1.
1
Current Trends In
Skills & Skill Management
June 2016

2.
Executive Summary
In Q1 2016 TeamFit surveyed more than 100 people at companies of
all sizes on how they manage skills within their organization. Follow
up interviews were conducted with 20 participants.
2
Top Skill for 2016
Communication
Active
Listening
Asking
Questions
Writing
Sketching
Participating in
Small Groups
Supporting Skills
Key Findings
Skills are poorly managed
Skills are changing rapidly
High-level skills matter
Actions
Invest in skill management
Manage from the bottom up
Make time for reflection

3.
What is Skill Management?
The art of connecting the right people to achieve specific goals & build capability
 An emerging discipline that connects operations to HR
 Based on a deep understanding of what skills contribute to success
 Leverages multiple sources of data on skills, roles and work outcomes
 Used to build project teams, develop an extended talent network and to
inform training, hiring, career paths
3

4.
What skills are critical for the future?
4
Communication
Leadership
Management
Critical Thinking
Adaptability
Learning
Technical Knowledge
These are top skills across all industries
and job roles in order of frequency. They
seem to fall into two categories.
The skills that help you gain other skills
(Critical Thinking, Adaptability, Learning).
The skills that help you apply other skills
(Communication, Leadership,
Management).
Technical knowledge (people actually
gave this as a critical skill) seems to be a
catch all for the wide range of detailed
skills needed across all industries.
Build Skills Apply Skills

5.
Critical Skills in Business Consulting & Technology
5
People in both the business
consulting and technology
industries identified
Communication as the most
important skill.
But the second and third rated
skills we very different. People in
technical fields have to
continuously learn technical
skills. For consultants critical
thinking and leadership were
seen as the keys. It is
encouraging to see consultants
identify Empathy as a critical
skill.
Business
Consulting
Communication
Critical Thinking
Leadership
Empathy
Technology
Industry
Leadership
Continuous
Learning
Technical Skills

6.
Critical Skills by Role
6
Executives
Communication
Management
Leadership
Critical Thinking
Consultants
Leadership
Communication
Empathy
Project Management
Operations
Management
Communication
Critical Thinking
Sales
Data Analytics

7.
How well do people know co-workers skills?
7
Generally people feel they have good
insight into the skills that their co-workers
and their managers display on the job.
They also feel they have some insight into
the skills of other people in their business
unit.
After that confidence in skill insight drops
off. This is most serious when it comes to
knowledge of the skills of external
consultants. Many organizations are
relying on these people to provide unique
skills in high demand and to scale
operations.-

8.
How is skills data used?
The top three uses of skills data are
 Assigning people to projects 87%
 Hiring employees 79%
 Training and development 74%
Only 45% of companies used skills data in developing strategy!
8

9.
How do people learn about each other’s skills?
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
By working with
them
From colleagues
& co-workers
From LinkedIn
and other social
media
9
Not surprisingly the best way to judge a
person’s skills is by actually working with
them (10.18) and by talking with co-
workers (8.61). If you think about your own
behavior that is what you probably do.
It is interesting that LinkedIn and other
public social media showed up as the third
most important way to find out about
people’s skills (6.65).
Internal systems, whether professional
services automation (4.49), corporate
intranets (4.97), or talent management
systems (5.09) are not seen as reliable
sources for skills data.

10.
• Make skills & skill development part of daily conversations
• Use skills data in allocation decisions
• Invest in skill management
Skills are
poorly
managed
• Capture skill data at the project level (roles are too generic)
• Analyze which skills are contributing to project success
• Forecast future skill demand (and expect to be surprised)
Skills are
changing
rapidly
• Invest in the skills that help people to learn new skills
• Invest in the skills that help people to apply new skills
• Provide time for critical self reflection
High-level
skills
matter
10
Challenges Actions

11.
Please take our follow up survey
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/teamfitskills2016
Contact steven.forth@teamfit.co +1 604 763 7397
amar.dhaliwal@teamfit.co +1 604 218 8711
Solutions for Executives in Professional Services
Resource Managers
Project Managers
Consultants
Read the TeamFit Blog Follow Us on Twitter
11

12.
Survey demographics
Size %
1 11
2-50 31
51-200 24
201-1,000 12
1,001 – 10,000 5
10,001 – 50,000 12
> 50,000 5
12
Industry %
Technology 31
Business Services 31
Media & Entertainment 12
Education 5
Healthcare 5
Banking/Finance 5
Other 11
The survey was carried out using SurveyMonkey between January and April 2016
The survey was supplemented by 20 structured interviews carried out in April and May of 2016.
Roles %
Executive 31
Consultant 31
Operations 24
Independent Consultant 11
Human Resources 3