Dear All,

I've been asked to do some ground work on Competency Mapping, as we plan to adopt it in our Company.

I have listed down the steps of going abt it, as per my understanding. But, have a totally unclear picture in mind.

Step 1: From the Overall Objective of the Company, you need to arrive at objectives for each Business Process.
Step 2: Based on the objectives of each BP, you arrive at competencies required.
Step 3: You Map these competencies against individual roles and responsibilities.
Step 4: Once this is done, you arrive at Job descriptions.
Step 5: Against which individual competency profiling is done.
Step 6: The gap identified b/n competency Profile and performance is evaluated..

First of all, Is my understanding right ? Any of you have adopted this in your company? Any case studies available? Books for reference..

What are the Pros & Cons of adopting this?

Pls help...

Regards

Jaswinder

Dear Jaswinder,

There are four important Stages in Competency Strategy Process :

1. Business Alignment
* Vision , Mission, Purpose , Values
* Strategies, Critical Success Factors
* Future Scenarios
* Core Capabilities

2. Project Planning
* Purpose and Scope
* Application and Tools
* Project Steps and Roles
* Information Systems

3. Model Development
* Performance Data
* Benchmarks / Research
* Behavioral Descriptions
* Validation

4. Rollout
* Communicate process to line
* Continuing Assessment / Development

As description of each and every section of this outline is huge , can we take it step by step depending on the availability of time and on your interest on it .

Before starting the project you have to make a clear decision on what is your approach to competencies , you want to be task oriented or behaviour oriented. How are you going to benchmark superior performance , whether by looking at industry standards or by looking in to superior performers of your company.

We had a very interesting scenario in one of our competency project implementation for a big oil company  where they proposed competency based appraisal. They came up with an innovative suggestion that "Competencies are just inputs / capabilities that are required to perform a task , but we would like to pay them based on the output they produce" i.e We will hire them for the competency they possess , but we will pay them based on the completion of the objectives set for them and not for their competencies however high it may be. Hence they have a familiar process of Objective/Potential Appraisal.

You need to be very careful on these issues , competencies if not properly used can put your company and you in a real fix.

Competency based appraisal system allows you to..

- measure not only what was achieved, but also how it was achieved
- emphasize to all associates what behaviors, knowledge, and skills will be necessary for future success
- reward those outstanding performers who make a difference

There are many options for competency-based appraisals. We believe that certain criteria are essential, others are recommended, and some depend on the unique needs of your organization.

Essential Criteria for a typical Competency Based Appraisal System
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- Both Competencies and results need to be measured

- Competencies must be relevant to success in the job.

- Core competencies must be instrumental in achieving success for anyone in the organization.

- Functional or technical competencies are relevant to success in a particular job family, role or process.

- Competencies and their behavioral descriptions must describe behaviors that can be demonstrated, observed, and developed.

- Raters must be trained in understanding the model, and in how to evaluate fairly and accurately against it. They also must have adequate interaction with the subject in order to observe and evaluate

Recommended Criteria
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Although these critieria are not essential they do make a difference in your competency based appraisal initiative.

- Employees need to have assigned some strategic competencies drawn from vision , mission, future and strategic goals and Appraising performance against strategic competencies should be done. This is done in order to align the performance of the individual to the business objectives of the company

- Regardless of the number of competencies assigned for an employee, we recommend that the appraisal focus on those few (less than 10) that are considered most critical to job success.

- A 360 Degree rating will do a world of good in assessing an individuals performance

Other things to consider
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- Whether or not weight competencies based on their importance to job

- Appraising only core/strategic competencies, or in combination with technical/functional/role competencies

Hope I have shed little light on CBA .

Look forward to responses from the group.

Rajul

I had some suggestion on your work. The points You have give is huge in process implementaion and derive to the Competency conclusion.

You have given the Objective for each Business process, I feel it will be very easy to identify the competencies, if you pioritize the activities in the Department along with it.

Now take two Heads for competency Technical( Sub points like technology updation, process re-engineering, basedon technology, other technical skills,)and Managerial which include Leadership Communication stress level in work (Criticallity)Time Management etc. Start match these skills with the prioritized objectives to acheive it.

I feel if you approach in this way you can arrive at your objective of Competency mapping.

Warm Regards

Anuj Jain 

It is absolutely true that competencies has to be definitely aligned with the results intended, but the point we are trying to put across is competencies are perfect tool to predict outcomes but are not to MEASURE them.

You may have a highly competent Welder, but at the end of the day, measuring how many weldings he/she had done will be more accurate than testing his/her competence level. Of course we cannot totally ignore competencies , but it has a relatively lesser importance in this context.

In general, competencies are "future" oriented and are often used to indicate an individual's potential readiness for promotion or reassignment. These may also be used to plan career potential...or across many "trained" people to to evaluate the effectiveness of training. Results are present or past oriented and used to evaluate performance, compensation etc.

hope that helps expand your view

Debbie

Gradational levels is one way of managing competencies effectively. But many don't prefer them because of the constraints in implementation & huge training budget it consumes. Some call these as qualifications instead of competencies wherein you should qualify a particular grade to go to next level.

The normal procedure is to identify the milestones an individual should cross in achieving proficiency in a particular competency. The organisations who follow this procedure also develop a well structured curriculum plan to help the employee graduate from one level to another.

One way to identify these milestones is benchmarking the best practices followed in the industry.

Regards

mark

Dear Colleagues,

Competencies are the mixture of skill,knowledge and attitude. There are mutli variants in the definition with few more attributes adding to, as well.

Competencies are viewed at two broad levles

1. Core or Generci competenices which are exhibited by all employees at all levels in an orgization

2. Rol/Function/Level specific competencies

The critical factor would be according to me is transalting the skills into measurable behaviours to analyze as well as measure the competencies which might require a psyhcologist. most often

Various roles/levels requires various degrees of same competencies. For Eg: Communication to a junior level and senior level employee never can be at the same level.

The mapping of competencies is the process of matching the competency levels depcited by an employee vis a vis the actual level desired for that role/level/function

The process

1. Identify the competencies
2. Transalte into measurable behaviours
3. Define the degrees of measurement for each level
4. Setting the standard - the competency level which must be exhibited

Once you ahve done these you have to carry out the competency analysis. This is done through

1. Assessment centre - psychometris tests, role plays, etc with a psychologist observing and interpreting the behaviors
2. BEI - behavioural event interviews
3. Critical incident discussion etc

Once these excercises are over, we would be able to understand the competencies portaryed by an employee and degree.

This has to be mapped against the desired competency level for that role/function/level the employee falling into and identify the gaps to circumscribe the gap through various interventions

Mapping is actually for identifying gap of an employee competency by comparing the actual to the desired level.

Regards

Robin

Competency mapping is an attempt to map the competencies (The skills, knowledge, attitudes) of the employees to the desired/ required competencies.

You can first identify the desired competencies for the particular position, then try to see how close the actual competencies of the employees are to the desired ones.
u can further try and bridge the gaps thru training.

Competency-based approaches have developed quite rapidly since their introduction 25 years ago. David McClelland is credited with introducing the idea of "competency" into the human resource literature (Dubois, 1993). In response to a growing dissatisfaction with intelligence testing and the traditional job analytic approaches to personnel selection, McClelland argued that traditional intelligence tests, as well as proxies such as scholastic grades, failed to predict job performance. Instead, McClelland proposed testing for competency.

Competency-based approaches gained popularity and acceptance within the human resources community through the work of McClelland and his associates, particularly Richard Boyatzis, at McBer and Company (which is now part of the Hay Group). Boyatzis is credited with popularizing the term in his book "The Competent Manager (Woodruff, 1991)". Boyatzis suggested that a competency was a combination of a motive, trait, skill, aspect of one's self-image or social role, or a body of relevant knowledge. In other words, a competency is any characteristic of an individual that might be related to successful Performance. Boyatzis' definition of competency left much room for debate over its application to performance.

Klein's (1996) offered one more definition which diverges the most from the others by suggesting that competencies are a collection of observable behaviours, or Behavioral indicators. These Behavioral indicators are grouped according to a central theme, which then becomes the competency.Klein suggests that the behaviours underlie the competency; this is contrary to other definitions which suggest that competencies underlie behaviours.

Woodruff raised the issue of distinguishing between competence and competency and proposed that competence is a performance criterion while competencies are the behaviours driving the competence. More recently, Rowe raised the same issue and discusses competence in terms of a skill and a standard of performance and defines competency as the behaviour needed to achieve competence. This is similar to Klein's argument that competencies are not psychological constructs but thematic groups of demonstrated observable behaviours that discriminate between superior and average performance. These behaviours require no inference, assumptions, or interpretation.

Zemke's comments at that time on the definition of competency remain valid today:

"Competency, competencies, competency models, and competency-based training are Humpty Dumpty words meaning only what the definer wants them to mean.The problem comes not from malice, stupidity or marketing avarice, but instead from some basic procedural and philosophical differences among those racing to define and develop the concept and to set the model for the way the rest of us will use competencies in our day-today efforts." Zemke,1982, p.28)

Although all these definitions looks different on their own way , they have the following things in common

1. Competencies are Knowledge , Skill , Attitude and Other Characterstics such as Personal Motives,traits that are observable and measurable.

2. These underlying attributes must be observable and measurable

3. They should clearly differentiate superior performers from others for a given position.

These defnitions has been accepted by majority of professionals & organizations in the field.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dubois, D. (1993). Competency-based performance: A strategy for organizational change. Boston, MA: HRD Press.

In addition to sarah's response, this is my say :-

The term competencies are used frequently by researchers, management consultants and HR professionals. There are nearly as many definitions of competency as there are competencies themselves, and the answer to the question "What is a competency?" sparks considerable debate among those familiar with the term. A generally accepted definition of a competency is " the knowledge, skills, attitudes and other characteristics required for superior job performance".

Such competencies need to be in conformance with your organization's requirements. Organizational context is a variable, which is multi - faceted. Following are the factors you might have to look in:

HIERARCHICAL LEVEL: You need to very carefully examine your hierarchical levels before undertaking a competency exercise, since competencies will vary from one level to another. You can consider Stratified Systems Theory by Elliott Jaques. According to this theory the hierarchy is defined by time span taken for completion of tasks. The more complex the task, it requires more the time, more responsibility, accounability and authority.

ROLE: The next factor you may have to look into is the role of the positions in your hierarchy. As far as myself and Murali is concerned, we segregate the roles into 4 types:

Worker: Task - Oriented.
Supervisor: Process - Oriented.
Manager: People - Oriented.
Leader: Organization - Oriented.

ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE CYCLE: You may have to consider your organization's stage in the life cycle. The much acclaimed "Wholistic Competency Model" published by Public Service Commission of Canada defines the following 5 stages in an organization's life cycle.

Birth: Creativity & Entrepreneurship.
Growth: Collectivity & Expansion.
Midlife: Formalization and Control.
Maturity: Elobaration of structure and Diversification.
Decline/Renewal: Degeneration or Revitalization.

CORPORATE CULTURE: Your corporate culture also plays a vital role in defining the competencies. According to us an individual's interaction with the environment is often called "character", for an organization / society, it is called "culture". Some quotes from "Telling the CEO his/her baby is ugly" by Richard Hagberg, Ph.D.Hagberg Consulting Group and Julie Heifetz, Ph.D.Hagberg Consulting Group, seems to be extremely relevant.

"Your organization's culture is not the espoused list of values developed at an offsite by the executive team and framed on the wall in your lobby. These are ideals. What you strive to be as an organization and what values you hope to endorse, may be different from the values, beliefs, and norms expressed in your actual practices and behavior.

Cultural assessment can provide measurable data about the real organizational values and norms that can be used to get management's attention. It can dispel some of management's illusions about what really matters in the organization and will tell them how far off the mark things really are. Management may find that it is not practicing what it preaches."

Cheers !!

Benny