Question

In today’s global and competitive business environment, many companies are finding that it is difficult to determine whether employees have the capabilities needed for success. The necessary capabilities may vary from one business unit to another and even across roles within a business unit. As a result, many companies are using competency models to help them identify the knowledge, skills, and personal characteristics (attitudes, personality) needed for successful performance in a job. Competency models are also useful for ensuring that training and development systems are contributing to the development of such knowledge, skills, and personal characteristics. Traditionally, needs assessment has involved identifying knowledge, skills, abilities, and tasks. However, a current trend in training is for needs assessment to focus on competencies, especially for managerial positions. Competencies are sets of skills, knowledge, abilities, and personal characteristics that enable employees to perform their jobs successfully.51 A competency model identifies the competencies necessary for each job. Competency models provide descriptions of competencies that are common for an entire occupation, organization, job family, or specific job. Competency models can be used for performance management. However, one of the strengths of competency models is that they are useful for a variety of human resource (HR) practices, including recruiting, selection, training, and development. Competency models can be used to help identify the best employees to fill open positions and to serve as the foundation for development plans that allow employees and their manager to target specific strengths and development areas. The competencies included in competency models vary according to the company’s business strategy and goals. They can include sales, leadership, interpersonal, technical, and other types of page 147competencies. Competency models typically include the name of each competency, the behaviors that represent proficiency in the competency, and levels that include descriptions representing demonstrated levels of mastery or proficiency. Table 3.9 shows the technical cluster of competencies from a competency model for a systems engineer. The left side of the table lists technical competencies within the technical cluster (such as systems architecture, data migration, and documentation). The right side shows behaviors that might be used to determine a systems engineer’s level of proficiency for each competency.One way to understand competency models is to compare them to job analysis. As you may recall from other classes or experiences, job analysis refers to the process of developing a description of the job (tasks, duties, and responsibilities) and the specifications (knowledge, skills, and abilities) that an employee must have to perform it. How does job analysis compare to competency models? Job analysis is more work- and task-focused (what is accomplished), whereas competency modeling is worker-focused (how objectives are met or how work is accomplished). Focusing on “how” versus “what” provides valuable information for training and development. A recent study asked competency modeling experts (consultants, HR practitioners, academics, and industrial psychologists) to compare and contrast competency modeling and job analysis.52 The study found several page 148differences between job analysis and competency models. Competency models are more likely to link competencies and the company’s business goals. Competency models provide descriptions of competencies that are common for an entire occupational group, level of jobs, or an entire organization. In contrast, job analysis describes what is different across jobs, occupational groups, or organization levels and generates specific knowledge, skills, and abilities for particular jobs. It is used to generate specific requirements to be used for employee selection. The competencies generated by competency modeling are more general and believed to have greater application to a wider variety of purposes, including selection, training, employee development, and performance management. Another way to think about competency models is by considering performance management.53 Unfortunately, many performance management systems suffer from a lack of agreement on what outcomes should be used to evaluate performance. Manager–employee discussions about performance deficiencies tend to lack specificity. By identifying the areas of personal capability that enable employees to perform their jobs successfully, competency models ensure an evaluation of what gets done and how it gets done. Performance feedback can be directed toward specific concrete examples of behavior, and knowledge, skills, ability, and other characteristics that are necessary for success are clearly described. How are competencies identified and competency models developed? Figure 3.5 shows the process used to develop a competency model. First, the business strategy is identified. The implications of business strategy for training were discussed in Chapter Two. The business strategy helps identify what types of competencies are needed to ensure that business goals are met and the company’s strategy is supported. Changes in the business strategy might cause new competencies to be needed or old competencies to be altered. Second, the job or position to be analyzed is identified. Third, effective and ineffective performers are identified. Fourth, the competencies responsible for effective and ineffective performance are identified. There are several approaches for identifying competencies. These include analyzing one or several “star” performers, surveying persons who are familiar with the job (SMEs), and investigating benchmark data of good performers in other companies.54 Fifth, the model is validated. That is, a determination is made as to whether the competencies included in the model truly are related to effective performance. In the example of the technical competencies for the systems engineer shown in Table 3.9, it is important to verify that (1) these three competencies are necessary for job success, and (2) the level of proficiency of the competency is appropriate.Competency models are useful for training and development in several ways:56 They identify behaviors needed for effective job performance. These models ensure that feedback given to employees as part of a development program (such as 360-degree feedback) relate specifically to individual and organizational success. They provide a tool for determining what skills are necessary to meet today’s needs, as well as the company’s future skill needs. They can be used to evaluate the relationship between the company’s current training programs and present needs. That is, they help align training and development activities with the company’s business goals. They can be used to evaluate how well the offerings relate to anticipated future skill needs. They help determine what skills are needed at different career points.

• They provide a framework for ongoing coaching and feedback to develop employees for current and future roles. By comparing their current personal competencies to those required for a job, employees can identify competencies that need development and choose actions to develop those competencies. These actions may include courses, job experiences, and other types of development. (Development methods are detailed in Chapter Nine, “Employee Development and Career Management.”)

• They create a “road map” for identifying and developing employees who may be candidates for managerial positions (succession planning).

• They provide a common set of criteria that may be used for identifying appropriate development training and learning activities for employees, as well as for evaluating and rewarding them. This helps integrate and align the company’s HR systems and practices.

For example, at American Express, competency models are used to help managers lead their own teams by providing a framework that their employees can use to capitalize on strengths and improve weaknesses.⁵⁷ At the company level, competencies are used to determine the talent level of the entire company, including capabilities, strengths, and opportunities. This information is provided to managers who use the data to identify key needs and plan actions to ensure that current and future competencies are developed in employees.

Question: Why would some companies resist creating and using competency models for their training and development efforts?

Answer 1

Some of the reasons companies resist creating and using competency models for their training and development efforts are, such as:

• competency models are larger in nature and having think content;
• having multiple levels of competencies which represents at leadership level, functional level and enterprise level) and various different proficiencies for each of the competency;
• Employee does not like to work with the competency models and they find these to be challenging enough to understand and adopt;
• Sometimes competency model does not resonates well with the line managers and their teams;
• Generally competency models are created by referring to the libraries offered by external agencies but sometimes language used by these libraries does not align with the organizational culture;
• Ignorance from the leaders by considering that the competency model is only designed for the talent management group and related processes.