Practice knowledge base
Skills Marketplace
A skills marketplace helps employees showcase their competencies and enables internal projects to find people with the needed expertise more quickly.
Documentation sections
What it is
This is an internal platform or directory where employees list their skills, experience, and interest in projects, and managers post tasks requiring specific expertise. This practice bridges the gap between what people are capable of and where the company actually utilizes those skills. It is particularly beneficial when an organization already has a steady flow of projects and a willingness to arrange temporary participation of individuals from various teams.
When it helps
- Projects seek experts through personal connections rather than a clear internal channel.
- Employees possess strong skills that they don't use in their current role.
- Managers lack visibility into where the necessary expertise resides within the company.
- Career growth is limited to role changes, even though individuals need project-based experiences and new challenges.
- Internal vacancies and project roles emerge, but employees learn about them too late.
How to start
- 1 Select one type of project for which skill discovery is currently particularly challenging.
- 2 Outline a concise employee profile: key skills, experience, interests, availability, and consent to be contacted.
- 3 Appoint a catalog owner responsible for data quality and assisting teams in formulating requests.
- 4 Publish initial project requests with a clear task, participation duration, expected contribution, and contact manager.
- 5 After several matches, evaluate which fields are helpful for finding individuals and which only create unnecessary data entry.
Expected effect
The company makes better use of existing expertise: projects find suitable people faster, and employees see tangible ways to apply their skills and explore a new career move. It becomes easier for managers to discuss development through specific tasks rather than just abstract aspirations.
Common pitfalls
- The catalog becomes a static questionnaire without active project requests, leading employees to stop updating it.
- Skills are not verified, resulting in noisy search results and reduced trust in the platform.
- Line managers do not release employees for projects, rendering the marketplace a mere showcase without genuine mobility.
- Requests are published without specifying the scope of participation or an owner, making it difficult for employees to understand what they are committing to.
- The platform is not suitable as a first step if the company lacks policies for temporary employee participation in external projects.
Further reading
- Book: Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, Chris Yeh, The Alliance
- Book: Josh Bersin, Irresistible, chapters on talent marketplace and internal opportunities
- Report: World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report, sections on skills and reskilling
- Report: LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, sections on internal mobility and skill development
FAQ
Who should own the skills marketplace?
Typically, ownership is required from HR, people operations, or the talent development office, but business leaders must regularly post genuine project requests. Without their involvement, the catalog quickly becomes outdated.
Can we start without a dedicated platform?
Yes. For a pilot, a spreadsheet or a simple form is sufficient, provided it includes skills, interests, availability, and contact information. It's crucial to validate the demand for talent matching before investing in or building a complex tool.
How can we tell if the practice is working?
Observe whether genuine matches occur between projects and individuals: how many requests receive responses, how many employees engage with tasks, and whether they update their profiles after initial placements.
What if managers are reluctant to release employees?
First, establish clear guidelines: acceptable time commitment, duration of participation, approval from the current manager, and a method for workload coverage. Without these rules, the marketplace can create conflict over talent.