Knowledge & Skills Guide – PlusPort

Introduction

The Knowledge and Skills module allows you to use competencies in the Academy.

Step 1: Ask basic questions

Before you actively start designing the matrix, it is important to first answer five crucial basic questions.

What Knowledge and Skills do my employees need?
What Knowledge and Skills do my employees currently possess?
Is there a gap between what is required and what is present?
If so, how are we going to develop or introduce the missing Knowledge and Skills?
How and where can developed Knowledge and Skills be formally demonstrated?

Step 2: Create an overview of the required Knowledge and Skills

In the second step you create an overview of all Knowledge and Skills that are part of a specific department, role or function. What does an employee need to master to fulfil a specific role or function?

Step 3: Categorise into specific categories

In this phase the general list is translated into specific Knowledge and Skills required for a specific department, within a specific function or within a specific part of the organisation.

In general, a distinction can be made between:

Function-related competencies – Knowledge and Skills that correspond directly to the tasks to be performed.
Technical competencies – The technical skills, knowledge and/or certificates required to perform the function.
Value-related competencies – Certain values or ideals that the organisation considers important.

Step 4: Combine in matrix form

In PlusPort you put the above data into a matrix. On the vertical axis we place the employees within your department or organisation and on the horizontal axis the various Knowledge and Skills. You then indicate yourself to what extent each employee masters a particular competency.

Setting up Knowledge and Skills in PlusPort

In this guide the following topics are discussed in sequence:

Creating Knowledge and Skills
Linking Knowledge and Skills to requirements
Assigning Knowledge and Skills
Reporting on Knowledge and Skills
Linking Knowledge and Skills as a search key for trainings

Creating Knowledge and Skills

When creating Knowledge and Skills you need to create the following items in the order below:

Category
Scale type
Level
Item

Creating a category

Go to Portal management – Knowledge & Skills – Categories.
You now see an overview of all previously created categories.
Click Add main category to add a new main category.
Click the pencil icon to edit an existing category.
Click the bin icon to delete an existing category. The associated items will be unlinked.
Click the plus icon to create a subcategory under an existing category.
When creating the category, optionally enter a Parent category, Code and Order (numeric). The Name field is mandatory. Click Save after editing.

Creating a scale type

Go to Portal management – Knowledge & Skills – Scale types.
You now see an overview of all previously created scales.
Click Add scale to add a new scale.
Click the pencil icon to edit an existing scale.
Click the bin icon to delete an existing scale. The scale will be unlinked from Knowledge & Skills items where it is linked.
When creating the scale, optionally enter an Order (numeric), Description and Unit. The Name and Code fields are mandatory. Click Save after editing.

Creating a level

Go to Portal management – Knowledge & Skills – Level.
You now see an overview of all previously created scales. You will link levels to these scales. Click to select a scale.
You now see an overview of all previously created levels within the selected scale.
Click Add level to add a level.
Click the pencil icon to edit an existing level.
Click the bin icon to delete an existing level. The level will be unlinked from Knowledge & Skills items where it is linked.
When creating a level, enter a Name and Order (numeric). Optionally fill in a Code and Description for the level. Click Save after editing.

Creating an item

Go to Portal management – Knowledge & Skills – Items.
You now see an overview of all previously created items.
Click Add Knowledge & Skills to add a new item.
Click the pencil icon to edit an existing item.
Click the bin icon to delete an existing item. All data relating to requirements and history will be deleted. We therefore advise against deleting items!
When creating the item, enter a Name, Category and Scale. Optionally add a Code and Description.
Click Apply to save the changes and gain access to the Levels tab. On this tab you can fill in the Description for the specific level related to this competency. Click Save after editing.

Linking Knowledge and Skills as a requirement

Now that the Knowledge and Skills items have been created, they can be linked as a requirement. This can be done based on various criteria, such as:

Function group
Function
Project
Project role
Personal

Setting requirements based on function group

Go to Portal management – Function house – Function groups.
Click the pencil icon to edit a function group.
Click the Knowledge and Skills tab.

You now see an overview of all created Knowledge and Skills items including the category and associated levels.

When an item's radio button is marked under No with the value N/A, this item is not required for members of the function group. If the item is required, click the open radio button at the required level. This level is linked as a requirement for members of the function group. Click Save after editing. The page is refreshed.

You can quickly lose overview in this screen if you have many different items in the database. You can use two tools to maintain overview:

The Category filter above the selection table. This shows only items of a specific category.
The Hide unused button below the selection table. This shows only items where a level has been selected.

Setting requirements based on function

Go to Portal management – Function house – Functions.

Click the pencil icon to edit a function.

Click the Knowledge and Skills tab.

You now see an overview of all created Knowledge and Skills items including the category and associated levels.

When an item's radio button is marked under No with the value N/A, this item is not required for members of the function. If the item is required, click the open radio button at the required level. This level is linked as a requirement for members of the function. Click Save after editing. The page is refreshed.

You can quickly lose overview in this screen if you have many different items in the database. You can use two tools to maintain overview:

The Category filter above the selection table. This shows only items of a specific category.
The Hide unused button below the selection table. This shows only items where a level has been selected.

Setting requirements based on a project

Go to Portal management – Projects - Projects.

Click the pencil icon to edit a project.

Click the Knowledge and Skills tab.

You now see an overview of all created Knowledge and Skills items including the category and associated levels.

When an item's radio button is marked under No with the value N/A, this item is not required for members of the project. If the item is required, click the open radio button at the required level. This level is linked as a requirement for members of the project. Click Save after editing. The page is refreshed.

You can quickly lose overview in this screen if you have many different items in the database. You can use two tools to maintain overview:

The Category filter above the selection table. This shows only items of a specific category.
The Hide unused button below the selection table. This shows only items where a level has been selected.

Setting requirements based on project role

Go to Portal management – Projects - Projects.

Click the pencil icon to edit a Project.

Click the Roles tab to display the roles within the project.

Click the pencil icon to edit a role.

Click the Knowledge and Skills tab in the bottom bar.

You now see an overview of all created Knowledge and Skills items including the category and associated levels.

When an item's radio button is marked under No with the value N/A, this item is not required for members of the role. If the item is required, click the open radio button at the required level. This level is linked as a requirement for members of the role. Click Save after editing. The page is refreshed.

You can quickly lose overview in this screen if you have many different items in the database. You can use two tools to maintain overview:

The Category filter above the selection table. This shows only items of a specific category.
The Hide unused button below the selection table. This shows only items where a level has been selected.

Setting requirements on a personal basis

Go to Actions – Search users as administrator/owner.

Go to Actions – Search team members as manager.

Go to Actions – Search employees as HRM.

Search for the employee using the filters.

Click the pencil icon to edit the profile.

Click the Required Knowledge and Skills tab. Note: this may or may not be visible based on your authorisation groups.

You now see an overview of all created Knowledge and Skills items including the category and associated levels.

When an item's radio button is marked under No with the value N/A, this item is not required for the user. If the item is required, click the open radio button at the required level. This level is linked as a requirement for the user. Click Save after editing. The page is refreshed.

You can quickly lose overview in this screen if you have many different items in the database. You can use two tools to maintain overview:

The Category filter above the selection table. This shows only items of a specific category.
The Hide unused button below the selection table. This shows only items where a level has been selected.

N.B. The requirements from the different perspectives are stacked.

The requirements from the function are stacked on top of the requirements from the function group.

The requirements from the role are stacked on top of the requirements from the project.

The personal requirements are stacked on top of these.

To avoid conflicts, we recommend not linking a different required level to the same item twice within these frameworks.

Assigning Knowledge and Skills

Knowledge and Skills items can be scored in different ways. This can be done manually or via a form.

Assigning by administrator

Go to Actions – Search users.

Search for the employee using the filters.

Click the pencil icon to edit the profile.

Click the Knowledge and Skills tab.

An overview is shown with all previously assigned levels.

Click the pencil icon to edit a previously assigned item. Here you can, for example, remove previously assigned levels or assign a new score. You can also view the history of this item.

Click the magnifying glass icon to view the history of the item without editing it.

Click Add to add a new score.

First select the Category.

Choose the Knowledge and Skills item. Note: you only see items here that have not already been assessed.

Choose the achieved Level.

Optionally change the Date and provide a Comment. Click Save after editing.

Your registration can be found in the overview.

Assigning by manager

Go to Actions – Search team members.

Search for the employee using the filters.

Click the pencil icon to edit the profile.

Click the Knowledge and Skills tab.

An overview is shown with all previously assigned levels.

Click the pencil icon to edit a previously assigned item. Here you can, for example, remove previously assigned levels or assign a new score. You can also view the history of this item.

Click the magnifying glass icon to view the history of the item without editing it.

Click Add to add a new score.

First select the Category.

Choose the Knowledge and Skills item. Note: you only see items here that have not already been assessed.

Choose the achieved Level.

Optionally change the Date and provide a Comment. Click Save after editing.

Your registration can be found in the overview.

Assigning by HRM

Go to Actions – Search employees.

Search for the employee using the filters.

Click the pencil icon to edit the profile.

Click the Knowledge and Skills tab.

An overview is shown with all previously assigned levels.

Click the pencil icon to edit a previously assigned item. Here you can, for example, remove previously assigned levels or assign a new score. You can also view the history of this item.

Click the history icon to view the history of the item without editing it.

Click Add to add a new score.

First select the Category.

Choose the Knowledge and Skills item. Note: you only see items here that have not already been assessed.

Choose the achieved Level.

Optionally change the Date and provide a Comment. Click Save after editing.

Your registration can be found in the overview.

Assigning based on a form

It is possible to assign a score based on a completed assessment form.

For more information about setting up a form including Knowledge and Skills items, please refer to the corresponding guide or consult your PlusPort consultant.

The score can be found in the overview on the user profile.

Reporting on Knowledge and Skills

Depending on your role and authorisation groups in the system, there are a variety of methods for reporting on Knowledge and Skills scores. We will discuss these per role.

Reporting on Knowledge and Skills as a user

Go to My profile.

Click the Competency tab.

Click the Knowledge and Skills block.

You can now see how you score on Knowledge and Skills items that are required for you. You can optionally filter via the Function, Project etc. tabs.

For items where you score below level (indicated by a red field and a minus score) you can search the catalogue for trainings to improve this competency.

As a user you can also go to the Knowledge and Skills tab of My profile.

Here you see the same scores, except they are not measured against your required competencies.

It is therefore quite possible that you see considerably more data on this tab.

Reporting on Knowledge and Skills as administrator/reporter/HRM

All Knowledge and Skills

Go to Portal management – Reporting – Knowledge and Skills.

This report covers all assigned scores, regardless of any requirements.

Select at minimum the Department you want to report on. Use the other filters to specify your search. Click Show results to display the results of your search. Optionally select in the top right which columns you want to see in the report. The page refreshes automatically. Click Export to export the results to various file formats.

Required Knowledge and Skills

Go to Portal management – Reporting – Required Knowledge and Skills.

This report covers all requirements and additionally the assigned scores.

Missing Knowledge and Skills

Go to Portal management – Reporting – Missing Knowledge and Skills.

This report covers all requirements and shows all results where the desired level has not yet been achieved.

Required project Knowledge and Skills

Go to Portal management – Reporting – Knowledge and Skills. This is the same report as above, but filtered on projects.

This report covers all requirements based on projects and additionally the assigned scores.

Select at minimum the Project and Department you want to report on. Use the other filters to specify your search. Click Show results to display the results of your search. Optionally select in the top right which columns you want to see in the report. The page refreshes automatically. Click Export to export the results to various file formats.

Note: the availability of the above reports is determined by your role and authorisation groups.

Reporting on Knowledge and Skills as manager

As a manager you can use the above reports, if available.

In addition, you can also access the user profile via My team.

Here you see an overview of your team members. Click on a team member to open the profile.

Go to the Competency tab to see how the team member scores against the requirements.

My Team overview

Go to Actions – Manager - My team overview.

Click the Required Knowledge and Skills tab.

Here you see a schematic representation of the team members' scores against the requirements.

Optionally filter by Category or mirror the team members against a Function. Click Search to apply the new filters.

Reporting on Knowledge and Skills as project leader

Go to Actions – My projects

Select a project by clicking the corresponding block.

You now see the project members. Click on the Matrix tab in the bar.

Select the team members you want to report on and click Next.

You now first see the scores on the required certificates.

Click the Required Knowledge and Skills tab.

You now see a matrix with the project members' scores measured against the requirements based on the current project.

Using Knowledge and Skills as a search key

Go to Planning – Trainings – Definitions.

You now see an overview of the existing training definitions.

Click the pencil icon to edit a training definition.

Click the Knowledge and Skills tab.

Select the Knowledge and Skills items you want to link as a search key on the left side of the screen by double-clicking them. They are then moved to the right side of the screen. You can undo the selection by double-clicking an item on the right side. Click Save after editing.

Now go to Planning – Trainings – Settings.

Here you will find various settings.

In the Filter training search selection list, click Knowledge and Skills on the left side of the list. The filter is then moved to the right side of the screen. You can undo the selection by clicking an item on the right side. Click Save after editing.

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