{"id":4762,"date":"2024-05-29T21:01:35","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T21:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/?post_type=resources&p=4762"},"modified":"2025-09-22T04:15:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T09:15:52","slug":"employee-skills-assessment","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/www.brightmine.com\/us\/resources\/talent-management\/learning-development\/employee-skills-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"How to carry out an employee skills assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Natasha K. A. Wiebusch<\/strong>, JD<\/strong>, Brightmine Marketing Content Manager<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Today’s workforce is in constant need of new skills, and skills gaps are now more common than ever. In fact, executives today believe that just under half of their workforce is not ready for the future of work, according to the 2023 edX AI Survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To prepare employees for the work of tomorrow, employers first need to know what skills their employees have\u2026and what skills they need. They can learn through an employee skills assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a skills assessment, employers can identify employee strengths and the skills gaps that may be holding them back. In this guide, we show you how to carry out an effective skills assessment that will support your people and business strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an employee skills assessment?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An employee skills assessment is a formal assessment process used to evaluate an employee’s proficiency in specific skills. An important talent management tool, skills assessments identify strengths, weaknesses and skills gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the benefits of employee skills assessments?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Employee skills assessments are an essential piece of any employee skills strategy<\/a>, and they have many benefits for both employers and employees. When done well, you can analyze assessment results to gain highly valuable insight into people strengths and needs. You can leverage this insight in many ways, including the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning and development programs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Skills assessments guide employee learning by, first, helping employers and employees understand the employee\u2019s initial skill level. Further assessments measure an employee’s progress, and more specifically, learning progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, many learning experience platforms will automate skills assessment by evaluating the employee throughout employee training. They can then either give recommendations for further learning or adjust the material in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employee engagement and retention<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Employees want to work for organizations that value employee skill development and have an effective development program in place. An essential element of a skills development program is an accurate method of evaluating employee skills. This ensures employees have the best opportunities to pursue their own career development and achieve their professional goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidate evaluation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Objective, accessible and role-appropriate skills tests help recruitment leaders evaluate candidates. They provide insights on what skill sets candidates have and provide an objective method of ranking them against their peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Succession planning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Assessments are a key component of any successful succession planning strategy<\/a>. First, regular skills assessments identify upskilling or re-skilling needs. They also help the organization identify high performers and other employees with high potential. Employers can use this information to further guide their succession planning efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance reviews<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You can also take a skills-focused approach to performance reviews. This can help employees understand how their skill levels may impact their work product or outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employee assessments that focus on skills can also inspire better development conversations. That is, managers can highlight an employee’s strengths and capabilities, allowing the employee to envision what they are capable of. This pushes performance reviews beyond simply measuring what the employee has already done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assessing employee skills<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Carrying out a skills assessment can be a daunting task. The assessment needs to be accurate, effective and aligned your business goals. And with so much disruption in workplace skills needs, assessments also need to be frequent and up to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When carrying out a skills assessment, consider the following steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Determine the scope and purpose of the assessment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first step to carrying out an employee skills assessment is to determine the scope and purpose. This involves deciding which employees you’d like to assess, the types of insights you’d like to gain from the assessment and what you plan to do with those insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When determining the purpose and scope, first, decide whether you\u2019d like to evaluate an individual employee, a team or the entire organization. This will help inform what types of skills information you\u2019re looking for. Also consider whether you\u2019re more focused on identifying essential skills gaps, high performers or future needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2: Set goals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Once you’ve determined the scope and purpose of the assessment, you can set goals to help align the assessment with the greater business strategy. For example, the goal may be to enhance your succession planning strategy or shape the training and development program. Or, it may be to identify upskilling or reskilling needs for future growth in the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When considering the skills assessment goals, be sure to consider individual employee needs. Through additional communications or an employee opinion survey, you may discover employees with useful and unexpected career plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See our extensive HR resources and expertise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In an ever-changing regulatory environment, we have everything you need to stay in control and compliant. The HR & Compliance Center is now available with our user-friendly generative AI chat capability, AI Assist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Step 3: Choose which skills to measure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Next, you need to select which employee skills to measure. Hundreds of employee skills are available to choose from. Generally, which ones you choose depends on the goals of the assessment, your workforce, and the company and industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep in mind that successful skills-based organizations are evaluating skills needs for now and<\/em> the future. So, when choosing skills, review what skills employees need to do their current jobs successfully and what new skills they’ll need down the road. Thinking ahead will support your workforce’s job security and promote organizational agility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, consider skills that matter to current career paths and<\/em> individual interests. In today’s talent market, it’s extremely important that employers know what development opportunities employees are looking for. And, employees today are much more likely to move “sideways” in their company rather than “up the latter.” So, their career development interests may not be as obvious as you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following table provides some ideas to help you start selecting skills:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employee skill<\/th>Examples<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Cognitive skills<\/td>Logic and problem solving, attention, information retention, memory, sense processing (visual, auditory)<\/td><\/tr>
Soft skills<\/td>Communication, relationship building, teamwork, persuasion, speaking, conflict resolution, advocacy, training and instruction, social and cultural awareness, emotional intelligence<\/td><\/tr>
Technical (hard) skills<\/td>Software proficiency, coding and programming, testing, project management, data and information analysis, technical writing<\/td><\/tr>
Creative skills<\/td>Design, conceptualization, brainstorming, synthesizing information, writing, composition<\/td><\/tr>
Leadership skills<\/td>Coaching and motivation, organization, coordinating and planning, decision-making, implementing, vision<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step 4: Select appropriate methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Skills assessment methods range from traditional paper tests to virtual reality role playing. Which method you choose will be guided by the type of skill you’re assessing, the purpose and your skills strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of which methods you choose, it’s especially important to try, whenever possible, to recreate real world work situations. For example, you likely won’t use the same decision-making assessments for lawyers and police officers. Even though their roles are sometimes similar, the circumstances under which they make decisions are different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a similar note, it’s also important to understand the difference between a skill and knowledge. Knowledge is a person’s awareness of factual information. A skill, on the other hand, is a person’s ability to apply their knowledge to a specific situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following are a few examples of assessment methods you can use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tests and surveys<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tests and surveys are a traditional method of assessing employee knowledge and skills. They can include short answer questions, essays (e.g., writing samples), multiple choice questions, likert scale questions and among other formats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviews<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In interviews, a peer, manager or expert asks the employee or candidate questions and assesses their answers. Interviews can also involve role-play, allowing the employee to test certain skills (e.g., the employee’s interviewing skills). Interviewers may also review body language and other cues, depending on the skill they’re assessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance appraisals (or performance reviews)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Performance appraisals review an employee’s body of work, usually over a fixed period. Appraisals often focus on work product and results. However, you can also structure them to focus more on employee skills and skill development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In an observation, an observer watches an employee carry out a task that showcases certain skills. You can carry out an observation in a test environment (e.g., virtual reality) or in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning experience platform (LXP)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

An LXP is AI-powered learning software that assesses employee skills in real time. It then customizes learning content based on those assessments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Step 5: Deploy the assessment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Once you’ve selected the appropriate methods of assessing employee skills, it’s time to deploy the assessment to your employees. This may take days, or weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When evaluating employee skills, ensure that you deploy the assessment fairly and objectively. So, before launching your assessment, consider the following safeguards:<\/p>\n\n\n\n