Almost every organisation which has been in existence for some time, has been able to appreciate the need to define its expectations from its employees on behavioural, managerial, and leadership attributes. These expectations are normally captured inform of Competency Framework & Competency Dictionary of the organisation.
For some organisations, development of Competency Framework – Including competency definitions, and related behavioural descriptors are a formal exercise involving a detailed process of interviewing, focus group discussions and documentation. For some others its based on leadership insights and the perspectives generated by the senior management team.
For the short-cut types, its based on “Cut – Copy – Paste” of competency definitions from some other companies competency framework. This is not a recommended approach, however for organisations initiating processes based on competency frameworks, this can serve as a stop gap arrangement, where in a formal exercise can be conducted once people have started understanding the concept of competencies and their relevance.
Why are Competency Definitions important ?
They form a basis for employees to develop their working style, and to undertake their self development so as their capabilities are aligned to organisational expectations, and its short term and long term vision for growth. In other words – for organisations it makes a good business sense to document its requirements on behavioural expectations from its employees at various levels.
For every organisation, growth is a direct representation of employee performance, however an organisations readiness for new challenges, for addressing the upcoming growth plans etc. depends on the potential of its employees to take on new challenges etc. While performance is the lead indicator, the “how” aspect is addressed by the concept of potential, which is a direct reflection of the behaviour demonstrated by the employees, in course of their working.
People processes dependent on Competencies:
Over a period of time, it has been realised that almost every people process get impacted by the “how” or behavioural part of delivery. Some of the people process, which may depend on or benefit from well defined competency framework:
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- Performance Management
- Talent Management , Bench & Succession Planning
- Career Planning for Employees
- Executive & Management Development Initiatives
- Assessment & Development Centres – to provide inputs for Talent Management, Bench Initiatives
- 360 Degree Assessment – to support leadership developmental activities etc.
- Recruitment Assessment – Competency Based Interviews, Personality Assessments
- Personality Assessment
Almost every people process, in some way or the other get impacted.
Why should you look at your organisations competency framework ?
Normally the competency framework, in organisations stays in the domain of HR professionals, and gets used for any or all of the above mentioned interventions. However, employees in business roles , functional roles are not too keen to look at the document as they are unable to establish any direct linkage to their own roles and responsibilities.
It is however advised, that if your organisation has a well defined set of competencies with people processes created around these competencies, it makes sense of look at the same, understand the competencies that are relevant for senior levels, yourself and your team members. If you carry a good understanding of these – you can work on your own development thereby enabling yourself to get ready for future roles. Since the competency framework for most organisations are well thought out and well researched, working to align yourself with them, can also impact your performance and delivery. Similarly, it also allows you to guide and coach your team members and hire better team members.
Note: Competencies in this article refers mostly to Behavioural Competencies.
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Praveen is the Founder & Principal Consultant of KHEdge, a boutique HR & Business Process Advisory firm. Over last 15 years he has advised & worked with promoters, founders, business leaders, HR leaders in areas of - Business Strategy, HR Strategy, Organisation Design etc.