> ## 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.
# Internal Recruiting
> Learn how to use SkillsDB to find internal candidates for open roles by searching skill proficiency, grades, flags, certifications, and career benchmarks.
**What you'll learn:** This tutorial walks through the complete internal recruiting workflow in SkillsDB — from searching for candidates with the right skills, to evaluating their proficiency against a target role, to tagging them for follow-up. No external ATS or spreadsheet required.
# Overview
When a role opens, the fastest and highest-quality hire is often already inside your organization. SkillsDB gives managers and HR teams the data to find that person systematically — using verified skill grades, benchmark comparisons, certifications, and learning progress rather than relying on who happens to be visible or well-connected.
This tutorial covers the full workflow:
1. Search for people with the skills your open role requires
2. Filter the results by proficiency level, flag status, and organizational structure
3. Evaluate individual candidates in depth using their full profile
4. Compare candidates against the target role's benchmark requirements
5. Tag shortlisted candidates with people flags for tracking
6. For managers: use the Skills Matrix to identify talent directly within your team
**Who this is for:** Hiring managers, HR business partners, and senior leaders conducting talent reviews or succession planning.
**What you need:** Manager or administrator access to SkillsDB. Employees do not have access to people search or team-level skill data.
***
## Step 1: Search for Candidates by Skill
The starting point for any internal recruiting workflow is the **Search** page. SkillsDB's search covers the entire organization and lets you find people based on the skills they hold, the proficiency level they have demonstrated, and whether they have been recognized as an Expert in that skill.
**To search for candidates:**
1. Select **Search** from the left sidebar.
2. In the filter bar beneath the search input, select **People** to focus the search on people rather than skills or training.
3. Type the name of a key skill your open role requires — for example, `Python`, `Financial Modeling`, or `Project Management`.
4. As you type, a suggestions dropdown appears. Select a skill from the suggestions to apply it as a structured filter, or press **Enter** to run a text search.
SkillsDB runs the search and returns a ranked list of people who match your criteria. Each result shows the person's name, the criteria that matched, and a **Match Score** — a percentage indicating how closely they aligned with your search.
**Tip:** You do not need to know the exact skill name. Searching for a broad keyword like "data" or "cloud" returns all people linked to skills containing that term, then ranks them by relevance.
***
## Step 2: Filter to the Right Candidates
A broad skill search may return dozens of people. Use the filter panel to narrow results to those who are genuinely qualified for the role.
**To open the filter panel:**
Select **Filters** to the right of the search input. The filter panel expands below the search bar.
#### Filtering by skill proficiency
These filters help you find people who have already reached the level your role requires — not just anyone who has the skill on their profile.
| Filter | How to use it for recruiting |
| ----------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Minimum Grade** | Set the lowest acceptable proficiency grade. For a senior role, set this to your organization's equivalent of "Advanced" or "Expert." People below this grade will be excluded. |
| **Skill Flags** | Select **Expert** to surface only people formally recognized as experts in this skill. Expert flags are applied by managers and administrators — they carry more weight than a self-assessed grade alone. |
| **Training Date Range** | Filter by when a person last completed training in this skill. Use "Last 12 months" to find people who are actively developing in the area. |
#### Filtering by organizational structure
These filters help you search across — or within — specific parts of the organization.
| Filter | How to use it for recruiting |
| ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Business Unit / Division** | Limit results to a specific business area, or broaden beyond your own team |
| **Department / Team** | Narrow to a department if the role requires familiarity with a specific function |
| **Country / City / Site** | Filter by location if the role has a presence requirement |
| **Job Title** | Find people already in adjacent roles who are ready to step up |
#### Filtering by people flags
If your organization uses **People Flags** to tag employees with designations like "High Potential" or "Ready for Promotion," you can filter by these flags directly.
Under the **People Flags** filter, select any flag to show only people who carry that tag. This is especially useful when an HR team or leadership group has already done a preliminary talent review.
#### Setting the filter match mode
Below the filter panel, two match mode options control how filters combine:
* **Match all** — A person must meet every filter you have set. Use this for strict qualification screening.
* **Match any** — A person needs to meet at least one filter. Use this for broader talent discovery when you want to see a wider pool first.
For a real recruiting search, **Match all** is usually the right choice once you have set precise filters.
***
## Step 3: Review Search Results
After applying filters, the results table shows only the people who meet your criteria. Each row includes:
| Column | What it tells you |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name** | The person's full name — select to view their profile |
| **Match Score** | A percentage showing how closely they matched all your criteria. 100% means they satisfied every filter. |
\| **Matched Criteria** | Tags showing exactly which parts of your search this person matched — for example, "Expert flag," "Grade ≥ 3," "Engineering" |
Sort the table by **Match Score** (highest first) to prioritize the strongest candidates. People with scores above 80% are typically worth a closer look.
***
## Step 4: Evaluate a Candidate's Full Profile
Select a person's name to open their individual profile. This is where you move from "they match on paper" to a genuine assessment of their readiness and trajectory.
#### Overview tab
The Overview tab shows the person's current career path assignments, the number of skills they hold, and any highlights or additional skills beyond their assigned career scope. Use this to understand their current role, level, and how broadly their skills extend.
#### Skills tab
The Skills tab is the most important view for recruiting purposes. It shows every skill assigned to the person, along with:
* Their **current grade** for each skill (self-assessed and/or manager-assessed)
* The **benchmark grade** for each skill in their current role
* A **gap indicator** showing whether they are below, at, or above benchmark
Scan for skills that are above benchmark — these signal a person who has outgrown their current role and may be ready to apply that capability in a more senior position.
#### Certifications tab
The Certifications tab shows all certifications on the person's profile — both current and expired. For roles that require specific credentials (compliance certifications, technical accreditations, professional licenses), verify status here before progressing a candidate.
#### Learning Plan tab
The Learning Plan tab shows what the person is actively working on and their progress toward completing it. A candidate who is actively pursuing skills relevant to your open role is a strong signal of both interest and readiness trajectory.
#### Assessments tab
The Assessments tab shows completed self-assessments and manager assessments, including scores and any feedback. Review this to understand how the person and their manager view their skill development.
***
## Step 5: Compare Against the Target Role's Benchmarks
Reviewing a person's current grades against their *current* role's benchmarks tells you how they are performing now. For recruiting, you need to know how they compare against the *target* role's requirements.
The most direct way to do this is to open the **Skills Matrix** for the target role and look for people whose grades already meet or exceed the benchmark for that career.
**To find candidates using the Skills Matrix:**
1. Navigate to **Team > Skills** in the left sidebar (managers and admins only).
2. Select the career that corresponds to the target role.
3. Select **Total Assign** on the Career Overview to open the **Skills Matrix**.
4. Review the grid — each cell shows a person's grade for each skill with a color-coded benchmark indicator:
* **Blue up arrow** — Grade exceeds the benchmark
* **Green star** — Grade exactly meets the benchmark
* **Red down arrow** — Grade falls below the benchmark
5. Look for rows (people) where the majority of cells show blue or green. These are your highest-readiness internal candidates.
6. Use the **Performance** filter to show only people with the highest average grades, surfacing top candidates quickly.
**Note:** The Skills Matrix shows people currently assigned to that career path. If a strong candidate is in a different career path, review their individual profile and compare their skill grades manually against the target role's skill requirements.
***
## Step 6: Tag Candidates for Follow-up
Once you have identified candidates you want to track, use **People Flags** to tag them directly in SkillsDB. This keeps your candidate list inside the system alongside all the skill and profile data — no external spreadsheet required.
People flags are custom tags created by your administrator. Common examples include designations like "High Potential," "Ready for Promotion," or "On Radar." If your organization does not yet have people flags configured for this purpose, ask your SkillsDB administrator to create them.
**To apply a people flag to a candidate:**
1. Navigate to the person's profile.
2. Locate the people flags section on their profile.
3. Select the appropriate flag from the list.
Once tagged, you can filter any people search by that flag to retrieve your shortlist at any point. This makes it easy to return to the same candidate pool for a future role without repeating the entire search from scratch.
**Tip:** Apply flags immediately after reviewing a candidate, while your reasoning is fresh. A brief note or comment added to the profile alongside the flag helps preserve context for later review.
***
## Step 7: Use the Flag Matrix to Find Recognized Experts Across a Career
If your role requires a recognized expert — not just someone with a high grade, but someone formally designated by their manager — the **Flag Matrix** gives you a career-wide view of who holds Expert or Mentor flags for each skill.
The Flag Matrix is accessible from the same career navigation as the Skills Matrix. It shows a grid of people × skills where each cell indicates whether a flag has been applied. This is useful for:
* Finding internal trainers and mentors who could step into leadership roles
* Identifying people who have already been formally recognized by their managers as domain experts
* Spotting skill coverage gaps in a career where no Experts or Mentors exist
***
# Common Questions
The People Search returns results from across the organization, not just your team. You can view any person's profile to assess their skills and profile data regardless of reporting structure. If you need to take action — such as applying a people flag or discussing a transfer — involve the person's manager and HR as appropriate.
Yes. After running an initial search for one skill, apply additional skill-based sub-filters in the filter panel. You can also enter a career name as the search term, which returns people assigned to skills in that career path. For a more complex multi-skill assessment, the Skills Matrix is the most efficient view.
A person can be a strong candidate even if they are not currently in the target career path. Use the individual profile's Skills tab to review their grades manually against the skills your target role requires. SkillsDB shows their grades regardless of which career those skills are attached to.
Employees can see people flags applied to their own profile. Search activity is not visible to employees — the search page and its results are only accessible to managers and administrators.
A **Skill Flag** (Expert, Mentor, Focus, Interest) is applied to a specific skill on a person's profile — it signals their relationship to that one skill. A **People Flag** is applied to the person as a whole — it is a broader tag representing their overall status or designation. Both can be used as search filters. See Skill Flags for more detail.
***
# Related Articles
Search for people across the organization using skill, grade, and org structure filters
Use the Skills Matrix and Career Overview to analyze team proficiency in depth
Understand Expert, Mentor, Focus, and Interest flags and how they are applied
Set benchmark grades for skills in your team's career paths
Manage formal career transition and promotion requests within SkillsDB
***
# Need Help?
If you run into any issues or have questions, reach out to your organization's SkillsDB administrator or contact [SkillsDB Support](https://www.skillsdb.com/support).