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How to Find the Best Skills Management and Tracking Software

Smart Skills Management software is helping manufacturers bridge the gap between training, skills, and work to build a more resilient and agile workforce.

Skills management and tracking software helps manufacturers identify and track employee expertise. You can map skills from a centralized library to individual workers, analyze the performance of your teams, and fill any skill gaps that exist.

These smart insights can help businesses improve their talent management strategy, including training and development programs and recruiting opportunities.

If you’re interested in learning how to find the best skills tracking software, explore this article as we cover:

  • Benefits of skill management and tracking software
  • What to look for in tracking software
  • FAQs about skills tracking and management tools
  • Why Augmentir

Benefits of skill management and tracking software

Skills management involves identifying workers’ expertise and experience to determine whether they’re a right fit for a role, which areas need improvement, and how to best facilitate learning opportunities. A reliable skills management software solution lets you keep track of what your employees can and can’t do, and integrates that information with the actual work being done.

Here are a few reasons why you should invest in a tracking tool:

Enhanced training and development programs: Improve employee engagement by making sure courses and training opportunities are relevant to the jobs they perform. Management software makes it easier to assign employee courses that are appropriate and timely, and then track each individual’s training progress.

A more productive workforce: Employees who have access to training resources can further develop their skills to better perform assigned job duties and maximize output. This will empower workers to strive for continuous improvement and grow in their roles.

Improved retention: Offering continuous development and training programs can help your employees feel appreciated and taken care of. In return, they are more likely to stay and do a good job. Considering that turnover rates cost manufacturing firms an overwhelming amount, it’s critical to invest in programs that will improve retention rates.

What to look for in tracking software

Knowing how to effectively track employee skills can be challenging, but the right software can ease the burden. It makes it easier to identify who is lacking which skills and how to best close the gap.

Unfortunately, standalone skills management software solutions that attempt to automate skills tracking fall short of meeting the needs of today’s manufacturers because they do not connect the “skills that workers know” with the “work being done”. These standalone skills management solutions may have been ideal for the stable, unchanging workforce of the past, but they are not suited for today’s era of high workforce variability.

Skills management solutions that combine skills tracking capabilities with connected worker technology and on-the-job digital guidance can deliver significant additional value. Data from actual work performance can inform workforce development investments allowing you to target your training, reskilling, and upskilling efforts where they have the largest impact.

When looking for the best skill management and tracking software, its critical to make sure it can:

  • Keep a centralized database of competencies
  • Pinpoint worker skill gaps
  • Let management look for employees with specific expertise
  • Track the skills of individual employees in a centralized database
  • Intelligently assign work based on true worker skills and competencies
  • Personalize on-the-job guidance based on worker skills and experience
  • Create reports or dashboards to study competencies and skill gaps across departments

AI-powered software enables managers to filter through employee databases by skill to assemble teams best suited for a project.

 

skills tracking software

 

Skill management solutions should also integrate with core human resources software to offer seamless sharing of employee data. Some tools may even work in tandem with corporate learning management systems to provide access to educational content that could help workers develop new abilities.

Lastly, HR can use skill management software to make it easier to follow compliance regulations that require evidence of employee capabilities or certifications. For example, a health manufacturing facility may need workers to upload certain certifications to show proof of compliance.

FAQs about skills tracking and management tools

How do you keep track of employee skills?

You can track employee skills using software that manages worker competencies. These programs should allow you to build customized job profiles, create reports to study competencies, and fill skill gaps.

What is skills software?

Skills software is a tool that helps manage and keep track of worker expertise and experience. It’s used by businesses to optimize job performance and boost worker productivity.

Should I invest in skills tracking software?

Manufacturing facilities can benefit from investing in software that provides an easy-to-use centralized database of worker profiles, training resources, and much more.

Why Augmentir

Augmentir can help manage the skills of your workforce with its AI-powered connected worker solution. Our skills management tools create visibility at all times to optimize training programs, track individual and team progress, and initiate more targeted training. Check out our live demo.

 

Learn how Smart Skills Management software is helping manufacturers bridge the gap between training, skills, and work to build a more resilient and agile workforce.

Download our latest eBook – The Future of Work: Connecting Skills Management with Standard Work.

Download the eBook

 

Like peanut butter and jelly, skills management and work execution are better when served together

Smart Skills Management software is helping manufacturers bridge the gap between training, skills, and work to build a more resilient and agile workforce.

Where are you on your journey with adopting new and emerging technologies? Many manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon for some of the latest tools that provide digital guidance to workers. Maybe you decided to implement digital work instructions to help workers safely and efficiently perform tasks. Or maybe you’ve bought skills management software to help you catalog and organize the skills and capabilities of different workers. But are either of these enough on their own to achieve all your production goals? Possibly, but unlikely.

Digital work instructions on their own deliver standard work guidelines but fail to consider the unique skills of each worker. Standalone skills management programs may offer a highlight reel of the skills and certifications of your workers but neglect to capture performance in real-time to provide accurate skills evaluations. Nor do they offer personalized training content needed to ensure workers perform their absolute best. Can we agree then these two features should go hand-in-hand?

One cannot exist without the other: Blending skills management into the flow of work

In the past, standalone skills management systems were sufficient because:

  • Turnover was infrequent so line supervisors knew everyone on their team and their current skills and endorsements, making it easy for the supervisor to assign work safely and optimally
  • Investments in training, reskilling, and upskilling were performed either in a one size fits all approach or through a purely subjective or anecdotal approach

Today, however, a different situation exists.

Line supervisors are dealing with team members that they don’t know well, new ones starting every day, and experienced ones leaving.  This creates safety issues and makes optimally assigning work difficult as not only are the workers variable, but their skill levels and certifications are a constantly moving target.

An integrated, closed-loop skills management system is the solution for this era of high workforce turnover and absenteeism.

 

skills and work

 

Skills management solutions that combine skills tracking capabilities with connected worker technology and on-the-job digital guidance can deliver significant additional value. Data from actual work performance can inform workforce development initiatives allowing you to target your training, reskilling, and upskilling efforts where they have the largest impact.

It can generate an abundance of valuable data to provide tailored training support and skills endorsements and identify workforce opportunities. What else is possible? Imagine reducing training costs, optimizing job scheduling, increasing safety, and improving productivity. And now consider what will happen when you add smart technology to this all-in-one package.

 

intelligently assign jobs

The power of smart digitization! Skills management and digital work instructions together boost productivity.

Connected worker solutions that combine skills management with digital work instructions, collaboration, and knowledge management are uniquely suited to optimize today’s variable workforce. AI-generated insights are pulled from patterns identified across all work activity in real-time. These insights identify where new and experienced workers may benefit from either reskilling or upskilling.

This combination of smart digital technology can also leverage your training resources, such as instructional videos, written instructions, or access to remote experts, to deliver personalized guidance for the worker to perform their best. These tools intelligently work together to help you assign workers to procedures based on required skill levels. No second guessing! Augmentir is the only smart connected worker solution to intertwine these management tools with AI making it a powerhouse for optimizing your operations and meeting production targets.

 

 

Learn how Smart Skills Management software is helping manufacturers bridge the gap between training, skills, and work to build a more resilient and agile workforce.

Download our latest eBook – The Future of Work: Connecting Skills Management with Standard Work.

Download the eBook

 

Skills Matrix: How to Create and What are the Alternatives?

Learn about what a skills matrix is, how these can be used and alternatives to help track employee skills.

A skills matrix is a grid that maps employees’ skills and qualifications. Companies use this information to manage, plan, and monitor current and desired skills for a position, team, department, or project.

skills matrix

Having a place to store each employee’s skills and experience level can help managers decide how to divvy up tasks. It’s also a great way to gauge areas of improvement.

A skills matrix is usually managed using a spreadsheet, but there are alternatives to skill matrices. For example, cloud-based skills management software can help identify and track employee competence and correlate it with actual job performance. The software can also help managers filter employee databases by skills to assemble teams or assign work based on specific qualifications.

To help you learn more about the skills matrix and its alternative, this article explores the following topics:

What is a skills matrix?

A skills matrix is a tool used by employers to track workers’ skills and expertise. Typically maintained in spreadsheet format, it usually includes skills that workers already possess, ones that are needed but underdeveloped, and those that are required to complete a project or perform a job function.

Each employee is given a rating on their proficiency in each skill and their interest in developing it. This gives managers great insight into who is qualified to complete certain tasks.

What are the benefits of using a matrix to track employee skills?

A skills matrix offers multiple benefits that can increase team performance and boost productivity. Some of its benefits include:

1) Brings awareness to employee skills

This tool shows what area a team member excels at and where they can improve. This can bring awareness to what skills need to be cultivated and what areas team members are already proficient in.

2) Sets team expectations

With the matrix outlining what skills are needed to complete a project, employees have a better idea of what’s expected and required to be proficient in their roles.

3) Shows where new hires are needed

The matrix gives employers a better idea if someone needs to be hired to fulfill a certain role. Knowing which skills are missing helps managers determine what kind of employee needs to be hired for a specific project.

How do I create a skills matrix?

Creating a skill matrix can provide a wealth of benefits to a business. You can set one up by following the steps below:

  1. Determine which skills are needed for your team based on job function or responsibility.
  2. Evaluate your workers’ skills and qualifications.
  3. Create a grading system to rate each employee’s current skill level.
  4. Fill in the missing criteria and manage the information in a central skills management system.

skills matrix for skills management

How can skills matrices be used in the manufacturing industry?

The manufacturing industry is always seeking skilled employees. Skilled matrices are an excellent way to cultivate the skills of current production plant workers and boost productivity.

This organizational tool also simplifies the hiring process. For example, it gives managers a better sense of what skill areas are lacking and who may be the right fit for the role.

The better equipped an employee is to do their job, the better a company’s bottom line will be.

What are the alternatives to using a skills and competency matrix?

If you’re looking for an alternative to using a spreadsheet to manage the skills of your team, consider cloud-based skills management software. These programs help businesses identify and track worker competency.

For example, this software maps skills from a centralized library to job profiles and individual employees to help managers analyze the abilities of their teams, the desired skills for each role and any skill gaps that exist. Learn more about skills management software in our guide.

Furthermore, skills management software not only allows you to efficiently manage skills for your frontline workers, it also enables you to use this skills mapping to intelligently assign work or identify upskilling or reskilling needs.
skills job proficiency mapping

 

Interested in learning how Augmentir’s connected worker platform can help you digitize and effectively manage skills within your manufacturing operation? Get in touch with us for a free demo.

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