A skills taxonomy your managers will actually use
For people directors, workforce planning leads and HR business partners in APS and ACT government agencies and large not-for-profits. We build an enterprise skills taxonomy from your roles, keep it live in MuchSkills and turn it into a skills gap analysis leadership can act on. You see the skills you already have before you open another recruitment round, and you can move people into priority work without a restructure. Nobody on your team has to build the list from a blank spreadsheet. Your first draft is cut from 70,000+ capabilities and 12,000+ tech skills down to the roles your agency has.
A skills taxonomy gives everyone one word for each skill
A skills taxonomy is a structured, shared list of the skills your organisation uses, grouped into families and linked to the roles that need them. When a branch manager and a recruiter both say "data analysis", they mean the same thing, and you can count how many people have it.
Most agencies already have pieces of one. They just don't add up to a picture anyone can plan with.
The workbook called skills_FINAL_v7 has done its time. It can retire.
The spreadsheets go stale
Skills data collected once and passed between teams is out of date by the time it reaches the executive. Nobody trusts it, so nobody uses it.
The framework stays abstract
Capability statements help with performance conversations. They can't tell you how many people can run a procurement evaluation or build a dashboard.
The report ends at handover
A consultant maps the gaps, hands over a document and leaves. Six months later the document is on a shelf and the gaps are still there.
The headcount stays flat
You are asked to deliver new priorities with the people you have. Without a live view of skills, the only lever left is a slow external hire.
How we build an enterprise skills taxonomy with LOVE
Our HR work follows a four-step method we call LOVE: Listen, Outline, Validate, Execute. It ties the taxonomy to your agency's priorities and puts managers in the room early, which is what gets them using it later.
1. Listen
We talk to leadership, HR and a cross-section of managers about where the agency is heading and where work gets stuck. We also collect what you already have: role descriptions, capability frameworks and existing skills data.
2. Outline
MuchSkills generates an AI-driven draft taxonomy from your roles. We cut, rename and regroup it until it reads like your agency and not a generic library.
3. Validate
Managers and staff test the draft against real roles and real work. Skills nobody recognises come out, missing ones go in, and the wording gets plain enough that people will assess themselves against it.
4. Execute
The taxonomy goes live in MuchSkills, staff add their skills and we run the first skills gap analysis. We stay to help HR and managers use it in planning, hiring and redeployment.
From a live skills taxonomy to a skills gap analysis
The taxonomy lives in MuchSkills, so skills data can be updated as people learn, certify and move. Your picture across teams stays current between planning cycles.
9,700+ certifications in the library, so required credentials can be tracked by name.
Slow ICT recruitment often starts with a vague brief. Name the exact skills from 12,000+ and you get better-matched applicants.
70,000+ capabilities for policy, corporate and service delivery work beyond tech.
MuchSkills, built by our partner studio team, won a Red Dot Design Award and was named a Major Contender in Everest Group's PEAK Matrix 2025.
A draft built from your role list
MuchSkills generates a custom skills taxonomy aligned to your roles, so the first workshop starts with something to edit.
Skills gap analysis
Compare the skills your priorities need with the skills your people have. Leadership sees where the gaps are, how big they are and which to close first.
Skill and competency matrices
Team views that show managers who can do what, and where one person is holding up a whole capability.
Certification tracking
See which certifications are held, which are due to lapse and where you rely on one or two people for a required credential.
Interactive org charts
Skills shown on the structure you already have, so moving work around starts from facts.
Talent marketplace
Match people to priority projects and short-term work inside the agency, without a restructure.
Strategic workforce planning
A workforce plan built on real skills data and matched to the agency's priorities.
Recruitment
When you do need to hire, the skills gap defines the role, which gives you a shorter brief and better-matched candidates.
Worked example: the new team was already on the payroll
In this typical scenario (not a named client), a policy agency must stand up a data and evaluation function with no extra positions. The skills gap analysis finds most of the people it needs already working in corporate and program teams.
Leadership gets a short list of internal moves, a smaller and sharper external hiring brief, and a training plan for the gaps that remain. The taxonomy stays live for the next priority.
- Listen: the people director, executive offices and branch managers explain what the new function has to deliver. HR shares the capability framework and an old skills spreadsheet.
- Outline: managers get a skills list short enough to use. MuchSkills drafts it from the agency's roles and we keep only what this function needs.
- Validate: managers and staff test the draft, rename skills in the agency's own language and add a few the library described differently.
- Execute: staff add their skills, and the gap analysis shows who already has data and evaluation experience, wherever they sit.
Advisers who stay until managers use it
We are based in Canberra, we know how agencies plan and hire, and we stay through Execute so the taxonomy ends up in decisions and not on a shelf.
Aarti Tandon, Co-founder, People Advisory
More than 15 years in recruitment and strategic HR, including end-to-end recruitment for government and not-for-profits in Australia. Your hiring briefs come from someone who has run the process.
Noel Braganza, Design and Product
Designer behind MuchSkills, trained at the MIT Design Lab. He shapes the screens your staff fill in, so they finish their profile instead of ignoring the reminder.
Neville Braganza, Co-founder and CEO
Staff resist a skills programme when the first they hear of it is a form to fill in. Neville (nearly two decades in marketing and communications, MBA from the University of Canberra) helps you write the leadership case and the staff message that go out before it.
Less time out for your managers
Most sessions run online, so managers can join between meetings. Interstate travel is at your expense, and we suggest it only when people genuinely need to be in one room.
A workforce plan that keeps up with your priorities
If what the agency is asked to deliver shifts mid-engagement, the taxonomy and gap analysis shift with it. You set how far the change goes first.
What HR leads ask before starting a skills taxonomy
What is the difference between a skills taxonomy and a capability framework?
A capability framework describes the behaviours and standards expected at each level, and it suits performance and development conversations. A skills taxonomy lists the specific skills and certifications people hold, so you can measure them. Many agencies keep their capability framework and add a skills taxonomy underneath it for workforce planning and skills gap analysis.
What is an enterprise skills taxonomy?
An enterprise skills taxonomy covers the whole organisation, across every team and profession, using one shared set of skill names. Propellion Labs builds it from your role list and priorities, starts from a MuchSkills AI-generated draft and refines it with your managers and staff, so corporate, policy and technical roles all sit in the same structure.
How do you do a skills gap analysis?
A skills gap analysis compares the skills your priorities require with the skills your people hold. Propellion Labs first builds or refines your skills taxonomy, then staff record their skills in MuchSkills. The analysis shows gaps by team and by skill, ranks them by what leadership needs first, and shows where internal moves or training can close them before you recruit.
What does skills framework consulting in Australia involve?
Skills framework consulting covers designing a skills taxonomy, testing it with managers and staff, putting it into a tool people will use and turning the data into decisions. Propellion Labs does this from Canberra for agencies and organisations across Australia, using its LOVE method (Listen, Outline, Validate, Execute) and MuchSkills to keep the data current.
What do we need ready before we start a skills taxonomy?
You need less than most HR teams expect. Role descriptions, your capability framework and whatever skills data you hold today, including spreadsheets nobody quite trusts, are enough for the Listen step. Propellion Labs uses that material to brief the MuchSkills draft, then managers and staff fill the gaps during Validate.
Can a skills taxonomy help us move people into priority work without restructuring?
Yes. Once skills sit against people and roles, you can see who already has the skills a priority needs, wherever they sit in the structure. Propellion Labs uses talent marketplaces, skill matrices and interactive org charts to match people to projects and short-term work, so you can redeploy staff without redrawing the organisation chart.
How do you keep a skills taxonomy up to date?
A skills taxonomy stays current when it lives in a tool people use, not in a document. Propellion Labs sets it up in MuchSkills, where skills and certifications can be updated as people learn, certify and change roles. Because managers and staff helped name the skills, they recognise them and keep their profiles current.
Do you work with agencies outside Canberra?
Yes. Propellion Labs is based in Canberra and works with organisations across Australia. Most of the work is done digitally, which saves your team time. Interstate travel is at the client's expense, so we only recommend it when a workshop genuinely needs people in the same room.
Find out what skills you already have
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