Skill Matrix

If you are a job seeker, team Leader or even if you are a HR professional, you should certainly use skill matrix. Skill matrix is something you have either heard a lot about it or you haven’t heard it all. But whatever is your state right now, by the end of this article you’ll have answers to the all questions related to skill matrix.

There is a self assessment test at the end of this article. Take that test and assess your knowledge related to Skill matrix.

And the most important thing is, you’ll get free templates of Skill matrix. Click the download button below to download the excel template of skill matrix.

Download Skill Matrix (Basic) Excel template

There is two more types of skill matrix templates, that you will be able to download at the end of this article.

Let’s continue with our article.

What is a Skill Matrix?

In simplest words skill matrix is a visualization tool which helps to evaluate how good a person is with the given skill set or how well equipped a team is for a new challenge. That is the reason why sometimes it’s also referred as competency matrix, simply because it tells you the competency of a person or a team.

Even though skill matrix is used from long back ago, it’s still being extensively used by HR professionals and teams, where decisions are data driven just because of its simplicity and usability. It can also be used as documented information to assess competency as required by few International standards like ISO 9001, IATF 16949, etc.

While forming a Skill matrix different firms have different approach, some firms can have a very simple (Binary) type approach on the other hand other firms might have a highly detailed (360° Skill Review) type of approach. Whatever the approach is, at the end of preparation of skill matrix, we will have a holistic view of the skills that are available and skills that are lagging (Scope of Improvement).

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How useful is skill matrix?

It doesn’t matter what position you are in or what profession you belong to, Skill matrix can always be helpful to you. Here we will take few examples and explain how useful and widely applicable Skill matrix are:

Individual/ Job Seekers : Skill matrix can be used for introspection, providing you evident insights of your own skills, which is very much important for self-development and learning. If you are looking for a new job; attach your skill matrix with your resume/CV (because it’s a proven fact that visuals are more appealing than words). And BOOM!!!, it will skyrocket your chances of getting shortlisted for an interview.

Team Leaders : Skill matrix can be useful while selecting a new team for an upcoming project. You can carefully handpick your team based on their competency level and create a balanced team. With the help of a skill matrix you shall also be aware of strong and weak links of the team thus drawing your quick attention towards possible failures based on data.

HR professionals : Skill matrix is nothing short of boon to the HR professionals, because with the help of a Skill matrix you can quickly determine which skills are missing in your team and the missing skills can be accommodated by hiring new members with relevant skills. Secondly during appraisal period, you can use skill matrix of the team members to conveniently assess their growth and take data driven decisions.

Organizations : Skill matrix would enable Top Management to quickly dedicate development budget towards weak links, thus providing required training sessions to improve the total skill of the team. As already mentioned, these skill matrices can be used as documented evidences, required by few International standards like ISO 9001, IATF 16949, etc. Lastly, this data will definitely help you to serve the clients in a better way and with more confidence.

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Types of Skill matrices

Skill matrices can be broadly classified in following two types:

Skill matrix for Team – This matrix will help you assess the strength of the team and identify strength and weak links of your team, visually and based on data. This type of skill matrix can be used by Team leaders, HR professionals, Top management, etc. We have explained this skill matrix, in the examples 1 & 2 below.

Skill matrix for Individual – Originally Skill matrix was developed for teams only, but it can be easily modified for self as an introspection tool. As illustrated in example 3 below, it will help you showcase your skills with visuals or provide you with insights on which skills you need to develop.

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How to make a Skill matrix?

You can make a skill chart in 3 easy steps

Step 1 : Identify skills required

If you are making Skill chart for your team, identify the skills required for the upcoming project or upcoming challenges in such a manner that your team can have balanced competencies in order to complete your project hassle-free.

If you are making Skill matrix to apply for a new job, identify skills relevant to the job you are applying. And it will simply be an amazing experience for the recruiter to assess your application.

Step 2 : Identify the competency of individual for each skill

Now, you need to evaluate the skills of your team members or yourself. The detailing involved in this step can differ from case to case, depending on the requirements and policies of each firm or Individual. Following are few systems of doing this activity.

Binary system : In this system only two terms are used to evaluate the skill. In short, evaluating in only terms like – Trained/ Not trained or Skill/ Unskilled, etc. This system is used in Example 1, below.

Quadrant system : In this system only four terms are used to evaluate the skill, and it can be based on a skill test or based on their self scores. In short, evaluating in four terms like – No experience/ little experience but no training/ Experience and trained/ Expert and trainer, etc. This system is used in Example 2, below.

360° Skill review : In this system evaluation is done on scale of 10, 100, 360, etc. This system is used in Example 3, below.

Note: A firm is free to choose any system or hybrid of this system based on their requirements and available resources.

Step 3 : Add this data in the skill matrix template.

Now you have everything that’s required to make a skill chart, just go and fill this data in the given template. We have provided downloadable excel skill matrix templates at the end of this article.

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Skill matrix example

After you put your data in the Skill matrix template, your skill matrix will look similar to the following pictures. Now use this Skill chart to understand the strengths and weakness of your team or yourself.

Example 1 – Team Skill matrix – Basic

Download Skill Matrix (Basic) Excel template

So here’s a small task for you and I am pretty sure you will get it!

Task – As per the data given in above picture, the team needs immediate training for which skill?

Hint – Minimum competency required is 50% for each skill

I am sure your answer was Skill – A, see now you don’t have to guess it because you have data.

I told you this matrix is very simple and easy to interpret, as shown in the above picture, it can be easily concluded that team needs immediate training in Skill – A as minimum competency required is 50% for each skill. Also, using this Skill matrix HR team can plan future training sessions as well as use this matrix as a form of documented proof required by International Standards.

You can decide the proficiency level required. In our example its 50%. For skill A, proficiency is 1/4 = 25%. So achieving minimum 50% of proficiency level we needed to train one more person in skill A.

Example 2 – Team Skill matrix – Intermediate

Download Skill Matrix (Intermediate)) Excel template

Are you ready for another task?

Task – The firm is looking for a new team leader, and they have decided to go with the person having maximum proficiency. In order to do find that they conducted a test and made the above skill matrix. Can you identify the “New Team Leader”?

Hint – Find the employee with maximum proficiency

If your answer was Ms. PA, then you are doing brilliant!

After a small examination for each skill it’s evident that Ms. PA is having maximum proficiency in the mentioned skills between all the team members because her score is maximum. Also we can easily evaluate that team lacks members who are proficient in Skill – 1. Thus, to complete this project team needs to hire an employee who is proficient in Skill – 1. You might have never realized this, but thanks to skill matrix you are well equipped to cater your customer needs.

Example 3 – 360⁰ Individual Skill matrix – Detailed

Download Skill Matrix (Detailed) Excel template

In this skill matrix we have grouped skills in to four, skill set A, B, C and D. You can enter score of each skill in yellow colored cells on a scale of 0 to 100. And you can see the overall score, which is the average of scores of all 4 skill sets.

Are you ready for one final task?

Task – Imagine you are Mr. XYZ and you made this skill chart; now based on provided skill chart, which three skills will you work upon immediately?

In the above picture it can be seen that Mr. XYZ works nicely in team and time management (as he has scored good in these fields), thus they are his strengths. On the other hand, Mr. XYZ needs to improve his communication skills and learn how to do follow up activities (as he has scored poor in these fields), thus they are his weaknesses.

Here comments from peer group and boss acts like a check on the scores provided by the employee. Also the “Actions to fill gap” table acts like a road map for the employee to improve his/ her skills.

Radar chart of skill set scores

We can also visualize the skill set scores through radar chart. You can find radar chart template in the detailed skill matrix excel template.

Now you might wonder why we are using a radar chart? So, here Radar chart is used considering that the Top Management is always running out of time thus they always prefer to review the summary of any data and leave the detail part on midlevel management like HODs. (Trivia: A radar chart is a graphical method of displaying multivariate data in the form of a two-dimensional chart of three or more quantitative variables represented on axes starting from the same point.)

Supposedly Mr. XYZ wants to apply for a job; then he should apply in domains where his strengths are in demand and he can replace comments by his recent achievements and certificates etc. On the other hand if he wants to indulge in self-development, he shall work upon his weaknesses and it will improve his score drastically.

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Skill matrix levels

In this section we will discuss skill matrix levels. Here in this article we have discussed three types of skill matrix, Basic, Intermediate and Detailed.

In each of the matrix the skill matrix levels are different.

In the Basic one (please refer the picture) we can see two levels;

1. Not trained (0)
2. Trained (1)

In the Intermediate one (Please refer the picture) we can see four levels;

1. No Experience (1)
2. Little experience but no training (2)
3. Experienced and trained (3)
4. Expert and Trainer (4)

In the detailed one (Please refer the picture) we can see continuous levels.

Here we are giving continuous points to each skill, which is most detailed.

This is also explained in the section how to make the skill matrix in other words; which are Binary, Quadrant and 360 degree review.

Skill matrix template excel free download

All three skill charts shown as illustrations can be downloaded by using the links below and they are 100% editable.

Please note that do not consider a skill if the person is not interested in applying it, although he is very good at that skill.

Thank you.

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About the Author

Meet Maheshwari is a budding Lean consultant, a Post Graduate in Industrial Engineering and Six Sigma Green Belt. He has worked with 15+ industries and helped them through their Operational Excellence journey since 2018. He has delivered in total 650+ hours of training on various concepts of Lean, QMS and Six Sigma.