- Volkswagen Group Services Slovakia (VWGS) needed to operate cloud infrastructure for the Volkswagen Group. Aspecta s.r.o. implemented SkillMatrix to map competencies, improve resource allocation, and increase the quality of IT services.
Key points:
- Skill Matrix helped address the shortage of specialized teams.
- Competency mapping improved workforce allocation.
- Clear employee skill data supported better decision-making.
- Legacy cloud infrastructure was modernized and optimized.
- Employees received personalized development plans and clearer career paths.
Managing cloud infrastructure is an important part of operating large technology-dependent organizations, including automotive companies. Building and retaining IT teams with the right skills can be particularly difficult in cloud environments.
Traditional HR approaches often struggle to keep pace with rapidly changing cloud technologies. Companies need to balance external hiring with the development of existing employees. Competency mapping and development tools can help organizations use internal capabilities more effectively and target upskilling where it is needed most.
The client: Volkswagen Group Services (VWGS)
Volkswagen Group Services Slovakia (VWGS) provides services to Volkswagen and contributes to the group’s global IT infrastructure. Its responsibilities include IT services and cloud infrastructure operations for Volkswagen Group. This requires reliable IT capabilities and teams with the skills needed to support ongoing technology development.
The problem
VWGS faced the complex task of operating cloud infrastructure for Volkswagen Group. The main issues included:
- No specialized team: The organization did not yet have a team with the skills and experience required to manage modern cloud infrastructure.
- Inefficient existing infrastructure: Legacy cloud infrastructure no longer met current performance and efficiency requirements.
- Limited visibility into competencies: New management lacked a clear view of available employees and their capabilities, making strategic planning more difficult.
- Inefficient resource allocation: Employees were sometimes assigned to services that did not match their actual capabilities, affecting service quality and efficiency.
- Difficult recruitment: Strong demand for cloud specialists made it harder to build and retain a qualified team.
These issues affected VWGS’s ability to operate cloud infrastructure efficiently and created broader challenges for the Volkswagen Group’s digital capabilities.
The objective
VWGS aimed to build a qualified cloud infrastructure team and implement a system for mapping and managing employee competencies, improve project staffing, identify skill gaps and development needs, strengthen recruitment, and improve IT service quality and reduce employee turnover through clearer career development.
The solution
Aspecta s.r.o. designed and implemented the SkillMatrix solution to address the challenges identified by VWGS. The system provided a structured way to manage competencies and improve workforce allocation.
SkillMatrix supports:
- Service profiling: The system creates detailed service profiles with clearly defined competency requirements. Requirements use a scale from 0 to 4, where 0 means no requirement and 4 represents expert level. This gives teams a consistent view of what each service needs.
- Employee profile management: SkillMatrix provides a structured overview of each employee’s skills. It records relevant technologies, cloud environments, tools, and certifications. Managers and experts regularly update and verify this information to keep profiles accurate and current.
- Gap analysis: The system automatically compares service requirements with employees’ current capabilities, making it easier to identify knowledge gaps and areas that need further development.
- Personalized development plans: Based on identified gaps, SkillMatrix generates individual development plans with recommended training and certifications for specific competency areas.
- Recruitment support: The system identifies missing skills within the team and helps define requirements for new roles, providing useful input for recruitment and team planning.
Implementing SkillMatrix also required the team to address several challenges:
- Employee concerns: Some employees were concerned about the new competency assessment system. Transparent communication explained how the system worked and how it could support individual development.
- Assessment consistency: Applying the same approach to skill assessment across departments was difficult. Detailed descriptions were created for each proficiency level, and managers received training on how to use them consistently.
- Integration with existing systems: Connecting SkillMatrix with existing HR and project systems required close cooperation with the IT department. Dedicated APIs were developed to support data exchange between systems.
- Time required for updates: Keeping employee profiles current required both time and motivation. Automatic reminders and gamification elements encouraged employees to update their profiles regularly.
Example
One example is the analysis of a service called Plumber Service, a deployment framework service for standardized deployment to Kubernetes clusters.
1. The first step identified the individual skills required to operate the service, at least at L2 support and L3 support levels.
2. Individual agent profiles were collected, with one example shown here.
3. The entire team was then screened to identify suitable candidates and review the corresponding gap analysis.
Results and benefits
Implementing SkillMatrix improved workforce management and the quality of IT services at VWGS:
- Effective competency mapping: SkillMatrix created a transparent view of team capabilities and capacity. This supported better planning and more suitable employee assignments across services and projects.
- Higher service quality: The system reduced mismatches between employee competencies and service requirements, improving the quality of IT services and satisfaction among internal clients.
- Lower turnover: Better visibility into employee development needs and clearer career paths helped reduce turnover among key IT specialists.
- Better management visibility: Management gained a detailed view of team capabilities, supporting more informed strategic decisions and planning for further cloud infrastructure development.
- More targeted learning: Personalized development plans made employee training more focused and efficient, helping people acquire new technologies and skills faster.
- Improved recruitment: SkillMatrix provided useful information for recruitment, helping VWGS select candidates whose skills matched organizational needs more closely.
As a result, VWGS now has a strong team of cloud experts with the competencies and capacity required to support the group, operate multiple critical cloud services, and help modernize others.
Conclusion
Implementing SkillMatrix at VWGS was an important step in improving workforce management for IT and cloud infrastructure. The project addressed immediate issues in competency mapping and resource allocation while creating a foundation for longer-term development of IT capabilities across Volkswagen Group.
Key factors included:
- A holistic approach to competency mapping: The model covered technical skills, soft skills, and potential for future development.
- System flexibility: The system can adapt to changing organizational needs and technology trends.
- Transparency: Employees were involved in assessing and developing their skills.
- Integration of SkillMatrix into broader HR processes: This included recruitment, learning, and career planning.
The project shows how technology can support workforce management across an organization, not just within IT. VWGS now has a tool that helps teams respond to current cloud infrastructure requirements while preparing more systematically for future technology needs.
