Have Your Say: What Do You Want to Know About Skills?


Userlevel 6
Badge +1

Friends! Docebians! Customers! Lend me your ears. :speaking_head:

The customers have spoken about Skills, and we’ve heard you. You’re interested in learning more about Skills management in your platform.  

I’m developing some ideas for a specialized course on Skills to complement the information we provided in the release readiness webinar, the monthly release course, and Docebo Help/Knowledge Base, and I’d love to poll your opinions. :ballot_box:

So now, I’m interested to hear: what topics should my forthcoming Docebo University course cover? What burning questions do you have that just have to get answered? Are there features or activities you’re interested in that need to be addressed?

Put ‘em right here in the comments… :point_down_tone1:


19 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

I would like to see a demonstration the entire workflow for setting up skills from starting with a platform that doesn’t have them turned on.

To follow up with that, once those skills are set up, if there could be a demonstration of what the learner sees when skills are first set up. How do learners interact with the platform when there are skills, and how does that change the learner experience?

 

Userlevel 6
Badge +2

It would also be great if there was a video on Skills that we can show to our HR group. So they would understand what Skills is and how we would want to use it with our internal employees.

Userlevel 7
Badge +4

I would like to know how I can find out what employees have added skills. I see the count go up, but can’t figure out who they are. 

Will there be skills notifications available, sorry if this one is already answered somewhere, just came to mind but haven’t looked for my own answer to it yet.

Also, can we turn this off? I have everything unpublished but the pop-up went out when you all turned it on for us. I want it to stop until I have it set up and ready, then will turn back on. 

Last, if someone cleared the pop-up window asking them to choose skills, how do we push that back out to staff when we are ready?

Userlevel 1
Badge

Hi Ryan,

I’ve completed the My Skills course on Docebo University and still can’t wrap my mind around “skills profiles versus job descriptions”. As an admin, it looks like the idea is to group similar skills into skillsets, like “Sales” or “Leadership”. But the user will not see those skillsets, right? Instead, we ask the learner to identify their job, for example, mine is “Training Manager”. So how do the skillsets relate to the skill suggestions a user gets after entering their job title? Can the user see the list of skills the admin identified for specific skillsets, for example all Leadership skills, or all Sales skills?

Thanks,

Henrieta

Userlevel 5
Badge +2

I would like to know how I can find out what employees have added skills. I see the count go up, but can’t figure out who they are. 

Also, can we turn this off? I have everything unpublished but the pop-up went out when you all turned it on for us. I want it to stop until I have it set up and ready, then will turn back on. 

 

@Stephanie Dreiling hello, sorry for answering so late

about to figure out what employee have added skills you can now go on skills management > skills catalog  tab, on the column users if you click on a number you can see the people that selected that skill.

(there is also an indirect way to do the opposite, given a person If you want to know what skills are selected by that person if you go to user management and select user skills, in the confirmation modal you see the skills selected by the user, you can at this point click cancel) 

about turning off yes, just set published to off the skillsets in skill management and the skill channel in channels

 

Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Hi Ryan,

I’ve completed the My Skills course on Docebo University and still can’t wrap my mind around “skills profiles versus job descriptions”. As an admin, it looks like the idea is to group similar skills into skillsets, like “Sales” or “Leadership”. But the user will not see those skillsets, right? Instead, we ask the learner to identify their job, for example, mine is “Training Manager”. So how do the skillsets relate to the skill suggestions a user gets after entering their job title? Can the user see the list of skills the admin identified for specific skillsets, for example all Leadership skills, or all Sales skills?

Thanks,

Henrieta

Hello @Henrieta Riesco 

Skillset: With the  skillsets you define “what skill a user can select”. In the platform you can find some samples you can use or create new ones

A skillset basically works in this way, they have a visibility (e.g. groups or branches) and skills 

The people with visibility on the skillset can use the skills within the skillset.


There is not any relation between skillset and job

(e.g. i create a skillset “Digital Marketing Skills” that includes 20 skills for digital marketing and assign as visibility the group “Marketing dept”. The people within the group “Marketing dept” can select the 20 digital marketing skills regardless the job they select)

Please notice that there is a “super” set , “all skills”. People with visibility on this set can select any skill without restriction

Jobs: Jobs are asked to help suggesting skills (and content in the future), but at the moment it is not possible to limit the jobs that are selectable by a user, as they can select any job. 

With the roadmapped development of the custom Skills Management, we will bring also a more flexible Jobs Management, nevertheless we are monitoring client’s feedback to understand if this functionality (limit the job selectable by an user)  should be anticipated and made available also in this phase, when our catalog of skills and jobs is used.

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

I agree with all the above + I would like to know when we’ll have the ability to add our own Skills or request that new Skills be added...Unfortunately the Financial and Insurance buckets are pretty lean for our purposes.

Another angle I’d lie to hear about is if you (or the group) have any recommendations on how to launch this so we can promote the use of this to our users and admins; there is quite a bit of planning involved form what I gather.

Thank you!

Userlevel 4
Badge

Looking at Skill Sets, I know the skills are predefined and we can't just create our own. Is there a way to have a skill set created for us? We would be happy with just one, we're not greedy. How are the skill defined?

Our company specializes in Roof and Damage Inspections.  I spent one night going through searching for skills that would apply to our inspectors.  There are some roof installation skills that apply, and then I had to get really creative to find the diagramming skills, and then it became like a treasure hunt to see if I could find the right “topic” to identify the skills.  This was NOT an easy task, but I developed a specific skill set related to our inspectors.  But there are skills missing which I couldn’t identify no matter how creative I searched. And there are skills that would be specific to our company and use of our proprietary software.

If I had just ONE custom skill I could apply to all of our courses that would be GREAT!

 

Userlevel 4
Badge

I agree with all the above + I would like to know when we’ll have the ability to add our own Skills or request that new Skills be added...Unfortunately the Financial and Insurance buckets are pretty lean for our purposes.

Another angle I’d lie to hear about is if you (or the group) have any recommendations on how to launch this so we can promote the use of this to our users and admins; there is quite a bit of planning involved form what I gather.

Thank you!

I would also like some tips on implementation.  I’ve stared outlining what I see needs done, and it is no small task!  I think we will have to do things in phases, starting simple and adding to the lists as time permits (“as time permits” is one of my favorite phrases, since it is SO FUNNY!)  Is there a discussion on sharing implementation ideas/plans?

Userlevel 6
Badge +4

@lrnlab I agree and would also like to know when we can add our own. @tschoone I agree. We’re not greedy. ..we just need the 5 social emotional learning skills (or competencies) added to the system. These are not obscure skills and are standard nomenclature for the field of social emotional learning: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-Making, Social Awareness, and Relationship Skills. There are also standard assessments to measure them. @ryan.woods Once we have these skills or can add them ourselves, then I think we can do some interesting things with Skills in the system. For now, we are unable to use it. In the mean time, I’ll look forward to hearing how others are implementing and seeing results with their learners. Thanks.

Userlevel 1

I agree with all the above + I would like to know when we’ll have the ability to add our own Skills or request that new Skills be added...Unfortunately the Financial and Insurance buckets are pretty lean for our purposes.

Another angle I’d lie to hear about is if you (or the group) have any recommendations on how to launch this so we can promote the use of this to our users and admins; there is quite a bit of planning involved form what I gather.

Thank you!

Hi @lrnlab , 
we are working on the possibility of adding your skills, in addition to those in our catalog. We don’t have a specific release date announced yet for the feature, but likely coming with the initial features in late 2021 or early 2022. 

However, if there are missing skills that might be of common interest (generic skills, not organization-specific), please contact your CSM or AM and send them a list with suggestions. We will evaluate them.

Thank you!

Userlevel 1

Looking at Skill Sets, I know the skills are predefined and we can't just create our own. Is there a way to have a skill set created for us? We would be happy with just one, we're not greedy. How are the skill defined?

Our company specializes in Roof and Damage Inspections.  I spent one night going through searching for skills that would apply to our inspectors.  There are some roof installation skills that apply, and then I had to get really creative to find the diagramming skills, and then it became like a treasure hunt to see if I could find the right “topic” to identify the skills.  This was NOT an easy task, but I developed a specific skill set related to our inspectors.  But there are skills missing which I couldn’t identify no matter how creative I searched. And there are skills that would be specific to our company and use of our proprietary software.

If I had just ONE custom skill I could apply to all of our courses that would be GREAT!

 

Hi @tschoone

I know that our catalog is very large, it contains about 10000 skills at the moment and despite this it is always difficult to meet the demands of each customer. We have created some predefined skills set, with some skills that we thought would be of common interest. In any case you are free to create new skills sets (by clicking on the green + in the upper right corner of the skills management page) or edit the existing ones according to your needs. Your industry is very specific and some skills will surely be missing, but as for adding specific skills for your organization, you will have to wait for the release of the new feature (as I answered above). At the moment we are only considering adding generic skills.

Thank you!

Userlevel 1

@lrnlab I agree and would also like to know when we can add our own. @tschoone I agree. We’re not greedy. ..we just need the 5 social emotional learning skills (or competencies) added to the system. These are not obscure skills and are standard nomenclature for the field of social emotional learning: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-Making, Social Awareness, and Relationship Skills. There are also standard assessments to measure them. @ryan.woods Once we have these skills or can add them ourselves, then I think we can do some interesting things with Skills in the system. For now, we are unable to use it. In the mean time, I’ll look forward to hearing how others are implementing and seeing results with their learners. Thanks.

Hi @Cindy McElhinney,

 
from what I can read, it seems that the skills you have in mind and are missing may be fairly generic and valid for an addition. Please contact your CSM or AM at Docebo and let them know about these skills you want to add. We will evaluate whether to add them! I hope you find this helpful :)

Thank you.

Userlevel 1

Looking at Skill Sets, I know the skills are predefined and we can't just create our own. Is there a way to have a skill set created for us? We would be happy with just one, we're not greedy. How are the skill defined?

Our company specializes in Roof and Damage Inspections.  I spent one night going through searching for skills that would apply to our inspectors.  There are some roof installation skills that apply, and then I had to get really creative to find the diagramming skills, and then it became like a treasure hunt to see if I could find the right “topic” to identify the skills.  This was NOT an easy task, but I developed a specific skill set related to our inspectors.  But there are skills missing which I couldn’t identify no matter how creative I searched. And there are skills that would be specific to our company and use of our proprietary software.

If I had just ONE custom skill I could apply to all of our courses that would be GREAT!

 

Hi @tschoone

I know that our catalog is very large, it contains about 10000 skills at the moment and despite this it is always difficult to meet the demands of each customer. We have created some predefined skills set, with some skills that we thought would be of common interest. In any case you are free to create new skills sets (by clicking on the green + in the upper right corner of the skills management page) or edit the existing ones according to your needs. Your industry is very specific and some skills will surely be missing, but as for adding specific skills for your organization, you will have to wait for the release of the new feature (as I answered above). At the moment we are only considering adding generic skills.

Thank you!

I’m still baffled why Docebo has chosen to try tackling the infinity of skills / JD aspects rather than provide a core set and then allow for us to customize and define via our respective unique organizational taxonomies by enabling us Sys Admins to have the means to modify and define skills through assignments to competencies and JDs as we create those structures and the meanings through what content represents the tasks → skills → competencies → knowledge / experiences / applications that, in turn, are those definitions for skills mgmt use. It’s an impossibility to ever have a complete list that all of us could be possibly happy with, so instead, ensure that we can create custom skills and align with (group with or under) and hierarchize skills so that they actually represent what those biz units / jobs/roles in our respective companies actually do. Because what one adjuster or sales person might be responsible for in company A (or even group 1 in company A) is not likely to be equal to that person in company B (or group 2 in company A), etc.

 

What is the timeline for the ability to let us choose between the comfort and support from a predefined list vs. the ability to break free and represent our corporate structures and employee skill expectations/needs in a customizable moment?

 

As to the courses, I’ve been asking this of our CSM for a good while, I’d say show us how to live in a predefined world when some skills and job roles don’t even exist in the predefined, immutable list?

 

Trying SO SO hard to adopt this but skill mapping is not for the faint of heart, and then to not have the ability to cover everyone makes it a stop before it is a go... 

Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Hello @lcairns , good day

 

First of all thanks for your feedback, always a precious resource that helps us in defining the evolution of our product.

 

Let me explain the vision behind the current version of Skills and how we envision its evolution. 

 

From the start, skills was meant to be a fast to implement solutionuser - centric, focusing on learning

 

Fast to Implement. Creating a Skills/Roles mapping from scratch is a huge effort for a company. We wanted to help these companies with a robust, continuously improving,  database of Skills.

User Centric: Skills is User-driven, the user can select the skills he needs to improve to get the best content for him. We are also reducing the activities by the admins as are the users themselves selecting their skills

Focused on Learning: Learning is our DNA,  Learning is our main target. Not organization management / role planning 

We are currently evolving this approach with My Team and My Skills dashboards (i wrote some details in this post https://community.docebo.com/product-q-a-7/skills-management-reporting-697?postid=3085#post3085

 

But, is true that our current approach is not ideal for companies that have already a robust capacity to manage skills (with skill sets already created and in some cases also processes for skills evaluation already in place) 

 

We are planning to evolve in this direction too, and I can confirm that candidate features for skills evolution are 

 

Custom Skills definition  (my understanding is that this is your main showstopper, and i can confirm that other customers have the same issue).

 

Improved Job definition and Mapping: Admin can assign job to users (so the user will be not anymore asked to select a job) or the job selection by user can be limited to picked jobs

 

Improved Central Management: Define some Skills mandatory for the users, skillset are based on the job, enrollment rules based on skills. 

 

I think these feature are more aligned with your needs, nevertheless for me understand your business case, and how you are managing now and want to manage skills in your company is very useful, so if you have some time available in the next weeks/months for a call with me and the UX designer to describe us your needs, your pains and your idea about skills,  very appreciated!.
(just ask your  Customer Experience Manager for it) 

Marco

 

Can these skills be applied to partners and end users? Does Docebo have plans to incoporate these other user groups?

I believe skills management his is mostly focued on employees of a company?  

Userlevel 4
Badge

I’m have a few issues with Skills:

  1. Although the list of ALL SKILLS seems extensive, I can’t find anything specific to our business (home inspections for insurance claims). I have identified things that seem to come close, but I’m concerned that if I turn on External content they will get weird suggestions. Also, I don’t think they will know to select the skill I have identified. Yes, I have created Skill groups so that they will only see the skill set we select. I really would like to see a way to suggest a Skill definition. I know if you open that up the list could become totally unmanageable, but you can have a skill for Inspect Circus Rigging Before Performance, I  would like to find Home Inspection or Building Inspection Process. I did find Roof Inspection and Inspection Reporting, YEAH! But that doesn’t encompass HOW to do the interior inspection (like for flooding) or the exterior inspection (like with wind damage). Or if we can’t suggest a skill, help finding the correct skill in the 20,000+ list. I have been creative in my searches.
  2. One thing I haven’t figured out: why are all my suggestions based on a single SKILL I have selected?  I used to have Adult Learning Theory as one of my skills and all my suggestions were for that skill, including quizzes under my Virtual Coach. I removed Adult Learning Theory, and now all my suggestions are for Project Management, even though I have the following Skills selected: Learning Technologies, Leadership Principles, Leadership, Problem Solving, Time Management, Project Management and Task Management.  Why does it only make suggestions for a single skill? 
  3. Not really an issue, just a heads up for others. I currently have content limited to only LinkedIn. I wanted only LInkedIn Learning but you have to only use the domain. And LinkedIn includes JOB OPENINGS for that skill.
  4. I have been playing with the new features in the Sandbox that are expected to go live March 30th. As a manager I can make skill level suggestions, but they never receive the suggestions. Just wondering where or how those suggestions will be sent? Notification, email or on their My Skills page?  I do like being able to see which skills the people on my team have selected!
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

@ryan.woods@Marco.T- Our reality is we are an organization that is starting at ground zero with learning management as an initiative across the enterprise. With that skills would have only been confusing and was pretty much turned off immediately. I know that my courses continue to have skills mapped to them by the AI reading the training material and do a best guess at keywords associated..

The current state mapper of skills that are reading my SCORM courses? Is totally struggling to generate relevant information and details….it honestly can be as bad as passing along gibberish on occasion. If/when we map skills, I fear we will need to do a bunch of it the old fashioned way - a mapping by hand and removing what the AI has passed along as skills.

A few suggestions:

  • I honestly havent taken a much deeper dive at skills beyond a few quick peeks during my initial implementation. With the March release queued up, I am certain that it is time to relook at how the AI is doing.
  • specific skills need to map to mapped to specific competencies...skill and competencies need to be their own “reportable container” or “advanced learning object” so we can report on them.
  • If a person completes X training their are considered to be competent with said skills.
  • If not there is a skills gap that can be shown to the manager via the new UI coming along in my team - awesome sauce….
  • competencies should have some type of status of being met or not met.
  • if my industry - observation checklists are leveraged to fulfill a technical competency. I would love to see that interweaved some how.
  • Right and last note - we do need control over the different competencies
    We should be able to:
    - name them and
    - assign them to people
    - what would be awesome is using groups/enrollment rules to assign competencies to personas as a person comes into the organization.
Userlevel 5
Badge

As I create new skills in Skill Management, I’m wondering where the definitions for the skills show up to others, if at all. I know I can see them if I go to edit a skill from the Platform Catalog tab, but do the learners, course developers, or any other non-Admin see the skill definitions? If not, what is the purpose of putting the effort into writing them?

Reply