Wednesday, 4 July 2012
Emerging Trends in Competency-based Management
Competency profiles a prerequisite to contract award
As a competency professional working in this field for over 25 years, I have worked with and trained clients of all shapes and sizes around the world in the area of competency-based management , or CBM. What I am seeing are more client organizations insisting on their suppliers being “CBM certified” either as a contract condition or prior to contract award. Many of the organizations that attend my CBM workshops at HRSG are there because they need to implement a competency-based framework within their organization as part of a contractual requirement. Their clients want to know if they are competent in what they do, they want to be certain they possess the needed skills, have the proper qualifications, or are aligned with their corporate culture.
As companies squeeze out their own operational waste, they turn to their suppliers to help them eliminate inefficient processes. It is not uncommon for organization to utilize competency-based performance management for individuals and some are event using it to manage supplier performance. The competency model identifies specific behaviors that allow the measurement of the progress and development. The set of defined behaviors contribute to the success of an efficient supply chain. We see this approach used in creating “Lean Environments”. A company can align with other business organizations who reflect the same core values and business philosophy. Competencies then provide a grid by which to measure the pursuit of the Lean Journey.
In the United States a “Certificate of Competency” is issued by the small business administration (SBA) to prove that a small business is capable of contractual performance. The certificate is necessary in cases where the small business is the low bidder on a government contract and the contracting officer who is charged with awarding a bid does not believe that the small business can carry out the duties required under the bid. SBA experts review the business in detail to assess its performance capabilities and issue a Certificate of Competency that requires that the contract be awarded to the business. Without it, businesses that are new to bidding on government contracts may have difficulty being awarded contracts by contracting officers who are unsure about their ability to perform.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Top 5 Tips for Hiring the Best Candidate
The success of your organization heavily relies on attracting and selecting the right talent. Use Competency-based Selection to increase the validity of your recruitment process and avoid bad hires that can jeopardize the future of your business.
Follow HRSG’s Top 5 Tips for Hiring the Best Candidate, and make every manager in your organization a professional recruiter:
Tip #1: Focus on the Job Requirements - Establish the competencies that are necessary for successful job-specific performance and use competency-based interviewing to assess these “soft” skills in potential candidates.Read more...
Tip #2: Past Behavior is a Predictor of Future Behavior- When interviewing candidates, ask questions that are directed towards candidates’ past experiences and accomplishments to make an informed prediction about how they are likely to perform in future positions. Read more...
Tip #3: Establish a Rapport with the Interviewee - Make candidates feel comfortable during an interview by keeping your body language neutral, taking lots of notes, and encouraging the candidate with nods and smiles. Do not challenge or debate a candidate’s answers. Read more...
Tip #4: When in Doubt Check it Out! Avoid making inaccurate assumptions when interviewing diverse candidates by eliminating barriers and being aware of common communicative behaviors identified with different cultures and generations. Read more...
Tip #5: Evaluate the Interview - Evaluate information acquired during interviews consistently and appropriately for all candidates. Take note of everything and review interviews carefully for evidence of the competencies being assessed by classifying answers as a positive or negative demonstration of a competency. Read more...
For more information, read the full tips or check our HRSG’s Top Tips on other related topics.
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Top 5 Tips for Selecting a Talent Management Solution
Selecting an HR or Talent Management technology can
be a daunting and expensive task. Making sure you choose the right solution for
your organization can save much frustration and a lot of time in the long run.
Follow HRSG’s Top 5 Tips for Selecting a Talent Management Solution to find out what to look for when implementing talent management software.
Tip #1: Find a Solution Built Around Best Practice Processes and Content: When selecting HR or talent management software, don’t simply automate your existing processes. Take the opportunity to find a solution that will improve your business processes as a whole, and increase the impact of every member of your team. Read more…
Tip #2: Get it Right the First Time! Implement Effectively: According to the experts, one of the biggest mistakes organizations make when selecting a new software is poor implementation. Make sure your software provider has the support services in place to help you implement effectively. Read more…
Tip #3: Configure, Don’t Customize: Customized software is costly and requires highly technical people to maintain. Once you customize a solution it is very difficult to upgrade and software providers will charge big bucks to update and maintain these systems. Read more…
Tip #4: Increase Objectivity and Transparency: Ensure the system you select has built in processes and content that will increase the transparency of your assessment processes and decrease the risk of potential litigation. Read more…
Tip #5: Increase the Predictability of Best Job Fit: Eliminate the risk of making the wrong choice when selecting new hires and save significant amounts of time and money. Choose a software solution that will empower your hiring managers to define what is required for competence in a job and hire according to those required skills, competencies and attributes. Read more…
Friday, 4 May 2012
Skill vs Competency
Being in the business of competencies, we often get the question about the difference between skills and competencies, and clearly defining both of these nouns is critical for successful businesses.
Skills are often seen as an ability through knowledge, and more often, practice to do something well. Competencies on the other hand are generally accepted as a set of behaviours or actions needed to successfully be performed within a particular context (e.g. a job). Competencies are organization-specific and well-developed competencies will have a set of behavioural indicators associated with them to be applied at the experience level of the particular job being defined. So whether you call it a skill or a competency the important thing is that it must be observable and measurable.
Competencies can be categorized as "core", which are those that are essential for all employees to possess, "functional" in that they are applicable to particular group (say, finance) and "technical" when they are applicable to a particular job. A proper competency profile will have all of these areas covered in defining the requirements for the job. A job profile might include both the skills needed for the job, often expressed in terms of experience (e.g 5 years at a managerial level), and the competencies needed, often these are the soft skills required to be successful (e.g. client focus or decisiveness).
Using a competency-based approach in companies used to be too hard to manage over time, as requirements changed due to technology or functional evolution. This may hold true if one starts from a clean sheet of paper without the software tools to amend and adapt competencies over time as requirements change. Now, there are tools available to make the task of implementing competency-based management a lot easier and much less expensive than in the past. CompetencyCoreTM 5 is a great tool to help manage and implement competencies, while allowing your company to adapt and evolve: www.competencycore.com/competencycore-5.
As was suggested, competencies can be used in performance management, but they are also essential for selection, succession, training and learning, and even compensation. According to analysts at Aberdeen and Bersin, competencies are critical to the successful management of modern companies, so give your organization the best chance to be successful and implement competency-based management.
Want to learn more? Competency-based Talent Management, or CbTM, is the best practice for defining job requirements and building effective HR programs to develop skilled, engaged and productive workforces. Download this Best Practice Guide to learn how competencies can increase workforce effectiveness and improve business practices.
Skills are often seen as an ability through knowledge, and more often, practice to do something well. Competencies on the other hand are generally accepted as a set of behaviours or actions needed to successfully be performed within a particular context (e.g. a job). Competencies are organization-specific and well-developed competencies will have a set of behavioural indicators associated with them to be applied at the experience level of the particular job being defined. So whether you call it a skill or a competency the important thing is that it must be observable and measurable.
Competencies can be categorized as "core", which are those that are essential for all employees to possess, "functional" in that they are applicable to particular group (say, finance) and "technical" when they are applicable to a particular job. A proper competency profile will have all of these areas covered in defining the requirements for the job. A job profile might include both the skills needed for the job, often expressed in terms of experience (e.g 5 years at a managerial level), and the competencies needed, often these are the soft skills required to be successful (e.g. client focus or decisiveness).
Using a competency-based approach in companies used to be too hard to manage over time, as requirements changed due to technology or functional evolution. This may hold true if one starts from a clean sheet of paper without the software tools to amend and adapt competencies over time as requirements change. Now, there are tools available to make the task of implementing competency-based management a lot easier and much less expensive than in the past. CompetencyCoreTM 5 is a great tool to help manage and implement competencies, while allowing your company to adapt and evolve: www.competencycore.com/competencycore-5.
As was suggested, competencies can be used in performance management, but they are also essential for selection, succession, training and learning, and even compensation. According to analysts at Aberdeen and Bersin, competencies are critical to the successful management of modern companies, so give your organization the best chance to be successful and implement competency-based management.
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