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Managing Your Skills Library

Learn to build and manage your skills library. This guide covers creating skills, organizing them into areas, and setting proficiency scales.

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Overview

The skills library is your central repository for all competencies that can be tracked and evaluated across your organization. This guide covers creating skills, organizing them with areas of expertise, setting up proficiency scales, and maintaining your library over time.

Before You Begin

Understanding the Skills Library Structure

Your skills library consists of three main components:

  1. Skills: Individual competencies to be evaluated

  2. Areas of Expertise: Categories for organizing related skills

  3. Proficiency Scales: Measurement levels for each skill

💡 Tipp: Already using skills?
You do NOT need to create new skills for the mapping system. Your existing skills library works with both:

  • 1-1 review assignments

  • New skill mappings

Simply continue using your existing skills and apply them to mappings as needed.

Creating New Skills

Step 1: Access the Skills Library

  1. Navigate to Development > Skills

  2. Click "New Skill" button

Step 2: Define Basic Skill Information

Fill in the core skill details:

Required Field: Skill Name

  • Use clear, specific names

  • Good examples: "Python Programming", "Project Management", "Customer Communication"

  • Avoid: "Technical Skills", "Soft Skills", "General Knowledge"

Optional Field: Description

Add context to help evaluators understand the skill:

Example Description for "Data Analysis": "Ability to collect, process, and interpret complex data sets to drive business decisions. Includes statistical analysis, data visualization, and presenting insights to stakeholders."

Step 3: Assign Area of Expertise

Connect the skill to a category for better organization:

  1. Click "Area of Expertise" dropdown

  2. Select existing area OR

  3. Create new area by clicking "+ Add Area"

Step 4: Create Proficiency Scale

This is the most critical step for meaningful evaluations:

Adding Proficiency Levels

  1. Click "Add Proficiency Level"

  2. Name each level (2-10 levels possible)

  3. Add descriptions for each level

  4. Reorder by dragging if needed

Standard 4-Level Scale Example

Level

Name

Description

1

Beginner

Basic understanding, requires supervision

2

Intermediate

Can work independently on routine tasks

3

Advanced

Handles complex situations, mentors others

4

Expert

Recognized authority, drives innovation

Step 5: Configure 1-1 Review assignment Settings

📌 Note: This section supports the 1-1 review system

If you need this skill in traditional 1-1 reviews:

  1. Check "Assess skill in 1-1 reviews"

  2. Choose assignment method:

    • All employees

    • Specific employees with Groups Custom fields

For skill management on profile only, skip this and use skill mappings instead.

More details about assigning here.

Step 6: Save the Skill

Click "Create Skill" to add it to your library.

Managing Areas of Expertise

What Are Areas of Expertise?

Areas of expertise are categories that group related skills, making your library easier to navigate and report on.

Creating Areas of Expertise

  1. From Skills Library, click "Areas of Expertise"

  2. Click "New Area of expertise"

  3. Enter area name

  4. Click "Create area of expertise"

Recommended Area Structure

Functional Areas:

  • Technical Skills

  • Leadership & Management

  • Communication

  • Business Acumen

  • Industry Knowledge

Department-Specific:

  • Engineering

  • Sales & Marketing

  • Finance & Operations

  • Human Resources

  • Customer Success

Managing Existing Areas

For each area, you can:

  • View skill count

  • Edit area name

  • Archive unused areas (cannot be deleted)

Best Practices for Proficiency Scales

1. Consistency Across Similar Skills

Use the same scale structure for related skills:

  • All technical skills: 5-level scale

  • All soft skills: 4-level scale

  • All leadership skills: 3-level scale

2. Clear Behavioral Indicators

Write descriptions that are observable and measurable:

❌ Poor: "Good at Python" ✅ Better: "Writes clean, efficient Python code following PEP 8 standards"

3. Avoid Overlap Between Levels

Each level should be distinct:

❌ Overlapping:

  • Intermediate: "Can handle most tasks"

  • Advanced: "Can handle difficult tasks"

✅ Clear Distinction:

  • Intermediate: "Handles routine tasks independently"

  • Advanced: "Solves complex problems and mentors others"

4. Consider Your Organization's Maturity

For Small companies (3-level scale):

  • Developing

  • Proficient

  • Expert

For Enterprises (5-7 levels):

  • More granular progression

  • Detailed competency frameworks

  • Specific certification levels

5. Include "Not Required" Option

When setting up proficiency scales, remember that skill mappings allow "Not Required" - you don't need a "N/A" level.

Maintaining Your Skills Library

Searching and Filtering

Use the search function to quickly find skills:

  • Search by skill name

  • Filter by area of expertise

  • View archived skills

Editing Existing Skills

  1. Find the skill in your library

  2. Click … and "Edit" button

  3. Modify name, description, or proficiency scale

  4. Click "Save Changes"

⚠️ Warning: Changing proficiency scales affects all existing evaluations. Consider creating a new skill version instead.

Archiving Skills

Important: Skills cannot be deleted, only archived.

To archive a skill:

  1. Select the skill

  2. Click on … "Archive"

  3. Confirm the action

Why archive instead of delete?

  • Preserves historical evaluation data

  • Maintains audit trail

  • Allows reactivation if needed

  • Prevents data inconsistencies

Reactivating Archived Skills

  1. In filter select Status "Archived"

  2. Find the archived skill

  3. Click … and "Unarchive"

Assigning Skills to Employees

To learn more about assigning skills to employees please visit this page.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues and Solutions

Archive the skill instead - deletion is not supported to preserve data integrity

Proficiency scale needs updating

Consider: Creating a new version of the skill rather than editing

Alternative: Edit during a quiet period with clear communication

Too many skills in library

Archive unused skills and reorganize areas of expertise

Skills not appearing in mappings

Check: Skill is not archived

Verify: Skill has complete proficiency scale

Related Articles
Managing Positions
Evaluating Employee Skills
Assigning Skills to Employees
Understanding and Creating Skills Mappings
Viewing Skills on Employee Profiles
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