Assessing Digital Skills for Business Success with SFIA

Andy Andrews

Introduction

Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is a global industry standard for defining professional digital skills. Its wide acceptance makes it ideal for skills-driven talent management applications, particularly for assessing employee digital skills.

Why do an Assessment?

Before considering SFIA for skill assessments, it is critical to understand why the assessment is being undertaken in the first place. Start with the end in mind. For instance, when assessing employees’ skills, what is the business objective for the assessment? How will the information be used? Is there a ‘point of pain’ you need to address? Ultimately, how does this undertaking relate to your organization’s business strategy?

Ensuring that the purpose of the assessment is articulated will help buy-in and sustain sponsorship for the assessment process, at both an individual and organizational level, and determine whether it has been met.

Why SFIA?

The SFIA framework’s wide acceptance makes it ideal for assessment purposes, as the skills are consistently defined in any country, region, or organization where it has been deployed.

The framework structure itself is consistent. Each skill includes a name, a code, a simple description, and levels of attainment. The skill level definitions are demonstrable, action-verb statements that serve as evidence indicators—significant for subjective assessment purposes.

Each skill also includes generic level descriptors with consistent attributes: Autonomy, Influence, Complexity, Knowledge, Business Skills, and, from SFIA version 9.0, business skills and behavioral factors. These attributes are easily understood not only by people working in technology roles but also by HR professionals for assessment purposes.

What Type of Assessment?

Choosing a particular means of assessment will depend on several factors. For instance, an objective, test-based approach may work better for recruitment purposes but may not be as suitable as self-assessment and manager validation for existing employees—the latter being more conducive to building rapport and relationships between the two parties.

Both objective and subjective assessment types have value and should be chosen according to the intended application for which the assessment is being undertaken.

Assessments can take several different forms; the following list is not exhaustive but refers to some of the more common methods used for skill and competency assessment:

1. Multiple-choice Exams and Tests
2. 360 Feedback
3. Self-assessment
4. Self-assessment with Manager Validation
5. Peer Assessment
6. Manager Assessment
7. Discipline-led / Expert assessment
8. Performance Ratings
9. In-depth Structured Interviews
10. Skill-based Interviews
11. Assessment Centres
12. Certifications/Qualifications

Using Technology for SFIA Skill Assessments

It’s been a long road since the day of paper-based assessments, but at Lexonis, we still see organizations attempting to capture their employees’ skills and capabilities using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets! At best, these provide some insight for the individuals, and if you’re really clever with spreadsheets, you may be able to generate pivot reports that provide the skill insights that your business needs.

Imagine, however, that you were looking to find a person from, say, 1,000 employees with a unique set of 4 or 5 SFIA skills with a specified level of proficiency. Someone to work on a project, to fill a vacancy, to succeed someone else – fundamental business requirements. How will you ensure that your data is up to date? This is where purpose driven, well-designed software such as Lexonis TalentScape can be transformative. Listing employees with a matching SFIA skills profile within seconds and provide numerous views and pivots to support your talent management initiatives, such as views on the organization’s SFIA skill gaps and capability.

The right technology solution will provide your organization with skills and capability data and present clear insights for employees and managers, empowering them to consider and take timely action.

Conclusion

Assessing employee skills – digital or not – is often the foundation on which an organization begins to understand its capability and ability to grow and thrive. Most organizations have few opportunities to get it right before ‘skills fatigue’ sets in within the workforce. Using a well-established, consistent, and fit-for-purpose digital skills framework such as SFIA is a great step forward! Complimenting the framework with a technology platform that leverages all the benefits of SFIA so that it can apply to multiple talent initiatives within the organization, such as Lexonis TalentScape, is essential.

Getting Started with SFIA

Lexonis’ founders developed the first accredited software for this industry-recognized digital skills framework and have continued to deliver successful SFIA solutions ever since. We are happy to discuss your SFIA requirements and to provide a free demonstration of Lexonis TalentScape, so have a chat with one of our SFIA Accredited Consultants.

In the meantime, here are some additional resources that you may be interested in:

Blog Posts

Unleash SFIA Version 9 and Transform Your Digital Skills Management Strategy

Previous Webinars

How to Protect Your Organization Against Cyber Attacks by Using SFIA 9 and CIISec

SFIA Foundation Website

SFIA and Skills Management