{"id":11242,"date":"2022-06-20T08:56:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T08:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skills-base.com\/?p=11242"},"modified":"2026-01-30T05:11:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:11:36","slug":"guide-skills-competency-mapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skills-base.com\/guide-skills-competency-mapping","title":{"rendered":"Your Guide to Skills & Competency Mapping"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The way in which we structure and design organizations has always been aligned in similar ways. An organization hierarchy, made up of different job titles, roles, and teams. This has worked wonders in the past, but the reality is that organization\u2019s are dynamic, roles are dynamic, and most importantly people are dynamic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In order for businesses to become more resilient and agile while better supporting its people, we must think in a more granular way \u2013 <\/span>thinking that is focused on skills data.<\/b><\/p>

The role and act of skill and competency mapping is to create the foundation and data schema for a skills based organization to operate. One that enables skills data to be understood, measured, and acted on, that isn\u2019t limited by spreadsheets or individual biases<\/span><\/p>

Like enabling any form of automation, data analysis, artificial intelligence, or machine learning, the initial setup is all about long term benefits (sometimes unforeseen).<\/span><\/p>

Let\u2019s take a closer look at skill and competency mapping, how to implement it, and why it matters.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What is skills mapping?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Skills mapping is often referred to as competency mapping, although similar there are some nuanced differences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Skills Mapping is all about building an underlying taxonomy of skills, and understanding how those relate to the needs of different roles, teams, and locations within an organization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

For example, a software engineer in your organization needs to have skills around the python programming language.<\/span><\/i><\/p>

Competency mapping, on the other hand, is adding additional context to this skills mapping data, specifically related to the ability to perform a specific task or skill set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

For example, a junior and senior software engineer both need to have skills around python, but it\u2019s ok, and expected for my junior software engineer to be less competent in python than the senior engineer.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>

Skill and competency mapping are both crucial to the success of any skills-data program. It is also critical in enabling the measurement (via\u00a0<\/span>skills assessment<\/span><\/a><\/span>), visualization (via <\/span>a skills matrix<\/span><\/span><\/a>), and providing the ability to act on any skill gaps, and skill strengths.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How can you put skills mapping into practice?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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It can be very easy to over complicate the skills mapping process, and we\u2019ve seen many people fail. The biggest piece of advice to anyone beginning their skills based journey is to start small, prove the concept, and then expand into additional departments or entities.<\/span><\/p>

PS: <\/span><\/i>If you get stuck you can always reach out to the Skills Base team too<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span> \u2013<\/span><\/i> we\u2019re always here to help!<\/i><\/b><\/p>

Whether it\u2019s the MVP or wider rollout, a similar process to skills mapping should take place:<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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1 - Understand skill requirements and create a skills taxonomy<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The first step is to understand the skills your people need now, but also augment that taxonomy with skills you might need in the future. There are a few schools of thought here, and in our opinion, your skills should reflect your organization and people needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

There are many ways to source and <\/span>build your skills taxonomy<\/span><\/a>, all have advantages and disadvantages:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>