The Special Information Approach to Skills Matching
From Release 11, the recommended appraoch to holding and matching skills information is to define a framework of competencies. These provide the common language for a wide range of human resource activities including assessments, appraisals, employee profiling, career development, and recruitment. You can build up a wealth of skills information that can be maintained and used by employees and line managers themselves, using the web Direct Access interface.
However, Oracle HRMS continues to support the earlier approach to handling skills information, using Special Information Types. This is an alternative to the new competency approach.
Special Information Types are a flexible way to hold any additional information you require about people and, if necessary, to compare this information with the requirements of jobs or positions. For each Special Information Type you can define up to thirty fields to hold details of competences, professional qualifications, education, and valid experience. For each person, job, or position, you can make multiple entries for each Special Information Type.
For example, suppose you want to store details of technical skills. You could set up the following fields:
- Skills - with a list of valid values to control the vocabulary used to describe the skills
- Years Experience - to hold the number of years of experience in using the skills
You can display the fields you define in one or more of the following windows:
- Special Information, to record skills or experience for an employee or applicant
- Job Requirements, to hold skill requirements for a job
- Position Requirements, to hold skill requirements for a position
- Skill Provisions. to record the skills or qualifications provided by training activities in Oracle Training Administration.
Using views and reports, you can then match people to posts, according to their skills or other attributes.
Tips for Defining Special Information Types to Hold Skills Information
- If you want to give different sets of people access to different categories of skills information, define each category as a separate Special Information Type. You can customize the Special Information window to display just one Special Information Type.
- If you want to match on a range of skills levels, it is easier to use numeric values. Use a description field to provide the meaning for each level. The description appears automatically when the number is chosen.
- You can use cross-validation to ensure that users enter correct combinations of segments. For example, you could ensure that when a language skill is entered, a fluency level is also selected.
- You can speed up data entry and minimize errors by defining an 'Alias' for common combinations of segment values. For example, completion of a course might always give a specific certificate from a particular licensing body. A user could enter all of these values with a single Alias.
- If you want users to enter the precise title of a qualification (perhaps read from a resume), you cannot supply a list of values. However, consider providing additional fields with lists of values using broad terms such as 'degree-level' or 'science' to help users searching for information.
Unstructured Information
You may want to hold some skills information, such as resumes, as unstructured, free text information. You can store this information as attachments to the People and Special Information windows.
See Also
Entering Special Information
Entering Job and Position Requirements
Viewing and Reporting Skills Matching Information
Defining Special Information Types
Using Attachments
