> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.skillsdb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Find Experts
> Search your org for skill experts, filter by certification, department, or people flags, and view match scores.
**Quick Summary:** Use the Search page to find people with specific skills, locate training resources, explore careers, and identify certified employees across your organization — all from a single, filterable interface.
### Overview
The Search page is SkillsDB's organization-wide discovery tool. It lets you search across people, skills, training resources, careers, and certifications simultaneously, then narrow results with targeted filters to find exactly who or what you need.
Search is built for situations where you already know what you're looking for — a subject matter expert in a particular skill, someone with a specific certification, or a career path that aligns with a set of competencies. Instead of browsing through multiple sections of the product, you can describe the criteria and let Search surface matching results ranked by relevance.
The Search page is accessible to all users, though administrators can restrict access to people search features based on your organization's settings. All users can search skills, training, careers, and certifications. Access to people search depends on your organization's configuration.
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### Navigating to Search
Select **Search** from the left sidebar. The Search page is located at the top level of SkillsDB navigation.
**Note:** If you previously bookmarked the old `/explore` URL, SkillsDB automatically redirects it to the current `/search` path.
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### Performing a Basic Search
#### Searching by keyword
Use the search input to find results by name or keyword across all resource types.
1. Select the search input at the top of the page (placeholder text reads "Search people, training and more...").
2. Type a keyword — for example, a skill name, a person's name, or a training course title.
3. SkillsDB displays a suggestion dropdown after you type one or more characters.
4. Select a suggestion from the dropdown, or press **Enter** to run a broad text search.
When you select a suggestion, SkillsDB adds it as a structured filter tag. Structured filters produce more precise results than plain text searches because they match against specific database records rather than general text.
#### Using type filters
By default, Search returns results across all resource types (**All**). Use the type filter buttons to limit results to one category:
| Filter button | Returns |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **All** | People, training, skills, careers, and certifications — grouped by type |
| **People** | Employees and users in your organization |
| **Training** | Training resources from your organization's library |
| **Skills** | Individual skills from the skills library |
| **Career** | Career paths configured in your organization |
| **Certifications** | Certification records from the certifications library |
Select a type filter button to scope your search. The active filter is highlighted. Select the active filter again to return to **All**.
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### Adding Filters
Filters are the primary way to find experts and narrow results. SkillsDB supports several types of filters that can be combined.
#### Adding a skill or career filter
To find people who have a specific skill or who are assigned to a particular career:
1. Select the search input and type a skill or career name.
2. Select the matching skill or career from the suggestion dropdown.
3. SkillsDB adds a filter tag and updates the results to show matching people.
You can add multiple skill or career filters. Use the **Match all** / **Match any** toggle to control how multiple filters interact (see Matching mode below).
#### Adding an org structure filter
Org structure filters let you narrow results by organizational attributes such as department, location, or team. These filters appear as additional dropdowns below the main search input when active.
To add an org structure filter:
1. Run a search that returns people results (use **People** scope or add a skill/career filter).
2. Select the search input and type or scroll to find an org attribute — for example, `Department`.
3. Select the org attribute from the suggestion dropdown.
4. In the org filter that appears, select one or more values from the dropdown (for example, choose specific department names).
Available org structure filters include:
* Business Unit, Division, Department, Team
* Country, State, City, Site, Location
* Shift, Business Region
**Tip:** Combine a skill filter with a department filter to find experts in a specific skill within a particular team or business unit.
#### Adding a certification filter
To find employees with a specific certification:
1. Set the scope to **Certifications** or **All**.
2. Type a certification name in the search input and select it from the suggestions.
3. SkillsDB returns matching employees alongside certification status information.
When the scope is set to **Certifications**, use the **Display** menu to toggle between two views:
* **Certifications** — shows the certification catalog
* **Employee Certifications** — shows individual employees' certification records, including status and expiration
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### Using Sub-filters
Sub-filters refine an individual filter tag with additional criteria. For example, when searching for people with a skill, sub-filters let you require that those people hold an Expert flag for that skill, meet a minimum proficiency grade, or completed training within a specific time period.
#### Adding sub-filters to a skill filter
1. Add a skill as a filter (see Adding a skill filter).
2. Select the filter icon on the skill filter tag.
3. The sub-filters panel opens with the following options:
| Sub-filter | Description |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Skill Flags** | Filter by flag designation. Select **Expert** to find people flagged as experts for this skill. Select **Focus** to find people who have this skill marked as a focus area. |
| **Minimum Grade** | Filter to people who meet or exceed a specified proficiency level (grade). The available grade values are determined by your organization's configured grading scale. |
| **Training Date** | Filter by when training was last completed. Options: Last 30 days, Last 90 days, Last 6 months, Last 12 months, Older than 12 months. |
4. Select your desired sub-filter values and close the panel. Results update automatically.
**Note:** The Expert flag is assigned by administrators or managers to designate someone as a subject matter expert for a given skill. If you need to find certified experts in a skill, use the **Expert** sub-filter under Skill Flags.
#### Adding sub-filters to a people filter
When searching for people directly, sub-filters include:
| Sub-filter | Description |
| ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **People Flags** | Filter by organizational people flags (for example, "High Potential"). Available flags are configured by your organization's administrators. |
| **Status** | Filter by user status. Select **Active**, **Inactive**, or both. |
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### Matching Mode
When you apply multiple filters, the **Match all** / **Match any** toggle controls how SkillsDB combines them:
* **Match all** — Returns results that satisfy every filter (AND logic). Use this when you need people who meet all criteria simultaneously.
* **Match any** — Returns results that satisfy at least one filter (OR logic). Use this when you want a broader pool of results.
Select the **Match all** or **Match any** button in the search toolbar to switch between modes. The active mode is highlighted.
**Example:** If you add filters for "Python" and "Machine Learning":
* **Match all** returns people who have both Python and Machine Learning.
* **Match any** returns people who have either Python or Machine Learning (or both).
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### Display Settings
Select the **Display** button (top right of the search toolbar) to access display options. Available options depend on the active scope:
#### People scope display options
| Option | Description |
| ------------ | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Active** | Include active users in results (on by default) |
| **Inactive** | Include inactive/former users in results |
When your organization has document search enabled, matching documents may appear alongside people results in the criteria tags.
A **Survey Responses** button appears in the toolbar when the People scope is active, allowing you to search across survey response data.
#### Certifications scope display options
| Option | Description |
| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Certifications** | Show the certification catalog (programs) |
| **Employee Certifications** | Show individual employees' certification records with status and expiration data |
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### Understanding Search Results
Search results appear in a table with the following columns:
| Column | Description |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name** | The name of the matching person, skill, training, career, or certification. Select any row to navigate to the detail page for that record. |
| **Assigned** | For skills, careers, and certifications: the number of people assigned or enrolled. Not shown for other result types. |
| **Criteria** | The filter tags that this result matched. Displays as labeled pills showing which of your active filters the result satisfies. |
| **Match** | A circular progress indicator showing the result's match score as a percentage (0–100%). Higher scores indicate a closer match to your combined filters. |
When the scope is set to **All**, results are organized into collapsible groups by type: People, Training, Skills, Careers, Certifications, and Employee Certifications.
#### Navigating to a result
Select any row in the results table to navigate to the detail page for that record:
* **People** → opens the person's full profile
* **Skills** → opens the skill detail page in the Library
* **Training** → opens the training resource in the Library
* **Careers** → opens the career detail page
* **Certifications** → opens the certification in the Library
* **Employee Certifications** → opens the person's profile
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### Clearing and Resetting Filters
To remove a single filter, select the **x** on the filter tag. To remove all filters at once, select the **Clear** button in the search toolbar.
If your search returns no results, SkillsDB displays "Your search or filters are a bit too specific." Select **Reset Filters** to clear all active filters and start over.
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### Common Questions
To find everyone flagged as an Expert for a skill: Navigate to **Search** in the left sidebar. Set the scope to **People**. Type the skill name in the search input and select it from the suggestions. Select the filter icon on the skill filter tag to open sub-filters. Under **Skill Flags**, check **Expert**. Results show only people who hold the Expert flag for that skill.
Yes. Add multiple skill filters by selecting each from the suggestions dropdown. Use **Match all** to find people who have all of the skills, or **Match any** to find people who have at least one.
Access to people search is controlled by your organization's settings. If the **People** scope is disabled or returns no results and you believe you should have access, contact your SkillsDB administrator. If the **People** filter is visible but returns no results, your current filters may be too restrictive. Try removing one or more sub-filters, or switch from **Match all** to **Match any**.
The Match score is a percentage (0–100%) that reflects how closely a result satisfies your active filters. A higher Match score means more of your filter criteria were satisfied. When you apply sub-filters (such as minimum grade or skill flags), results that meet those requirements score higher than results that only partially match.
Yes. Select the **Display** button, then check **Inactive** under User Status. Inactive users will appear in results alongside active users when this option is enabled. By default, only active users are included.
Search results cannot be exported directly from the Search page. To export people data with skill information, use the export functionality in the Manager Guide or contact your SkillsDB administrator for a data export.
**Certifications** shows the certification catalog — the programs defined in your organization's library. **Employee Certifications** shows individual employees' certification records, including each person's certification status (Assigned, Awaiting Approval, Approved, Denied, or Expired) and expiration date. Use **Employee Certifications** when you want to find people based on their certification status.
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### Related Articles
View and manage your individual skills and proficiency grades
Understand how Expert and other skill flags work
Browse certification programs across the organization
Manage and approve your team's certification submissions as a manager
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### Need More Help?
If you need additional assistance:
* [Contact support](https://skillsdb.com/support)
* Use the in-app help chat
* Schedule a training session with your account manager