Skills Profile

A library of over 500 skills with Penn State-specific definitions has been created with the help of dozens of internal subject matter experts familiar with every full-time staff job profile across the University.

A list of 8-15 critical skills needed to be successful has been mapped to each full-time staff job profile and is visible in the Full-Time Staff Job Catalog and every full-time staff employee’s Workday and Learning Resource Network (LRN) profiles.

Skills can be used by employees and managers to support career conversations, determine career development plans, inform professional development decisions, and be used to assist with recruiting and hiring efforts as part of the job posting and interviewing processes.

Managers and leaders can leverage their employees’ unique skills and capabilities to create agility and flexibility within the organization and to ensure that everyone is working to their highest potential to support Penn State’s mission and vision.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can use skills to inform professional and career development conversations and decisions related to your team or would like to request the addition of a skill to the catalog, submit an inquiry to the Talent Management/Workplace Learning team.

Additionally, the following resources are available to help you explore how to leverage the Skills Profile and People Matrix functionality in the Learning Resource Network to support these conversations.

The Skills Profile

Every employee at Penn State can establish their Skills Profile in the LRN. This includes:

  • declaring the skills they have and rating their level of proficiency, interest, and enjoyment for each skill;
  • selecting the skills they wish to develop;
  • requesting feedback related to proficiency for specific skills from their manager and peer;
  • identifying courses in the LRN to support skill development.

The Skills Profile Job Aid walks through how to set up and navigate this functionality.

The People Matrix

Managers can create dashboards to display summary skill information for their teams. It allows managers to:

  • view critical skills data for specific job profiles;
  • view data for additional skills important for the team;
  • assign training to support skill development;
  • set proficiency targets for skills;
  • provide proficiency feedback to individuals.

The People Matrix Job Aid walks through how to set up and navigate this functionality.