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How to complete a skills audit

Strong boards have trustees with a mix of professional skills, personal experience and different perspectives. The ideal combination depends on your charity’s purpose and strategy.

A skills audit can help you:

  • Understand your board’s current mix of skills and experience.
  • Identify the gaps in your board and highlight the skills you need to prioritise for your next trustee recruitment.

The audit can also be useful for succession planning and preparing for the future: it can show how you may be affected if a trustee leaves, or your charity faces new challenges.

When to do a skills audit

Boards often do a skills audit before they recruit trustees. However, it can be helpful to complete the exercise every year because it prompts trustees to reflect on how their personal expertise has developed and new areas of interest they want to explore. The board can respond more quickly and easily when the need to recruit trustees arises – and a skills audit can flag if a new trustee would add value even if recruitment isn’t on the radar.