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Competency
Profiling is a method of breaking the job into its constituent
parts and identify specified skills, knowledge, personalities and behaviours
needed to perform the same successfully. Competency profiling determines the
extent to which the various competencies related to a job are possessed by an
employee. A competency Model is
a set of competencies and includes
associated behaviours that link directly to overall strategic priorities and
the work that needs to be done to achieve them, as well as to levels of
proficiency for each behaviour. According to Roe (2002), competencies
are a set of personality traits,
knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviours that an employee applies in
performing his/her work and are the key employee-related levers for achieving results that are relevant to the
organisation’s business strategies.
This stage involves the review and assessment of all the factors that influence the employee
behaviors the model is trying to improve and these include among other things:
This step involves the review of your vision, mission, values, strategy,
and identification of your
organisation’s goals and breaking them
into your competencies.
A job
family is a collection of related jobs that
require employees having similar knowledge, skills and abilities at different
levels. Thus, a job family has jobs at progressing levels defining a career
path for an individual, with an incremental requirement of similar knowledge,
skills and abilities. All jobs in a given job profile require
a similar educational background, experience, competences, and market value.
This phase involves the identification and classification of jobs into families
based on the following criteria:
The
classification of jobs into families allows your organisation among other
things to:
This
stage involves theidentification
and specification of competencies at organisational, business unit, team and
job level. The competencies will be further decomposed into core
competencies, job family competencies, technical competencies, and leadership
competencies and behavioural indicators.
Organisation specific -competencies reflect the core
values of the organization and are usually specified by the founders. People
are the face of the organization. They are expected to exhibit a set of
competencies and behaviors that reflect organizational character to certain
standards that are non-negotiable and these include among others ethical conduct and integrity. Core Competencies are those competencies that
contribute the most towards achieving strategic results. Technical/Functional Competencies are job-specific competencies
needed to perform a particular position.
They
are determined by responsibilities and the accountability levels of that role. Leadership Competencies are related to managing an
organisation or department and leading people. Behavioural Indicators describe the actions required to demonstrate
a particular competency.
The following methods will be used for
gathering the data.
Having identified the
various competencies, they need to be categorised into competency
type, sub- competency cluster, competency definitions,
competency level and appropriate behavioural indicators which are categorised
in a logical structure
The
levels of competency mastery will be defined to reflect the progression of the level
of expertise. Each competency level will be associated with a specific set of indicators to describe the
behavior and skills required at that particular level. The level of mastery
expected for a given competency increase as the responsibility and scope of the
position dictate. Both core and
functional competencies are therefore further differentiated by levels to
account for these differences in scope, breadth and depth of responsibilities.
However, it is important to note that competencies are cumulative i.e. the
basic behavioral indicators at lower levels also apply to all subsequent
levels. Below is an illustration
of how we are going to differentiate the different competence proficiency
levels for each functional area.
The
purpose of the assessment is to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses to
determine how further development could improve competence and results. At this stage, all the affected employees
will be assessed against performance competencies and personal competencies.
This will be done by administering
scientifically validated instruments to the employees that are outlined below:
Competency Gap is the difference between the current competency level
of your employees and the required competency level. This will be calculated
using a mathematical formula.
This stage involves the development
of personal competency development plans to bridge the competency gaps
determined at step 8. The plans will prescribe activities that seek to bridge
the competency gaps that will have been identified in stage 4.
Having identified the
distinguishing characteristics of superior performers, the model should be
validated.
Competency Mapping is the process of identifying critical
competencies and incorporating them in all people management processes like
training, performance management, succession planning, recruitment and
selection. Competency
mapping is integral to competency management.
It is
the process by which individual competencies are assessed periodically with
respect to required skills, their competency gaps and changes are monitored,
and suitable actions are taken to address them.
Newturn
Wikirefu is the Talent Acquisition Manager at Industrial Psychology Consultants
(Pvt) Ltd a management and human resources consulting firm.
Phone +263 4
481946-48/481950/2900276/2900966 or cell number +0784 597343 or email:
newturn@ipcconsultants.com or visit our website at www.ipcconsultants.com
This article was written by one of the consultants at IPC
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