Managing the digital skills you have

Deploy

Assigning resources by capability

Effective skills management enables people to work in a way that is best for the organisation and best for the individual. Managers will improve motivation, engagement and productivity by deploying people to the right work. Targeted deployment also provides the best opportunity for individuals to develop new skills.

Project and operational risks are reduced by assigning the right skilled people. Using SFIA means this is based on their actual capability, not just their technical knowledge. Getting this right leads to more effective use of resources, appropriate development, and potentially reduced expenditure on contractors. Managers use SFIA to highlight scarce skills in their teams, and deploy resources to mitigate those risks.

As well as enabling functional organisational structures, the flexibility of SFIA supports other approaches for resource deployment. This includes competency centres or resource pools. In these models, resources are allocated to temporary endeavours, agile project teams, or even individual tasks.

Ensuring that externally sourced capability – whether contractors or service providers – is deployed to appropriate tasks is essential to ensure the desired outcome and value for money. Organisations can use SFIA to identify potential cost saving through contractor replacement programmes. By identifying the skills provided by contractors, plans can then be made to acquire or develop those skills internally.