Setting up and using skills

In Forecast, you can assign skills to your team members, so you can easily schedule tasks and assign projects to individuals based on their capabilities. This article will walk you through how to set up skills in your Forecast account.

This article covers:

• Accessing Skills
• Creating and managing Categories and Skills
• Adding Levels to Skills

Accessing Skills

Administrators are the only ones that can manage and edit the skills within the account. There are currently no limitations in terms of how many skills you can create. 

To access skills

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Click on the Resources.
3. Click the Skills tab.

Creating and managing Categories and Skills

Creating Categories

To sort and manage your team members' capabilities, administrators can define categories for the skills individuals will be assigned to. Categories are optional and can be defined as 'collections' of skills, so you can group and manage skills easily. For example, you can have a category named 'Development', where 'JavaScript', 'Python', and 'CSS' are skills assigned to that category. 

To create a category

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Head to Resources.
3. Select the Skills tab.
4. Click on 'Create Category'.
5. Give the new category a name and click Create.

Creating Skills

Whether or not you have already configured categories, you can create your Skills to define the competencies of your team members.

To create a skill 

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Head to Resources.
3. Select the Skills tab.
4. Click on 'Create Skill' 
   
   1. In the pop-up select the name of the skill.
   2. Choose the category it should fall under (optional).
   3. Assign people to this skill from the drop-down menu(optional).
5. Click on Create.

Updating and Managing Skills 

Administrators have the option to update and manage the team members assigned to skills and categories at any time. 

To update and manage individual skills

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Head to Resources.
3. Select the Skills tab.
4. Click on the Skill name, or click on the checkbox next to the Skill
   1. By selecting the checkbox, a modal will appear: 
      
      • Assign to People: use this option to bulk update people to this skill.
      • Move to Category: to move the skill under another category.
      • Delete: to delete the skill from the account.

Updating and Managing Categories 

To edit or delete a category

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Head to Resources.
3. Select the Skills tab.
4. Click on the three-dots icon on the right side of the category
5. In the dropdown there are two options
   
   • Edit category: use this option to edit the category name and the associated skills.
   • Delete Category: to delete the category from your account. 

Adding Levels to Skills

In addition to assigning skills to team members, customers can also incorporate Levels to customize skill levels for individual resources. Skills with Levels offers Admin users the option to define a generic or customized set of levels that can be used across all skills.

Enabling Levels

Levels can only be managed by Administrators. In order to add levels, the functionality needs to be enabled first.

To enable Levels

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Head to Resources.
3. Select the Skills tab. 
4. Click on Enable Levels. 
5. In the Enable Levels window toggle on Use levels on skills.
6. There are 6 default levels: 
   • Novice
   • Advanced Beginner
   • Competent
   • Proficient
   • Expert
   • Master
7. Use the eight-dots menu to drag and drop the levels into a different order.
8. Rename levels by clicking into the name field, delete a level by clicking the Trash can or add more levels, by clicking +Add Level.
9. Click Save to apply your changes or Cancel to close the window. 

Note: Once an Admin enables Levels, the Enable Levels button will update to display as Manage Levels. 

The first time Enable Levels is accessed, upon saving, a notification will display reminding the Admin that resources will now have a default level, No Level, indicating additional action is needed to assign levels. Admins can manage Levels from the Skills page or in the individual Team Member's profile page.

Assign Levels to Team Members

Levels can be assigned to individual team members by Admin users from the Skills page or from the individual Team Member Profile page.

To assign Levels from Skills

1. Each skill contains the default or customized list of levels.
2. Click the caret to expand the list of levels for a particular skill. 
3. All Team Members assigned to a particular skill will appear as ? No Level.
4. Click on the Skill or Level to open the Skill window. 
5. The Skill name will appear at the top of the window. 
6. The first dropdown, Category, will display the category that includes the specific skill. 
7. The second dropdown, People, includes a list of all available team resources that can be assigned to the skill. 
8. People ( ) will display a list of team members already assigned to the skill. 
9. Use the magnifying glass to search for team members already assigned to the skill. 
10. Use Active Users to filter down the list of People displayed by the type of user: Active User, Users, Virtual Resources or Deactivated.
11. Use All Levels to filter the list of people for a specific level or for those with Level not set.
12. The list of People ( ) displayed will retain unless filters are reset.
13. From the People list, click on the three dots menu on the right side of the specific resource's row to assign a level. 
14. Click Save. 
15. The resource will now move from ? - No Level, or a previously assigned level, to the new level set in the previous step.

To assign Levels from Team Member Profile page

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Head to Resources. 
3. Click on People. 
4. Click on the user name for a resource to access the Team Member profile.
5. Scroll down to Skills.  
6. Assigned skills with appear here. If no skills are assigned, Skills (0) will display. 
7. If no skills have been assigned, click Edit Skills.
8. The Team Member's skills window will appear. 
9. In Skills, click on the dropdown. 
10. Skills are organized by Category. Each category will appear first in the dropdown. If no categories have been created, or existing skills are not included in a category, No Category will appear at the end of the list.
11. Select the skills Category to expand the list of skills.
12. Click the Skill to expand the list of levels. 
13. Select the corresponding skill level for the team member and click Save. 

Managing Levels

There may be times when you need to update existing levels or add new custom levels to accurately reflect your team's skills and abilities.  You may also need to update or remove existing skill levels previously assigned to team members. 

To Add, Remove or Update Levels

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Head to Resources.
3. Select the Skills tab. 
4. Click on Manage Levels. 
5. Manage Levels allows you to enable or disable Use Levels on skills. 
6. Manage Levels also allows you to update or rename existing levels, remove levels, rearrange the order of levels or to add a new level. 
7. Click in the Level name to rename. 
8. Use the eight dots on the left side of each level name to drag/drop to rearrange. 
9. Use the Trash can to delete a level. 
10. Use +Add Level to create a new level. 
11. Click Save when your level customizations are complete. 

To update a team members existing Level from Skills

1. Expand the Category and the skill you are working with. 
2. Locate the skill you need to adjust the level for. 
3. Identify the resource by their profile icon displayed in the row for the level you need to adjust.
4. Click on the level to open the skill window. 
5. The list of team members with the existing skill and level will display in the skill window.
6. Use the three-dots on the right side of the resource name to open the list of Levels. 
7. Select the new Level from the list. 
8. Repeat as needed to update other team members levels for the same skill. 
9. Click Save. 

To update a team members existing Level from Team Member profile

1. Click on Admin on the top bar.
2. Head to Resources. 
3. Click on People. 
4. Click on the team member's name to open their specific Team Member profile. 
5. Scroll down to Skills.
6. Click Edit Skills to open the skills window for the resource. 
7. Add new skills by using Skills dropdown. 
8. To add a level or update an existing level, hover over the right side of the skill to display the three dots menu. 
9. Click the three dots menu to add a level or update the resource's existing level. 
10. Click Save. 
11. Alternatively, you can hover over the existing skill directly from the Team Member profile page to display the three dots menu. 
12. Click the three dots menu to directly update a level or use Remove skill to delete the skill from the team member's profile entirely.