Is there a right way of measuring skills in the corporate environment? Honestly, I'm not sure there is. I am, however, a lot more comfortable saying there are dozens of ways of getting it seriously wrong. Here are some of the most common I've witnessed.
Pitfalls when assessing skills
Measuring the wrong thing
A large organisation I worked for wanted to embed Diversity and Inclusion best practices in their teams. After defining their framework, they relied for follow-up on a quiz with theoretical questions around the differences between Diversity and Equity and so on. It was fun to to take, but provided virtually no information whatsoever about behaviour and beliefs.
Clearly, knowledge isn't equal to performance or attitudes. Make sure you know what you want to measure, why, and how.
Relying on a single method
I've seen plenty of organisations implement self-assessment tools. Don't get me wrong: I'm a big fan of self-assessments to encourage reflection. The most common issue I've witnessed, though, is not combining it with an external benchmark. Most of us are prone to misjudging our own skills. Both over- and under-estimating can pose challenges.
Make sure you use more than one method to get the best out of each.
Too Long, Too Cumbersome
In a different setting, a HR department was ready to launch a skills assessment to the entire organisation. The tool was intended to generate a myriad of valuable data points. It would have been great, if it weren't because the survey took 2 full hours to complete.
I was glad to see it changed soon enough: nobody, not even the most motivated employees, could afford two hours of their time (repeated on a regular basis) to assess their skills. Remember to design measuring strategies that are manageable both in terms of usability and data points generated.
What To Do Instead
Because different situations call for a different combination of methods (and you should always use more than one), here are some I always consider including on my menu.
Skill Assessments
Skills Assessments can range from formal exams and certifications to self-assessments. Besides being 100% sure about what you're measuring with the support of your skills framework, consider the impact they might have on your team's motivation. Measuring accurately may not be the top priority if you are discouraging teams from further developing their capabilities.
Performance Reviews
I've seen Performance Reviews yield excellent results when they help provide team members with specific goals to follow up, providing a sense of continuity and achievement. I've also seen them frustrate everybody when they are not aligned with appraisal and compensation policies. Before implementing anything similar, make sure you have talked to everyone involved: Line Managers, Finance, Management, HR, etc.
360
You have probably heard a lot related to 360-degree feedback and the resources, time, effort, etc. required to pull through a complete cycle. It's also true technology has made the process a lot less painful if you don't need extensive customisation.
In my opinion, culture remains at the core of such a decision. Yes–you might have the budget, the time, the support. But will it sit well with the culture in your organisation? Are teams open to evaluation? Can you expect the organisation to be healthier after you complete it? It may be a topic to discuss with a wider group of stakeholders.
Project Reviews
Project reviews help understand how skills have been put to use. Feedback will often be qualitative and harder to process, but a lot more pertinent and actionable for team members. Think of sharing reviews addressing the project instead of the person, or encouraging managers to find specific project cases in their coaching conversations.
Training metrics
Depending on your employee development platform or LMS, you will have access to different data from users. There are, however, certain insights the top learning tech companies like to watch out for to identify new skills required in the workforce:
Searches: what are users searching for? Are they developing new needs we haven't got covered yet?
Repeated content: if users are returning to the same elements over and over, are they experiencing specific challenges related to them?
Incomplete courses: did users not find what they were looking for? What else were they expecting that they didn't get?
conclusion
Measuring people's capabilities is a tough endeavour. Find the right balance between effort invested, usability, and cultural fit to design a strategy that will achieve the ultimate goal of helping your organisation grow.
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