ChangeWise Quick Read: Team Capabilities – ILUO Charts

In this quick read, we offer a high-level overview of the ILUO Skills Chart, including how to create one and how it can support operational effectiveness.

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What is an ILUO Skills Chart?

The ILUO Skills Chart is a simple matrix that lists the skill set and competency level in your department against each team member. It should be a visual representation for all staff to view.

What are the benefits of the ILUO Chart?

The ILUO Skills Chart quickly and easily identifies the skill sets and levels within your department which will help to highlight:

• Any single points of failure
• Training needs as a result of process and people skill gaps
• What should be included/prioritised when creating training and development plans
• Potential cross training opportunities
• Members of the team who are fully competent and can help those who are still learning

⚠️ Remember! This chart is not a private document for the management team, it should be displayed in the office so that everyone can see and understand the training needs of both the department and themselves.

Once skills and team members have been assessed and added to the chart, we recommend using a mathematical calculation so that each skill category and employee can be measured:

• Activity Depth Average = competency average for each skill category
• Employee Breadth Average = competency average for each employee

The effectiveness of this relies on the leadership team ensuring the chart is not used as a way to embarrass or compare employees in a negative way. The measure offers a great way for employees to demonstrate their progress in a tangible way, making the chart a great motivational tool and empowering staff to manage their own development needs.

⚠️ Remember! The chart is not static, there must be a process in place to ensure the details are kept up to date 

Sounds good……but what does ILUO stand for?

ILUO stands for Identified, Learning, Understand, Others – these are the categories used to assess competence. The criteria for each category is shown in the diagram below:

I like it! Can you show me an example?

Absolutely! Let’s use the diagram below which shows a Skills Matrix from a Customer Service Team:

Using the example above, we can easily identify training and development needs for the department:

• Based on the activity depth rating averages, we have significant training needs for the following categories:
  • Explain order to delivery for customer (1.7)
  • Train customer on widget installation (1.8)
  • Troubleshoot widget problems (1.6)
  • Explain problem solution to customer (1.8)
• Steve (who is new!) needs support with his training & development plan as he is not yet ready to cover for other members of staff
• The management team (Rob & Betty) are the most qualified – this is risky because if one of them is unwell/on leave, the other manager may not be able to manage demand.
• The department does not have any ‘Champions’ or employees with enough breadth of knowledge to train others. Whilst it is not necessary for all employees to reach ‘O’ competency, this expertise should be available for 2/3 employees.
• The most skilled employee (Ryan) has moved to another department, along with Anne. We advise keeping these employees on the chart as they could potentially help if the department experiences periods of extreme demand.

⭐️ Top Tip! Use colour to create a really strong visual representation

In Summary

The ILUO Skills Chart is a simple, visual matrix that lists the skill sets and competency levels within your department. It helps to identify which skill sets are in need and supports employees in creating measurable training and development plans. This in turn, will reinforce your overall operational effectiveness.

There are several different examples of skills matrices, many of which we will cover in our future Quick Reads. Until then, if you are interested in learning more, get in touch with the ChangeWise team at info@changewise.co.uk

ChangeWise believes employee engagement is the foundation for successful Change. Training and coaching your people to use simple continuous improvement techniques will enable your organisation to continuously adapt and stay ahead in a constantly changing and challenging environment.

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