Competencies
About Competencies
Competencies are descriptions of the behaviours, preferences, attitudes and knowledge that are required for successful job performance. They can be job specific or may apply to a group of jobs (functional or hierarchical) or to all jobs within an organisation. Competencies are normally described in terms that can be measured. By integrating human resource systems around common competencies considerable synergies and benefits to the organisation are obtained. Whist the use of competencies is not new, what is happening is their increasing application across all human resource functions to drive management, employee and corporate performance and to produce results that are relevant to the organisation's business strategies and vision.
Why use Competencies?
Implementing competencies provides a means to translate your organisational vision, culture and goals into expected employee behaviour and communicate this. Using competencies enables more effective and legally defensible recruitment, selection and assessment methods which can reduce hiring costs and employee turnover. By setting more effective criteria for evaluating performance and identifying the gap between present skill sets and future requirements, competencies target employee development in areas that realise the most return on investment.
How We Can Help
Careful planning and implementation is required to ensure that competency-based human resource systems meet important business needs. IntegrateHR can help you research, design and implement your organisation’s competency-based approach. Using existing competencies (either from our library or your own) we can conduct job analyses to derive your competency profiles. We can design and implement evaluation methods so that your organisation can commence measuring current and potential employees against competencies. We can also train your managers and employees to ensure that their use of competencies is highly effective. We can even train your HR staff in how to conduct job analyses and implement competencies.
Why IntegrateHR?
Our Consultants have conducted job analyses for many hundreds of roles in a wide range of organisations at all levels and are highly skilled in advising on competency implementation. As well as job analyses for individual roles, they have also frequently researched, designed and implemented core competencies (organisational, functional or hierarchical). Competency applications have included all the normal HR functions such as selection, training and development, performance management and succession planning.
Case Study
A global consumer products group wanted to set in place a succession planning mechanism for its 200 top managers worldwide by using a competency-based approach. Our Consultants worked with the organisation to understand its future vision and direction and created a project plan and timeframes. We then conducted job analyses amongst the management population at several locations worldwide. Devising the core 24 competencies that affected the group, from these we wrote a competency profile for each management function and level. The organisation now uses the profiles in performance management and development planning for all its top managers.
Competencies