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 inwww.CHRMGlobal.com
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
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Competency

Behaviour

Knowledge

Skills

Attitude

Values & Motives

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 Competency Modeling

Competency models consists of qualities required for

superior performance with respect to:

The
Job specific Functional Role Leadership Organization's
Culture &
requirements requirements attributes Attributes Value

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Competency Based Management

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 Step 2 : Competency Profile

What capabilities currently exist

within the organization?

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 Competency Mapping

Forced Ranking Manager 180 /360 –

Assessment centers
(Lower Level) Assessment Degree Assessment
Psychological Testing
(Managers) (Employees, Managers,
BEI
Peers

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Step 3 : Competency Review

What are the gaps between

organizational needs and
people capabilities?

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 The competency review process links
current capabilities to the
organizational needs

Competency Model

Review Development Implementation

Plans

Competency Profile
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Step 3 : Development Plans

Create Plans for shoring any

identified gaps

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Developing Competency Model

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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

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 Select the optimal approach

Behavioral
Generic Adapted
Survey Expert Event
model Generic
Driven Panel Interviews
Model

Least Most
Rigorous Rigorous

Considerations:
* Practicality * Fairness
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* Speed * Validity
 Data Collection tools

 Behavioral Events Interview

Expert Panels
 Surveys
Expert Systems
 Job Analysis
 Role Analysis
 Direct Observation

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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.

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Behavioral Events Interview

 Disadvantages:

Time & Expense

Expertise requirements

Missed job tasks

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 Expert Panels
 Advantages

Quick and efficient collection of a great deal of

valuable data
Helps ensure better buy-in

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 Expert Panels
Disadvantages
Possible identification of folklore or motherhood
items.
Omission of critical competency factors which
panelists are unaware of.

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 Surveys
 Advantages

 Quick and cheap collection of sufficient data for

statistical analyses
 A large number of employees can provide input
 Help build consensus

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 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

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 Expert Systems
 Advantages
 Access to data
 Efficiency
 Productivity

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 Expert Systems
 Disadvantages

Garbage in –garbage out

May overlook specialized competition
 Cost of system hardware and software

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 Job Analysis
 Advantages

Produces complete job descriptions

Can validate or elaborate on data collected by other
methods

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 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

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 Direct Observation
Advantages
 A good way to check competencies suggested by
panel, survey, and BEI

Disadvantages
Expensive and inefficient

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• 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.

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 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

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 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.
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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.

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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.
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 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.

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