This article is about the paid add-on Absorb Skills. For information on purchasing this service, please reach out to your Client Success representative.
- Click here to view the Absorb Skills Introduction.
Absorb Skills includes multiple reports that allow for your Admins and organization to filter through, and easily obtain information related to Skills, Job Roles and more.
Job Roles
The Job Roles Report is where an Admin will find our extensive library of expertly-crafted Job Roles, with 1600 unique roles available at launch.
Job Roles Report Columns
- Name: Name associated with the Job Role item that will be displayed in the Learner Experience.
- Status: Shows whether a Job Role is marked as Active in the Portal. Only Active roles are surfaced in the Learner Experience for Learners to choose from.
- Category: Categories that encompass certain role types and industries, making it easier to find related roles.
- Skills: Number of Skills associated with the job.
- Added By: Name of the Admin who added the Job Role.
- Date Added: Date the role was initially added to your library.
Legacy Job Roles Report Columns
- Category: Categories that encompass certain role types and industries, making it easier to find related roles.
- Date Added: Date the role was initially added to our library.
- Date Edited: Date the role was last updated, either by Absorb (future) or by an Admin.
- Description: Job description of the role.
- ID: Unique Job Role GUID
- Is Active: Shows whether a Job Role is marked as Active (“Yes”) in the Portal. Only Active roles are surfaced in the Learner Experience for Learners to choose from.
- Is Custom Role: New or duplicated roles will be visible.
- Role Name: Name associated with the Job Role item that will be displayed in the Learner Experience.
Job Roles Report Action Tools
The actions below are broken down between single actions and mass actions. A single action can only be taken when one item in total is selected from the Report, while a mass action can be taken with multiple items selected from the Report.
| Single or Mass Action | Action Tool | Permissions & Behavior |
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N/A (default - no items selected)
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Add |
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| Manage Categories (Legacy Experience Only) |
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Single |
Edit |
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| Duplicate |
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| Activate |
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| Deactivate |
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| View Skills |
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| View Absorb Content (Legacy Report Only) |
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| Delete |
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| Mass (Legacy Experience Only) | Activate Job Roles |
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| Deactivate Job Roles |
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| View Skills |
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| View Absorb Content |
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| Deselect |
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Job Role Catalog Note
Absorb provides a Catalog of Job Roles. Add Job Roles to your library from the Catalog first as a starting point and then customize the language to meet your needs. Any Skills associated with the Job Role from the Catalog will be automatically added to your Skill Library.
Add Client Job Role
Creating a Client Job Role allows for a new Job Role to be available in the Job Roles Report. The default Status of the page is set to Inactive. Once you have created a new Job Role, set the Status to Active to make the role available to Learners. Note that a role can be saved if the Status is set to Inactive, but all required fields must be populated. At the moment, machine learning updates are only made to system Job Roles and not custom client Job Roles.
To add a new Client Job Role, please consider the following steps:
- From the Admin Experience, navigate to the Skills page using the left hand menu, and select the Job Roles Report.
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Select Add under the Actions menu on the right-hand side of the page.
- In the Name field, enter any Job Role Name. This name can also be a goal that focuses on a skill set rather than a full Job Role.
- Click on the Category dropdown and select one from the list of available Categories.
- In the Job Summary field, enter a brief description of the role.
- Click on the Add Responsibilities button to add a Responsibility to the Job Role. One or multiple Responsibilities can be added to a Role.
- Under the Job Skills heading, click Add Job Skill to add a Skill to this Role.
- Once created, Custom Roles can be viewed on the Job Roles Report by adding the Is Custom column, available via the Display Columns drop-down menu, and filtering for a Yes value. This functionality is only used to identify Custom Roles.
At least one Skill must be added to a Role. Each Skill can contain multiple levels.
Import Job Roles
Absorb allows Admins to bulk import or update Job Roles using a CSV upload through the Admin Interface. This capability is useful for organizations with pre-existing frameworks or for those looking to manage changes at scale.
Prerequisites
To ensure a successful import, please review the following guidelines:
Skills must be enabled in your Portal.
Import Skills first, especially if you are referencing them in the Job Roles file.
Skills must exist before they can be assigned to a Job Role.
Job Role Categories must be created prior to import in the system.
Always use Skills from the Absorb Skills Catalog where possible. Catalog Skills are already mapped to content and power learner recommendations. If you import Custom Skills, they must be manually mapped to content after import.
What It Does
- Creates new Job Roles.
- Updates existing Job Roles (based on Name or GUID).
- Assigns Skills (and levels) to Job Roles.
Required Fields
- Job Role Name (Required)
- Job Role Category (Required and must exist in system)
- Is Active (optional)
- Job Summary (optional)
To Assign Skills:
- Skill Name
- Skill Level (1–5)
For roles with multiple Skills, list the Job Role in multiple rows — one row per Skill.
How Job Role Updates Work
If a Job Role Name (or GUID) in your import matches an existing role in the system, the Job Role will be updated with new information, including Skill assignments, summary, and activation status.
How to Import
Navigate to the Job Roles area in the Admin Interface.
Upload your formatted CSV.
Submit the import job. You will receive a system notification once the import is complete.
Best Practices
Always import Skills before Job Roles.
Use the Skills Catalog for the best tagging and recommendation experience.
Use Name-based matching consistently to ensure updates work as expected.
Name-based matching for Job Role imports must be an exact match, including capitalization, when a Skill is used for matching. For example, if IT Infrastructure exists in the LMS, but the import file lists IT infrastructure, the values are treated as different.
In this case, the system may process the import job, but the Job Role will not be added or updated. To complete the import successfully, ensure the Skill Name in the spreadsheet matches the capitalization and spelling used in the LMS exactly.
Manage Categories
Absorb categorizes roles into different groupings depending on certain factors, such as the Department that a specific role belongs to. However, these groupings may not be optimal for your organization. You can create new Job Categories and re-organize roles to align with your organization's structure.
Creating Categories
New Job Categories can be created from the Job Roles page. From this page, please advise the following:
- Click Manage Categories in the right-hand menu. A list of existing Job Categories will open.
- On that page, click Add Job Category in the right-hand menu. The Add Job Category page will open.
- In the new page, enter the Category name.
- Click Save to create the new Category.
Assigning Categories
Job Roles can be assigned to new or different Categories either by editing individual roles or using Mass Actions to edit multiple roles at once.
Editing a single Job Role's Category can be completed by selecting the role and opening the Edit Job Role page. To assign a Category to multiple Job Roles, please advise the following:
- On the Job Roles Report, select all the roles to be updated.
- In the Mass Actions menu on the right-hand side of the screen, click Assign Category.
- In the Assign Category modal frame, select a new Category.
- Click Assign.
Edit Job Role Page
This page allows an Admin to alter the information associated with the Job Role. You can edit Job Roles added from the Catalog or custom Job Roles. The new value entered is what will be shown in the Learner Experience. This is helpful for organizations with unique Job Role names or for slight formatting tweaks to suit client preferences.
View Job Role Modal
The View Job Role modal is not only available in the legacy experience and gives an Admin a read-only summary view of a given Job Role, structured very similarly to a typical job description. This information is all based on our data library that serves as the foundation for the Absorb Skills product.
The View Job Role modal gives an Admin a read-only summary view of a given Job Role, structured very similarly to a typical job description. This information is all based on our data library that serves as the foundation for the Absorb Skills product.
Included sections include:
- Job Summary: A brief description of the role.
- Responsibilities: A list of the most common responsibilities associated with the role, based on thousands of job postings.
- Job Skills: The Job Skills from our library that are associated with the role. These are structured as a flat list with a proficiency level of either Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced.
Duplicate Job Role Modal
The Duplicate Job Role modal gives an Admin the ability to copy a Job Role. The Duplicate Job Role feature is useful when another version of the same Job Role is necessary.
The default status of this page it set to Inactive. Once edits to a Job Role have been completed, set the Status to Active to make the updated Job Role available to Learners.
To duplicate a Job Role, please consider the following steps:
- From the Admin Experience, navigate to the Skills page using the left-hand menu, and select the Job Roles Report.
- Select an existing line item when viewing the Report.
- Select Duplicate under the Actions menu on the right-hand side of the page.
- In the Name field, enter any Job Role Name. This Name can also be a goal that focuses on a skill set rather than a full Job Role.
- Click on the Category dropdown and select one from the list of available Categories.
- In the Job Summary field, enter a brief description of the Role.
- Click on the Add Responsibilities button to add a Responsibility to the Job Role. You can add one or multiple Responsibilities to a Role.
- Under the Job Skills heading, click Add Job Skill to add a Skill to this Role.
At least one Skill must be added to a Role. Each Skill can contain multiple levels.
Skills
The Skills Report is where you will find our extensive library of Job Skills. These are what power the course recommendations and help structure the Learning Paths on the Learner side of things.
At launch, this expertly-crafted library contains over 2500 Job Skills!
Creating a Custom Skill
Creating a Custom Skill allows organizations to define and track unique Skills specific to their workforce. The default Status of the Custom Skill is set to Inactive. Once a new Skill has been created, set the Status to Active to make it available for use. Note that a Skill can be saved if the Status is set to Inactive, but all required fields must be populated.
Once a Custom Skill is created, it must be manually added to Job Roles and Content in order to be surfaced to the Learner.
To add a new Custom Skill, please consider the following:
- From the Admin Experience, navigate to the Skills page using the left-hand menu and select Skills.
- Select Add Skill under the blue Actions menu on the right-hand side of the page.
- In the Name field, enter the name of the Custom Skill.
- In the Description field, enter a brief description of the Skill.
- Under the Levels heading, click Add Proficiency Level Description to provide additional details about each level for this Skill.
- Once you have filled out the relevant fields, toggle the Status to Active. A Custom Skill can still be saved if this Status remains Inactive.
- Click Save.
Duplicating a Skill
The Duplicate Skill modal gives an Admin the ability to copy an existing Skill to make edits. The new Skill will now be a Custom Skill. The Duplicate Skill feature is useful when another version of the same Skill is necessary.
The default Status of this page is set to Inactive. Once edits to a Skill have been completed, set the Status to Active to make the updated Skill available.
To duplicate a Skill, please consider the following:
- From the Admin Experience, navigate to the Skills page using the left-hand menu and select Skills.
- Select an existing line item when viewing the Report.
- Select Duplicate under the Actions menu on the right-hand side of the page.
- In the Name field, enter any Skill Name. This Name can also represent a specialization or variation of an existing Skill. Please note, a Skill Name must be unique.
- In the Description field, enter a brief description of the Skill.
- Under the Levels heading, click Add Proficiency Level Description to provide additional details about each level for this Skill.
- Click Save.
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- To ensure Learners can engage with the duplicated Skill, manually add it to Job Roles and Content where applicable.
- Custom Skills do not currently receive machine learning updates, which are only applied to system-defined Skills.
Add From Catalog
Absorb provides Job Roles out of the box. Adding from the Catalog allows you to choose what Job Roles matter to your organization as a starting point. Once the Job Role is added, you can edit the information or Job Skills related to it. When you add a Job Role from the Catalog you will also be adding the associated Skills to your Skills Library.
Import Skills
Absorb allows Admins to bulk import or update Skills using a CSV upload through the Admin Interface. This capability is useful for organizations with pre-existing frameworks or for those looking to manage changes at scale.
Prerequisites
To ensure a successful import, please review the following guidelines:
Skills must be enabled in your Portal.
Import Skills first, especially if you are referencing them in the Job Roles file.
Skills must exist before they can be assigned to a Job Role.
Job Role Categories must be created prior to import in the system.
Always use skills from the Absorb Skills Catalog where possible. Catalog Skills are already mapped to content and power learner recommendations. If you import Custom Skills, they must be manually mapped to content after import.
What It Does
Creates new Skills.
Updates existing Skills (based on Name or GUID).
Import Fields
Skill Name (Required)
Skill ID (GUID) (optional)
Is Active (1 = active, 0 = inactive) (Required)
Skill Description (optional)
Level 1–5 Descriptions (optional)
How Skill Updates Work
If a Skill Name (or GUID) in your CSV matches an existing Skill in your Portal, the import will update that record with the new details (e.g., description, level definitions, active status).
How to Import Skills
Go to the Skills area in the Admin Interface.
Upload your formatted CSV.
Submit the import job. You will receive a system notification once the import is complete
Best Practices
Always import Skills before Job Roles.
Use the Skills Catalog for the best tagging and recommendation experience.
Use name-based matching consistently to ensure updates work as expected.
Editing a Skill
The Edit Skill page allows an Admin to modify the Name and Description and Level Descriptions of a given Custom Skill. Any new values entered in these fields will be reflected in the Learner Experience.
Please advise that at the moment, machine learning updates are only made to system Skills pulled from the Catalog and not custom client Skills. In order for a Skill to be auto-tagged to content, it will have to originate from the Catalog.
Manage Categories
Absorb categorizes Skills into different groups depending on certain factors, such as the Department that a specific Skill belongs to. However, these groups may not be optimal for your organization. You can create new Skill Categories and re-organize Skills to align with your organization's structure.
Creating Categories
New Skill Categories can be created from the Skills Legacy Report page. You can access this page by opening the Skills Report and clicking the View legacy experience option.
From this page, follow the steps below:
- Click Manage Categories in the right-hand menu. A list of existing Skill Categories will open.
- On that page, click Add in the right-hand menu. The Add Skill Category page will open.
- In the new page, enter the Category name.
- Click Save to create the new Category.
Assigning Categories
Skills can be assigned to new or different Categories by editing the Skill.
To assign a Category, please advise the following:
- In the Admin Experience, click on the Skills button in the left-hand menu.
- Locate the Skill you wish to assign a Category to and click Edit.
- Under General, click on the Category drop down and select a Category for the Skill. Note that only one Category may be assigned to a Skill at this time.
- Click Save.
Skills Report Column
- Name: Name of the Skill.
- Status: Shows whether a Skill is marked as Active (“Yes”) in the Portal. Only Active Skills are surfaced in the Learner Experience for Learners to assess against.
- Category: Categories that group certain Skill types and industries, making it easier to find related items.
- Job Roles: Number of Job Roles associated with the Skill.
- Courses: Number of Courses associated with the Skill.
- Added By: Name of the Admin who added the Job Role.
- Date Added: Date the item was initially added to your Library.
Legacy Skills Report Columns
- Date Added: Date the item was initially added to our library.
- Date Edited: Date the item was last updated.
- ID: Unique GUID.
Skills Report Action Tools
| Single or Mass Action | Action Tool | Permissions & Behavior |
| N/A (default - no items selected) | Add Skill |
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Single |
Edit |
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| Duplicate |
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| Activate |
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| Deactivate |
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| View Job Roles |
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| View Courses |
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| View Absorb Content |
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| Deselect |
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Mass |
Activate |
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| Deactivate |
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| View Job Roles |
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| View Courses |
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| View Absorb Content |
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| Deselect |
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Self-Assessments
The Self-Assessments Report shows the status of each Self-Assessment started by Learners, and provides the Admin a window into how a Learner has interacted with the Self-Assessment workflow.
Only single-select is available on this report.
Self-Assessments Report Columns
- Current Role: Shows the role that the Learner selected in the “Current Role” step of their Self-Assessment.
- Date Added: Date the Learner started the Self-Assessment.
- Date Edited: Date of last activity on the Self-Assessment.
- Desired Role: Shows the role that the Learner selected in the “Desired Role” step of their Self-Assessment. For role-less Skills, this field displays as N/A.
- First Name: Learner’s first name.
- ID: Unique ID for the Self-Assessment.
- Last Name: Learner’s last name.
- Status: Status of the Self-Assessment.
- Manager Assessment: Indicates the status of the Manager’s review of a Learner’s Self-Assessment: Complete or Pending. This column will only display if Manager Experience is enabled on the Portal.
Self-Assessments Report Action Tools
| Single or Mass Action | Action Tool | Permissions & Behaviour |
| N/A (default - no items selected) | None | N/A |
| Single | View Self-Assessment |
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| Deselect |
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Learning Path Details Page
The Learning Path Details page gives Admins a snapshot into the results of a Learner’s Skills journey. This page shows the Learner’s Job Roles selected, included Job Skills, and how they rated themselves against each through their Self-Assessment. Skills with no associated Role will display N/A in the Role column.
This page is read-only, as it is just presenting choices made by the Learner.
Expanding a certain line item from the Job Skills section will show the Courses that they have added to that section of their Learning Path, as well as their enrollment status for each.
Only Courses that the Learner has actually enrolled in will show here. Items that have been added to the Learning Path but not actually enrolled into act more as a placeholder and do not have enrollment activity to pull from for that Learner.
Skills Activity
The Skills Activity Report is where an Admin will be able to track their Learners’ engagement with Absorb Skills. Through this report, you can identify the most popular topics or areas where you may need some additional content to fill a gap and keep up with Learner demand.
Skills Activity Report Columns
- Name: Shows the name of the Job Skill.
- ID: Unique ID for the Skill (this will match ID on the Skills Report).
- Type: Shows the type of Skill (Job Skill).
- # of Interests: This shows the number of times this Job Skill was part of a Self-Assessment across all Learners.
- # of Users: The number of unique Users who selected this Job Skill as part of their Self-Assessment.
- # of Enrollments: The number of course enrollments in which this Job Skill was mapped to.
- # of Courses: The number of Courses in which this Job Skill was was mapped to.
- Completed Courses: Number of completed Courses by the Learners where Job Skill was mapped to.
- Courses In Progress: Number of Courses currently in progress across the Learners where Job Skill was mapped to.
- Courses Not Started: Number of non-started Courses by the Learners where Job Skill was mapped to.
- Category: The Job Skill Category.
Skills Activity Report Action Tools
| Single or Mass Action | Action Tool | Permissions & Behaviour |
| N/A (default - no items selected) | None | N/A |
| Single | View Job Roles |
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| View Courses |
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| Deselect |
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| Mass | View Job Roles |
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| View Courses |
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| Deselect |
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Learner Skill Details
The Learner Skill Details Report provides details on each Job Skill rated per Learner. This will help you analyze the progress your Learners are making as well as assess the Proficiency Levels of Skills across your organization to identify both strengths and potential skill gaps across your organization.
Only single-select is available on this report.
Learner Skill Details Report Columns
- Skill Name: Job Skill selected as part of the Self-Assessment by the Learner.
- First Name: Learner's first name.
- Last Name: Learner’s last name.
- Current Level: Shows the Learner’s Self-Assessment rating for the Job Skill.
- Desired Level: Shows the Proficiency Level bench-marked by the Desired Role selected by the Learner.
- Type: Shows the type of the Skill whether it is a Job Skill.
- Current Role: Shows the Learner’s selected Current Role on their Self-Assessment. Skills with no associated Role will display N/A in this column.
- Desired Role: Shows the Learner’s selected Desired Role on their Self-Assessment. Skills with no associated Role will display N/A in this column.
- Category: Shows the Category of the Job Skill.
- Self assessment ID: Shows the unique Self-Assessment ID from which this Job Skill was selected.
- Department: Shows the Learner’s current Department.
- Date Added: Shows the date when this was rated during the Self-Assessment.
- Date Edited: Shows the date when this rating was last updated during the Self-Assessment.
Learner Skill Details Report Action Tools
| Single or Mass Action | Action Tool | Permissions & Behaviour |
| N/A (default - no items selected) | None | N/A |
| Single | View Details |
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| Deselect |
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Learning Paths
The Learning Paths Report gives the Admin an overview of a Learner’s Progress with their Learning Path.
Only single-select is available on this report.
Learning Paths Report Columns
- # of Courses: Number of courses (total) a Learner has added to their Learning Path.
- Current Role: What the Learner selected as their Current Role during the Self-Assessment.
- Date Added: The date the Learning Path was added.
- Date Edited: The date of the most recent changes to the Learning Path.
- Date Started: The date the Learning Path was started.
- Desired Role: What the Learner selected as their Desired Role during the Self-Assessment. Skills with no associated Role will display N/A in this column.
- First Name: The Learner’s first name.
- ID: The Learning Path ID.
- Is Active: Whether the Learning Path is Active (yes) or Archived (no).
- Last Name: The Learner’s last name.
- Self-Assessment ID: The ID of the Self-Assessment that this Learning Path is based off of.
- Manager Assessed Level: Manager-assessed rating for the Skill, available only after a Manager has evaluated the learner’s self-assessment.
Learning Paths Report Action Tools
| Single or Mass Action | Action Tool | Permissions & Behaviour |
| N/A (default - no items selected) | None | N/A |
| Single | View Details |
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| Deselect |
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