How to get started with MuchSkills

MuchSkills helps organisations leverage strengths and skills to increase performance and profitability

The best way for organisations to increase employee engagement and productivity is to let employees do what they do best, according to research conducted on millions of respondents across the world.

Use MuchSkills to match employee skills and interests to their roles to see increased engagement, productivity, sales, and profitability.

1.  Skills taxonomy

What is a skills taxonomy:

A skills taxonomy is a structured framework that categorises and organises skills within an industry or organisation. As the foundation of a skills-based approach, it creates a common language for identifying, describing, and grouping skills by type and proficiency level.

Why do you need it?

A skills taxonomy provides a structured way for organisations to understand and manage workforce capabilities, enabling smarter decisions around hiring, learning and development, and strategic workforce planning.

To learn how to create a skills taxonomy, read our detailed guide: What is a skills taxonomy and how do you create one? 

2.  Set up ‘custom skills’

Custom skill categories are lists of all the skills the organisation needs to meet its business objectives and goals. All MuchSkills users can see these lists in the ‘My Skills’ section of the platform. Here’s how you can configure these lists/categories to ensure a smooth and effective onboarding experience.

a. Understand the purpose of custom skill setup

MuchSkills comes with a built-in skills taxonomy to inspire you – but you can edit, remove, or replace any part of it. The goal is to align the skill categories with your goals, whether that’s tracking leadership, technical expertise, industry knowledge, or even fun interests like games.

Why is this customisation important?

Tailoring the platform to reflect your organisation’s unique skills landscape is essential because a custom skill setup ensures that employees map their skills against the specific capabilities your organisation needs to succeed.

b. Start with existing MuchSkills categories and modify as needed

When users click on the ‘My Skills’ section, they will find built-in categories that are common across organisations such as:

• Essential Human Skills (soft, cultural, behavioral)
• Global Skills (common across organisations)
• Technical Skills (20,000+ built-in software, programming, and technical tools)
• Certifications
• Specialisations (e.g., Dev & Tech, Cloud & Infra, Design & Product)
  
  

As an admin or manager, you can remove or rename skills or categories that don’t apply to you or add completely new custom categories too. 

c. Create skill categories unique to the organisation

In addition to the pre-built categories above, admins can create custom categories tailored to your specific context such as:

• Industry experience (e.g., Banking, Retail)
• Engineering specialisations (e.g., CAD Modelling, Risk Assessment)
• Customer knowledge (e.g., Experience with handling specific customer segments)
• Product knowledge (e.g., Knowledge of the organisation’s own products or services)

Here’s how:

• Go to ‘TEAM/ORG’ → ‘Settings’ 
•  Click on ‘Manage Skills’ → ‘Create Skill Category’. 
• Add a name for the category and choose if you want it displayed as a bubble chart or sector chart (see below for guidance). 
• Add skills, a brief description of the skills, the department whose members should select the listed skill, and whether the skill is mandatory.

Now, when employees log in to create their skill profiles, these custom lists will appear in the ‘My Skills’ section, allowing them to select the skills relevant to them.

​​d. Import/upload your existing skill lists

If you already have a list of custom skills on a spreadsheet, you can upload them to MuchSkills in seconds.

Here’s how.

• Click the three dots in the top right corner of the skills category box.
• Select “Download CSV template” to get a ready-made format.
• Fill in the CSV file with your own skills and their descriptions.
• Once completed, return to the same menu and select “Upload CSV file” to import your skills.

Here are some pre-populated skills list templates you can download and customise: 

• Example skill list per role/competence – includes skill definitions
• Example skills taxonomy – a structured list of skills organised by category

e. Choose the right visualisation

When creating a category, you choose how users map their skill level:

• Sector chart (recommended for most categories): This maps beginner/intermediate/expert levels that employees can choose from. Sector charts are used in 99% of categories.
• Bubbles: Used for mapping interest rather than skill level. Employees use this mainly to show that they are more interested in using skill X skill over skill Y or Z.

f. Support is always available

If you need help accessing templates or advice on how to structure your taxonomy, MuchSkills support is just a chat message away.

To make onboarding seamless and secure, your IT team can now configure SSO for your organisation. MuchSkills supports SAML-based SSO, allowing employees to log in using existing workplace credentials - no extra passwords needed. This ensures a smooth, secure login experience from day one.

Set-up instructions for SAML & SSO can be found here

Once everyone is onboarded and using MuchSkills, managers can use the skills data at their fingertips to drive smarter HR, learning and development and leadership strategies.

This includes:

• Real-time skills gap analysis at every level: Instantly identify strengths, gaps, and growth opportunities across individuals, teams, departments, or thematic focus areas – enabling smarter workforce planning, targeted development, and long-term capability building.
• Instant role-fit insights: Use real-time skills data to instantly pinpoint the best internal candidates for roles and projects – speeding up resource allocation and boosting internal mobility.
• Personal role fit assessment: Enable employees to explore their fit for key roles across the organisation and discover personalised learning recommendations – driving autonomy, engagement, and internal mobility.
• Easy learning paths: Guide employees toward upskilling by linking identified skill gaps in defined roles to targeted learning materials – helping close skills gaps faster.

To learn how to do this and more, click on the following resources:

Here are some playbooks that you can use to help the organisation become more skills- and strengths-focused and increase employee engagement. Every organisation is unique, so review these suggestions and implement what works best for you.

👉  Video tutorials

• How to use reports in MuchSkills: Track, analyse, and optimise your team’s skill data‍
• Internal Recruitment - How to find candidates with MuchSkills‍
• How to do Skill Analysis & Skill Gap Identification‍
• How to create a skills-based team – Team builder‍
• Utilisation and availability: Efficient team planning‍
• How to do Strategic Workforce Planning and increase productivity‍
• Mastering team insights with My Circle‍
• Keeping skill profiles accurate & up-to-date

👉  Playbooks: 

• ‍‍Manager playbooks – Research-based advice