Skills Taxonomy / Peopletree Group
A structured classification of technical and functional skills mapped to roles, levels, and business functions.
What is a skills taxonomy?
A skills taxonomy is a structured classification of the technical knowledge and capabilities required across roles in an organisation. It creates a shared language for describing capability - so that hiring, development, succession, and workforce planning decisions are based on consistent definitions rather than individual interpretation.
How is a skills taxonomy different from a competency framework?
A competency framework describes how people behave - the behavioural patterns that drive performance. A skills taxonomy describes what people know - the technical knowledge and domain expertise required to do a job. Both are needed for a complete picture of workforce capability. Peopletree Group's Talent Genome covers behavioural competencies; the Skills Taxonomy covers technical knowledge.
Do we need to build a skills taxonomy from scratch?
No. Peopletree Group's Skills Taxonomy is built from a structured library of 500+ skills, giving organisations a proven starting point. We tailor this foundation to your organisation's context, role architecture, and strategic priorities.
What workforce decisions does a skills taxonomy support?
A well-designed skills taxonomy supports skills gap analysis, workforce planning, talent identification, succession planning, internal mobility, learning and development prioritisation, and people analytics - all grounded in a consistent, organisation-wide definition of capability.
How does the Skills Taxonomy connect to TalentProfile and TalentPrint?
The Skills Taxonomy defines the technical capability framework. TalentProfile captures each employee's skills, experience, and career history against that framework. TalentPrint assesses behavioural competency alongside it. Together, they give the organisation a complete view of individual and collective capability.
What is a Success Profile and how does it relate to the Skills Taxonomy?
A Success Profile defines what good looks like for a specific role - combining the behavioural competencies from the Talent Genome with the technical knowledge requirements from the Skills Taxonomy. It gives managers and HR a clear, consistent benchmark for hiring, development, and succession decisions.
How long does it take to implement a skills taxonomy?
A tailored skills taxonomy and initial set of Success Profiles can typically be delivered within 4 to 8 weeks, depending on the scope of roles covered and the complexity of the organisation's role architecture. Implementation is faster when the organisation already has defined job families or a clear role hierarchy.