expert

2 = capable

1 = incapable

[blank] = Not Applicable

Many managers get stuck here, unwilling or hesitant to evaluate employees without an objective measure. At this stage it is important to remember that this tool can remain confidential and is going to be used to create a training plan, not assess compensation or other sensitive topics. A manager should be able to fill out the matrix by their own subjective measure very quickly.

Another possibility is to give the employee possibility for a self-assessment  (their own) competencies by using the matrix or questions. In this case, the challenge is how to compare the results. That should not be carried out without discussion or a group discussion with employee.

In self-assessment tool could have indicator for how often competency is needed in their own work.

1 – Never or almost never

2 – Rarely

3 – Occasionally

4 – Frequently

5 – Always or nearly always

Also there could be question if person thinks more competence is needed.