By **Gregory Ronczewski**, Director of Product Design at Ibbaka. See his skill profile.

Definition of Skill Management

Skill management is the business discipline of understanding the skills of the people in an organization and its extended network, how those skills are aligned to Jobs and Roles, and how those skills contribute to goal achievement and the fulfillment of the organization’s mission. Most skill management systems are built on a skill graph. They can be used to understand role coverage and skill gaps.

Here is an alternative definition from Wikipedia: “Skill management is the practice of understanding, developing and deploying people and their skills. Well-implemented skills management should identify the skills that job roles require, the skills of individual employees, and any gap between the two.”

Skill management and talent management

Skill Management often resides within Talent Management. Here is a definition from Gartner: “Talent management is the attraction, selection, and retention of employees, which involves a combination of HR processes across the employee life cycle. It encompasses workforce planning, employee engagement, learning and development, performance management, recruiting, onboarding, succession and retention.”

Here is a post explaining what skill management in more detail.

What business questions does skill management answer?

Skill management answer six critical business questions.

What skills are available to our organization?
How are these skills being applied?
Do we have the skills we need to meet today's goals?
Will we have the skills we need to meet tomorrow's goals?
Are there hidden pockets of potential we can deploy?
Who are the critical people on our team?

For the organization a well-implemented Skill Management reshapes the general ability to undertake new challenges.

Skill management can also empower the individual. It gives insight into the skills we have, the skills we could develop, the roles we can play and who we should work with.

If you are interested in alternatives to skill management platforms, please check this post. In addition, if you would like to learn more about the key business questions related to skill management besides the list above, check out this post.

Does your organization use skill management? What are your thoughts on your solution? Would you like to try Ibbaka Talent, or would you like to have a demo of your platform? Please, do not hesitate to contact us.

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