Competency Development Framework
One of the critical tasks of the Human Resource Department in any organization is to define and measure effectiveness of their employees. An organization that does not have the metrics to do so fails to attract good talent and manage performance of their current employees. But the question here is: How do you define the competencies required by employees to perform their jobs effectively, or in other words, how do you define a successful employee in the organization? Answering this question provides the foundation for development of an organizations competency development framework.
The quest for the ‘perfect’ employee starts with the mission and vision of the organization. The mission and vision is the guiding light of an organization. Organizations that have mission and vision statements that look like rip offs from Dilbert’s Mission and Vision Generator very soon find out that they are akin to a ship without a compass. As the famous quip from the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland goes “If you don’t know where you are going, then any road would take you there.”
Once we know what are the goals, purposes and values of the organization, (which is basically the mission and vision statement), we define what it takes to be successful in the organization and at work i.e the Behavioural and Functional competencies. Behavioural competencies define what it takes to be successful in the organization, the ideal guy who would get to be the CEO someday. Examples are Leadership, Teamwork and so on. Functional competencies describe what it takes to get the job done like data analysis, risk analysis or experience developing competency development frameworks. As you can easily infer, while behavioural skills are usually soft skills and are the same across the organization, functional competencies differ from department to department.
Now that we have our list of competencies for our ideal employee we need to define them and determine the levels of proficiency of each competency so that all employees know what it takes to be successful at work and “to ensure that all are on the same page”. This also provides a way to assess real-time employees with our ‘ideal’ employee. We do that by giving a definition of what the competency is, the proficiency levels of the competency, how to differentiate between each level and map the desired level for each role.
For example, Microsoft defines Humor as a competency for one of their roles which are defined as “Has a positive and constructive sense of humor. Can laugh at himself/herself and with others. Is appropriately funny and can use humor to ease tension.”
Proficiency levels of humor are as follows:
| Level 1:
Basic |
Level 2:
Intermediate |
Level 3:
Advanced |
Level 4:
Expert |
| Generally uses humor in a positive way |
Uses humor to bring people together |
Knows exactly when and where a joke or story will be effective |
Can see humor in almost everything |
Only the first lines are included. To read more and discover the funny you, go to: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/training-and-events/education-competencies/humor.aspx
Now that most of the hard work is done, all that is left is to take all our work and map it across the organization right? Not so fast. What we really need to do is identify unique roles in the organization and then map the competencies to each role. The mapping happens based on whether the role is relevant and if it is relevant, what proficiency level is required for the role. For example: Do you think humor is a required competency for the President of the United States? If yes, what should be the proficiency level?
But why do all this work? Seriously? Developing a good competency framework is hard. Real Hard. However, the rewards are worth it. A well-developed competency framework helps us in recruiting stellar people, putting the right people in right jobs based on their strengths, evaluate their performance using the right metrics, strengthen training practices of the organization, improv rewards and recognition, give appropriate and objective feedback and much much more. In fact, a good competency framework percolates into each and every facet of people management and helps improve its efficiency manifold. But that’s the good part. However, a poorly designed framework can wreck havoc in the organization and can make management take all the wrong decisions.
To avoid the same, it would be prudent for HR to involve other stakeholders like TMT, Departmental heads during the design phase. Developing a competency framework for various departments is complex stuff. So taking inputs from employees especially senior leadership helps. (Doing so also helps in joint ownership). In addition during the roll out phase it is essential to have a proper communication plan ready where employees are made aware about the framework and how it would help them and the organization grow.
Designing a good competency framework is a long and complex journey. But it goes a long way in helping employees work more effectively and achieve their potential.
Competency Development Framework
One of the critical tasks of the Human Resource Department in any organization is to define and measure effectiveness of their employees. An organization that does not have the metrics to do so fails to attract good talent and manage performance of their current employees. But the question here is: How do you define the competencies required by employees to perform their jobs effectively, or in other words, how do you define a successful employee in the organization? Answering this question provides the foundation for development of an organizations competency development framework.
The quest for the ‘perfect’ employee starts with the mission and vision of the organization. The mission and vision is the guiding light of an organization. Organizations that have mission and vision statements that look like rip offs from Dilbert’s Mission and Vision Generator very soon find out that they are akin to a ship without a compass. As the famous quip from the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland goes “If you don’t know where you are going, then any road would take you there.”
Once we know what are the goals, purposes and values of the organization, (which is basically the mission and vision statement), we define what it takes to be successful in the organization and at work i.e the Behavioural and Functional competencies. Behavioural competencies define what it takes to be successful in the organization, the ideal guy who would get to be the CEO someday. Examples are Leadership, Teamwork and so on. Functional competencies describe what it takes to get the job done like data analysis, risk analysis or experience developing competency development frameworks. As you can easily infer, while behavioural skills are usually soft skills and are the same across the organization, functional competencies differ from department to department.
Now that we have our list of competencies for our ideal employee we need to define them and determine the levels of proficiency of each competency so that all employees know what it takes to be successful at work and “to ensure that all are on the same page”. This also provides a way to assess real-time employees with our ‘ideal’ employee. We do that by giving a definition of what the competency is, the proficiency levels of the competency, how to differentiate between each level and map the desired level for each role.
For example, Microsoft defines Humor as a competency for one of their roles which are defined as “Has a positive and constructive sense of humor. Can laugh at himself/herself and with others. Is appropriately funny and can use humor to ease tension.”
Proficiency levels of humor are as follows:
| Level 1:
Basic |
Level 2:
Intermediate |
Level 3:
Advanced |
Level 4:
Expert |
| Generally uses humor in a positive way |
Uses humor to bring people together |
Knows exactly when and where a joke or story will be effective |
Can see humor in almost everything |
Only the first lines are included. To read more and discover the funny you, go to: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/training-and-events/education-competencies/humor.aspx
Now that most of the hard work is done, all that is left is to take all our work and map it across the organization right? Not so fast. What we really need to do is identify unique roles in the organization and then map the competencies to each role. The mapping happens based on whether the role is relevant and if it is relevant, what proficiency level is required for the role. For example: Do you think humor is a required competency for the President of the United States? If yes, what should be the proficiency level?
But why do all this work? Seriously? Developing a good competency framework is hard. Real Hard. However, the rewards are worth it. A well-developed competency framework helps us in recruiting stellar people, putting the right people in right jobs based on their strengths, evaluate their performance using the right metrics, strengthen training practices of the organization, improv rewards and recognition, give appropriate and objective feedback and much much more. In fact, a good competency framework percolates into each and every facet of people management and helps improve its efficiency manifold. But that’s the good part. However, a poorly designed framework can wreck havoc in the organization and can make management take all the wrong decisions.
To avoid the same, it would be prudent for HR to involve other stakeholders like TMT, Departmental heads during the design phase. Developing a competency framework for various departments is complex stuff. So taking inputs from employees especially senior leadership helps. (Doing so also helps in joint ownership). In addition during the roll out phase it is essential to have a proper communication plan ready where employees are made aware about the framework and how it would help them and the organization grow.
Designing a good competency framework is a long and complex journey. But it goes a long way in helping employees work more effectively and achieve their potential.
