Is Your Competency Model Evolving with Your Organization?

Driven by the scarcity of skilled talent, rising turnover, and diminishing productivity, organizations have been trying to attract and keep talent in a variety of ways. After years of effort and expense on employee engagement, employer branding, and failed leadership development, the focus now is on organizational realignment.^[1]

The way people work is transforming. The emerging trend is toward ad hoc team-based activity, flatter organizations, and more self-directed work. With talent at a premium, we see a desperate need for agile leadership to support the new employee experience.

This focus on attracting and developing talented leadership has made well-designed competency models more relevant than ever.

What is a Competency Model?

We can describe competency as a collection of attributes and behaviors that enable a person to perform a particular job function. A competency model can be the competencies for a job, a job family, a business function, a broad role such as leadership, or an entire library. You can organize competencies into libraries, types, responsibility levels, function, or any other way that fits your business model.

Why are Competencies Important?

Competency models promote excellence. They are not job descriptions, and a list of duties is not a foundation for a competency model. Competencies grow out of the behaviors and characteristics of effective performers – not what they do, but how they do it.

A well-designed model reduces subjectivity. Instead of forcing assessors or learning developers to use their intuition and experience with their innate biases, a competency model describes specific behaviors.

Competencies create consistency. The definition and behavioral anchors are the same across the organization, and they can you can modify them to accommodate cultural differences without losing their meaning.

Has your competency model adapted to the new reality?

If your competency model has not kept pace with organizational change and evolving roles, it may be time to reevaluate. Here are the signs your competency model is due for a recharge.

• Competencies are not aligned with corporate strategy. One possibility is that your company may have purchased or licensed a standard model but did not adapt it to your culture and the way things get done.
• Roles have outgrown their competency models. Jobs change over time, and without maintenance and governance, competency models will fall into obsolescence. One sign is that recruiters and hiring managers no longer use the model as a guide for hiring the right person for the role.
• Managers are struggling to help employees develop and to assess their performance because the criteria are too vague or no longer fit the role.
• When employees see their job descriptions, they say, “That’s not what I do.”
• Your competencies are not integrated into every talent management function. Lacking a shared understanding of the attributes and behaviors required for a role, you can’t coordinate the development and engagement opportunities that arise during every employee experience.

Is It Time for a Tune-up?

If your competency model needs an update or if you don’t have one, it may be a chance to get started on an overhaul.

You don’t have to turn the world upside down and get it all done right now. Developing a competency library takes time, and, once established, its maintenance is an ongoing activity.

Start with one critical role. If the position is vacant, all the better. It will be easier to show progress when you hire the right person. Build on that success, and as you develop your libraries, use the opportunity you have to evangelize the benefits of competency modeling.

References: 

1.  Global Human Capital Trends 2016. Deloitte University Press. 2016.

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