How to create a skills plan for employees

A competency plan is one of the most useful tools you have as a manager or HR manager. Yet there are many businesses that either don't have one, or that have one that dusts down a drawer after it's made. In this article, we show you how to create a competency plan that is used, step by step.

What is a competency plan?

A competency plan is an overview of what competencies your company needs, what skills your employees already have, and what needs to be developed or replenished. It serves as a roadmap for competency development in the company, from where you are today to where you want to be.

A good skills plan answers three questions: What competencies does each role in the company require? What skills do employees have today? And what is the shortage, and how do we close it?

Why does the company need a competency plan?

Without a plan, skills development becomes haphazard. Some employees take courses because they themselves take the initiative, others because they are sent on something. The result is that the company does not know what it actually has in terms of expertise, which becomes a problem when you have to tender, handle supervision or recruit new people.

A competency plan gives you an overview of competence gaps in your organisation, a common basis for employee interviews and development plans, documentation that strengthens you in tenders and bidding competitions, easier HSE follow-up and compliance with legal requirements, and a better basis for prioritising course budgets.

How to create a competency plan, step by step

Step 1: Define the roles and competency requirements

Start by listing the positions in the company. For each role, ask yourself: what competencies must a person in this role have to do the job well and in line with laws and requirements?

Competence can be divided into three types. Professional competencies include certificates, courses, certificates and formal education. Practical competence is about experience and skills from the job. Personal competence revolves around collaboration, communication and leadership.

For many roles, there are also statutory requirements, such as HSE training for managers, safety ombudsman courses, HACCP for the food industry or fire protection training.

Step 2: Map the competencies of the employees

Review what employees can actually do today. This can be done through employee interviews, self-evaluation or by gathering documentation such as course certificates, certificates and resumes in one place.

Tip: use a system where employees themselves can register and keep their competencies up to date. It saves you a lot of manual labor, and increases the motivation of employees.

Step 3: Find out what's missing

Compare requirements with actual competencies for each role. Where are there holes? Are there individual shortcomings in individuals, or structural deficiencies where entire departments are without essential expertise?

Prioritize by consequence. What is most critical to operations, safety or statutory requirements, you grab first.

Step 4: Create a plan of action

For each point that is missing, decide what to do and when. The action plan should include who needs what training, what courses or measures are to be carried out, the deadline for implementation and who is in charge of follow-up.

Be realistic. A plan of action with 30 measures that nobody implements is worse than a plan with 5 actions that are actually followed up.

Step 5: Document and follow up

A competency plan is not finished once it is made. It needs to be updated regularly. Set aside time in the calendar to revise the plan, preferably once every six months or in connection with employee conversations.

Make sure that completed courses and new competencies are documented on an ongoing basis, so that the plan always reflects reality.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Many companies make an overly large plan the first time and give up along the way. Start simple and build over time.

It is also impossible to complete a course without it being documented with course certificates and stored in a way that is easy to retrieve.

A third flaw is that the plan lives in the HR system, far away from the employees. Skills development works better when employees themselves have ownership of their own development. Give them insight into their own competency profiles.

Here's how Compend can help you

Compend makes it easy to create, follow up and document expertise in your company. Compend's platform allows you to map competencies and find gaps across roles and departments, give employees access to hundreds of courses in HSE, management, trades and more, document all training automatically with course certificates directly in the employee's profile, and generate tailored CVs and competency reports for use in tenders and tenders.

See how Compend works for businesses

Do you have questions about skills planning or want to know more about how Compend can help your business? Get in touch with us, we are happy to help you get started.‍