Case Study - Skills-Based Merger

A major insurance company merged with three other similar insurance companies each with an Information Technology department.  Senior management tried to determine the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of the various departments.  In addition, the issues of career development, resource management, and, importantly, productivity and performance were critical to address.  The new company decided to implement a skills-based management program.  The first attempt was a failure because the approach simply resulted in a long list of individual skills that were not anchored in any way to their job functions.  The company needed to take a more structured approach to solving the problem.  The company selected SkillQuest® as the tool of choice since it required the use of a skills library which housed skills tied to job families and aligned skills and proficiency requirements by job title.  The result was a skills architecture that permitted people to identify which skills were required for their jobs and assignments.  In addition, gap analyses were employed to identify strengths and weaknesses by individual, unit, and enterprise.  Also, the use of SkillQuest® allowed them to search for employees who met specific skill requirements to fill open positions.  The result was an improvement in staff allocation, streamlined functions, and enhanced career development opportunities.

Case Study - Skills-Based Transition to Management

n a telecommunications company, high turnover, employee dissatisfaction and frequent project failure was becoming evident.  Investigation showed two things: first, staff members were dissatisfied with their supervisors and managers and, second, individual contributors were promoted and became accountable for teams, projects, and functional units without the management skills necessary to be successful.  The issue was how to identify people with management potential, put them in positions to learn those skills, and transition them in an orderly and meaningful way.  The company decided to take a skills-based approach by identifying the skills people needed to demonstrate to be not only successful in their current jobs but also expose them to management skills prior to becoming supervisors or project leaders.  By introducing, when appropriate, management skills including peer leadership, project and team management, and supervisory, along with their current technical and functional skills, people could be exposed management skill requirements with low risk for failure.  SkillQuest® provided the tool necessary to achieve that objective.  The results were outstanding showing that appropriate training early as part of a skills initiative to people who displayed management potential as individual contributors or technical team leaders, those negatives began to fade and improved managerial capability, productivity and employee satisfaction resulted. 

Case Study - Skills Tied to Training and Education

A leading automobile manufacturer was setting up a Learning University.  Employees enrolled in training from all parts of the organization without establishing a requirement for the classes they requested.  The new University was overwhelmed with requests for enrollment and had a great deal of difficulty determining the suitability of the enrollees for attendance.  In many cases, even the managers of the employees could not adequately ascertain their developmental needs.  It became apparent that the company needed a common yardstick to establish training requirements on an individual basis.  It was decided to take a skills-based approach to identifying individual capabilities and developmental needs.  The company implemented a SkillQuest® solution where training and development were tied to individual job-related skills.  Aligned with each skill people could view specific training available for that skill.  Based on employee's core and developmental skill proficiency levels that were reviewed and discussed with their respective supervisors and managers, they could prepare an Individual Development Plan and enroll in the University.  Upon approval by each supervisor and manager, the University was assured that the training was appropriate.  In addition, the University could review reports that identified all of the training required in the company by skill, and prepare skills-based strategic training plans.

Case Study - Resource Management

Management in a manufacturing company needed to manage its personnel in way that allowed them to assign resources with the right skills to various shifts, locations, and projects.  The problem was locating the appropriate people on short notice based on the workload.  They decided to take a resource pool approach where they could draw on people with the proper skills.  People were placed in a virtual pool when they completed their assignments.  The company selected SkillQuest® to help them identify employee skills based on both current and historical skills experience.  Once implemented, they could conduct a talent search and determine availability.  This solution contributed not only to effective staffing, assignments and workload balance, but also to the early identification of recruitment needs.