| Effective use of competency frameworks provides | | | | range of behaviours, skills and knowledge required to |
| employees with a clearly-defined set of personal | | | | complete the tasks undertaken by the organisation or |
| development objectives and managers with a | | | | section in question.The difference between behaviour |
| consistent measurement tool that could be used | | | | skills and knowledge can be examined through |
| across geographical, cultural and work boundaries.The | | | | occupations which require the driving of a motor |
| concept is simple. To complete any task, people need | | | | vehicle.Firstly, a courier driver requires the behaviour, |
| to have the behaviour, skills and knowledge to | | | | skills and knowledge as follows.Behaviour; the driver |
| undertake the task. Defining the behaviour, skills and | | | | must be courteous, punctual and not too much of a |
| knowledge (competence) to undertake a set of tasks | | | | boy racer in the traffic as we don't want to |
| (a job) and measuring the competence of people | | | | accumulate fines. Skills; must be able to drive a car, |
| allows managers and employees to understand the | | | | evidenced by a licence, read a street directory and |
| gap between desired and demonstrated competence | | | | able to use a hand held computer to access orders, |
| and develop a plan to close the gap.Many | | | | make payments etc. Knowledge; must know the road |
| organisations however fail in their attempts to build a | | | | rules, again evidenced by a licence, our delivery and |
| framework to proactively manage competencies.The | | | | credit terms and our returns policy.Secondly, let us |
| major reason for failure is that competence | | | | examine another driver, a specific one whose name is |
| frameworks are developed and implemented with no | | | | Michael Schumacher. Herr Schumacher needs to have |
| clear business purpose in mind. Without a business | | | | the following skills behaviour and knowledge.Behaviour; |
| purpose, there is no objective on which to base design | | | | has ice cool nerves, steely determination and |
| decisions as the framework is built. The resultant | | | | confidence in his ability to the point of arrogance. Skills; |
| design is usually flawed, serving too many masters | | | | a much higher level of driving skill than our courier |
| and is discontinued after a year or two of | | | | driver, a licence will not suffice as evidence, able to |
| use.Competency development frameworks built with a | | | | change gears by pressing buttons and have reflexes |
| clear business purpose in mind suffer from other fatal | | | | measured in milliseconds. Knowledge; must know the |
| flaws limiting the use of and belief in the framework. | | | | racing line of every Grand Prix track, the relationship |
| Frameworks built which confuse tasks with | | | | between track, tyre and suspension set up.Designing a |
| competency are usually complex and difficult to | | | | framework with competencies defined at different |
| administer and therefore are difficult to communicate | | | | levels, eg driving ability in the above example, allows a |
| to employees.For a framework to be successful, not | | | | range of jobs to be described using the same |
| only do managers need to believe that business | | | | competency set. Typically, a competency framework |
| performance will improve, but employees also need to | | | | will have between three and five levels of each |
| believe that the framework, especially the | | | | competency defined.If significantly more than twelve |
| measurement of competence, is fair and transparent.A | | | | competencies need to be defined to cover the range |
| common fault of competency frameworks is that they | | | | of jobs in an organisation, it is better to develop |
| confuse competence with task. Tasks are better | | | | separate linked frameworks. The linkage comes |
| positioned in the job description. Frameworks which | | | | through the behaviours and some of the skills. |
| confuse tasks with competencies generally have | | | | Behaviours are closely related to the values and |
| between forty and fifty "competencies" described. | | | | organisation desires and therefore the requirement is |
| Each job description tends to have between twenty | | | | likely to be the same in different functions. Some skills |
| and thirty competencies to be evaluated in an | | | | will also be the same, for example, communication. |
| employee.In the early days of the internet, before | | | | However, the knowledge requirement of different |
| people were careful about what they put in the public | | | | functions is normally quite different.Good competency |
| domain, I stumbled across NASA's competency | | | | frameworks will be easy to administer, easy to |
| framework. It was huge with hundreds of listed | | | | understand and built for a business purpose. Bad |
| "competencies" and resembling a list of all of the tasks | | | | competency frameworks will confuse competency |
| that astronauts and the support staff do. It was | | | | and task and be difficult to administer and understand |
| doomed to fail to deliver any business purpose other | | | | and will have been built without an obvious business |
| than being a repository from which to write the "tasks" | | | | purpose.Kevin Dwyer is Director of Change Factory. |
| part of job descriptions.Competency development | | | | Change Factory helps organisations who do do not like |
| frameworks should have about twelve competencies | | | | their business outcomes to get better outcomes by |
| to describe and measure to be successful in the long | | | | changing people's behaviour. Businesses we help have |
| term. Any more makes them difficult to administer and | | | | greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their |
| communicate. The competencies need to cover the | | | | desired business outcomes. |