Changing Skill Type

Skill Type is used to identify different types of skills in the system. It is recommended that the Skill Types required for your organization be established and all of the flags are set appropriate before the Skill Type gets assigned to any skills. For organizations that had skills defined within Encompassing Visions prior to the addition of the Skill Type in Version 9.1, all existing skills were set to the Skill Type "Technical Skills' with Required Proficiency and Reviewable Indicators set to true. These settings mimic the handling of Technical Skills in the Job Skills and Competency Review functions for versions prior to Version 9.1.  The information provided on this page is meant to assist in the cleanup of any existing skills or for use after the Skills and Certifications library has been built.

Prior to changing the Skill Type for a skill you should determine whether the skill is linked to any jobs or reviews. Use the Linked Jobs, and Linked Reviews reports to identify which jobs and reviews might be impacted.

Changing Skill Type Changes Required Proficiency Indicator

When the Required Proficiency Indicator changes, the Required Proficiency for the skill when it is linked to the job and any Competency Reviews that include that skill can be impacted.

Choosing a Skill Type That Turns Off Required Proficiency

If the Skill Type is changed from a Skill Type that has Required Proficiency Indicator (required) to a Skill Type that has Required Proficiency Indicator (not required) it means that there should no longer be a Required Proficiency linked to this skill for any jobs that the Skill is attached to.  If the skill is not linked to any jobs or Reviews then the change will be applied without confirmation but if the skill is linked to jobs or Reviews the system will ask for confirmation of the change:

Click to proceed with the change.

Click to cancel the change.

Proceeding with the change will update the Required Proficiency field to 'Not Required' for all jobs the skill is attached to.  You can validate the results of this update by looking at the Job Skills screen of the Jobs function after the change has been applied.  The jobs impacted are all those that are identified in the Linked Jobs Report.

In the Job Skills screen the Required Proficiency for those Skills that were changed will appear as follows:

If the Reviewable Indicator is for the original Skill Type, the Skill may also be included in Skill Evaluations for existing Competency Reviews. If this is the case, the Required Proficiency will not be changed on any of the Competency Reviews that have already been started or completed.  Use the information on the Linked Reviews report to determine if there are any Competency Reviews in progress that will still be using the old Required Proficiency. The Required Proficiency can not be changed on an in-progress review.  If it is critical to update this information for the Review then it will have to be deleted and re-started. This is done by deleting the Reviewer in the Maintain Reviewers function.

Choosing a Skill Type That Turns On Required Proficiency

If the Required Proficiency Indicator is changed from (not required) to (required),  there should now be a Required Proficiency linked to this skill for each jobs that the skill is linked to.  If the Skill Type is not linked to any skills then the change will be applied without confirmation but if the Skill Type is linked to skills the system will ask for confirmation of the change:

If the Skill Type is changed from a Skill Type that has Required Proficiency Indicator (not required) to a Skill Type that has Required Proficiency Indicator (required) to it means that there should no longer be a Required Proficiency linked to this skill for any jobs that the skill is linked to.  If the skill is not linked to any jobs or reviews then the change will be applied without confirmation.  If the Skill is linked to jobs or Reviews the system will ask for confirmation of the change:

Click to proceed with the change.

Click to cancel the change.

Proceeding with the change will update all of the Required Proficiency fields for all jobs the skills is linked to with 'Not Required'. You will then have to manually update the Required Proficiency to the desired value for each job the skill is linked to. This is done on the Job Skills screen from the Jobs function.  The jobs impacted are all those that are identified in the Linked Jobs Report.

In the Job Skills screen the Required Proficiency for those Skills that were changed will appear as follows:

If the Reviewable Indicator is for the original Skill Type, the Skill may also be included in Skill Evaluations for existing Competency Reviews. If this is the case, the Required Proficiency will not be changed on any of the Competency Reviews that have already been started or completed.  Use the information on the Linked Reviews report to determine if there are any Competency Reviews in progress that will exclude the Required Proficiency. The Required Proficiency on the  in-progress Review can not be changed so if updating this information is critical to the Review then it will have to be deleted and re-started. This is done by deleting the Reviewer in the Maintain Reviewers function.

Changing Skill Type Changes Reviewable Indicator

Changing the Reviewable Indicator for a Skill Type will change the way that the skills are treated in the system.

Choosing a Skill Type That Turns Off Reviewable

If the Skill Type is changed from a Skill Type with the Reviewable Indicator (required) to a Skill Type where the Reviewable Indicator is (not required) it means that no new Competency Reviews will include the skill. If the skill is not linked to any Reviews then the change will be applied without confirmation but if the skill is linked to Reviews the system will ask for confirmation of the change:

Click to proceed with the change.

Click to cancel the change.

Proceeding with the change will update the Skill Type for the skill.  This process will not remove any skills from the Skill Evaluations for the skill in Competency Reviews that have already been started or completed.  Use the information on the Linked Reviews report to determine if there are any Competency Reviews in progress that will still include the skill. The skills on an in progress Review can not be changed so if updating this information is critical to the Review then it will have to be deleted and re-started. This is done by deleting the Reviewer in the Maintain Reviewers function.

Choosing a Skill Type That Turns On Reviewable

If the Reviewable Indicator is changed from (not required) to (required) it means that there should now be a Skill Evaluation included in any new Competency Review for Employees in jobs with this skill. If the Skill Type is not linked to any skills then the change will be applied without confirmation but if the Skill Type is linked to skills the system will ask for confirmation of the change:

Click to proceed with the change.

Click to cancel the change..

Proceeding with the change will update the Skill Type for the skill.  This process will not add any skills to the Skill Evaluations for the skill in Competency Reviews that have already been started or completed.  Use the information on the Linked Reviews report to determine if there are any Competency Reviews in progress that will exclude the skill. The skills in an in progress Review can not be changed so if updating this information is critical to the Review then it will have to be deleted and re-started. This is done by deleting the Reviewer in the Maintain Reviewers function.