Introduction: Why is skills mapping a strategic lever in industry?
Understanding the concept of competency mapping
Visit skills mapping is a systematic method for identify, evaluate and manage visit skills available within an organization. This goes beyond a simple inventory of technical skills (hard skills, which are quantifiable and acquired through training or education); it can also encompass employees’ behavioral competencies, know-how and interpersonal skills and soft skills (such as communication and problem-solving). The aim is to create an overview that will help to make informed decisions in terms of human resources managementof training and development. Identifying and prioritizing essential skills that are most relevant to specific jobs or tasks is crucial for simplifying skills matrices and improving clarity.
Challenges for modern industry
In the industrial, agility and efficiency are paramount. The slightest discrepancy between skills This can lead to costly disruptions. The skills mapping enables you to anticipate and compensate for these discrepancies. It also helps to align the team’s skills with the company’s objectives and the company’s strategic priorities, ensuring alignment with both organizational goals and business goals, which is essential for targeted and impactful skills development. This alignment facilitates skills enhancement, reorganization, and even digital transformation. Transitioning to a skills based organization involves identifying key talent practices and leveraging skills mapping for effective workforce planning.
The basics of industrial skills mapping
What is a skill in the industrial sector?
In the industrial context, a skill can be defined as a ability/knowledge to achieve a measurable task with a specific performance level given, including the specific skills required for particular roles. It enables someone to carry out a given task, whether related to production, maintenance or the management of an industrial process. Skills encompass not only theoretical technical knowledge and practical abilities, but also the interpersonal and managerial competencies that contribute to a company’s success. Identifying relevant skills and necessary skills is crucial to ensure employees meet performance expectations and organizational goals. qualityCompetencies are the key to sustaining a company over time. Skills are the key to enabling companies to endure over time, and thus to meet the challenges of quality, variability and quality assurance. operational excellence.
The different types of skills to map
- Technical Skills (Hard Skills) These are skills specific to a task, position or industry, often referred to as hard skills. For example, the ability to operate a CNC machine in a factory.
- Behavioral Skills (Soft Skills) These skills are often cross-cutting and can be applied in different contexts. (Often called soft skills.) For example, the ability to communicate effectively is crucial in almost any work environment.
- Strategic Competencies These skills are necessary for decision-making and management. They include skills such as analytical thinking, planning and executing complex strategies.
It is important to identify the competencies needed for each role and use a skills taxonomy to organize and assess both hard skills and soft skills within your workforce. By combining these different types of skills in your cartographyYou’ll get a complete, nuanced picture of your industrial organization’s human resources.
Effective methods for creating your skills map
The role of skills assessment
Skills assessment is the crucial preliminary step in the mapping process. To conduct skills assessments effectively, use various methods such as self assessment, self assessments, standardized assessments, interviews, and practical tests. These assessments help assess employees' skill level and track employee performance across different roles. This data then serves as the basis for the creation of your skills matrix This enables us to identify gaps between current skills and those needed to achieve the company’s strategic objectives.
Tools and software for efficient mapping
Technology is a very important part of successful skills mapping. From specialized software can automate analysis skills, the data update and the performance monitoring individual. Using skills management software and management software offers significant advantages for efficient mapping, streamlining skill tracking and improving overall talent management. Skills intelligence tools can also help create a more comprehensive understanding of workforce skills, enabling a comprehensive understanding of employee capabilities. They offer dashboards to clearly visualize the strengths and weaknesses within your organization, providing a visual representation that delivers valuable data for decision-making. Make sure you select a tool which is not only robust but also easy to use, encouraging adoption by employees and managers alike.
Case study: How skills mapping transformed a plant
Departure Challenges
Located in Taden, Brittany, the plant Sagemcom specializes in the manufacture of electricity and gas meters for the residential and professional markets.
Faced with constant fluctuations in orders, the plant often has to adjust its production volumes, which means diversifying products and production quantities.
One of Sagemcom’s main challenges was to increase the versatility of its operators through training and ongoing support. Prior to partnering with Mercateam, the company was experiencing difficulties in tracking and manage skills of its employees. The plant also struggled to identify knowledge gaps, skill gaps, and the overall skills gap among its workforce, as well as to make the most of available skills. Visit follow-up was carried out using spreadsheets Exceland absence management via specific software, making agile transformation almost impossible.
Strategies adopted and successes reported
Thanks to Mercateam mapping of skills and authorizations has been fully digitized.
- 101 employees are now valued and have the opportunity to follow their evolution professional. The new system actively supports employee development and creates development opportunities for ongoing growth.
- Visit schedule managementand authorizations and training has been digitized, centralizing all relevant information. This enables better tracking of employee development and identification of new development opportunities.
- The platform can also be used to anticipate requirements for trainingThe company’s workforce is growing by leaps and bounds, whether due to retirement or the obsolescence of skills. Skills mapping helps reveal where additional training or more training is needed to address skill gaps and support employee development.
- Operator data is now unified and easily accessible, facilitating fast, efficient decision-making.
- Production supervisors, managers and HR are alerted in real time when crucial skills or authorizations are about to expire.
The platform also helps identify employees who need additional training or more training, and it tracks the acquisition of new skills to ensure continuous workforce improvement. In short, Sagemcom has succeeded in optimizing its production process by placing the right people, with the right skills, in the most appropriate positions, while fostering a supportive work environment.
Mistakes to avoid when mapping skills
Underestimating behavioral skills
Many companies make the mistake of focusing solely on the technical skills when creating their skills mapping. However, the behavioral skills such as communication, foreign languages, leadership, argumentation and conflict resolution also play a vital role. By neglecting them, you miss the opportunity to build a truly balanced, high-performance team. What’s more, it can have an impact on the company’s culture and the satisfaction long-term employees. Neglecting behavioral skills can lower employee morale and hinder personal development, ultimately affecting overall engagement and growth within the organization.
Ignoring training needs
Visit training doesn’t stop after the initial recruitment or integration. The market evolves, technologies change and your employees need to adapt accordingly. A skills mapping This effective approach requires regular updating and ongoing training plans to ensure that your team is always in tune with the current and future needs of your industry, and to help identify internal candidates for leadership roles and critical positions.
How can you measure the ROI of your skills mapping?
Essential KPIs to track
To measure the effectiveness of your skills mapping, a few key KPIs need to be monitored. These include retention rate employees, the training cost per employee and the time needed to reach skill levels desired. These KPIs will help you not only to quantify the direct impact of skills mapping on the business, but also to adjust your strategy accordingly. Tracking these KPIs can provide valuable insights for continuous improvement and help ensure your approach remains aligned with organizational goals.
Case studies of positive ROI in industry
There are many examples of industrial companies that have obtained a KING positive thanks to skills mapping. In one case, a plant succeeded in reduce work-related accidents by 25% improving safety training. This plant has seen an increase of 20% of productivity by implementing a better distribution of competencies within its team. Skills mapping enabled the company to better leverage its workforce's capabilities and employees skills, ensuring the right people were assigned to the right tasks. By tracking employee skills and mapping the skills employees possess, the organization was able to identify gaps, optimize development, and achieve these positive outcomes. These cases demonstrate that the return on investment can be rapid and substantial.
Conclusion: Key steps to successful skills mapping in industry
Summary of actions to be taken
To ensure the success of your skills mapping in an industrial environment, a few actions are essential:
- Define the skills mapping process and plan a skills mapping exercise: Establish a structured, multi-step approach involving key stakeholders to identify, assess, and align employee skills with organizational goals. Assessment of existing skills : Understand where you are today.
- Identifying the behavioral and technical skills required : Don’t neglect one for the other.
- Using the right tools and software: Utilize a competency matrix and visual chart to map and visualize skills, making it easier to identify skill gaps and plan training. The right tool can make all the difference.
- Ongoing training and regular map updates : As markets and technologies evolve, so must your cartography.
- Measuring KPIs Without follow-up, it’s impossible to measure success or identify areas for improvement.
The path to continuous optimization
Visit skills mapping is not a one-off exercise, but an ongoing continuous process that evolves with your company and your employees. Plan regular reviews and adapt your strategy according to the results obtained and feedback gathered. Skills mapping enables you to create teams with complementary strengths by identifying important skills and specific skill requirements within your workforce. Don’t forget that skills needs will change as the business grows, and your cartography must be flexible enough to keep pace with these changes. Additionally, skills mapping helps you determine how many employees are needed to cover skill gaps and strengthens your organization's arsenal for future challenges.
It is only by investing in a skills mapping and by ensuring its continuous evolution, you will be able to take full advantage of the potential of your workforce and maintain your competitiveness in a constantly changing industrial environment.
