How the Competency Matrix supports Umicore’s growth

Can competence management enhance your company’s growth? It certainly does at Umicore. The Competency Matrix that Flexso tailored to their needs helps Umicore improve workplace safety and workforce planning, empowers employees, and supports recruiting, learning and development. Discover how.

Competency Matrix Umicore header

Materials technology and recycling group Umicore is at the cutting edge of the circular economy – and it’s growing at dazzling speed. One of the group’s fastest-growing business units is the ‘Rechargeable Batteries Material’ (RBM) team, which thrives on the boom of electric vehicles. With their growth comes a series of challenges, including the continuous demand for new people.

How training helps boost quality and safety

Engaging people at Umicore may be a tad more challenging than in many other companies. As a chemical-industry employer, they have to meet specific quality and safety standards. That implies that employees must attain particular certifications and regularly complete mandatory training.

For Umicore's growth, it is vital that they can deliver the same quality of products everywhere, and adhere to the strictest safety standards. To achieve that aim, every employee needs to acquire the right role-based certifications and competencies, no matter in which Umicore plant they work around the globe.

Harmonizing competence management

Umicore’s Learning & Development team understood it was important to inventorize the certifications and competencies. The shared spreadsheets and disconnected tracking tools that they had been using for years, however, made it difficult to get an overview of the rapidly growing workforce. They decided to explore the market to find a user-friendly, holistic alternative to track and analyze the skill levels.

Apart from rich features and an intuitive interface, there was one big extra requirement: smooth integration with their existing SAP SuccessFactors HR environment. Enter Flexso’s Competency Matrix, a SaaS-based extension for SuccessFactors. Together with the Flexso experts Umicore tailored the solution to meet their specific business needs.

Bruno Meganck

For our competence management we needed a solution that could harmonize and automate. And we needed a tool that could integrate seamlessly with our existing SuccessFactors environment.

Bruno Meganck - Sr. HR Technology Manager at Umicore

What is the Competency Matrix?

The Competence Matrix is a SuccessFactors extension built by Flexso that provides:

  • A clear, real-time overview of all the in-house competencies
  • Insight into all the training and certification details
  • An intuitive dashboard for employees to spot skill gaps, and then find – and reserve – training courses to fill them
  • An up-to-date course and qualification status thanks to integration with SuccessFactors Learning

Explore the Competency Matrix

5 ways in which the matrix supports Umicore’s growth

  1. Time and efficiency gains for the Learning & development team: the Matrix makes it easy to follow up, track, and document trainings and certifications for every single employee.
  2. Increased quality and safety throughout the organization: thanks to the stricter follow-up, Umicore knows that their people have the right competencies to ensure workplace safety, as well as product quality.
  3. Employee empowerment and easier internal mobility: Umicore people get a clear overview of their competencies, certifications and training session attendance, including possible gaps between their existing skills and those they need for certain roles, plus tips for reskilling, or upskilling.
  4. Smooth, effective workforce planning for every team: managers get an immediate insight into which people are qualified to meet a long-term or last-minute staffing need.
  5. Easier, quicker and more sustainable recruiting: recruiters have a clear overview of the key competencies required, and can easily make hiring decisions based on candidates’ skills, in line with Umicore’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) principles.
Competency Matrix Umicore

Award-winning extension

This project, in addition to Umicore, actually counts as an inspiring case for others as well. And was rewarded as such! In 2022, SAP officially rewarded the extension with the SAP Innovation Award. In the meantime, it has become a recognized SAP SuccessFactors extension, available in the SAP Store, and listed as an Industry Cloud solution for Industrial Manufacturing.

Watch the interview with Bruno Meganck about the Competency Matrix here!

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