Functional Competencies Can Improve Organizational Capabilities

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Functional Competencies Can Improve
Organizational Capabilities

• Nancy E. Abrams, Ph.D.
• The Partnering Group, Inc.

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Introductions

• Me
• You
• Jurisdiction
• Agency
• Your job
• Expectations for this presentation

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Functional Competencies Can Improve
Organizational Capabilities

• Introductions
• Job Analysis The Traditional Approach
• General Competency Modeling
• Functional Competencies
• Competency Modeling with General Functional
  Competencies
• Case studies

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Job Analysis
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Why do we do Job Analysis?

• To understand the work and worker needed to do
  work
• To establish the job relatedness/validity of a
  selection procedure
• To fairly compensate individuals
• To appropriately assess job performance
• To train and develop in areas that will improve
  job performance
• To plan for the development of capabilities
  required in the future

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Traditional Job Analysis

• Collect background information
• Gather information from Job Experts
• Duties Work Focused
• Tasks Work Focused
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Personal (Other)
  Characteristics Worker Focused
• Ratings
• Importance (Criticality)
• Frequency, time spent
• Required at entry
• Differentiate peformance
• Narrow the list to focus appropriately

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How successful are we in using our traditional
job analyses for all of these purposes at one
time?
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General Competency Modeling
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What are Competencies?

• Not one answer
• SIOP tried to answer this question
• See report of task force
• Schippmann, J.S. et al. Personnel Psychology,
  2000.
• Some common elements
• Knowledge, skills, abilities, personal (other)
  characteristics
• Broader than traditional KSAPs often look more
  like constructs
• Focused on workers rather than work
• Associated with high levels of job performance or
  job success

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Where did competencies come from?

• In 1973, David McClelland called for
  organizations to test for competence rather than
  intelligence.
• Focused on those factors that lead to success
• In 1990, Prahalad Hamel published an article in
  Harvard Business Review
• Called for people-embodied skills necessary to
  building core competence for an organization

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Why have competencies become so popular?

• As compared to the knowledge, skills, abilities
  and personal (other) characteristics identified
  in traditional job analysis, they tend to be
  broader apply to more jobs.
• Most competency models have been designed to
  capture how the organization, as a whole, defines
  success or the roadmap to success
• Reflect organization values

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General Competency Models

• Competency models often define a conceptual view
  of leadership for the organization
• Apply to all parts of the organization
• Provide a common terminology for communicating
  people capabilities across all parts of the
  organization
• Serve as the basis for the entire Human Resource
  system
• Define multiple proficiency levels
• Often with behavioral indicators

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Human Resource Management Revolves Around
Competencies
Organizational Competency Development
JOB
Competencies
Reward Recognition
Recruitment Selection
Performance Management
Succession Planning
Training Development
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Sample General Competencies

• Problem Solving - Identifying and solving
  problems, using and adjusting tactics as
  appropriate to the situation.
• Interpersonal Communication - Communicates
  effectively both orally and in writing to ensure
  complete support and understanding

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Sample General Competency with Proficiency Levels
Problem Solving Identifying problems and
developing and implementing logical solutions
consistent with business objectives.
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Limitations of General Competency Models

• Usually not linked to work behaviors in the
  traditional job analysis sense
• May be difficult to use as the basis for content
  validation
• Because they are very general, they often miss
  some key aspects of particular jobs or groups of
  jobs, e.g. knowledge and skills.
• Often come from pre-existing, off-the-shelf
  models

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Functional Competencies
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What are Functional Competencies?

• Competencies associated with success in one part
  of the organization, department, group of
  departments or job family associated with high
  levels of job performance or job success.
• Do not apply broadly across the organization or
  are of less importance in other parts of the
  organization.
• Usually broad knowledge and skills.

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Competency Modeling Incorporating General
Functional Competencies
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The Process

• Identify the scope
• Job Family
• Department
• Agency, etc.
• Identify competencies
• Keep focused on most important
• Keep list contained, e.g. 10-15
• Avoid overlap

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The Process (continued)

• Define competencies to provide common
  understanding and language
• Identify proficiency levels (usually 3-5)
• Define proficiency levels
• Identify behavioral indicators for each
  proficiency level Competency Dictionary
• Link jobs to competencies proficiency levels

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Sample Competency Dictionary Page
Product and Category Knowledge Understanding of
the tire industry, categories, brands, portfolio
of products and related consumer insights.

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Sample Competency Job Linkage
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Competency Modeling Case Studies
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Case Study The Situation

• Private Sector not all problems may apply to
  your situation
• Problems
• Lack of clear understanding of job performance
  expectations
• Focused on results not how to get them
• Lack of clarity on how career advancement could
  be achieved
• Lack of alignment of training to real needs

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Case Study The Situation (continued)

• Was using broad Leadership Competency Model 67
  competencies!!!
• Sales needed to know what worked for their area
• More focus for General Competencies
• Addition of Functional Competencies

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Case Study What was done

• Identified and defined 13 competencies
• Four levels of proficiency
• Undeveloped to expert
• Each defined for each competency
• Behavioral indicators for each
• Linkage of competencies and proficiency level
  expectations to each job

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Case Study How Competencies were used

• Individuals were assessed through manager
  assessment of behaviors observed
• Other clients have used assessment centers or
  written tests
• Comparison of proficiency level observed to that
  expected in job
• Where level was below expectation Competency Gap
• Four of five Competencies with largest gaps were
  Functional

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Case Study Changes Made

• New hires given 90 day development plan based on
  competencies required for job
• Performance assessed against competencies
• Competency proficiency level definitions used as
  the basis for discussions
• Competency-based career paths established
• Training focused on competency development
• Development plans focused on competencies
• More demand for training
• Managers focused on both remedial training and
  preparation for advancement

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Case Study Results

• Five years after this work was done
• Sales went from 6,133 million to 7,867 million
• Net earnings per share went from 1.28 to 2.16
• Obviously not all because of this work
• Employee engagement rating went from 51 to 76

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Results Across Clientsn733