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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Setup Considerations: Skills Cloud

Setup Considerations: Skills Cloud

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of Workday Skills Cloud. It explains:
  • Why to set it up.
  • How it fits into the rest of Workday.
  • Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
  • Security requirements and business process configurations.
  • Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What It Is

Skills Cloud is a machine-learning-powered remote collection of skills for workers and candidates to select from. You can use Skills Cloud to build qualification requirements and talent data without the need for additional maintenance. You can also use Skills Cloud to enable workers to tag skills to learning content, job catalogs, flex teams, and projects.

Business Benefits

Skills Cloud makes it easier for you to:
  • Identify workers and candidates based on the skills that they select.
  • Maintain skills data.
Skills Cloud also makes it easier for workers and candidates to search for relevant skills.

Use Cases

With the Skills Cloud, you can:
  • Convert crowdsourced and maintained skills to Skills Cloud skills.
  • Conduct structured skill assessments for workers.
  • Import external and third-party skills and tag them as equivalent to Skills Cloud skills.
  • Increase the number of skills for users to add to their profile without the need to maintain the Skills Cloud.
  • Report on users based on the Skills Cloud skills they select.
  • Improve the quality of skills data in your tenant.

Questions to Consider

Questions
Considerations
Do proprietary skills go to the cloud?
No. Workday ensures not to add proprietary skills from customer tenants to the Skills Cloud.
If I opt in to contribute data from my Preview tenant, does that data go to a Preview Workday Graph?
There's only 1 Workday Graph that receives data from both Preview and Production tenants.
How does Skills Cloud impact web services?
You can load Skills Cloud skills in web services by entering reference IDs or an exact text match of a Skills Cloud skill. If there's no exact match to your text entry and no reference ID, Workday creates a:
  • Crowdsourced skill for workers and candidates.
  • Maintained skill on non-crowdsourced enabled objects.
Web services that support the Skills Cloud will continue to support crowdsourced and maintained skills.
How does Skills Cloud suggest skills to workers?
Skills Cloud displays skill suggestions when workers add and edit skills on their profiles.
For each worker, Skills Cloud suggests explicit skills culled from these sources, in this order:
  • Current Job Profile
  • Completed Projects
  • Previous Job Profiles
  • Completed Flex Team Roles
After workers add all the suggested skills from these sources, Skills Cloud uses machine learning to suggest additional AI-inferred skills. See Workday AI Fact Sheet: Suggested Skills on Worker Profile.
What happens to existing skills in my tenant when Workday converts duplicate skills to Skills Cloud skills?
Workday runs a regular background job to convert duplicate skills to Skills Cloud skills. The background job only identifies crowdsourced and maintained skills as duplicates if they have an exact text match to a Skills Cloud skill.
When the background job runs, Workday deletes duplicate skills and replaces them with the corresponding Skills Cloud skill. Workday migrates usages from the deleted skill to the Skills Cloud skill.
Workday preserves tenanted translations for duplicate tenanted skills, then replaces them with Skills Cloud skills if Skills Cloud doesn't support the language.
What happens to existing skills in my tenant when Workday converts synonymous skills to Skills Cloud skills?
Workday runs a regular background job to convert synonymous skills to Skills Cloud skills. The background job identifies skills in your tenant that are synonymous with skills already in Skills Cloud.
When the background job runs, Workday deletes synonymous skills and replaces them with the corresponding Skills Cloud skill. Workday migrates usages from the deleted skill to the Skills Cloud skill. Synonymous skills no longer display on the
Maintain Skills
 report. The background job runs hourly and evaluates 1000 skills at a time.
You can exclude individual maintained skills from being converted by selecting the
Exclude from Synonym Management
 check box on the
Maintain Skills
 report.
How often does Workday review the skills in my tenant for matches to the latest version of the Skills Cloud?
Workday reviews the skills in your tenant on the first Wednesday of February, May, August, and November. When evaluating skills in your tenant, Workday compares the latest Skills Cloud skill in English and your tenant default language for matches.
What report fields should I use when I enable the Skills Cloud?
You can use these report fields on the
Worker
 business object to report on different skill types:
  • All Skills
     for Skills Cloud skills, crowdsourced skills, and all maintained skills.
  • Internal Skills
     for all maintained skills.
  • Skills
     for Skills Cloud skills and all maintained skills.
You can use the
Skill Description
 report field on the
Local Skill
 business object to return Workday-delivered descriptions for Skills Cloud skills.
Where does the Skills Cloud get its data?
Skills Cloud gets its data from:
  • Contributed data from Innovation Services Data Contribution.
  • Public data sets.
  • Purchased data sets.
What type of machine learning is the Skills Cloud?
Workday applies word representation machine learning to the Skills Cloud.
What is the difference between the HCM ML Features and Third Party Connectors GA and the Workday Graph innovation services?
The HCM ML Features and Third Party Connectors GA innovation service is a newer innovation service that supports machine learning for a variety of HCM features. With this innovation service, you can enable Skills Cloud without any data contributions.
The Workday Graph innovation service specifically gives you access to Skills Cloud. With this innovation service, you must opt in to at least 1 data category to enable Skills Cloud.
You need to opt in to either 1 of these innovation services to enable Skills Cloud, not both.
Workday recommends opting in to the HCM ML Features and Third Party Connectors GA innovation service to enable Skills Cloud.
How are Workday-delivered Skills Cloud skill descriptions generated?
Workday uses a Gemini large language model (LLM) and a structured prompt engineering process to generate Skills Cloud skill descriptions. We instruct the LLM to describe Skills Cloud skills as they relate to professional skills.
Each Skills Cloud skill description includes the definition, the knowledge required, and professional use cases.
Workday-delivered descriptions are view-only, currently available only in English, and may not be available for every Skills Cloud skill. See 2026R2 Feature Release Note: Skills Cloud Skill Descriptions.

Recommendations

  • Once you enable the Workday Skills Cloud, you can't disable it. Workday recommends you first enable Skills Cloud in a non-Production environment before enabling it in Production. Enabling the Skills Cloud can't be reversed.
    When you enable Workday Skills Cloud, Workday automatically begins evaluating skills in your tenant for potential matches, either exact or synonymous with Skills Cloud skills. Workday's automated skill management approach ensures that your users and administrators are using the most market relevant forms of skills that can be leveraged in Workday's skills-based machine learning applications. This process results in irreversible migration and replacement of tenanted skills with the most standardized form of the skill from the Workday Skills Cloud.
  • After you enable Skills Cloud, to give the background jobs enough time to migrate your duplicate and synonymous skills, Workday recommends waiting at least 2 weeks before reviewing your remaining tenanted skills.
  • If your tenant has more than 2,000 maintained skills, Workday recommends that you reduce the number of skills before enabling Tenanted Skills in Matching. This recommendation is to ensure the quality of the feature.

Requirements

You might need to take additional steps to enable this feature depending on your organization's subscription service agreement. For more information, see this Community article.

Limitations

  • You can only upload and retrieve Skill Cloud skills in English using Workday Web Services.
  • You can't export or view a list of skills from the Skills Cloud library.
  • You can't configure what Skills Cloud skills users can view and select. You can prioritize maintained skills over Skills Cloud skills when searching for skills.
  • The Tenanted Skills in Matching feature:
    • Is only available in English.
    • Doesn't support Candidate Skills Match and Skills in People Analytics.
    • Only applies to maintained skills that are on 20 different worker profiles or job requisitions that also have a Skills Cloud skill.

Tenant Setup

On the
Maintain Skills and Experience Setup
 task:
  • From the
    Indicate Primary Skill Search Results
     prompt, you can select:
    • Skills Cloud
       if you want users to select Skills Cloud skills more than maintained skills.
    • Tenant Skills
       if your tenant has a large library of maintained skills that you want prioritized in skill searches.
  • Select the
    Include Tenanted Skills in Matching
     check box for Workday to use maintained skills in addition to Skills Cloud skills when calculating suggestions and recommendations. This feature impacts the results of other features, such as Career Hub and Talent Marketplace.

Security

Configure these security domains in the Worker Profile and Skills functional area:
Domains
Considerations
Set Up: Skills and Experience
Users can enable Skills Cloud and enable suggested skills to workers. Workday's background jobs automatically convert duplicate skills and synonymous skills to Skills Cloud skills.
Person Data: Skill Assessment Data
Users can view skill assessment data for specified workers from the
Assess Skills
 business process.
Person Data: Skills
Users can view and enter Skills Cloud skills for other users.
Self-Service: Skill Assessment Data
Users can view their skill assessment data from the
Assess Skills
 business process.
Self-Service: Skills
Users can select Skills Cloud skills in the
Edit Skills
 task.
Suggested Skills
Users can report on skill suggestions of other workers.
Person Data: Skill Level
Users can view the estimated skill level that's been generated for another worker's skills.
Person Data: Skill Sources
Users can view or select skill sources for other users.
Self-Service: External Skill Source
Users can view their own external skill source information.
Self-Service: Skill Endorsements
Users can view endorsements for their skills.
Self-Service: Skill Level
Users can view the estimated skill level that's been generated for their skills.
Self-Service: Skill Ratings
Users can view their skill ratings.
Self-Service: Skill Sources
Workers can edit skill sources on their profile.
Worker Data: External Skill Source
Workers can view external skill source data for other workers.
Worker Data: Skill Endorsements
Users can view skill endorsements for other workers.
Worker Data: Skill Ratings
Users can view skill ratings for other workers.
Manage External Skills
Use this domain to secure imported external skills and mapped external skills. This domain controls access to the web services that you use to manage external skills and mappings.
In addition to the skill source domains, users must have access to these domains to view sources on the
View Skill Detail
 report and
Edit Skill Sources
 task:
Domains
Considerations
In the Performance Enablement functional area:
  • Self-Service: Anytime Feedback
  • Worker Data: Anytime Feedback
Enables users to view or select public anytime feedback as a skill source.
In the Worker Profile and Skills functional area:
  • Person Data: Certifications
  • Self-Service: Certifications
Enables users to view or select certifications as a skill source.
Flex Teams
 in the Talent Marketplace functional area
Enables users to view or select completed flex teams as a skill source.
In the Worker Profile and Skills functional area:
  • Person Data: Job History
  • Self-Service: Job History
Enables users to view or select jobs from a worker's job history as a skill source.
In the Learning Core functional area:
  • Person Data: Learning
  • Self-Service: Learning
Enables users to view or select completed learning courses as a skill source.
Worker Data: Historical Staffing Information
 in the Staffing functional area
Enables users to view or select positions from a worker's staffing history as a skill source.
Worker Data: Project
 in the Projects functional area
Enables users to view or select completed projects as a skill source.

Business Processes

You can use the
Assess Skills
 business process to conduct structured skill assessments for workers. Using a 1-5 proficiency scale, you can rate job profile skills, worker profile skills, and other skills for workers. See Concept: Skill Assessments.

Reporting

Access the
Innovation Service Data Details
 report to view which report fields you contribute for each Innovation Service data category.
You can filter by Skills Cloud skills in these reports:
  • Find Candidates
  • Find Mentor
  • Find Workers
  • Find Workers by Skills
You can also build custom reports to view skill assessment data from completed
Assess Skills
 business process events.

Integrations

Use these web services to manage Skills Cloud and skills added to Skills Cloud:
Web Services
Considerations
Get External Skill Mapping
Imports skill mappings between external skills and existing Workday skills.
Get External Skill Sources
Imports external skill sources.
Get Manage Skills
Enables you to retrieve existing skills for a worker.
Get Skill Profiles
Exports skill profiles from the tenant.
Get Skill Profile Categories
Exports all skill profile categories from the tenant.
Get Skill Source Precedences
Imports all skill source precedences.
Get Skill Vendor
Imports skill vendors that are tagged to external skills.
Get Skills
Retrieves skill items.
Import External Skill
Imports external skills into Workday.
Import External Skill Mapping
Imports skill mappings between external skills and existing Workday skills.
Import External Skill Sources
Imports external skill sources.
Manage Skills
Allows adding and removing the skills for a worker.
Put Skill
Adds or updates maintained and remote skills if using Skills Cloud.
Put Skill Profile
Creates and edits skill profiles.
Put Skill Profile Categories
Allows you to add, edit, and remove skill profile categories.
Put Skill Vendor
Loads external skill vendors that are tagged to external skills.
These web services for other features support Skills Cloud skills but aren't dependent on Skills Cloud:
Web Services
Considerations
Create Evergreen Requisition
Creates an evergreen requisition.
Create Job Requisition
Creates a job requisition for a position in a position management supervisory organization.
Create Position
Creates and opens a position for a supervisory organization using the position management staffing model.
Edit Evergreen Requisition
Edits an evergreen job requisition.
Edit Job Requisition
Edits an existing job requisition.
Edit Position Restrictions
Edits an existing position restriction.
Get Candidates
Returns information for candidates specified in the request.
Put Candidate
Adds or updates a candidate with the information supplied in the request.
Submit Job Profile
Adds or updates a job profile.
Submit Recruiting Agency Candidate
Submits a candidate using the recruiting agency candidate process with the information provided in the request.

Connections and Touchpoints

Skills Cloud interacts with these other features in Workday:
Features
Considerations
Career Hub
Skills Cloud provides skills and suggested skills in onboarding, and Career Hub uses that data to suggest mentors, connections, and learning content.
Compensation
You can include skills-related fields in compensation review grids.
Learning
You can tag Learning lessons, courses, and programs with skills recommended by Skills Cloud. Workday provides suggested skills to administrators for learning content. Workday also uses skills to suggest learning content in Workday Learning.
People Analytics
You can use Skills Cloud to build qualification requirements and track worker capabilities in the Skills topic.
Projects
You can select Skills Cloud skills as requirements on:
  • Dynamic resource pools.
  • Project roles.
  • Resource plans.
Qualifications
You can select Skills Cloud skills as qualifications on:
  • Confidential job requisitions.
  • Evergreen requisitions.
  • Job profiles.
  • Job requisitions.
  • Positions.
  • Position restrictions.
Workday also provides suggested skills for job profiles and job requisitions.
You can also select Skills Cloud skills when creating skill profiles.
Talent Marketplace
The Opportunity Marketplace and Flex Teams applications require you to enable Skills Cloud. Workday uses Skills Cloud to recommend flex teams and job opportunities to workers.
Workday also provides skill suggestions to users accessing Opportunity Marketplace for the first time.
Completed flex teams are available as a skill source when a flex team host endorses a worker for a skill.
Talent Reviews
You can add Skills Cloud skills to talent review templates to collect skills data.
Workday Recruiting
You can select Skills Cloud skills for:
  • Candidates.
  • Confidential prospects.
  • Job applications.
  • Prospects.
  • Recruiting agency candidates.
  • Referrals.
Skills Cloud also provides skills for calculating Candidate Skills Match.
Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships in your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.