The MuchSkills transformation methodology
A step-by-step guide to becoming a skills-based organisation
Knowledge is power
This methodology explains how to become a skills-based organisation – one that sees, leverages, and develops the skills of its employees to drive productivity, employee engagement, and business performance.
We start by highlighting the problem: that most organisations operate in a “skills fog,” lacking visibility of the skills and capabilities their employees actually bring to the table. Next, we draw on research to show why adopting a skills-based approach makes sound business sense because it leads to more engaged employees, stronger teams, effective decision-making, and improved business outcomes. Finally, we guide you through the MuchSkills methodology – a practical, step-by-step framework that helps organisations map skills and competencies, turning this newfound skills visibility into actionable insights and tangible business impact.
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Organisations live in a skills fog
Today, most organisations operate in a skills fog.
What do we mean by this?
Consider a simple question: Why do we hire people? Because of their skills. Yet most organisations lack a clear view of the skills employees actually bring to the table – at the individual, team, department, or company level. Even though people are a core asset and organisations invest heavily in them, few have a structured system to map skills, identify gaps, or manage talent strategically.
To see the impact of skills visibility, here’s how skills-based organisations stand apart from those in the skills fog.
Traditional organisations
- Focus on job titles and roles
- Hire based on degrees or experience
- Assign work by department
- Promotions through hierarchy
- One career path per person
Skills-based organisations
- Focus on individual skills and capabilities
- Hire based on proven, relevant skills
- Assign work according to employee skills and interests
- Growth based on demonstrated ability
- Multiple flexible career paths
Data shows the extent of the skills fog
In 2021, the Institute for Corporate Productivity surveyed over 1,300 HR and business executives across 80 countries for its report: Accelerating Workforce Readiness. Here is what it found:
- 53% of respondents said insufficient data about current skills and workforce capabilities is a primary barrier to building workforce readiness.
- Only 15% indicated their organisations are highly effective at analysing gaps between current capabilities and future business needs.
- Only 18% have an employee skills database. Of these, 8% maintain it only for critical roles, leaving just 10% with profiles for all employees.
Similarly, PwC’s 2021 Future of Work and Skills Survey found that:
- Only 23% of respondents strongly agreed they use workforce analytics to monitor and predict skills gaps.
- The same percentage strongly agreed they analyse business data to determine near-term skills needs.
“It’s imperative that businesses make investments in systems that inventory and maintain an inventory of current skills and that support visualisation of gaps in future skills.”
Why the skills-based approach is the future:
- Skill requirements outpace static job descriptions: A 2015 ‘Marketing Manager’ may now need expertise in data analytics, AI prompting, or video editing – skills absent from their original job description.
- Organisations need agility: Skills-based organisations can rapidly reallocate people to new projects, innovations, or challenges.
- Employees crave growth: Allowing employees to build new skills – not just wait for promotions – boosts employee engagement, motivation, and consequently retention.
- Talent is often hidden: An employee with brilliant cybersecurity skills in an unrelated department would be invisible if you only look at their title.
Understanding the difference between a traditional and a skills-based organisation isn’t just academic – it reveals why adopting a skills-based approach delivers real, tangible benefits for both organisations and employees. And the evidence speaks for itself.
The business case for a skills-based approach
Before exploring how to become a skills-first organisation, it’s worth understanding why it matters. Research consistently shows that organisations that prioritise skills – rather than just roles – have more engaged employees and outperform their peers. From improved talent retention to higher productivity and greater innovation, the evidence makes a compelling case for organisations to adopt a skills-first approach.
1. Skills-based organisations outperform their peers
According to a detailed study by Deloitte, skills-based organisations are:
2. Staffing choices make or break projects
Nearly 2 out of 3 projects are not fully successful because of poor staffing choices, according to the Chaos Report (2020).
3. There is a strong link between efficient skills management, employee engagement and productivity
Firms that match their employees to the jobs most suitable to their skills profiles are more productive, and their ability to do so depends on the quality and experience of their management. (Source: Centre for Economic Policy Research - CEPR – 2022)
Encouraging employers to make the most of their employees’ skills can improve productivity, reduce inequality, and contribute to economic growth. (Source: Better Use of Skills in the Workplace report, by OECD and the University of Warwick Institute for Employment Research – 2017)
4. Increased employee engagement leads to increased productivity
Productivity among highly engaged teams is 14% higher than that of teams with the lowest engagement. Employees who are not engaged cost their company the equivalent of 18% of their annual salary. (Source: Gallup – 2020)
When everyone does their best work, you get 17% higher productivity, 20% higher sales and 21% higher profitability (Source: State of the American Workplace – Gallup 2017 with 31 million respondents)
On average, only 10% of employees in Western Europe are engaged at work. The figure is 33% in the US.
What a world without skills fog looks like
When organisations adopt a skills-based mindset, the results are transformative:
- Employees work with their natural strengths and focus on what they do best.
- Teams, projects, and roles are staffed based on actual skills, talents, and interests – not just job titles.
- Projects and teams deliver reliably, on time and within budget.
- Managers and leaders prioritise workforce development, helping employees improve and grow.
- Employees can self-reflect, explore acquiring new skills, and actively choose growth paths.
- Employees continuously learn new skills to meet the challenges of the future.
- The organisation becomes an amazing place to work, with higher engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
- Customer outcomes improve, sales grow, and profitability rises.
This is the world we’re aiming for – a workplace where skills are visible, opportunities are clear, and people and business can thrive together.
The MuchSkills methodology: Turning skills visibility into business impact
In a world where work is changing faster than ever, traditional job titles and rigid org charts no longer cut it. The skills your organisation needs are dynamic, evolving, and often invisible or inaccessible within outdated HR systems. MuchSkills provides a structured, scalable path to skills-based transformation – built on data, research, and human-centered design.
At its core, the MuchSkills methodology is simple. It is based on the assumption that organisations succeed when people work on what engages them and where they have the competence to excel. By making employee skills and competencies visible across the organisation, MuchSkills empowers managers, and leaders to make data-informed workforce planning decisions, improve operational efficiency across teams and projects, and drive organisational growth.
Here’s how organisations put the MuchSkills methodology into practice.
Define what matters – Build your skills architecture
MuchSkills helps you identify the skills your organisation truly needs – both today and for the future. Using prebuilt or customisable skills taxonomies, you move beyond vague job descriptions to clearly define the capabilities required for critical roles, services, and strategic initiatives. In this step you:
- Identify and define core skills, technical skills, leadership skills, and emerging skills either by choosing from a preloaded taxonomy or creating your own.
- Align these skills to roles, teams, services, and your strategic business objectives
- Centralise and standardise this skills data using technology
Why this matters: A clear understanding of the skills your organisation needs to thrive – and structuring them in a visible, organised way – lays the foundation for building a truly skills-first organisation.
What is a skills taxonomy and why does your organisation need it?
Map capabilities across the organisation – see what your people can really do
Nearly 2 out of 3 projects are not fully successful because of poor staffing choices, according to the Chaos Report (2020).
MuchSkills helps you capture what your workforce can really do by mapping skills across teams, functions, and individuals. Employees self-assess, managers validate, and AI assists in structuring and maintaining accurate data to ensure completeness and reliability. In this step, you:
- Capture current skills, interests, proficiency levels, and experience
- Validate skill levels, certifications, and expertise
- Identify skills gaps, hidden talent, and untapped potential
- Generate quick reports on team- and organisation-wide skills gaps and availability with this centralised skills database
Why this matters: You cannot close skills gaps you can’t see. Skills visibility guides you to make smarter decisions for staffing, development, and organisational planning, setting the foundation for increased performance, employee engagement, growth, and mobility.
Activate the skills ecosystem – Enable internal mobility
Increased skills visibility is only valuable if it drives action. Once you know what skills exist across the organisation, you can staff projects, initiatives, and teams based on what people can actually do. This creates agility and ensures talent is used where it has the most impact. In this step you:
- Staff projects and teams based on verified skills
- Use skills data to optimise team composition and match people to the right work
- Reduce project risk by allocating talent based on verified skills
- Employees see how their skills measure up against any role in the organisation, identify gaps, and are inspired to develop missing skills for internal mobility.
Why this matters: Internal mobility is a practical tool for leveraging existing skills across the business. Organisations become agile, can rapidly reallocate talent, and make faster, better operational decisions.
Encourage growth and development
With your skills data in place, you can now build talent strategies that reflect what your people are capable of – not just what their job titles suggest. MuchSkills helps embed skills into everyday workflows, from check-ins and one-on-ones with managers to learning plans and project planning. In this step you:
- Use skills data to help employees set individual development goals, design tailored learning paths, and connect skill growth to concrete career opportunities.
- Encourage employees to explore roles aligned with their strengths and identify growth pathways toward their ideal positions.
- Foster a culture of continuous learning, where employees take ownership of their skills development.
Why this matters: Employees continuously build new capabilities, stay engaged, and grow with the business – while organisations ensure they have the right talent to deliver.
Drive performance: Empower managers and teams
With MuchSkills, managers gain a full picture of their teams: validated skills, development goals, potential role fits, and check-in history – all in one place. This transforms how they lead, enabling empathy, clarity, and data-driven decision-making. In this step you:
- Power one-on-ones and performance reviews with up-to-date skills insights.
- Build balanced, high-performing teams by aligning individual strengths to team goals.
- Spot emerging talent early and guide employees toward roles where they can make the most impact.
- Use skills data to inform succession planning, resource allocation, and team development strategies.
Why this matters: Employees don’t leave companies – they leave bad managers. Equipping managers with transparent skills insights turns them into coaches and mentors, driving stronger teams, better retention, and consistently higher performance.
Read:
Employee Engagement: A manager’s essential guide to holding regular check-ins
Harness skills intelligence: Align workforce strategy
With MuchSkills, your skills data moves beyond operational insight to strategic decision-making. Leadership can visualise capabilities across teams and functions, identify risks before they affect projects, and confidently plan for future initiatives across the organisation. In this step, you:
- Align workforce capabilities with strategic objectives to ensure the right skills are applied where they matter most.
- Mitigate project risks using real-time skills matching, identifying potential gaps before they impact outcomes.
- Leverage analytics to optimise workforce planning and learning initiatives, ensuring skill development aligns with organisational priorities.
- Visualise talent across the organisation to enable internal mobility, optimise team composition, and make informed people decisions.
Why this matters: Strategy execution depends on having the right people with the right skills in the right places. With actionable skills intelligence, organisations can proactively address capability gaps, make informed workforce decisions, and drive sustainable business results.
Read:
60+ statistics that explain why a skills-based approach should be every CEO’s top priority
You’re not doing this alone
“It’s imperative that businesses make investments in systems that inventory and maintain an inventory of current skills and that support visualisation of gaps in future skills.”
MuchSkills isn’t just a tool – it’s a partner in your transformation. We guide you through every stage, share proven approaches, and support your teams with training, change management, and success tracking.
Becoming a skills-first organisation isn’t just about technology – it’s about transforming how you see, grow, and empower your people. With MuchSkills, you're not just adopting a new tool. You’re building a future-ready, people-centered organisation. Vamos!
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