What are competencies – some definitions ………

• Competencies are the characteristics of an employee that lead to the demonstration of skills & abilities, which result in effective performance within an occupational area.

• A cluster of related knowledge, skills and abilities that affects a major part of ones job, that correlates with the performance on the job, that can be measured against well –accepted standards and that can be improved via training and development.

• An underlying characteristic of a person result in effective and / or superior performance on the job.

In other words, competencies are characteristics that outstanding performers do more often in more situations with better results, than average performers

Why do we need it?

People will have to know their respective * Roles

* Key competencies Address employee needs

* What am I on skills?* What are the gaps? How to improve on skills?* What is expected of my role?* What are possible future roles?

People have to know about competencies which help them deliver better to customers Address organizational / business needs

* High performance* Expectation management on career and promotions* Higher productivity with improved skills

Competency

Behaviour

Knowledge

Skills

Attitude

Values & Motives

Competency Modeling

Competency models consists of qualities required for superior performance with respect to:

Functional requirements

LeadershipAttributes

Job specificrequirements

Role attributes

The Organization's

Culture & Value

Competency Based Management

Step 2 : Competency Profile

What capabilities currently exist within the organization?

Competency Mapping

Forced Ranking (Lower Level)

Manager Assessment(Managers)

180 /360 –Degree Assessment(Employees, Managers,Peers

Assessment centersPsychological TestingBEI

Step 3 : Competency Review

What are the gaps between organizational needs and

people capabilities?

The competency review process links current capabilities to the

organizational needs

Competency Model

Review

Competency Profile

DevelopmentPlans

Implementation

Step 3 : Development Plans

Create Plans for shoring any identified gaps

Developing Competency Model

o Developing competency model depends on the nature of the organization & some basic consideration:

o The practices for which they will be used

o The financial & personnel resource available

o Who needs to be included in the process of developing & endorsing the applications

oWho is going to be included in the implementation process

Select the optimal approach

Generic model

AdaptedGenericModel

Survey Driven

Expert Panel

BehavioralEvent

Interviews

MostRigorous

LeastRigorous

Considerations:

* Practicality * Fairness

* Speed * Validity

Data Collection tools

Behavioral Events Interview

Expert Panels

Surveys

Expert Systems

Job Analysis

Role Analysis

Direct Observation

Behavioral Events Interview

Advantages:

Empirical Identification of competencies

Precision about how competencies are expressed

Freedom from gender, cultural, bias

Generation of data for assessment, training etc.

Behavioral Events Interview

Disadvantages:

Time & Expense

Expertise requirements

Missed job tasks

Expert Panels

Advantages

Quick and efficient collection of a great deal of

valuable data

Helps ensure better buy-in

Expert Panels

Disadvantages

Possible identification of folklore or motherhood

items.

Omission of critical competency factors which

panelists are unaware of.

Surveys

Advantages

Quick and cheap collection of sufficient data for

statistical analyses

A large number of employees can provide input

Help build consensus

Surveys

Disadvantages

Data are limited to items and concepts included in the

survey

It cannot identify new competencies or nuances of

competency

Can also be ineffecient

Expert Systems

Advantages

Access to data

Efficiency

Productivity

Expert Systems

Disadvantages

Garbage in –garbage out

May overlook specialized competition

Cost of system hardware and software

Job Analysis

Advantages

Produces complete job descriptions

Can validate or elaborate on data collected by other methods

Job Analysis

Disadvantages

Provides characteristics of job rather than those

of the people who do the job well

Task lists too detailed to be practical and do not

separate truly important tasks from the routine

activities

Direct Observation

Advantages

A good way to check competencies suggested by

panel, survey, and BEI

Disadvantages

Expensive and inefficient

• Kinds of competencies that can be included in competency

models:

• Differentiating competencies - that most differentiate superior

performers from mediocre performers.

Includes results orientation, influence, and initiative

• Threshold competencies- in which a minimum level of

proficiency is required for job success, but a higher level of

proficiency is not highly correlated with superior

performance.

• Transformation competencies- at which managers and employees are

generally weak, which if improved will most likely to result in improved

performance.

Alternate ways of choosing the

Competencies in your job models

•Traditional approaches involve studying superior

performers, & identifying the traits, characteristics, and

behaviours that differentiate then from average performers:-

• First approach- follow superior and average performers as they go

about their workday

• Second approach- Perform interviews and organize focus

groups of managers and superior performers

Competency models by position,

function, level, or company

• One universal set of competencies for all employees

and positions.

• Merits

•It builds a common language & frame of reference for

everyone

• It makes it easier to compare employees to one another across

position and job functions

• It eases administration of selection & development practices

•It helps align everyone towards a common culture & can

support the culture change process.

Competency models by position

Difficulties:

•Developing models for each position will take considerable time, efforts & expense if done well

•The lack of competency commonality from position to position will make it more difficult to compare & contrast candidates currently in different positions.

•Every time employees move from one position to another, they will have to learn new competencies & abandon those they have been focusing on improving.

Competency model by job function

Advantage

•The number of competency models-generally in the range of 10 to 15 is manageable in terms of both creation & their maintenance

•The same model applies to all the positions with in a job function

•Easy to compare different employees in the same job function for the purpose of succession planning & Organizational development

Disadvantage:

•Managers have the same competency models as individual contributors within a job function.

The competency matrix – level & proficiency

Defines level of proficiency on competencies in terms of a set of behaviors expected for a grade level or rank at a particular position

The numbers in the rating system are replaced by job titles

Helps employees understand the desired level of proficiency for each competency at each job level.