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Overview

A promotion workflow in SkillsDB is not a single button or automated process — it is a structured approach to career advancement supported by the platform’s career, assessment, and skills data infrastructure. When configured correctly, SkillsDB gives managers and admins a clear, data-driven view of whether an employee is ready to move to the next level in their career. The foundation is a career with multiple levels. Each level represents a stage in a progression — for example, Level 1 might be Junior, Level 2 Mid-level, and Level 3 Senior. Each skill within a career can carry a different benchmark grade requirement per level, so what it means to be “proficient” increases as the levels advance. When assessments are run, they generate current skill grade data for each employee. The Skills Matrix then allows managers to compare those grades against the benchmarks for the next level, making skill gaps visible and actionable. When an employee is ready to advance, the promotion is recorded by reassigning them to the new level in their career. This article covers how to configure SkillsDB to support promotion decisions and how to manage the promotion process itself.

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How Career Levels Work

Career levels represent the seniority tiers or stages of advancement within a single career. A career can have one level (no tiered progression) or many levels representing a full career ladder. Levels are ordered and labeled by admins. Common patterns include: Each person assigned to a career is also assigned to a specific level. The level appears throughout SkillsDB — on the person’s profile, in the skills matrix, and in career assignment views — giving managers immediate context about where an employee stands in their career progression. Levels are managed per career from Library > Careers > [Career Name] > Manage Levels.

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Setting Up Level-Specific Skill Benchmarks

To make levels meaningful for promotion decisions, each skill in a career can carry a different benchmark grade requirement for each level. This means the system knows that a “Senior” (L3) engineer needs a higher grade in Python than a “Junior” (L1) engineer. Level benchmarks are configured in the career’s skill settings. When benchmarks are set at multiple levels, the skills matrix can show whether an employee meets the benchmark for their current level — and whether they are close to meeting the benchmark for the next level. To configure level-specific benchmarks:

1. Navigate to Library > Careers
2. Select the career you want to configure
3. In the career detail view, open the skills list for a section
4. For each skill, set the benchmark grade for each level using the level benchmark controls
5. Repeat for all skills across all sections in the career

When benchmarks exist for multiple levels, managers can use the Skills Matrix filter to view the gap between an employee’s current grades and the requirements for a target level.

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Enabling Assessments for Career Skills

Assessments generate the current grade data that makes promotion readiness visible. Without assessment data, the skills matrix cannot show whether an employee meets a level’s benchmarks. Each career can be individually configured to include its skills in assessments. This setting is found in the Career Settings section of the career detail page. To enable assessments for a career:

1. Navigate to Library > Careers
2. Select the career
3. Scroll to Career Settings
4. Ensure Proficiency Grading is enabled — this makes skill grades visible and used in analytics
5. Ensure Assessments is enabled — this includes the career’s skills in manager and self-assessments
6. Select Save or the relevant update button

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Evaluating Promotion Readiness

Once careers have levels, level benchmarks, and assessments enabled, managers and admins can evaluate promotion readiness through the Skills Matrix.

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Viewing the skills matrix for a career

Navigate to Library > Careers > Skills Matrix and select the career to view. The matrix displays:

• All employees assigned to the career as rows
• All skills within the career as columns
• Each employee’s current grade for each skill in the cell
• Benchmark indicators showing whether the grade meets, exceeds, or falls below the target benchmark

Use the level filter in the matrix to compare employees against a specific level’s benchmarks — for example, filtering to “L3 Senior” benchmarks shows you whether current L2 employees are ready to advance.

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Identifying skill gaps

Employees whose current grades fall below the benchmarks for the next level have skill gaps. These gaps represent the development work needed before a promotion is appropriate. When skill gaps are identified, managers typically respond by:

• Creating or assigning a learning plan for the employee to close specific gaps
• Scheduling a targeted assessment to re-evaluate after development
• Flagging the employee as High Potential using a people label to track them as a promotion candidate

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Marking High-Potential Employees

SkillsDB includes a High potential system people label with the description “Individual demonstrating exceptional growth potential and readiness for advancement.” Managers and admins can apply this label to employees in the people directory to signal promotion candidacy. People labels are visible on employee profiles and can be used as a filter in search (if search permissions allow). This makes it possible to build and maintain a pipeline of employees who are on track for promotion.

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Recording a Promotion

When an employee is ready to advance, the promotion is recorded by changing their career level assignment. This is done from the career assignment page in the careers library. To promote an employee to the next level:

1. Navigate to Library > Careers
2. Select the career the employee is assigned to
3. Select Assign Career to open the assignment panel
4. Find the employee in the assigned people list
5. Use the Level dropdown next to their name to select the new, higher level
6. The change saves immediately — no confirmation step is required

The employee’s profile now reflects the new level. Historical level assignments are preserved in the system, providing a record of the employee’s progression over time.

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Typical Promotion Workflow End-to-End

The following describes a complete promotion workflow using SkillsDB: Phase 1 — Setup (Admin)

1. Create or update the career in Library > Careers with the appropriate number of levels
2. Configure level-specific skill benchmarks for each skill in the career
3. Enable Proficiency Grading and Assessments in Career Settings
4. Assign employees to the career at their current level

Phase 2 — Assessment (Manager)

5. Run manager assessments to capture current skill grades for each employee
6. Encourage employees to complete self-assessments to supplement the data
7. Review the Skills Matrix, filtered to the next level’s benchmarks, to identify gaps

Phase 3 — Development (Manager + Employee)

8. Create learning plans for employees with gaps at the next level
9. Apply the High potential people label to employees who are on track for promotion
10. Run follow-up assessments after development activities are completed

Phase 4 — Promotion (Admin or Manager)

11. Confirm the employee meets the benchmarks for the next level in the Skills Matrix
12. Change the employee’s level in the career assignment from their current level to the next level
13. Apply any new career-level flags appropriate for the new level
14. Remove the High potential label if the promotion has been completed

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Common Questions

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