Skills Matrix: What It Is and How to Create One (+ Free Excel Templates)
Are you looking to enhance your team's productivity, minimize skill gaps, and ensure that every member is equipped for success, all while having an easy-to-use visual representation of your team's competencies?
If yes, using a skills matrix within your organization can help you achieve these goals.
This article will explain what a skills matrix is, its importance, and how you can create one. We'll also provide examples and free skills matrix Excel templates you can download.
You'll discover how to avoid common mistakes in creating skill matrices, and we'll introduce you to Zavvy's skills matrix software.
❓What is a skills matrix?
A skills matrix, typically developed by the talent team or human resources (HR) professionals, is a tool used to assess an employee's skills and abilities. It helps identify the comprehensive skill set, experience level, and general competence required for a position or a project.
In practice, it can be as simple as a two-dimensional table in Excel:
- Dimension 1: People or departments (below: rows)
- Dimension 2: Skills (below: columns)
If you want to do skill assessment at scale and more effectively at your company, use skills matrix software to save time and tie competencies directly together with development methods.
📈 Why does your company need a skills matrix?
Effectively evaluating employee performance and training them using strategic Learning and Development (L&D) initiatives can give businesses a competitive advantage and increase profits.
Focusing on your staff's professional growth also improves retention. According to LinkedIn's 2023 Workplace Learning report, one of the top reasons employees quit is a lack of opportunities to learn and develop new skills. In other words, reskilling and upskilling your workforce should be your top priority as an HR professional, manager, or C-level executive
However, according to Harvard Business Review, more training is not always the solution:
“We can’t simply send employees to workshops focused on whatever proficiency is fashionable at the moment and expect to get results. What is essential is to build coherent skills-based strategies. We must think seriously about which specific skills are to be targeted, who has to learn them, and what mix of education, experience, and exposure will be effective to create the skills-based organizations we need to meet the challenges of the future.”
But how do you know where you stand? A skills matrix can make things easier here.
It helps to:
- identify skills gaps
- create targeted development plans
- assign employees to the right projects
- hire the right people to fill in the gaps
In short, it will help you to make better decisions about employee development, succession planning, and role design.
Let's talk more about the importance of a skills matrix.
🏆 Benefits of using a skills matrix
Helps to assess the skills of your employees effectively
A skills matrix makes it easy to understand your employees’ skills and helps HR teams understand company and team wide skill gaps.
You can use this information to:
- Improve workforce planning
- Enhance team collaboration and productivity by having complementary skills within teams
- Reduce operational risk by having skilled employees in critical roles
Assists in creation of customized and effective learning plans
Many HR teams don't approach L&D strategically. People may get access to a library of training courses or a learning budget, and that's it. But there is no precision, no goal orientation.
However, this approach is highly inefficient.
A proper people development process includes:
How skills matrices fit into the overall people development process
Following this approach ensures your employees know the following:
- what you expect from them at a specific career level/role
- where do they stand compared to your expectations
You can use the above information to strategically develop your workforce and reduce the gap between your expectations and your employees’ skills.
The result:
- a reduction in training costs
- a reduction in time wasted from irrelevant training
- an increase in the effects of training and, subsequently, more performance
Aligning employee training with their skill gaps and interests can benefit the organization, as happy employees are more productive and give their best when they enjoy their work. This approach can also help employees get recognized for their skills, boosting their self-esteem and engagement levels.
Helps in recruitment
A skills matrix streamlines recruitment by clearly mapping out existing competencies within a team, allowing for the identification of skill gaps. This targeted approach ensures that new hires bring the specific skills needed, fostering a balanced and high-performing team.
Additionally, it aids in creating precise job descriptions and evaluation criteria, leading to a more efficient and effective hiring process.
Skills matrix case study: For instance, an organization approached Vahura OnBoard seeking assistance in finding their first independent director. To achieve this, Vahura OnBoard used a skill matrix model, which involved analyzing the company's needs and identifying ten essential skills. Out of these ten skills, three required significant expertise.
After evaluating various professionals, Vahura OnBoard recommended a former regulatory body chairperson with extensive knowledge to fill the position.
Helps employees identify their strengths and weaknesses
It is optional to disclose skill assessment results to everyone, but doing so can have several benefits.
When employees objectively compare their skills to predefined criteria, they gain awareness of their strengths and weaknesses--fostering self-awareness, personal accountability, and targeted skill development. This, in turn, benefits their personal and professional growth within the organization.
Improves internal mobility and retention
Internal mobility refers to the movement of employees within the organization. Having an overview of diverse skills your employees possess gives you a view of untapped potential lying dormant within your company. A skills matrix empowers managers and HR to identify skills gaps within teams and fill them with other internal colleagues with relevant skills.
When skills are mapped out, it also becomes easier for employees to move across departments or projects that align with their career goals.
“Internal mobility boosts retention and builds workforce skills: At the two-year mark, an employee who has made an internal move has a greater chance of staying with their company” – LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report
Different ways of internal progression within a company
Helps in succession planning
Companies can use a skills matrix to identify employees who have the potential to take over critical roles as a part of their career progression. This helps ensure a seamless transition when key personnel leave and motivates employees by providing a clear career progression roadmap for growth within the organization.
📝 How to create a skills matrix for your employees
1. Identify the skills to evaluate
You can do this by looking at the skills needed for different roles within the team or department. When identifying skills for evaluation, consider the core skills crucial for success in a particular role and additional skills that would be nice to have.
For example, a content marketing manager should be proficient in content marketing strategy, copywriting, and SEO fundamentals. However, it would be nice if they could also do basic graphic designing and video editing
A good starting point to determine which skills to evaluate is your company's career framework: a written definition of each role's core competencies - including:
- soft skills (communication, emotional intelligence, etc.)
- hard skills or skills specific to your job (web analytics, Javascript, etc)
- values (i.e., how the person embodies that value)
Some companies keep it casual with one generic model for all. In contrast, others have detailed progression paths for every role and level. Read our detailed guide on creating career progression frameworks if you don't have one at your organization.
Looking for an example?
A generic model will facilitate company-wide comparisons on particular skills later on. Highly specified models that are unique for every role are great, but will lack core competencies you may want to see for everybody.
Our tip: A mix of the above elements. Keep some competencies that are the same for everybody in the organization and include a few that are more technical.
2. Assess your employees' skills and interests
The methods employers use to evaluate their workforce's skill level vary across organizations.
Some common ways to grade and categorize employees' skills are:
- ⬇️ Managers or immediate supervisors give feedback (Downward feedback)
- ↩️ Asking employees to self-declare their skills, interests, and proficiency level in each (Self-evaluation)
- ↔️ Colleagues rating each other anonymously (Peer feedback)
- ⬆️ Direct reports rating their managers (Upward feedback)
- 🔄 All of the above (360 feedback)
- ✏️ Graded assessments.
- 🪪 Certifications. (External training library)
If you're looking for the right way to create single levels, our free competency matrix will be just what you need:
We usually recommend five levels, ranging from basic to expert.
2.5 Don't forget calibration
It is a known fact that everyone has certain biases and tendencies to rate people higher or lower. These biases can hurt employee engagement, retention, and business objectives.
Performance review calibration addresses this issue by establishing clear rating standards so that all reviewers have a uniform set of guidelines to follow when assessing someone's work. It involves bringing together all the individuals providing review feedback to discuss and understand how to apply each rating to the person being reviewed.
By doing so, the review feedback can become more consistent, fair, and reliable.
Want to learn more about calibration? Read our performance review calibration guide
3. Add the data in a table or a matrix
One of the most common ways to create a skills matrix is via Excel. Follow the below steps to create a skills matrix in an Excel document.
- Create a table or matrix with the skills listed in the first column and name it "Skills."
- Write down the team members' names horizontally in the column "Name."
- Create the columns "Expertise" and "Interest" under Name.
- Add the data on expertise and interest level collected earlier.
Doing this will give you an overview of each employee's abilities and skill level. Sort the skills into categories based on their contribution to practical project completion.
As Dennis from PMI rightly points out, the skills matrix can also be represented using ideograms for visual communication, for example, harvey balls.
4. Map employees with the right skills
Consider the skills needed for each role and map them to employees with those skills. Employees with specific skills can also use this information to identify skills gaps and bridge those gaps.
Doing this will give HR professionals an overview of the skills and proficiency of every employee. Sort the skills into categories based on their contribution to practical project completion.
5. Use the skills matrix to identify training needs and allocate assignments
Create training and development programs that will help employees improve their skills. If there are skills that any employees do not currently hold, consider bringing in a trainer to deliver a workshop.
This will help employees develop the skills to succeed in their roles and projects.
🎶 Check out our case study on employee training and development at Cisco.
❗Skills matrix templates and examples
Example 1 - Basic skill matrix for smaller teams
Here is an example of a skills matrix that combines expertise AND interest, Something you may want to do - but also something that can make things way more complex at scale.
These numbers represent:
Example 2 - Advanced skill matrix for organizations
If you're into data-driven insights, you will like this next template.
It is well-suited for bigger organizations that want to understand what skills their workforce is good at and what skills they should prioritize for training.
To avoid overcomplexity, this second example currently does not contain "interests" - but you could surely add that to your table.
What's particularly helpful about this one is that it automatically composes a list of "bottom 3" skills - those that you should focus on improving:
You can download and modify both these skills matrix templates here.
Competency matrix
To help you with the career framework, we also created a competency matrix to complement the skills matrix.
Our template contains:
- 🚀 36 Individual contributor competencies: 5 levels of mastery—basic, intermediate, advanced, proficient, expert.
- 💪 200+ Performance behavioral indicators and metrics: Give your team members a clear understanding of what it takes to advance in their careers
- 🔨 100+ suggested developmental activities: So you can develop the competencies of your people with clear, actionable steps for both managers and employees to follow.
➡ Want to speed up your HR processes? ️ Check out our templates on employee development, training, feedback & performance, and much more here.
🙅 Best practices to follow when building a skills matrix
If you create your skills matrix properly, it can make your hiring process easier and more effective.
Here are some skills matrix best practices you can follow to make the most of it:
- Do not create a skills matrix without first assessing the skills required for a successful project or role, which will ensure that your approach is complete - taking in both employee and company perspectives.
- Ensure you include all the critical skills required for each role.
- Remember the importance of calibration; strive for valid data rather than relying on arbitrary estimations.
- Align skills with team members and roles accurately to maintain the matrix's precision.
- Don't stop after creation. Your matrix is just the start. Now it's time to put the new insights into action and improve L&D forever.
🛠 How skills matrix software helps
Our template and instructions above are undoubtedly helpful, but implementing them could take a lot of time and effort as you’ve to:
- Get input from all stakeholders and teams
- Ensure said data is valid and fair
- Constantly worry about accidentally messing up anything up in Excel
- Keep the matrix up-to-date
This is where our Zavvy comes in, making your life easier than ever before.
Example from Zavvy's skills matrix software (a heatmap of feedback results)
Zavvy’s HR automation and skills Matrix software helps you to:
- Get valid, unbiased data via 360 feedback
- Automatically engage all stakeholders - no need to remind anyone
- Calibrate your data
- Display it as a heatmap to get your skills matrix view
- Automatically keep it up-to-date along with your regular feedback cycles (performance review etc.)
The best part?
It doesn't end with a matrix. Further analytics like 9 box grids are just a click away, too!
Assessing skills is just the first step. Our tool also helps your people develop the right skills and find the best training programs available. With clear career frameworks and fair progression, our career pathing software provides clear pathways for everyone.
👀 Curious? Request a demo today.
❓ FAQs
What is the goal of a skills matrix?
The primary goal of a skills matrix is to provide a visual representation of the skills and competencies available within a team or organization. It aids in identifying skill gaps, facilitating targeted employee development, and ensuring the right allocation of resources for optimal performance and strategic growth. By doing so, it enhances the overall efficiency and effectiveness of workforce planning and talent management.
What is the difference between a skills matrix and a competency matrix?
A skills matrix and a competency matrix are similar in that they both aim to provide a structured overview of an organization's skills and competencies.
However, the difference is really in the perspective: a skills matrix focuses on specific skills or tasks that an employee has while a competency matrix focuses on the competencies or abilities required for a role.
In a way, the former is about the present state of an employee - while the latter defines the ideal skillset of a person in a particular role.
How do skill matrices and competency models go together?
Skill matrices and competency models complement each other. While a skills matrix provides a detailed breakdown of the specific skills required for a role, a competency model provides a more holistic view of the broader competencies and abilities needed to succeed in that role. By using both, you can create a more comprehensive understanding of what it takes to excel in a given position.
What is a skills matrix for hiring?
A skills matrix for hiring is a tool that can be used to assess the skills and qualifications of job candidates. By creating a matrix that outlines the specific skills and tasks required for a particular role, you can compare each candidate's experience and abilities to determine who is the best fit for the job.
What's the next step after having a skills matrix?
The next step is to use it to inform decision-making. This might mean using the matrix to identify gaps in your team's skill set and creating development plans to address those gaps. Alternatively, use the matrix to assess job candidates or to determine which team members are best suited to work on a particular project.
How does skills matrix software help?
Skills matrix software can help streamline creating and maintaining a skills matrix. By using software to automate the process, you can save time and reduce the risk of errors. Additionally, many skills matrix software solutions offer advanced reporting and analytics features that can help you gain insights into your team's skills and identify areas for improvement.