Career growth and personal development play a fundamental role in the confidence and efficiency of a team. Individual team members need to easily understand not just which Skills they hold, but why they hold them and what they need to do, to make those Skills better.
That’s where the Skills Profile page comes in - the hub for all things development-related. Here we’ll take a look at how Users can organise their Skills, while their Managers learn how to fill the Skills Gaps.
Two Key Points To Remember 🛎️
This Skills Profile page is not to be confused with the Skills page found on the Dashboard. Although related, they are distinction from each other, with the following aims:
- Skills Profile page: your Skills library, where you can manage and track your own Skills development.
- Skills page (Dashboard): a data table (and summary cards) designed to let Managers and Admins track the Skills development of an individual or multiple team members and share that data.
With the amazing Skills Profile page giving total control and insights into User Skills, the previous Skills tab from the Profile page has been removed.
To get started, select the Skills tab from the Homepage side panel. This will display the Skills page.
The top of the page is home to the following four summary cards, each giving an overview of your current Skills progression:
Focus Skills - Skills you’ve chosen to target as part of your personal and professional development goals.
Expert Skills - any Skill that holds a level of 3 or higher. This allows you to rate others if they request, and become a go-to person within your direct team or the wider organisation.
Skill Gaps - where your current Skill level is lower than the expected level set by your Manager and based on your Job Role.
For example...
Your Job Role is “Creative Director” (CD) and Skill is “Creative Analysis” (CA).
Your Manager sets Level 4 as the minimum for any CD to have for the skill CA.
Your current Level is 2 - this is now considered a Skill Gap, to improve upon.
Total Skills - a combination of your Required Skills and Self-added Skills.
Focus Skills
You will always have the power to choose which Skills are most important to you, by making them a part of your Focus list. From this section, you’ll be able to select up to 5 Skills at a time that require lots of learning in order to improve.
To add a Skill as a Focus Skill, click on the small star icon on the Skill’s name tab. This will change colour, and add the Skill to your list (to later remove it, simply re-click the star).
You can then review the following elements…
Skills Gaps gold star - this icon will appear next to the name of any Skill, where your current Level is lower than that set by the Manager, for a content item you are assigned to that has the Skill added to it.
Request Review (person icon version) - you can submit a request by clicking on the person icon in the middle column on the section - this will open a pop-up allowing you to choose a specific Reviewer (with only either a Contributor, Manager or Admin Org User Role), to leave a Review of your current Skill level. You can also see the Profile picture of Users who have already reviewed.
You can see a clearer breakdown of who reviewed your Skill on the Skill’s own sub-page (referenced further down in this support article).
💡Tip: Always aim to be reviewed by a Manager or an Expert of that Skill or subject matter. This eliminates the chance of 'false improvement' - a User with no real understanding of what's required professionally, giving you an inaccurate evaluation.
Level - seeing your Level (always set somewhere from between 1 - 5) will help you identify what type of learning needs to be prioritised.
For example...
Your Manager has assigned you to a big Marketing Campaign, starting in the next 3 months.
Your “Marketing Development” Skill is at Level 1.
You’d need to focus your learning on any Nuggets, Courses, Live Classes, etc., where Marketing Development (or any other similar Skill) is added.
This way, you can immediately get started on upskilling on “Marketing Development, as it sits in your top 5.
3-dot menu - this consists of three actions you can take, to make changes to your Skill’s level:
Review Skill - you can select your own Level, based on self-analysis. Do you think you’ve improved over the recent weeks or months? Or perhaps you’re still unsure about how to do something? Make that change here.
💡Tip: Updating your Skill Level can be a useful way for your Manager to indirectly know that you’ve drastically improved your ability in a role, or perhaps require a lot more help. However, it’s always recommended to speak to your Manager honestly, about your needs.
Request Review (3-dot menu version) - You can request other team members (with only either a Contributor, Manager or Admin Org User Role) to leave a Review of your current Skill level.
Note✨: Remember, you can also submit a request by selecting the Request Review person icon, shown in between the Skill name and Level rating…
Remove - this will Remove the Skill from your Skills page, and won’t be associated with your profile.
Required Skills
Your role will always require a series of Skills that will determine your level of expertise and efficiency overall. This is exactly what the Required Skills section represents.
Your Manager will add Skills to your Job Role, and again, this will allow you to see who provided you with a Review, and at which level.
Just like Focus Skills, you can make requests from here, and Review your Skills.
Note✨: Required Skills are mandatory for your role. You cannot remove these Skills, as they are managed by your team leader, as part of your Skills growth plan.
Self-Added Skills
Your Skill development will always be in your hands, and Focus Skills isn’t the only section within the Skills Profile page that gives you the power to set the Skills you want to improve.
Just the same as the above, you will see the list of Skills you have added to your Skills Profile, and have the ability to update your rating, and request a Review.
To begin adding your own Skills, click Add Skill towards the top of the page.
The slide-out screen will appear with the Skills search and suggested Skills (based on your Job Role).
Once you’ve selected your Skills and set the competency level, select Review Skills then Save Changes.
Note✨: Do remember! Skills won't be added automatically to your Skills Profile, so once you've completed content that has Skills associated with it, you should add or update the Levels of those Skills, manually.
Skills Activity
This section of the Skills page will document the latest changes made to any Skills-based activity associated with you. This includes the following:
Changes you’ve made:
Adding a new Skill
Removing a Skill
Updating your Skill Level
Update to the average Level of your Skill
Changes made by others:
Peer/Manager gives a Review of your Skill
Peer/Manager adds a new Skill
Peer/Manager removes one of your Skills
Changes made related to Job Roles:
A new Skill is added to a Job Role
A Skill is removed from a Job Role
When clicking View All on the Skills Activity log, there are two filter options present, in the slide-out screen:
Skills - you can search for a Skill that may have been featured in the list, to see what changes were made, associated with it.
Updated by - see which changes were made by you, your Peers or Managers, and when they occurred.
Note✨: Do remember the following, when reviewing the Skill Activity log…
The Top 5 newest updates will always be shown on the main page, with the date and time the change was completed. Entries are always shown chronologically.
The last 24 months of activity will be shown, after which entries will be removed from the log.
Watch the full overview video for the Skills Profile's main page here...
Skills Profile Sub-page
You can view more details about an individual Skill, by clicking on the Skill’s name (or the entire row), to be taken to the Skill’s own data page.
From here, dig deeper into your insights for that Skill using the various elements featured - let’s take a look…
Skills Summary Graph
The Skill Summary Graph allows you to view your Skill Level progression, over a maximum of a 12-month period.
Average Skills points - the points (dots) on the graph represent the average Skill Level for a month. If multiple Skill Levels are given within this time period, the result will show based on the most recent average.
For example...
In August, the Skill “Adobe Design” received its first set of Reviews: Level 5, Level 3 and Level 2. The average will be Level 3.
“Adobe Design” then receives even more Reviews during August.
These may cause a new average. It’s this latest average that will be shown.
Months - Months will only appear on the graph - up to 12 months from the current month - if there was a Review made.
For example...
User A only received a Review for 2 Skills all year: a Review in January, and another in December.
The graph will show entries for only January across to December, without showcasing the other Months.
Note✨: For Required Skills, there will be a dotted line, representing the Target Level that the User must match, for their Job Role.
You’ll see three Level summary cards, just underneath the Graph. These open a slide-out screen, showing you a list of the latest Reviews made by yourself, your Managers and Peers.
The date and time will always be shown for each action listed on the slide-out screen. Clicking on each Level summary card will showcase the entries.
Suggested Learning
For leveraging your skillset and staying focused on your development goals, the Suggested Learning section presents content associated with the Skill you’re viewing.
Suggestions can range from Nuggets, to Courses and even Content Libraries.
The way this content is suggested to you, is dependent on...
The Skill Level you have
Often than not, content is associated with one or more Skills. This means Users will receive suggestions that match their Level.
For example...
Beverly is a Level 3 in Retail Management.
Her Suggested Learning section will show content associated with the Retail Management Skill and that's at a Level 3.
The same type of content will be recommended at a Level 4, then 5, if no content matches the User's minimum Level.
No Content has a matching Skill Level
If your organisation doesn't have any Skill mapped to the relevant content, or any Skills mapped at your minimum Level (in Beverley's case, a Level 3) or higher, then no content will be recommended to you.
Suggested Experts
Getting a more experienced team member’s knowledge on your Skill, is another way to improve on the remainder of what you know. Experts shown will be those who have a Level 3 or higher in the Skill you are viewing.
Clicking on an Expert opens the slide-out screen, where you’ll see:
All the Skills they’re an Expert in.
Channels that they contribute content to.
Achievements earned - adding credibility to their knowledge.
Contact options via Slack or email.
Continue Learning
All content that is currently assigned to you, and you’re in the process of completing, will be shown within this section.
Again, just like the Suggested Learning section, only content that is associated with the Skill you’re viewing, will be shown here.
Note✨: When a User completes at least one Lesson of multiple, within a Course, the Time Spent Learning will be tracked. If the completed Lesson is later deleted by the Author or Collaborator, the Course will still appear under the Continue Learning section. The content card won’t show the green progress line and the landing page will show “Start Course”.
This is due to the User having spent time learning a Lesson that is part of the content, and this is recorded, despite deletion.
See the Skills Profile sub-page in this video...
Dashboard Pages
The Skills Profile page is linked to a series of Dashboard pages and columns, showcasing the insights for all Users. These pages include the following…
Users page
Users subpage (Skills tab)
Groups page
Groups subpage (Users tab)
Tasks page
Users page
Two columns Admins and Managers will want to look at are the:
Total Skills: The complete number of Skills held by an individual User
Focused Skills: The complete number of Skills the User has chosen as priority to improve upon.
Open the slide-out screen to view the Focused Skills held by the Users in the data table.
Add Focused Skills from here, by using the search option.
Remove Focus Skills from a User’s Skill profile, by selecting the star icon for the Skill card shown.
Note✨: Do remember the following…
The Skill level cannot be adjusted from here .Once you add a new Skill as a Focused Skill, it will always display as a Level 0.
Slide-out screen data won’t be exportable.
The same two columns are found within the data table of the Groups sub-page > Users tab.
Admins and Managers can select the 3-dot menu on the name of the User, and click Add Skills to update the Skill of the User.
Users Sub-page and Skills Sub-page
The Skills tab, found on the Users sub-page, will give an overview of all Skills progression held by your chosen User.
The summary cards showcase the following points:
Active Skills - the number of Skills assigned to a User.
Expert Skills - the number of Skills a User has, Level 3 or more.
Skill Gaps - the number of Skills a User has that hold a Level lower than expected for their Job Role.
Review Skills - the number of Skills that have received a Review from a Peer or Manager.
Within the User Sub-page data table - and also found within the Skills Sub-page data table - the following columns are associated with the Skills Profile page:
Skill Level - a User’s current level of competency. This can’t be amended from here.
Focused Skill - you can remove or add a Focus Skill from here.
Number of Reviews - these included Self-Reviews, Managers and Peers. A slide-out screen will open to show who reviewed and by how much.
Tasks page
You can complete all your Requests for Reviews, via the Tasks page. Select the 3-dot menu, then Review, to open up the Review Levels pop-up.
Note✨: Skills self-added by Users will remain in the Self-added section, even if that same Skill later becomes associated with the User’s Job Role. It won’t be moved to the Required Skill section.
Watch our video walk-through on the above...
FAQs
What are some common questions you may find yourself asking as an Admin User? These potential queries have been outlined below, to give more clarity on the Skills Profile page.
Q: Will 'Experts' be available only for the Pro package?
A: Yes, the 'Experts' feature is available only for HowNow Pro customers. If you are a Pro customer, you can activate this feature in your settings.
❗Q: What if a Review Request is sent, but the Admin is deleted/deactivated, from the workspace?
❗A: Users won't have their requests responded to, if the User has been removed from your organisation's workspace, entirely. In this instance, it's recommended to share comms, reminding both Admins and requesters to make note of any Skills Reviews that have been pending, before their departure.
Q: Are there plans to introduce a general feedback tool as part of HowNow, beyond skills-based feedback?
A: Currently, our focus is on aligning feedback with skills development, as this is a shared goal between businesses and individuals. However, you can request features through your Customer Success Manager or our internal product board. If there is enough demand for a general feedback tool, we will evaluate its potential value and consider its development.
Q: What will the homepage look like if we don't have Skills mapped?
A: If you haven't adopted a skills-first approach, you will still see more relevant learning recommendations and better content discovery on the home page. Instead of skills-based recommendation rows, you'll see content organized by categories like "New and Noteworthy," "Peer Favorites," and "More Like This," all tailored to your recent learning activities and interests.
Q: Can we customise and define our own Skill descriptions?
A: This will be improved and available in Q4. Currently, Skill descriptions are set by default based on the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition. However, you will soon be able to customise these descriptions or use HowNow AI to generate tailored descriptions if you prefer not to do this manually.