We are thrilled that you have chosen to use MuchSkills. In this guide you have everything you need to get started as efficiently as possible. If you have any questions or need help, please write to us at support@muchskills.com or use the chat feature.
The best way for organisations to increase employee engagement and productivity is to let employees do what they do best, according to research conducted on millions of respondents across the world.
Use MuchSkills to match employee skills and interests to their roles to see increased engagement, productivity, sales, and profitability.
If you have not done so already, make sure to sign up and create an account. Follow the instructions and add your skills to build your personal profile. When you are done, click on ‘TEAM/ORG’ in the top menu and set up your company profile. Once you complete that, you will be able to see the team overview where your skills have populated.
Click on ‘TEAM/ORG’ in the top menu and then click the ‘Settings’ tab on the right. Click on ‘Team Settings’ and make sure you add office locations, team description, and the different departments/squads/teams of your organisation. These settings will be valuable later when you want to see skill overviews per department and location.
We recommend that you watch this video to understand how you can set up MuchSkills in the best way possible.
MuchSkills comes with four out-of-the-box skill set categories for employees to fill in. These are ‘job focus’, ‘soft skills’, ‘technical skills’ and ‘certifications’. These skill sets are from the employee's perspective and are input after the employee reflects on what they bring to the organisation.
These categories are meant to capture what employees know well (skills and certifications) and enjoy working with (interest levels in using a particular skill). There are no restrictions on the number of skills an employee can input here.
Employees will find the exercise of filling in these categories valuable because it gives them an opportunity to self-reflect and indicate to the organisation what they think their strengths are and what skills they are really keen on using.
Organisations will benefit because they will obtain a comprehensive database of employee skills, many of which they were probably unaware they had. Additionally, they will get a better understanding of the most important skills to get work done – from the employee’s perspective.
Custom skills are the organisation’s perspective of skills. In this category, an organisation adds all the skills it needs to meet its business objectives and goals. Employees then choose the skills they bring to the table from this list.
In this category too, there are no limits on the number of skills you can add. MuchSkills customers map everything from animal nutrition and environmental expertise to SAP implementation and SalesForce development. The key is to map the skills that the organisation needs to be successful.
Creating your company-specific skill taxonomy
A skills taxonomy is a detailed list of all the unique skills and competencies that your organisation needs to meet its business goals. If you don't have a skills taxonomy or would like to update your existing one, do read MuchSkills’ playbook on how to create a skills taxonomy by clicking here.
We have created an example of a skills taxonomy that you can download by clicking here. You can also download an example skill list per role/competence by clicking here. Use the role document to define what skills you need for each role. Once you have defined skills for all roles and competencies, use the skill taxonomy document to define what skills you would like to map in your organisation.
Mapping development languages and software competence – What is the best way to do it?
MuchSkills has a built-in database of all types of software and development languages. To see where users can add these technical skills click here. Don't add software and development languages to your skills taxonomy since this is already managed in this skill category and adding them elsewhere may confuse users.
Adding your own skill sets
To set up your own skill set, click on ‘TEAM/ORG’ in the top menu and then click on the ‘Settings’ tab on the right. Click on ‘Manage Skills’ and then ‘+ Skill Category’. Add a name for your skill set and choose if you want it displayed as a bubble chart or sector chart. Now add skills, description of the skills, the department whose members should select the listed skill, and whether the skill is mandatory.
Import/upload skills
Import skills and descriptions from a CSV file. After creating a skills category, click on the three dots on the top right corner of the category. You can download a CSV template here and add your own skills + descriptions. Once you are done, use the ‘Upload CSV file’ function to upload all your skills.
Bubble chart - Measure interest level
Pick the bubble chart display if the skills you want to map are not easy to compare or measure. When you pick this display, once employees add skills, they can tap on the bubbles to increase or decrease their size to indicate their interest in using this skill.
Sector chart - Measure skill level
Pick the sector chart if the skills you want mapped can be compared with others. When you use this display, employees add their skills and can rate themselves as ‘Beginner’, ‘Intermediate’ or ‘Expert’ in those skills. Employees will also be able to compare their skill levels with those of their colleagues.
Adding skills and descriptions
Once you have created your skill category, you can add skills and a description for each skill. The name of the skill and description will be displayed when users pick skills from your custom skill category under the section ‘MY SKILLS’.
Department(s)
Some skills are very specific to a certain department. When you choose ‘ALL’ it means the skill will be available to all users. If you select a specific department, it means only users from that department will be prompted to pick this skill.
Mandatory
This feature is valuable if you want to measure the proficiency of a particular skill among members of a specific department.
It's possible to make a skill mandatory for a particular department. This means that the skill will be deployed to all users in that department. Users will have to indicate their skill/interest level with regard to that skill on their profiles. Select the mandatory skills and the departments those skills are mandatory for. Once done, click ‘Deploy Mandatory Skills’ to activate and push out the skill to all users.
We recommend that you watch this video to learn more about custom skills.
Invite team leaders to join MuchSkills before you invite everyone else to do so. This makes it easier for team members to choose their managers when they are making their own profiles. Similarly, ask team leaders to spend time to make their profiles as detailed as possible as that inspires their teams to make detailed profiles too. All the data is then used to make a detailed org chart. Make sure that everyone understands the importance of completing this exercise.
There are three ways to invite team members to join MuchSkills.
To invite by email or link click on ‘TEAM/ORG’ in the top menu, click on "Members" tab and then click on the ‘INVITE’ button to the right. Follow the instructions to invite your team. If you want to connect your HR System such as Personio, Bamboo HR and Azure AD, click on ‘TEAM/ORG’ and then ‘Settings’ tab. Click on ‘INTEGRATIONS’ to see if your HR system is supported. If it is, follow instructions. If it is not on that list, contact support@muchskills.com and we can discuss a solution to your specific needs.
We recommend that you watch this video to learn more about how you can invite your team members and colleagues to your MuchSkills Team/Organization.
Before asking everyone in your team or organisation to log in to MuchSkills, you must first inform them about how it works. Below is a suggestion of what you can say in an email to your colleagues. You can also download a ready to go presentation that you can share with your team informing them about MuchSkills. Download presentation.
Hello colleagues,
We have decided to start using a new tool, MuchSkills, to help us identify and focus on our strengths at work.
I will invite you to log in to MuchSkills to create a skills profile. Setting it up should take you just a few minutes. Once you are done, you will have a beautifully visualised skills profile that highlights your Job Focus (what you are good at and what gives you energy), Soft Skills, Technical Skills, certifications and our custom skill sets. You can then share this with your colleagues.
Showcase your superpowers and get to know the strengths of your colleagues – Once everyone has built their skills profile and shared it, you will be able to view it. Similarly, your colleagues will also be able to see your visualised profile – what you’ve listed as your key skills and strengths, and what energises you.
Easily search for superpowers in your team or organisation – Once all of you have your own MuchSkills profiles, it will be easy for everyone to find colleagues who possess specific skills. Simply log in to MuchSkills, click on ‘TEAM/ORG’, type in the skill you are looking for in the search field and press ‘enter’. You will see matching skills. Click on a skill and you will get a list of all colleagues who possess that skill.
Create skills-based teams – If you have a new project for which you need many different skills, log in to MuchSkills and click on ‘TEAM BUILDER’. Then create a project and list the skills you need for it. The MuchSkills software will then suggest to you the names of colleagues with those specific skills.
Want to know more about MuchSkills? - You can visit their website or watch a videos explaining how it works.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me.
The org chart is automatically created as and when users join and select who their direct manager is. If you are an admin, you can modify a user’s direct manager. To do this, click on ‘TEAM/ORG’ in the top menu and then click on ‘Settings’ tab to the right. Click on ‘MANAGE MEMBERS’ and you can modify a user’s direct manager, department, location and role.
To view the org chart click on ‘TEAM/ORG’, click on ‘Members’ tab. You will now view all members in a grid view. To view your organisation’s reporting structure, change from ‘GRID VIEW’ to ‘HIERARCHY’ using the drop down menu on the right. Click on any face to see their top skill, contact info and to visit their profile.
In this video, we show you how to set up the org chart and how to view it.
One of the ways organisations can stay ahead of the curve is to conduct a skills gap analysis to ensure that their workforce stays productive, improves performance and stays competitive in a rapidly changing world. To learn more about skill gap analysis check out our Playbook by clicking here.
To create an analysis of skills related to a role, a competence, department or the entire company click on TEAM/ORG in the top menu and then click Analysis. In the top right click on the green button Create Skills List. Set a name for your list and add a description. You can add web links to the description if you like and these will be automatically clickable for users. As an example, you can add a learning journey connected to the role. Once you are done click Create list button.
Now you can start to add skills. Do this in the top right corner. Start typing the name of the skill and the system will show suggestions. Add the skills and certifications you want to analyse. Once you are done you will have a list of skills and certifications and you can see individuals connected to these skills, how good fit they are and their skill level. If you want to filter out certain office locations or departments use the Filter button on the top.
If you would like to learn more on how to do skill gap analysis check out our how-to videos here and don't forget to check out our Playbook by clicking here. To learn how to set up a skill analysis list watch the video below.
Certifications are proof of competence and credentials. To see all certifications click on TEAM/ORG and then Certifications. Click on All Certifications to view all certifications in your organisation. Use the Filter to set filters to view a certain department, office location, or a combination. Click on the graphical bar to view who has the certification.
It’s possible to create certificate lists where you can constantly monitor the certifications you have and don't have. Click on the green Create Certificate List, the page will refresh and you will have a new view. First set the name of the list by clicking on the grey text Untitled and typing the name you would like to have. Then you can start to add certificates you would like to track, do this by simply typing the name of the certificate. You can also add lists for Templates. Click on the +Add from templates link to the right. Select one or several templates and click Use template.
Once you are done with your certificate list click Certifications in the sub-menu and your new list will be there. Click on the list and you can view all certificates your team has and don't have.
If you find that certificates are missing in the MuchSkills global database, please contact us and we add them for you. Send your request for certificate import to wow@muchskills.com
Below, we outline a best practice approach for how your organisation can be more strengths focused and increase employee engagement. Do remember that every organisation is unique. Review and implement what you find is the most suitable for your organisation.
When you start using MuchSkills, you will immediately get a deeper understanding of the skills members of your team possess and those they love using. You might also discover skill gaps – when employees lack the skills they need to be successful on the job. Click here to watch our tutorial on how to conduct a skill gap analysis. To read our complete guide on conducting a skill gap analysis, click here. Once you have a deeper understanding of the skills gaps that plague your organisation, you can create a plan to upskill your workforce for increased productivity and better results. Click here to read our 8-step guide to successfully upskill your employees, and click here to read our playbook on How to set personal growth and development goals.
In many organisations, teams are created based on who people know personally instead of individuals who have the most suitable skills for the project. MuchSkills Team Builder helps you build autonomous, agile and high-performing teams based on competence and skills. To learn how to use Team Builder, click here to watch a tutorial. To read our research-based playbook on 7 steps to build strong and effective teams, click here.
Individuals, teams and organisations that are aware of their strengths will see increased engagement and productivity. Read this step-by-step guide on how to build employee strengths which includes research and data about why it matters. You can find the guide here.
Regular one-on-ones and check-ins are proven to increase employee engagement. Read our research-packed guides on how you can implement these best practices. Feel free to add these texts to your internal guides to make it easy for team leaders to use.
