Choose a skill granularity and structure that stays usable rather than collapsing under its own detail.
Human Resources & Personal Development
Building and Maintaining a Skills Taxonomy for Talent Decisions
Guides HR and talent teams through building a skills taxonomy, mapping it to roles and keeping it current enough to drive real recruitment, learning and mobility decisions.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
A skills taxonomy that lists every conceivable skill becomes unusable within a year; one built to answer specific talent questions stays in use because people keep needing the answers. This course covers designing a skills taxonomy from first principles: choosing a sensible skill granularity, grouping skills into clusters that make sense to employees and managers, and defining proficiency levels that assessors can apply consistently rather than guessing. Participants map skills to roles using a repeatable method, connect the taxonomy to recruitment, learning and internal mobility so it drives decisions rather than sitting in a separate system, and run a skills gap analysis that identifies where the organisation is genuinely exposed. The course addresses taxonomy governance directly: who can add or retire a skill, how versioning works as roles change, and how to keep the taxonomy current as new and declining skills emerge faster than any manual process can track. Practice is built around drafting a taxonomy fragment for a real job family and testing it against actual role and learning content.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Group skills into clusters that make sense to employees and managers, not just to a taxonomy specialist.
Define proficiency levels for a skill that different assessors would rate in a similar way.
Map skills to roles using a repeatable method rather than one-off manager judgement.
Run a skills gap analysis that identifies where the organisation is genuinely exposed, not just under-trained.
Connect a skills taxonomy to recruitment, learning and internal mobility systems and decisions.
Govern taxonomy changes so new, merged and retired skills are managed rather than accumulated indefinitely.
Who Should Attend
Talent management and workforce planning specialists building a skills taxonomy from scratch.
Learning and development professionals aligning course content to a skills framework.
HR information systems specialists implementing or configuring a skills-based platform.
Resourcing teams wanting skills data to support more accurate role matching.
HR business partners who need skills gap evidence to support workforce planning conversations.
People analytics staff responsible for maintaining and reporting on skills data quality.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Designing the Taxonomy Structure
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Choosing Skill Granularity and Clusters
- Decide the level of detail a skill entry needs so it stays specific without becoming unmanageable.
- Group related skills into clusters that reflect how employees and managers actually talk about work.
- Distinguish a technical skill from a broader capability or behaviour that belongs in a separate framework.
- Reuse or adapt an existing external skills reference rather than building every entry from nothing.
Session 2Defining Proficiency Levels That Assessors Can Apply
- Write proficiency level descriptions in terms of what a person can do, not how long they have done it.
- Set a consistent number of proficiency levels across the taxonomy to support fair comparison between skills.
- Pilot proficiency definitions with managers rating the same employee to check for consistent interpretation.
- Distinguish self-assessed proficiency from manager-validated or evidence-based proficiency in the design.
02Mapping Skills to Roles
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building Role-to-Skill Profiles
- Extract candidate skills for a role from job descriptions, incumbent input and comparable external roles.
- Validate a draft role skills profile with current job holders and their manager before publishing it.
- Set required proficiency levels per skill for a role rather than a single undifferentiated skill list.
- Identify adjacent skills that make internal mobility between two roles realistic despite different titles.
Session 2Keeping Role Profiles Current as Work Changes
- Review role skills profiles on a set cycle rather than leaving them fixed from initial creation.
- Update a role profile when new tools, regulation or ways of working change what the role actually requires.
- Track emerging skills entering job descriptions before they are formally added to the taxonomy.
- Retire a skill from active role profiles when it is genuinely no longer required, not just less discussed.
03Using the Taxonomy to Support Talent Decisions
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Running a Skills Gap Analysis
- Compare current employee skills data against role requirements to quantify genuine skills gaps.
- Prioritise identified skills gaps by business risk rather than by how easy each gap is to close.
- Distinguish a skills gap that requires hiring from one that learning and development can realistically close.
- Present skills gap findings to leadership in terms of business risk and workforce planning options.
Session 2Connecting the Taxonomy to Recruitment, Learning and Mobility
- Use taxonomy data to write job adverts and screening criteria around required skills and proficiency.
- Link learning content to specific skills and proficiency levels so recommendations are genuinely relevant.
- Support an internal talent marketplace by matching employee skills profiles to open project or role needs.
- Feed skills data into succession planning discussions alongside performance and potential ratings.
04Governing and Sustaining the Taxonomy
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Setting Up Taxonomy Governance
- Define who can propose, approve and retire a skill entry so the taxonomy does not grow unchecked.
- Set a version control approach so changes to skills or proficiency levels are tracked over time.
- Establish a review cadence that balances keeping the taxonomy current against constant disruptive change.
- Assign clear ownership for taxonomy quality, separate from ownership of the underlying HR system.
Session 2Keeping the Taxonomy Current and Trusted
- Monitor external sources for emerging and declining skills relevant to the organisation's job families.
- Audit skills data quality periodically to catch duplicate, outdated or inconsistently applied entries.
- Handle disagreement between a manager and an employee over a recorded proficiency level.
- Communicate taxonomy updates so employees and managers trust the data enough to act on it.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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