Fresh Ideas for Appraisals and Competencies

Competency Frameworks – Cloud or Silver Lining?

I have been down this road myself in the past. It’s a road with a fork in it.

Down one fork lies a superbly comprehensive framework of competences that enable you to observe & measure pretty much everything you want and need to about employees’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours. The downside is that it’s impractical – way too many competences and other elements for one person to keep in their heads, resulting in the need to use often unwieldy competency manuals and almost always requiring more time to make assessments for each employee.

The other fork has a practical, less detailed and less comprehensive competence framework, but it is easier and quicker to use. The downside is that it’s open to interpretation, perhaps too open, and this gives rise to more dissatisfaction amongst employees.

The challenge is in finding a third fork, if there is one, a road that leads to Nirvana – ease of use, speed AND comprehensive & objective assessment.

I’ve yet to come across a repeatable, systematic and viable method for creating that third fork. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist though!

Oh, one other things – employees’ strengths and weaknesses – what if they fall outside of your competency framework, yet are relevant? Do you ignore these matters, and so (a) fail to help employees address weaknesses and (b) fail to recognise & reward relevant competences? No, of course not, if you do things ‘properly’, and that means you have to put regular effort in to maintaining your framework. And usually this requires a lot more effort than you might think…

And after all of this, is it really all worth it in the end? It could be. And it could also become a major constraint that helps hold the organisation as a whole back from greater levels of performance (read Eliyahu M Goldratt’s "Theory of Constraints" for more on this concept).

What every way forward you take, let me share with you some observations from the good Phil Rutherford from ‘Oz, originally posted on the ROINet board a few years ago:

There are four critical clusters of skills and knowledge you must focus on:

– the skills central to the task that the function must perform;

– the skills required to ‘manage’ these skills (e.g., turning up on time, knowing how to select the right tools etc);

– the skills required to apply both of these in different contexts, situations and environments;

– and the skills and knowledge required to identify where problems may arise and, should they arise, do something about them.

Good luck!

Cheers

Martin

2 Responses

spectrain says:

January 8, 2010 at 4:41 pm

Competency Frameworks

Hi Bernie,

I have designed many competency frameworks for various organisations and provide documentation to enable those frameworks to be integrated into recruitment and selection, training needs identification and performance appraisal and succession processes. I am happy to share a couple of examples with you. Please email for details.

One important issue to consider is what are the future technology and skill requirements of your business and who will maintain the framework as job requirements change?

Joy Wilson

http://www.spectrain.co.uk
User deleted says:

January 11, 2010 at 6:34 pm

Competency Frameworks – Cloud or Silver Lining?

I have been down this road myself in the past. It’s a road with a fork in it.

Down one fork lies a superbly comprehensive framework of competences that enable you to observe & measure pretty much everything you want and need to about employees’ knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours. The downside is that it’s impractical – way too many competences and other elements for one person to keep in their heads, resulting in the need to use often unwieldy competency manuals and almost always requiring more time to make assessments for each employee.

The other fork has a practical, less detailed and less comprehensive competence framework, but it is easier and quicker to use. The downside is that it’s open to interpretation, perhaps too open, and this gives rise to more dissatisfaction amongst employees.

The challenge is in finding a third fork, if there is one, a road that leads to Nirvana – ease of use, speed AND comprehensive & objective assessment.

I’ve yet to come across a repeatable, systematic and viable method for creating that third fork. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist though!

Oh, one other things – employees’ strengths and weaknesses – what if they fall outside of your competency framework, yet are relevant? Do you ignore these matters, and so (a) fail to help employees address weaknesses and (b) fail to recognise & reward relevant competences? No, of course not, if you do things ‘properly’, and that means you have to put regular effort in to maintaining your framework. And usually this requires a lot more effort than you might think…

And after all of this, is it really all worth it in the end? It could be. And it could also become a major constraint that helps hold the organisation as a whole back from greater levels of performance (read Eliyahu M Goldratt’s "Theory of Constraints" for more on this concept).

What every way forward you take, let me share with you some observations from the good Phil Rutherford from ‘Oz, originally posted on the ROINet board a few years ago:

There are four critical clusters of skills and knowledge you must focus on:

–      the skills central to the task that the function must perform;

–      the skills required to ‘manage’ these skills (e.g., turning up on time, knowing how to select the right tools etc);

–      the skills required to apply both of these in different contexts, situations and environments;

–      and the skills and knowledge required to identify where problems may arise and, should they arise, do something about them.

Good luck!

Cheers

Martin