How to use the Demand Report to find skill shortages and surpluses

🎬 Watch: Understanding the MuchSkills Demand Report (6 min)

The Demand Report shows which skills your projects need and whether you have enough people to deliver them. In one view you see shortages, surpluses and exactly where to hire or upskill.

What the Demand Report shows

For every skill used across your projects, the report compares demand (the positions your projects require) with capacity (the people who have the skill). It flags:

• Critical shortages, where demand is far higher than the people you have
• Smaller shortages worth watching
• Surpluses, where you have more talent than your projects need

Step 1: Open the report

Go to TeamOrg > Reports and click Demand on the left. The list is ordered by the most demanded skills. It shows 10 skills by default; change it to 100 to see the full list.

Step 2: Drill into a skill

Click any skill to see:

• How many people have the skill and how many your projects require
• The gap between the two
• Which projects create the demand, and whether each is in draft, in progress or concluded
• The breakdown by level: Expert, Intermediate and Beginner

Step 3: Read capacity, demand and gap by level

Hover over the column names for definitions:

• Direct capacity: people available at this level
• Cumulative capacity: people at this level and above
• Direct demand: positions required at this level
• Cumulative demand: positions required at this level and above
• Gap: the difference between capacity and demand

The cumulative figures matter because an expert can always do an intermediate person's job. A shortage of experts cannot be covered by intermediates, but spare experts can cover part of a shortage at intermediate level.

For example, if a skill shows 7 experts against a demand of 11, you need at least four more experts, by hiring or by upskilling intermediates. Another skill might show a surplus of experts but a shortage at intermediate level.

Step 4: Decide whether to hire or upskill

Use the gaps to plan your next move:

• Hire where you are short of experts
• Upskill where intermediates can grow into the gap
• Redeploy people where you have a surplus

Where the data comes from

The report is built from your projects in Team Builder:

• Create a skills-based team for a project
• In Skills Requirement, add the skills the project needs and the level required (Beginner, Intermediate or Expert)
• Assign people to the project

Team Builder then shows, skill by skill, whether demand is fulfilled (a green tick) or whether there is a gap, for example when the project needs an expert but the assigned person is a beginner. These numbers feed the Demand Report.

Projects synced from other systems

If you sync projects from Jira, Tempo, Workday or another system, you can add skill requirements and assigned people to those projects in MuchSkills, even when the synced data is incomplete. That gives the report the detail it needs.

Need help?

Have a question about the Demand Report? Tap the chat in the bottom right or email us at support@muchskills.com. We're happy to help.

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