What secrets are hiding in plain sight in your business?
Or, perhaps more accurately, what secret skills are hiding?
There’s not an organisation in the world that doesn’t have some degree of untapped talent. Whether it’s Wendy in accounts being an incredible graphic designer or Markus in the sales team speaking seven languages, we can’t know everything about everyone.
But there are ways to increase skills visibility, ensuring we stop missing out on valuable skills in all parts of the business and start giving people the recognition and opportunities they deserve.
Sometimes the skills visibility gap reveals itself organically. When Raj the project manager writes a beautifully crafted blog post or Henrietta from the PR team delivers a pitch-perfect presentation on the fly, it’s a nice surprise for everyone.
Sometimes we deliberately seek out those gaps with the aim of closing them. For instance, 360 performance reviews can expose hidden skills which a line manager might not know about. If an employee only uses certain skills on certain projects, or quietly assists on tasks in the background, gathering 360 feedback from multiple colleagues may be the first time those skills come to light, giving managers a more holistic overview of the skills on their team.
But too often, the hidden skills in a business fly under the radar. If we’re not proactively seeking out the skills which may not seem strictly ‘relevant’ to an employee’s formal role, we’re missing out on a huge amount of value, and employees aren’t given the opportunity to shine and show what they can do. This leads to underutilisation of talent and frustrated employees, who miss out on interesting projects and development opportunities.
Better skills visibility benefits everyone. The more we can uncover the hidden skills and talents in our organisations, the better progress we can make.
Some of the key benefits of skills visibility are:
We know that closing the skills visibility gap is crucial for any business looking to better leverage the skills and knowledge of its people – but how do we do that?
Here are three ways you can help boost skills visibility and usage across your organisation.
A skills matrix is a visual tool – usually a grid or table – that maps out employees’ skills (and proficiency levels) across teams, departments or the whole business. A good skills matrix provides a comprehensive, at-a-glance overview of current skills, allowing business leaders to identify skill gaps and support strategic workforce planning (such as choosing who to allocate to a project, which training to implement and areas requiring external recruitment).
A skills passport is a document or digital profile that certifies an employee’s proficiency across their skillset, typically based on independent, standardised assessments and exams. These are used in fields such as archaeology, energy and AI to prove competence, and may be displayed as a digital badge or certificates for easy evidence of skills. They can act as industry-recognised verification of skills and knowledge, going beyond traditional diplomas or paper-based certifications.
The most modern, forward-looking way to boost skills visibility is with an AI skills intelligence solution. By tracking and measuring skills directly in the flow of work, these tools can surface key soft skills that employees may not even realise are strengths, such as a growth mindset, communication or active listening. This information is collected and analysed by AI, which is then available to managers and business leaders so they can see who has which skills (and which skills are missing).
Knowing about your employees’ hidden skills is one thing, but putting them to good use is where you really start to see the business impact!
Once you’ve unearthed the secret skills harboured by your employees, there are several places to start putting them to good use, which will appeal to a range of personality types and approaches to work: