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Audience: Administrative Users

Managing Categories and Skills Across Multiple Lines of Business

If your company has multiple lines of business (e.g., IT, Human Resources, Accounting/Finance) there are two ways you can structure your data; one that involves defining Specialties and one that doesn’t.

Method 1: Defining Categories and Skills (No Specialties)

Define a category for each job/role you staff. For example:

Job	Category
Desktop Support	Desktop Support
Network Administrator	Network Administrator
Systems Engineer	Systems Engineer
HR Manager	HR Manager
HR Generalist	HR Generalist
Accounts Receivable	Accounts Receivable
Controller	Controller

 

Define Skills

You can either define skills for each category or, if some categories share skills, you can create "container" categories to hold skills that apply to multiple categories.

Table: Defining Skills for Each Category

Categories	Skills
Desktop Support	LAN, Windows, UNIX, Linux, TCP/IP, Token Ring, JavaScript, MS SQL
Network Administrator	LAN, Windows, UNIX, Linux, TCP/IP, Token Ring, JavaScript, MS SQL
Systems Engineer	LAN, Windows, UNIX, Linux, TCP/IP, Token Ring, JavaScript, MS SQL
HR Manager	Alternative Dispute Resolution, Employment Law, Labor Relations
HR Generalist	Alternative Dispute Resolution, Employment Law, Labor Relations
Accounts Receivable	GAAP standards, Vendor Management, ERP, EDI, General Ledger
Controller	GAAP standards, Vendor Management, ERP, EDI, General Ledger

 

By defining skills for each category, the skills are listed repeatedly as necessary for each category. The concern with this approach is that now skills are harder to maintain and that users have the potential to add the same skill more than once.

Table: Defining Container Categories for Shared Skills

Categories	Skills
Desktop Support	None
Network Administrator	None
Systems Engineer	None
All IT Skills	LAN, Windows, UNIX, Linux, TCP/IP, Token Ring, JavaScript, MS SQL
HR Manager	None
HR Generalist	None
All HR Skills	Alternative Dispute Resolution, Employment Law, Labor Relations
Accounts Receivable	None
Controller	None
All A/R Skills	GAAP standards, Vendor Management, ERP, EDI, General Ledger

 

By linking the skills to one category per line of business it prevents duplication of your skills and makes maintenance easier. In addition, when users want to add skills for a candidate or specify the skills required for a job, the skills are easy to find because users can just select the category for that line of business and see the relevant skills.

Method 2: Defining Categories, Specialties, and Skills

Define a category for each line of business.

For example: IT, Human Resources, Accounting

Define a Specialty for each job/role in a line of business

For example:

Categories	Specialties
IT	Desktop Support Network Administrator Systems Engineer
HR	HR Manager HR Generalist
AF	Accounts Receivable Controller

 

Define Skills

You can define skills for each category.

Table:  Defining Skills for Each Category

Categories	Specialties	Skills
IT	Desktop Support Network Administrator Systems Engineer	LAN, Windows, UNIX, Linux, TCP/IP, Token Ring
HR	HR Manager HR Generalist	Alternative Dispute Resolution, Employment Law
AF	Accounts Receivable Controller	GAAP standards, Vendor Management, ERP, EDI

 

By linking the skills to one category per line of business it prevents duplication of your skills and makes maintenance easier. In addition, when users want to add skills for a candidate or specify the skills required for a job, the skills are easy to find because users can just select the category for that line of business and see the relevant skills.