Skill cluster

Skill clusters are reusable groups of related skills that you can build, manage, and apply across roles, functions, and strategic initiatives – all from within smartLibrary. Whether you’re designing career paths, planning a workforce transformation, or defining capability themes, Skill clusters give you a structured, flexible way to organize and track skills at scale.

Key benefits

  • Reuse instead of rebuild. Create a cluster once and apply it across multiple projects, roles, and analyses – no need to manually reconstruct skill sets every time.
  • Stay aligned with your skills library. Clusters draw directly from a linked skills library, so everything stays consistent and governed.
  • Bulk-populate with confidence. Add an entire skills taxonomy to a cluster in one step, then exclude individual skills that don’t apply – faster than adding skills one by one.
  • Keep clusters current automatically. Enable sync so that when new skills are added to a linked taxonomy, they flow into your cluster without any manual updates.
  • Track proficiency when it matters. Optionally assign target proficiency levels to each skill in a cluster for richer capability planning and gap analysis.

Before you start

  • You need access to smartLibrary within the platform.
  • At least one skills library must already exist before you can create a Skill cluster Library – clusters draw their skills from a linked skills library.
  • Your permissions determine whether you can create or edit libraries and clusters. If you can’t see the options described below, check with your administrator.

What is a Skill Cluster?

A Skill cluster is a named, reusable collection of related skills organized under a three-level hierarchy:

  • Skill cluster area – the high-level grouping (for example, “Digital”, “Leadership”, “Data and Analytics”)
  • Skill cluster sub-area – a more specific grouping under an Area (for example, under “Digital”: “Cloud”, “Cybersecurity”, “Automation”)
  • Skill cluster name – the individual cluster (for example, “Cloud Foundations”, “Advanced Data Science”, “People Leadership”)

You assign each cluster to an Area and Sub-Area when you create it, then populate it with skills either individually or via a taxonomy.

Typical use cases

HR and Talent Management
  • Define capability themes (for example, “Digital literacy” or “Customer centricity”) and map roles to those clusters.
  • Support workforce planning by grouping critical or emerging skills to assess gaps and surpluses.
  • Design career paths by aligning job families with relevant skill clusters.
Workforce Transformation and Strategy
  • Create clusters for strategic themes (for example, “AI and automation” or “Sustainability”) and monitor capability readiness over time.
  • Compare clusters across regions, business units, or functions for benchmarking and prioritization.
Learning & Development, Recruiters, and Business Leaders
  • L&D teams: Design learning journeys mapped to specific clusters rather than individual skills alone.
  • Recruiters: Use clusters as templates for role profiles and job descriptions to keep skill requirements consistent.
  • Business leaders: Track how well teams are equipped for key initiatives by monitoring capability levels for relevant clusters.

How to use it

Step 1 – Access the Skill Cluster Library
  1. Open smartLibrary from the main navigation in the platform.
  2. In smartLibrary, go to the Libraries section.
  3. Select Skill clusters.

The Skill cluster Library view shows all existing skill cluster libraries you have access to, with options to view, edit, or create new ones.

Step 2 – Create a Skill Cluster Library
  1. From the Skill cluster Library view, select Create library.
  2. Enter a Library Name. Choose a clear, descriptive name that reflects the purpose or scope of the clusters it will contain (for example, “Global Digital Skill clusters”).
  3. Link a Skills library – select the skills library that this Skill cluster Library will draw skills from. All skills added to clusters in this library must come from the linked skills library.
  4. Select Save to confirm.

After saving, you can start defining areas, sub-areas, and individual clusters, and adding skills.

Step 3 – Add skills to a cluster

Within each skill cluster, you choose which skills to include. There are two ways to do this:

Option A: Add individual skills

  1. Open the Skill Cluster Library and select the library you want to work with.
  2. Choose the relevant Skill cluster area and sub-area, then open the specific skill cluster.
  3. Select Add skill and search for individual skills from the linked skills library.
  4. Select the skills you want to include and confirm.

This approach gives you fine-grained control and is ideal for small or highly curated clusters.

Option B: Add an entire skills taxonomy (with exclusions)

  1. Within the skill cluster, choose the option to add a skills taxonomy.
  2. Select the taxonomy you want to add (for example, a functional or technical taxonomy).
  3. Confirm to add the entire taxonomy – all skills from that taxonomy are included in the cluster by default.
  4. Review the skills list and exclude any individual skills that are not relevant to this cluster.

This approach is faster when you want to bulk-populate a cluster from a broad category of skills.

Step 4 – Configure sync for linked taxonomies

When a skill cluster is linked to a taxonomy, you can control whether it stays automatically aligned with future changes to that taxonomy.

  1. Open the skill cluster and locate the linked taxonomy.
  2. Find the Sync setting for that taxonomy link.
  3. Turn Sync on if you want new skills added to the taxonomy to be automatically included in the cluster (respecting any exclusions you’ve set).
  4. Turn Sync off if you prefer to manage additions manually.

How sync works:

  • Sync on: New skills added to the linked taxonomy are automatically added to the cluster – unless you’ve explicitly excluded them. Exclusions are always respected.
  • Sync off: New skills added to the taxonomy are not automatically reflected in the cluster. You can still add or remove skills manually at any time.
Step 5 – View and manage taxonomy skills and exclusions
  1. In the skill cluster view, locate an added taxonomy and select it to open its skills list.
  2. Review the skills – included skills are displayed clearly, and explicitly excluded skills are visually differentiated so you can see at a glance what’s in and out.
  3. Change the inclusion or exclusion of any individual skill directly from this view.
Step 6 – Enable proficiency tracking (optional)
  1. Open smartLibrary and navigate to the Skill cluster library you want to configure.
  2. Open Library settings for that library.
  3. Locate the proficiency levels option at the bottom of the settings panel.
  4. Toggle it on to allow proficiency levels to be set for each skill, or leave it off for a presence/absence approach (no levels).

When proficiency is enabled, each skill in a cluster starts with a Beginner level by default. You can then adjust the proficiency level for each skill individually to represent the target or typical level required for that cluster.

Tips and best practices

  • Use the taxonomy + exclusion approach for large clusters. It’s much faster than adding skills one by one, and you can always refine by excluding what doesn’t fit.
  • Think carefully before enabling Sync. Sync is powerful but means your cluster will grow automatically. If your cluster is intentionally scoped, keep Sync off and manage additions manually.
  • Name clusters clearly and consistently. Since clusters are reused across projects and analyses, a descriptive name saves confusion later – especially when multiple people share the same library.
  • Use proficiency levels only when they add value. For broad capability theme clusters, simple presence/absence may be enough. Reserve levelling for clusters tied to specific role standards or learning targets.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the same skill cluster across multiple projects?

Yes. Skill clusters are designed to be reusable. Once created in a Skill Cluster Library, a cluster can be referenced across different analyses, roles, and projects without needing to recreate it.

What happens to my cluster if I update the linked skills library?

It depends on your sync setting. If sync is on, new skills added to a linked taxonomy will automatically appear in the cluster (unless explicitly excluded). If sync is off, the cluster stays unchanged until you manually update it.

Can I exclude individual skills when I add a full taxonomy?

Yes. After adding a taxonomy to a cluster, you can exclude specific skills that aren’t relevant. Excluded skills stay out even if sync is enabled and the taxonomy is updated later.

Is proficiency tracking required?

No – it’s optional and disabled by default. You can turn it on at the library level whenever it makes sense for your use case. If it’s off, skills in the cluster are tracked as present or absent only.

What’s the difference between a skills library and a Skill Cluster Library?

A skills library is your master list of individual skills. A Skill Cluster Library is where you group those skills into themed clusters. The two are linked: a Skill Cluster Library draws its skills from a specific skills library, so all skills in your clusters come from a governed, consistent source.