Maturing Professional Services: Skills Management

Professional Services is broken down into 6 key components: Time Management, Project Management, Selling Services, Resource Management, Skills Management and Services Billing. In this blog, we address the maturity curve of Skills Management. The maturity curve consists of: Initial, Repeatable, Controlled, Optimized, and Continuous Improvement. Skills Management is a critical component of services organizations. We provide both process and Certinia PSA product focus areas for identification and improvement. Let’s dive right in!

Maturity Level 1: Initial

1. Characteristics: High level classification of Resource pool; analysis of business to identify key skills and certifications (skills taxonomy)

2. Primary Output: Capacity by R/P/G

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Initial definition of Roles, Regions/Practices/Groups to classify both demand and resources 

   • Services Ops to begin to develop initial skill taxonomy from role characteristics and/or Certifications that drive staff planning. Taxonomy should include both soft and hard skills.

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Region/Practice/Group definition

   • Align opportunity pipeline and resource to the R/P/G hierarchy

   • Align Resources to Roles 

   • Work Calendar and Holiday Configuration to support capacity

Maturity Level 2: Repeatable

1. Characteristics: Formal skills taxonomy defined and implemented. Alignment of resource pool to the taxonomy

2. Primary Output: Capacity by Skill

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Load initial skill certification taxonomy and align resources to skill and competencies. This can be accomplished via a central function or via employee self assignment process. This provides visibility during search and assignment

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Skill, including base definition and levels, loaded into Certinia

   • Certification definitions loaded into Certinia 

   • Manage Skills and Competencies by resource

   • Skill set definition if applicable

   • Utilization and Capacity reports and analytics 

   • Partner Portal (subcontractor self-assign) 

   • Mobile for self assignment

Maturity Level 3: Controlled

1. Characteristics: Establish skill level forecasts for pipeline; analyze demand and capacity

2. Primary Output: Demand and Capacity by skill, role, R/P/G

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Add skill/certification designations to demand (both templated demand and Ad-Hoc) in order to leverage intelligent staffing. 

   • Delineate between essential and desired skills on demand 

   • If employees are self rating, introduce approvals

   • Align skills taxonomy by region, practice and group attributes

   • Establish regular cadence for skill/competency updates

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Resource Requests with skills 

   • Project/Demand templates with skill designations 

   • Services Product Definition 

   • Advanced Analytics for Demand and Capacity

   • Skills Approvals

   • Intelligent Staffing

   • Governance for skill taxonomy maintenance

Maturity Level 4: Optimized

1. Characteristics: Leverage skills to drive work opportunities and assignments to resources

2. Primary Output: Visibility to employee skill and assignment aspirations

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Source skill/competency by resource from LMS 

   • Allow employees to identify skill aspirations

   • Publish open demand via Work Opportunity Hub

   • Leverage automated assignment via Resource Optimizer if desired 

   • Skills development plans by resource to address capacity shortfalls 

   • Recommend skill/competency updates at project closure based on completed work

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Work Opportunity Hub 

   • Integration technologies 

   • PSA Resource Optimizer 

   • Project or Assignment closeout procedures for skills updates

Maturity Level 5: Continuous Improvement

1. Characteristics: Automated and disciplined processes governing skills, supply and demand

2. Primary Output: Best in Class Skills Management

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Skills ontology vs. taxonomy

   • Automate skills updates based on completed projects or relevant work experience from PSA

   • Survey results to inform soft skills competencies 

   • AI for skills - skill inference adjacencies (e.g. from work delivered, CV)

   • Automated career pathing

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Automation 

   • AI and Machine learning 

   • Automated resume maintenance and generation

We all strive for continuous improvement. However, identifying current and ideal maturity is critical to achieving continuous improvement. Enjoy this blog, check out the other 5 professional services maturity blogs. Ready to dive into your professional services maturity journey? Take the next right step and reach out to our team!