Qualification matrix
A qualification matrix sets out which person may perform which activity. It is the basis of any planning in which not everyone can do everything.
As of:September 2026
What belongs in it
Formal authorisations with a legal basis, for instance the competence test, emissions test authorisation, first-aider training, a forklift licence, a pharmacy licence. Plus in-house instruction and levels of experience where they determine deployment.
The decisive item is the third field alongside person and activity: the date up to which the authorisation is valid. Without an expiry date the matrix is a snapshot that gradually becomes wrong.
Deadlines that typically recur
Workplace first-aiders have to be retrained every two years. Instruction under section 12 ArbSchG has to be repeated at least annually, and every six months for young people. The emissions test training under Annex VIIIc StVZO has to be renewed every 36 months. The reliability check in the security trade is repeated at least every five years.
Every one of those deadlines runs out quietly. Anyone not keeping them in the same file as the roster learns of the expiry once the authorisation is already gone.
MetronHR works these figures out itself: time accounts, premiums, overtime and the limits of the German Working Hours Act, with every booking.
Privacy Policy
Qualification data is employee data and may only be processed in so far as it is necessary for performing the employment relationship. Health-related details, for instance from occupational health screening, do not belong in the matrix: it records only whether a person may be deployed, not why not.
Common mistake
The matrix gets created once and never maintained. After two years it contains authorisations that have expired, and the plan builds on it.
Further reading
- Section 12 ArbSchG, section 29 JArbSchG
- Annex VIIIc StVZO, section 34a GewO
- Article 6(1)(b) GDPR, section 26 BDSG
This is not legal advice; for a specific case at your workplace you are better off asking someone qualified to give it.
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: September 2026
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Related terms
Staffing level
The staffing level is the number of people a shift or a time window needs as a minimum. In many areas a qualification requirement comes on top.
Duty roster
The roster sets out who works when. Legally it is the exercise of the employer's right to give instructions on the timing of working time.
Shift model
A shift model describes how working time is distributed across the day and the week and in what order the shifts rotate.