Indigo Skillscape

A Talent Management Platform
Providing the Total Force Perspective

Converting Strategic Intent Into Operational Excellence

Indigo Skillscape is a metastructure that ties various data, information and knowledge sources together.  Skillscape couples technology, functionality, and data together in a manner designed to support each user role in all user communities.

Indigo by Avue modules provide the functionality to support civilian, military, and contractor portfolios of skills, training, work experience, certifications/licenses, and other information that allows managers and program managers visibility on the capabilities and capacity of the total force.  It also provides core functionality for human resource functions around recruiting, performance management, employee development, and workforce analytics and decision support.

The Strategic Competency Framework (SCF) configures the occupational database to the client competency framework and provides a universal and uniform method of defining the talent capabilities, capacity, and needs of an organization.

New Job Architectures

The Strategic Competency Framework (SCF) allows jobs to be architected around career paths, or journeys, supporting continuous professional development to invest in employees and communicate that investment to job candidates.  This facilitates attracting active and passive candidates and retaining employees in adaptive talent pools.

Open Talent Marketplace

The Skillscape open talent marketplace leverages all talent arrangements to design an agile and adaptive workforce where talent moves more freely across the organization and its various roles. Skillscape creates a strong digital employer brand leverages social media outreach and Indigo technologies to manage sourcing, candidate assessment, the candidate relationship, and continuous engagement. Expanded sourcing, from over 2,300 sources, utilizes all possible channels to attract permanent employees, temp or term hires, alternative work schedule employees, interns, consultants, contractors, and alumni, in one easy to access and shared talent pool.

Organizational Network Analysis

Skillscape, by analyzing all participants in the extended enterprise and how they work and who they work with, allows organizations to replace traditional hierarchical organizations with agile structures focused on continuously adapting to meet emerging technologies, new threats, and changed missions.

Development and Engagement

The SCF combines meaningful job architecture with opportunities to grow and develop. Rapid and radical changes, including the accelerating rate of skill decay, to ensure continuous learning, innovation, and development of in-demand skills.

Talent Agility and Workforce Elasticity

The universal SCF allows employees to traverse traditional organizational, geographic, job, and hierarchical boundaries, putting the right person, and team, in the right place at the right time.  Large and detailed talent pools ensure real-time, actionable, and data-driven leadership.

How Your Agency Can Utilize Skillscape

  1. Competency Management (Define/Assess): Capture/maintenance of Command competency framework; assignment of and employee access to Domain/Competency/Core Competency (“D/C/CC”, current position and experience history); assignment of proficiency level (supervisory assignment of) for D/C/CC for current/experience history. Building Communities of Interest/Practices around Competencies. Note: can use this information for special urgent projects with needed competencies.
    • Module: SCF
      • SCF provides the “special sauce” enabling integration of each agency’s mission-specific competency framework with the core capabilities of the Indigo platform to form the innovative talent management strategy called Indigo Skillscape. SCF includes mission-based talent domains that serve as the meta-structure to align work roles and requirements to a specific mission focus. These talent domains contain: (1) The level of proficiency in skills required for a position as assigned by a mission-knowledgeable SME to positions and people, (2) Mission-based aptitudes, capabilities, competencies, expertise, behaviors, and skills that are required on entry into a position or must be acquired shortly after entry into a position, to do the work of the organization/mission, and (3) Specialized requirements unique to an organization or discipline or specialization within a talent domain’s competencies. Each position skills profile – which aligns the position with the work roles and workforce development plans or career paths/progression – defines the ongoing development plans and paths for each employee in the position.
  2. Gap Analysis (Assess): Facilitate staffing assessment and comparison of current workforce profile to identify gaps and inform talent acquisition and development decisions. Track trends/investments in staffing and development as gap closure methods. Note: Assessments can drive training dollar requests.
    • Modules: RRS, PCM, SCF
      • Positions defined in PCM create a position skills profile that connects the work defined and the role of the position to domains, competencies, and core competencies defined in the SCF.  The position skills profile is an enhanced position description that includes the duties performed and the correlated competencies, skills, knowledges, behaviors, credentials, education, specialized training, and professional development activities.  Each position skills profile is used to “SmartMatch” candidates with positions under recruitment.
      • The Open Talent Marketplace in RRS, continuously recruits for talent through a social media outreach and digital engagement process that is part of the RRS offering.  Each candidate and source of candidates are tracked and monitored to see what preferences the candidate expresses and what job opportunities interest them.  Hiring manager actions – interest, assessment, and selection – are also tracked and monitored to determine candidate quality and effectiveness of the outreach.  The talent marketplace dynamics informs the hiring process and illustrates any gaps or weaknesses in outreach. 
      • As employees add their personal portfolios, more accumulated knowledge of the current workforce, augmented by the open talent marketplace, allows for capacity analysis, bench strength analysis, gap analysis, and workforce forecasting.
      • RRS includes the ability to select a position or person on a PCM real-time organizational chart and, hit the “bench strength” button to see all other employees in the organization that can move into that position, whether by reassignment, transfer, promotion, detail, or acting assignment.
  3. Workforce Profile / Demographics and Attrition (Assess): Average age, average actual retirement age, gender, RNO, geographic location, years of experience, pay plan, series, career program, acquisition career field, security cooperation workforce, etc. by D/C/CC.  Gains/losses by occupation, grade/band, D/C/CC, organization, geographic location, etc.; conduct, tracking and analysis of exit surveys.
  4. Organization and Program Management (Manage / Engage): Org charts (people, position description, funding lines, security clearances, mandatory training, D/C/CC, rating chain, physical location, etc.), and program charts (program budget lines, descriptions, people assigned to the program, program capabilities, transitional agreements, production schedules, etc.)
    • Modules: RRS, PCM, SCF
      • Indigo provides real-time, online organizational charts that allow the user to change the display based on the type of profile the user selects.  Below is an example of an organizational chart using the “Retirement View” that changes the color of the boxes to reflect the retirement eligibility of the incumbent.  Data can be displayed in the organizational chart view or in a data view that exports to Excel.  Data in Indigo is supplemented by other data sources (e.g., manpower, payroll, time, etc.) and data on each position/person is displayed in a rollover.
  5. Talent Outreach and Acquisition (Acquire): Manage outreach program and track/analyze/report related metrics.  Manage recruitment process (applicant sourcing, tracking, on-boarding including security, equipment issuance, etc.); conduct, tracking and analysis of entry surveys.
    • Modules: RRS, PCM, SCF
      • The RRS Open Talent Marketplace (OTM) provides recruitment and hiring at-scale by coupling a digital and social media outreach and marketing strategy with a search engine optimization strategy that includes continuous monitoring and optimization.  OTM’s database contains over 2,300 recruitment sources that include diversity groups, higher education institutions, and professional associations, supplemented with targeted sources that meet the unique needs of the employer’s mission.  And the OTM is continuously recruiting fresh talent into the pipeline and referring candidates to hiring managers as they flow in.
      • The underlying technology of OTM is the ability to “Smart Match” candidates to opportunities, whether they are for long term employment, short-term projects, public-private exchanges, internal rotational programs, scholarships, internships, or contract work.  Smart match combines the candidate’s preferences, interests, skills, competencies, certifications, experiences, and specialized training into a holistic view of the candidate, and, from there, pushes recommendations to candidates on jobs, programs, projects, roles, and assignments of interest.  OTM notifies hiring managers the moment candidates enter the marketplace with skills matching the manager’s positions and hiring profile.
      • OTM creates a personalized applicant and employee experience, using recommendation engines that honor the candidate’s time investment by leveraging efficient devices like smart phones; create a place where candidates feel a sense of belonging; communicate appreciation for the candidate’s value to the organization; and support the unique attributes, aspirations, and preferences of each candidate, individually.
      • Manage outreach program and track/analyze/report related metrics.  Manage recruitment process (applicant sourcing, tracking, on-boarding including security, equipment issuance, etc.); conduct, tracking and analysis of entry surveys.
  6. Integrated Employee Development (Develop): Automated Workforce Development Plan (inclusive of required and recommended development including acquisition workforce, security cooperation workforce, DCIPS, etc.) to inform employee/supervisor decisions about personal and professional development, training needs assessment and investment, vendor selection for training/development, rotational assignment/shadowing needs; conduct/track and analysis of employee evaluation of training quality.
  7. Mentoring / Coaching (Manage / Engage and Develop): Identification of coaching/mentoring needs; matching of mentors; identification of needs for mentor/coaching training.
    • Modules: ELM, SCF
      • ELM enables employees to view a comprehensive course catalog, request their own training opportunities and track their progress as they develop SCF-defined competencies key to their position. Employees attending training are solicited at periodic intervals for feedback concerning training effectiveness to provide for a longitudinal view of the effect of training on actual job performance.
      • For managers, ELM provides global tracking of their workforce’s skill sets and developmental needs. Managers can approve employee requests, track the progress of employees, view employee promotion or advancement readiness, and correlate developmental activities to job performance.
      • ELM allows managers to view the skills of employees across their business unit and determine broader organizational training needs. ELM provides budgetary data and reports to track expenditures during the year and provides other reports about instructor or course effectiveness, employee interests, attendance rates, and other metrics.
      • With ELM, managers can also assess bench strength and compare employees’ current skills to their desired career objectives. Managers are provided with coaching content regarding training and employee development issues including various options about the development of competencies.
      • ELM tracks all aspects of instructor performance, costs, reliability, availability, biographies or CVs, personal profiles and preferences, general equipment requirements, and other similar data to provide the easiest method of identifying instructors and scheduling sessions. ELM also utilizes email to inquire about interests, availability, billing, confirmation, and other information. Instructors, whether within the agency or outside, have their own personal account and can look up information or submit requests, invoices, payment queries, or other information directly to ELM.
      • Vendor selection and contract management, demographic data, and training management reports.
      • ELM provides for complete management of agency employees’ SF-182 requests (The Request, Authorization, Agreement, and Certification of Training form). All applicable course, training and budget information entered into ELM is automatically populated on the SF-182, which often serves as a purchase order for the training provider.
  8. Performance Management, Pay, and Recognition (Manage / Engage): Automation of evaluation process (ratings, approvals), including pay pool calculations for all STRLs; automation of awards process; automation of incentives (3Rs, student loan repayment, etc.) and analysis of how well they work; reporting/analysis of investments in pay/bonus/award/incentive by demographic (pay grade/band, occupational series, D/CC/CC, RNO, gender, organization, etc.).
  9. Engagement Indices (Manage / Engage): Collection, aggregation, analysis of workforce feedback (Command Climate Surveys, FEVS, OHI, etc.), and tracking of outcomes from decisions made from the analyses.
    • Modules: POP, AOS
      • POP is a comprehensive approach to business operations management for individual performance as well as performance across agency operations. POP manages the entire performance assessment process, from performance plan creation to final rating of record, and the management of subsequent performance awards and recognition.  POP supports efforts to align individual performance to strategic plans by providing a means for agency goals to link to organizational units and then to individual performance plans.  In addition, POP provides for 3600 feedback and employee surveys including ingesting data from surveys such as FEVS and linking them to supervisory performance plans and assessments. The module integrates with payroll and other data to view prior year performance, promotion patterns, training received, awards.
      • POP addresses the complete end to end performance management process, from performance plan creation to monitoring to evaluation and the final rating of record. POP provides automatic generation of plans, performance awards, PIP, etc., as well as online coaching for managers. POP acts to capture and generate reliable and accurate data and outcomes from operations and then to provide visibility, insight, and actionability to management through dashboards. POP includes custom-configured workflows.  POP provides supervisors the ability to assess performance in terms of tangible performance objectives and behavioral performance measures, organizationally – or user defined, to support any performance management or appraisal model. POP is a fully digital performance appraisal process where appraisals are tracked, performance deficiencies are evaluated, and improvement plans are generated by the module.  POP includes a view that permits employees to see their own performance documents and provide performance-related input  and unlimited capability to attach virtually any electronic “document” to an employee file.
      • Indigo’s POP module supports the configuration of agency pay pool structures. Agencies may align their pay pool processes and link to individual accomplishments as documented in performance records. Agency-specific criteria are used to establish pay pools (organizational structures, geographic distributions, occupational or work categories, and work levels). Administrators establish pay pool panel member groups and assign employees to pay pools within POP. Workflows are configured to govern an agency’s bonus pool as well as performance-based pay increases.
  10. Workforce Accountability (Manage / Engage): Tracking of work schedule, time and attendance, telework/remote work, plus general accountability management (physical location, official work location, emergency management), Note: can use aggregation of physical locations at work to control temperature status in buildings to save on HVAC costs.
  11. Strategic Communications / Knowledge Management Process (Manage / Engage): Meta-tag all Weekly Activity Reports (WARs) created by employees into a categorized, searchable database that can be queried in any number of ways. Allows employees to remember what they did for performance appraisals, allows leadership to know at a glance how much money was saved on value-engineering proposals in last Fiscal Year or what a department has been doing for the past 3 months, or for language for awards submissions, etc.
    • Modules: POP, AOS
      • AOS provides for all third-party data integration and interconnectivity.  The capabilities requested here would include mapping and integrating such data which could then be utilized in all Skillscape modules.  Data interfaces/integration in Indigo today includes:
        • Manpower tables where data is tied to positions created in PCM and where data deviations are routed for reconciliation in Manpower.
        • Payroll system interfaces, with batch processed data that syncs every 24 hours using a bi-directional interface with internal Indigo data reconciliation. 
        • Integration with USAJOBS for any tracking or data flow from USAJOBS into the talent marketplace.
        • Integration of contract data to track contractor support positions in the online organizational chart.
      • Alternatively, the WARs could be established online in the POP module and employees can use POP to input and track activities.  WARs would be saved in each employee’s performance portfolio and can be consolidated and reported up through the chain of command.  If WARs are created by an existing system, the WARs can be ingested via an interface and Indigo’s AI/ML could “read” the reports and create a lexicon used to analyze WARs across the organization.
      • Indigo includes a time and attendance system which allows for detailed activity-based costing.  However, we are not proposing it here since it looks like the requirement is for data analytics from an existing system.