Skills inventory and skills matrix
To make the best use of the knowledge and strengths of your employees and ensure they match the needs of your organisation, conduct a skills inventory. Start by creating a skill profile for each employee and summarising the results in a skills matrix. This gives you a good overview of the company's resources in terms of skills.
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Skills profiles and skills matrix
Using the skills profiles and skills matrix, compare your results with the company objectives and skill needs in the company prospectus and role descriptions. This will provide you with a clear description of your strengths, any skills gaps, and available validation and experience. It will also help you to prioritise knowledge and skills that must be acquired.
Template for skills profile (pdf)
Template for skills matrix (pdf)
Education
Document your employees’ education and training. Also note any education that may not currently be of need, but which is directly linked to your mission and industry. Perhaps more of that employee's skills can be utilised when you match in terms of your overall needs.
Industry knowledge
Find out what knowledge your employees have about the industry, their role and related technologies, etc. How can you capitalise on knowledge that benefits your company? Also try to find ways to disseminate knowledge within the organisation.
Validation
Validation is a standard for identifying and assessing a person's actual knowledge and skills, regardless of when, how or where they were acquired. For example, such knowledge may come from education, professional experience or elsewhere.
For those who operate businesses and have employees, validation can be a good way to work with long-term skills supply. Skills supply is about what skills you need within your organisation to achieve your long-term goals. Validation enables you to, e.g:
- Identify and develop the skills of your staff, for example by determining if they need additional training.
- Recruit new staff.
- Ensure that applicants have the right skills.
How validation works
- When recruiting, or to establish what skills your staff has, you can contact your sector for information and support in carrying out validation.
- Validation can also be done by, for example, vocational schools or the Public Employment Service, which procures validation services for various shortage occupations.
- A validation is done as a written or practical test, depending on the sector concerned. After the test, the individual receives a certificate of competence.
- If a person has education qualifications from abroad. Alternatively, if documentation is lacking for education or training abroad, validation can mean that grades are translated into Swedish.
Sectoral validation
Sectoral validation is carried out by sectoral organisations and focuses on labour needs and common requirements for professional skills. These are usually skills that are in demand among several companies in the sector. Sectoral validation can be used, for example, to employ people with the right skills but who lack the necessary certification. It can also be used to ensure the right knowledge or level of knowledge within a company or for quality assurance.
Validation from professional organisations and public authorities
Below you can find contact details of professional organisations and public authorities to help in your validation work.
Validation at the National Agency for Higher Vocational Education
Validation for companies in the industrial sector at Svensk industrivalidering (in Swedish)
Comprehensive list of industry organisations at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (in Swedish)
Other knowledge
Get a broader picture of your employees' skills by highlighting knowledge that is not directly related to their current role. This might be, for example, additional languages or knowledge of different systems. Some of these skills may match needs in the company's plan or might create entirely new opportunities.
Experience
Keep in mind that useful experience can also come from other industries or areas outside of work. Employees in the company may have acquired knowledge and insights that are valuable to the organisation through hobbies, volunteer work or other commitments.
Personal characteristics and competences
Get to know your employees, their strengths, challenges and motivations to better place the right person in the right position. Consider personality types and traits when deciding which roles, tasks and responsibilities best suit each employee. This is likely to lead to greater efficiency and more satisfied employees.
Special interests
What talents and expertise lies hidden in your organisation? People with a strong interest in something often put a lot of time and energy into learning, using and exploring their area of interest. Is there any part of that knowledge that the company could utilise? Experts are a very good source of inspiration and learning, as deeply interested people are often passionate about sharing their expertise.