Dr. Darrin Philips, doctorate and a
consultant in Organisational Development ,in this article gives
straight talk about developing competency modeling, where implementations
tend to fail, what can be done to make competency modeling work.....:
"You will find that most knowledgeable consultants on competency
mapping will tell you the first few steps. However, the key to
validating the competencies is to continue the process to its
logical end - determining which competencies (technical and interpersonal
skills) differentiate the best from the rest. Prior to taking
that step you end up with VERY subjective data.
For example, at my former employer people were convinced by logic
that the technical skills of the people in our Research and Development
team were primarily responsible for increased performance/output.
Much to their surprise one of the most important differentiators
between top performers and all others was presentation skills!
We would have missed that completely were it not for our commitment
to see the process to its end and measure the skill levels in
each person then evaluate the data to see what skills were possessed
at a higher level by the top performers.
This same finding is replicated constantly with my clients. I
finally started comparing what the original group of executives
and subject matter experts said would be the strongest predictors
of success and what the assessment gap analysis said at the end
of the project. The best groups are only 70% accurate. Most 'experts'
and executives are closer to 55% correct in their assumptions.
Had we stopped after the usual process then these clients would
have missed up to 45% of the equation!!!
The normal steps in an ideal world (you will rarely find that
all of them can be taken with a given corporate client):
1. Identify the strategic direction of the company via in-depth
discussions with the Board of Directors or Senior Executive Team.
This works best by exploring the past (lessons learned, success
stories), the present, and the future of not only the company
but also the industry and market they are in.
2. Facilitate sessions with other leaders at all levels (cascade
down through the organization) to identify the objectives that
they and their reports 'own' from the strategic plan and the objectives
of their bosses.
HINT: If you simply allow this process to play itself out without
direct intervention you will find that people are very bad at
setting goals/objectives and NEVER take the time to determine
how their objectives and activities will impact others in the
company or their clients. Cross-functional communication is the
key to getting accurate and effective objectives. Also, these
need to be kept to a manageable minimum (around 7 per organization
or function or team or individual) or people will lose track.
There are lots of other things to keep in mind, but as you can
see we are actually putting an effective performance management
system in place. That is a prerequisite of mapping competencies!!!
However, if your clients are not interested in cleaning up or
creating a Performance Management system then the other work you
do to map the competencies will be incredibly inaccurate. Unfortunately
these first two steps are often skipped due to client pressure
to only focus on competencies.
3. Get a focus group together made up of the boss's boss, the
boss, a few peers who frequently interact with the position being
profiled, customers of the people in the position, the two top
performers in the position, and two direct reports (if any) of
the position. This meeting will take 3-4 hours per position or
family of jobs being profiled.
a. Review the objectives for the people in this position. Make
sure everyone understands the objectives accurately and agrees
on what it looks like to exceed, meet, and miss those objectives.
b. For each individual objective identify the activities that
someone in the position must complete to meet or exceed the objective.
c. For each individual activity (some activities are repeated
for several objectives but only do this once for the entire group
of common activities) list the technical knowledge/skills/experiences
that would be a requirement for successfully accomplishing the
activity. Also list the interpersonal skills that would make a
difference when engaged in the activity. As there are over 22,000
separate words for interpersonal skills in English I suggest you
use a pre-printed list of interpersonal skills that research has
indicated should make a difference.
You can download such a list by clicking
here.
d. Generate definitions for each skill listed.
Some companies want a general definition and some want a definition
of what each skill looks like for different levels of employees
or different levels of ability. It depends on how the competencies
will be used.
e. Type up the list of technical and interpersonal skills that
you generate and send it to all attendees and any other critical
parties for revision then approval.
Now, this is where most consultants will stop. They have the list,
right?
In reality, I work with many clients that have hired companies
full of people with PhD's to come in and generate such a list
and then the client company is left with a humongous list (or
a short and inadequate list). The list will never be used by managers
for selection or development. The list will never be used by HR
outside of the training group. Those who will try to use it will
focus on the wrong skills and will not create any Return On Effort
(ROE) or Return On Investment (ROI) for their sweat or money.
Why? Because the list focuses on people's opinions of what is
important or what differentiates the best performers from all
other performers.
Because the company is not left with a means by which they can
or should use the information. Because the suggestions or instructions
for how to use the competencies require a great deal of effort
and time that companies cannot/will not afford to their leaders
or employees.
The answer to some of these concerns is validation, a rare step
in the process. To make sure the actual skills that differentiate
the best from the rest are discovered the original skill list
must be rather large. To shrink it down to a manageable and more
accurate list employees must be assessed against the longer list.
Then by comparing actual performance rankings (not ratings!) to
the skills that people have according to the assessment we get
a clearer picture. The best of the best will have some skills
at the highest level (most important predictors of success) and
some at the middle level (moderate predictors of success), while
all other performers have those skills at the lower levels.
If only one of ten high performers has a skill high then that
one is probably not a predictor. Use basic gap-analysis and data
analytic skills to filter this data. (I found this to be super-painful
so we designed custom software to do it for us at Pennzoil-Quaker
State and now I am working to build an automated system to do
this for my current clients.)
The answer to the other concerns is to build a simplified, replicable,
research-based system for leveraging the resulting list of competencies
to manage your human resources.
This should include using the High-Performer Competency Model
to source, assess, and select new employees for that position
or job family; compare incumbents to the Model and provide them
with opportunities to develop where gaps exists; and build succession
plans based on existing and future company strategic needs and
direction. Some of the intangible benefits that my clients talk
about include less bias (halo and horns or nepotism) in hiring
and promotions, employees who feel empowered because they know
how to increase their visibility by increasing their competence,
managers who truly understand what they need out of their direct
reports and can fall back on a validated system to provide those
reports with guidance, and improved targeted spending on training
and development. (On that last point they often find that employees
need critical experiences or self-directed learning resources
and coaching instead of expensive training classes.) "
Darin Phillips, PhD, CPT
Kindly get in touch with hrd@madrasmarkets.com or call 091-44-52113814
for consulting in Organisational Development or further clarifications.
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