Skills Matrix

What a skills matrix is

A skills matrix (مصفوفة المهارات) is a table that puts employees’ names in its rows and the skills the work requires in its columns. In each cell sits the employee’s level of proficiency in that skill, according to a scale defined in advance. With it an organisation can see at a glance who holds what, where only one person can perform a given piece of work, and where nobody can.

Its value is that it turns a vague remark such as “the team is short of something in payroll” into a question that can be answered with numbers: how many people on the team perform the payroll task independently, and how many do we need? The matrix is a tool for showing capability. The decisions built on it are taken outside it.

How a skills matrix is examined

It is examined from two directions, and each approach asks its own question:

• By column. The question concerns a single skill: how many people hold it at a sufficient level? If there is only one, the organisation hangs on that person, and if there is none, the skill is not covered.
• By row. The question concerns a single employee: what do they perform independently, and what are they learning? It shows where the employee can be given work and where they need training.

Both approaches depend on how the scale is defined. A grade of “medium” says nothing to different raters. What works is to describe each grade by what its holder does, as in the following scale:

• 0: does not know the skill.
• 1: performs it under supervision and needs review each time.
• 2: performs it independently in ordinary cases.
• 3: handles complex cases and exceptions.
• 4: trains others in it.

A skills matrix example: a finance team of five

Take a hypothetical team of five employees and five skills, on a scale from 0 to 4. Each line below is one skill, a column of the table written across, with the levels of the five employees in order from the first to the fifth.

• Closing the month: 3, 2, 2, 1, 0.
• Bank reconciliation: 2, 0, 0, 0, 0.
• Preparing the tax return: 0, 3, 0, 0, 0.
• Payroll: 0, 0, 0, 2, 2.
• Management reports: 1, 1, 2, 3, 3.

The organisation sets a working rule for coverage: at least two people at level 2 or above in every skill. Counting by column, the close has three people, bank reconciliation one, the tax return one, payroll two and the reports three. The total is 3 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 = 10 cells at level 2 or above.

Two skills out of five are below the coverage rule, that is 2 ÷ 5 = 40%, and each rests on one person: the first employee for reconciliation and the second for the return. By row, each employee covers two skills at level 2 or above, so 5 × 2 = 10, which matches the count by columns. The spread is even among the individuals and uneven among the skills, a picture that does not show in a list of names or in a spoken description.

The decision becomes specific: add a second person to bank reconciliation and a second to the tax return. If the third employee is nominated for the first skill and the fourth for the second, and twelve hours of accompaniment are estimated for each, the cost is 2 × 12 = 24 hours. Its result is measured by each of them rising to level 2 at the next review, not by their having attended.

How a skills matrix is built

It is built in steps, some of which depend on others:

1. Identifying the skills. They are drawn from the work, which is what job analysis does: collecting organised information on the tasks performed in a job and the abilities with which they are performed. A list is not copied from another organisation.
2. Defining the scale. Each grade is described by what its holder does.
3. Rating. The employee rates themselves, the manager rates them, and the differences between the two are discussed. If the employee’s own rating alone is accepted, a grade can be raised with nothing to support it.
4. Tying the requirement to the role. For each role the required level in each skill is written down, so that a cell becomes a comparison and not an isolated number.
5. Updating. Update it on a known date, because a table that is not updated turns into an old photograph.

How the minimum coverage in a skills matrix is set

One figure does not suit every skill. The question that settles it is what happens if the person who performs it is absent. A skill performed every day, whose absence has an immediate effect, needs someone to cover it even in a week of leave. A skill that falls due once a year and can bear a delay of some days may be served by one person with clear documentation.

In the finance team example, if the first employee were absent for a week at the close, bank reconciliation would be left with nobody to perform it, because that employee alone performs it independently. If one of the two who hold payroll were absent, the other would remain. The minimum is what leaves the work standing in the worst reasonable absence, and it is a judgement written beside each skill together with its reason.

How a skills matrix differs from the tools beside it

• The gap. A skills gap is the difference between the skills a team holds and those its work requires today or its coming plan will require. The matrix shows what the team holds, and when its columns are compared with what the work requires, the gap appears.
• Competencies. The term competencies is wider than a skill, since it brings together the skill, the knowledge that supports it and the behaviour that shows through it. The matrix suits skills whose grades can be described by what their holder performs. Behaviours need an observable description and not a grade alone.
• Responsibilities. A RACI matrix is a table that sets out for each task who carries it out, who answers for it, who is consulted and who is informed. It tells who is responsible for a task, not who is able to perform it, and the person responsible may not perform it personally.
• Performance and potential. The 9 box grid is a tool in which employees’ names are placed in nine boxes at the intersection of their performance in their current roles and their capacity for a larger role. Its output is a single position combining two dimensions for each person, whereas the skills matrix describes skill by skill.

What a skills matrix is used for

• Spotting dependence on one person. A column with a single employee stands out at first glance. A job whose absence would stop the work is treated as a critical role, and a successor is prepared for it in succession planning.
• Setting training priorities. The matrix supplies data for what training needs analysis determines as the gap between the performance required and the performance now, so that time goes to a gap that training can close.
• Widening coverage through practice. Job shadowing passes on what is hard to put into words, and job rotation places an employee in another job for a known period. Both are routes to raising a cell from 0 to 2.
• Distributing work. A crowded week is assigned to those who perform independently, not to whoever happens to be free.

How a skills matrix is compared with the requirements of a given role

Beside the team’s matrix, a row can be written for the role, setting the required level in each skill, and the row of each person who holds the role or is being prepared for it is compared with it. The gap is calculated as the difference between the two levels where the employee’s level falls short, and a skill in which the employee exceeds the requirement is set aside.

Suppose the role of senior accountant requires closing the month at level 3, bank reconciliation at 2, the tax return at 2, payroll at 0 and management reports at 2. An employee has levels of 2, 0, 3, 0 and 1 in the same skills in the same order. The gaps are: closing the month 3 − 2 = 1, reconciliation 2 − 0 = 2, the return zero because their level of 3 exceeds the requirement, payroll zero, and reports 2 − 1 = 1. The total is 1 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 4 levels. Their development plan is arranged around reconciliation first, because its gap is the largest and because it is a skill that only one person on the team holds.

When a skills matrix is updated

It is updated at known points and not by a decision renewed each time: when an employee joins or leaves, when a role changes, when a training course ends or a new assignment is given, and after each periodic close in which a skill was performed by someone other than the regular holder. The direct manager owns the update and the employee reviews it on their own row, so that neither of them sets the grade alone.

What spoils a skills matrix

• Too many skills. A matrix with long columns is hard for a manager to read and to update. It serves better when it is confined to the skills whose absence stops the work.
• A scale without definition. The number becomes an opinion and not a measurement, and its meaning differs from one manager to another.
• Using it to judge performance. If an employee knows that the grade affects their pay or their appraisal, they will raise it. The matrix is a planning tool that needs honesty, so it is not tied to anything that pushes towards exaggeration.
• Mixing up the skill and the job title. An employee titled accountant does not necessarily perform everything accountants perform, so the skill is recorded and not its holder’s title.
• Leaving cells empty. An empty cell does not tell apart someone who does not know from someone who was not asked, so the zero is written explicitly.
• Settling for the present. A matrix that shows only today’s required skills overlooks what the plan will need in a year.
• Publishing it with everyone’s names. The employee then sees a colleague’s grade. It is safer to show the columns pooled for the team and leave the rows to the manager and the employee concerned.

How a skills matrix becomes a decision

Each skill below the coverage rule is turned into an action with an owner and a date. In the earlier example the first employee is assigned to accompany the third in bank reconciliation, the second to accompany the fourth in the tax return, and the review date is set for the following quarter. When both trainees reach level 2, all five skills are at the rule or above it, that is 5 ÷ 5 = 100%, after having stood at 3 ÷ 5 = 60%.

The decision is not complete with training alone. The question is also whether the teacher carries the burden of teaching out of their own time, and what is cleared from their schedule. The matrix is reviewed again after the date, and if the cell has not risen, the method does not suit the skill, and performance under supervision or a direct assignment is tried in its place.

This is an explanation of the concept, not legal advice.