This
section consists of a Strategy and Guidelines Chart and narrative.
It includes information on the steps to take in developing and using
competency models.
STRATEGY AND GUIDELINES CHART
| I. Identify the positions you are establishing competencies for | |
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1.
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Identify your objectives, including the positions, titles, title series, occupation, etc. to target. |
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2.
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Determine the resources available. |
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3.
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Develop a project work plan. |
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| II. Develop the competency model | |
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1.
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Decide whether to adopt or modify existing material, or develop your own. |
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2.
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Evaluate the impact of organization direction and organization-level competencies. |
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3.
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Determine whether competencies will be for current and/or future responsibilities. |
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4.
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Obtain examples of competency models and KSAOs. |
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5.
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Identify the desired outputs and outcomes associated with the competencies. |
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6.
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Select competencies for the model via committee, interviews, focus groups, survey,etc. |
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7.
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Determine the relative importance of the competencies. |
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8.
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Consider whether to define different levels of performance within each competency. |
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| III. Assess individual competencies and identify gaps | |
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1.
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Determine employees' competencies. |
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2.
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Conduct the gap analysis involving the employee and supervisor. |
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| IV. Develop strategies to address the gaps | |
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1.
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Identify and prioritize the development needs. |
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2.
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Create Individual Development Plans (IDP). |
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3.
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Identify resources to address the needs. |
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4.
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Keep a centralized record of employee competencies. |
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| V. Reassess competencies & evaluate return on investment (ROI) | |
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1.
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Reassess competencies on an annual basis, possibly using an ROI assessment. |
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2.
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Collect a wide range of data on the results. |
This
section provides you with a strategy and some practical tips helpful
in selecting and developing a competency-based approach to staff development.
William J. Rothwell, an authority on succession planning, connects
strategy for a competency-based system to the effectiveness of succession
planning and workforce development:
"To be effective, succession planning and management should be based on reliable information about the organization's requirements and about individual performance and potential... Only by approaching these activities systematically can the organization ensure planned succession" (4)
| Resources | |||
| I. | Use the resources available for Succession Planning. Some are available from GOER/Civil Service and some are in your agency. | ||
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1.
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Civil Service/GOER's publication - "Our Workforce Matters" | ||
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2.
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Your agency's strategic plan, if it is active | ||
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3.
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Your agency's workforce plan submitted to Civil Service | ||
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Points out single occupant titles. | ||
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Has analysis for retirements and vulnerability. | ||
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4.
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Your agency's Human Resource office may have other staffing analyses as well as their workforce plan that could prove useful for your project. | ||
| II. |
Use
the resources provided in our listing of links for
competency models and
systems.
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These
links connect you to other state and federal agencies that have
implemented competency systems. See also the books
and publications on competencies by various experts. You may
also want to consider hiring consultants. This can save you time
and staff resources, but can be quite expensive.
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| Strategy and Steps | |||
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Each step in this strategy includes helpful tips to guide you. We hope these will save you time and effort in establishing a competency-based approach to staff development. |
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| I. |
Identify
the positions you are establishing competencies for
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This
step is about determining the scope of your effort. When you roll
out a competency-based program, you need to clearly communicate
the objectives and terminology to engage staff and reduce potential
resistance and stress among employees. Competencies are not about
being "competent" or "incompetent." They are
about assuring that staff possess the right competencies and about
effective allocation of resources.
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1.
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Identify the objectives of your effort in light of your organization's workforce and succession plans and strategic plan. What positions in your organization do you plan on establishing competencies for and how will the competency model(s) be used? While you may decide to do your entire organization, you should start with your key positions, titles, title series, or occupations and develop a schedule to add the others. Some factors to consider in selecting positions is whether they are: | ||
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Critical to the mission of the organization. | ||
| -- | Prone to rapid turnover, and jobs need to be filled to maintain operations. | ||
| 2. |
Identify
the resources available for competency development and use. Be
sure that the investment in competencies is consistent with the
resources available for employee development.
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3.
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Develop
a project work plan.
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| II. |
Develop the competency model
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This
step is about developing the competency model. The model consists
of the competencies needed to perform the responsibilities of
the target title, occupation, etc.
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| 1. | Decide whether you want to adopt an existing competency model, modify an existing model, or develop one from scratch. | ||
| 2. | Analyze organization level documents like strategic plans from the perspective of how they might impact the competency model. For example, you need to be sure the model reflects important organizational competencies. The model should also address changes in functions and duties that will occur as the strategic plan is implemented. | ||
| 3. | Include competencies for current and future responsibilities. You can include a future focus by asking your managers and leaders in program areas if they anticipate changes in the way they do business in a year or two. For example, you may make a change in the method of service production or delivery like the recent automation at the checkout counters at stores where customers scan the items and cash out and an employee monitors several checkout stations. The key question here is whether the potential changes will require different competencies. | ||
| 4. | Obtain competency models, lists of KSAOs, and other materials to use in developing your model: | ||
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Existing models used by other organizations. (See Section 3.) | ||
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Exam or position description KSAOs or competencies, including the Civil Service Battery selection device. | ||
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Organization level documents, like the strategic plan, that communicate organizational competencies needing to be translated into individual competencies. | ||
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Staff performance programs. | ||
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Materials and assistance for sale from vendors. | ||
| 5. | Identify the outputs and outcomes that result from applying the model. What are the results that incumbents are expected to produce? For example, if an employee is expected to negotiate a contract, identify the characteristics of a successful contract and ongoing working relationship with the contractor. This can be done in the process of selecting the competencies in Step 6 or by drawing on performance measurement data and information. The objective is to identify the competencies that will lead to the desired results. | ||
| 6. | Select competencies for the model by using the best research method available, given time and other resources available and the objectives of your effort. Options include a committee of experts, interviews, focus groups, or surveys. Consider: | ||
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Involving current incumbents, supervisors of the positions, direct reports, managers over the function, partners and/or customers. Including all would be a 360 degree approach. | ||
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Focusing on competencies exhibited by the best performers, using the behavioral incident interviewing approach. | ||
| 7. | Determine the relative importance of the competencies in terms of achieving desired results and decide whether to include all relevant competencies in the model or only the ones that most correlate with results. | ||
| 8. | Consider whether to define different levels of performance within each competency. You may want to determine desired target levels for each competency for each job. For example, you may decide that upper management should have a higher level of the "visionary" competency than mid-level managers. Therefore, you might identify four levels of attainment, assigning level four to upper management and three to mid-level managers. Then you would develop a series of behaviors or factors to establish the standards for each level. | ||
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| III. |
Assess
employee competencies (gap analysis)
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Once the competency models have been identified, you need to determine the extent to which you have staff available who possess the needed competencies. You are building the supply pool of staff to replace those leaving key positions. This is done by performing an analysis of the gap between the employees' current competencies and the competency model for the target title, title series, or occupation. The gap analysis provides the data you will use to identify training and development resources needed, and make critical resource decisions. |
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| 1. |
Determine the employees' current competencies relative to the competency model. See Washington State's material on their website. |
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| -- | Consider developing a survey to determine the employees' competency levels. This could be completed by the employee plus others, using a 360 approach or something somewhat narrower. The questions could consist of a rating of the level of performance/possession of each of the competencies in the model for the target occupation or title. Many vendors have developed survey tools to assist with this process, which can save you from having to do it all yourself. | ||
| -- | Consider drawing on data from the performance evaluation process if it is an effective process. | ||
| 2. | Conduct the gap analysis. The employee and supervisor should collaborate to perform the competency/gap analysis at least annually. The "gaps" would be the competencies with the lowest scores if you were using the survey approach. For example, "visioning" could be a competency needed for upper level managers. If the employee has difficulty seeing beyond current operations and, therefore, has difficulty visioning, this is a gap between the employee's competencies and the model. | ||
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| IV. |
Develop
strategies to address the gaps
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At this step, use the results of the gap analysis to create a strategy to address the development needs identified. |
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| 1. | Identify the needs by individuals as well as by clusters needing the same or similar development. This will help you sort out general needs versus less common but important ones, as well as providing information to help you prioritize the needs. | ||
| 2. | Develop individual development plans (IDPs) for employees who want to participate. | ||
| -- | The IDP will usually be a multi-year plan. A complete IDP will usually be impossible to address in one year. However, you should determine some priority order on the competencies that are most important to address first, balancing that with available resources. | ||
| -- | The employee and supervisor should collaborate at least annually to develop/revise the IDP. | ||
| -- | The IDP would include strategies to develop the weak or missing competencies from the assessment. The employee and supervisor may identify other development opportunities to address as well. | ||
| -- | Training and development activities could include challenging new assignments, working on special projects, job rotation, being mentored, classroom training, e-learning, book and journal reading, participation in professional organizations, etc. | ||
| 3. | For each employee or group of employees, identify the resources for addressing development needs. | ||
| -- | These may be internal or external, and range in price. Keep in mind there is a price for the use of internal staff, which is staff time taken from other responsibilities. Include this in your comparison to the costs of external sources before making your decisions. | ||
| -- | Don't limit yourself to in-house resources. Consider partnering with other parts of your agency or other agencies, which may benefit both organizations. | ||
| -- | Don't undervalue non-classroom methods like on-the-job training or mentoring. These development resources often hit home more clearly on the application of learning and provide the opportunity for dialogue with the more experienced staff. | ||
| 4. | Keep a centralized record of employee competencies. A database that contains competency profiles for each employee can help you address development needs and manage the resources much more efficiently. | ||
| -- | Do your homework. Shop around and talk to the users of products. | ||
| -- | Be sure a system is designed for competencies rather than training histories. | ||
| -- | Identify IT (information technology) support needed for either creating or modifying a system plus maintaining it. All systems need in-house maintenance to some degree, no matter what vendors may tell you. | ||
| -- | Look for opportunities to partner with other units in your organization for IT support . | ||
| -- | Keep the system as simple as possible to provide the outputs you desire. While others may need systems that provide on-line registration and status reports, a simple spreadsheet may work for you. | ||
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| V. |
Reassess competencies and evaluate return on investment (ROI) |
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This step involves reassessing staff competencies
and performance to confirm improvement. Analyzing this information
helps determine if the resources were effectively allocated.
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| 1. |
To
maximize the benefit of resources allocated to staff development,
consider implementing some level of annual Return On Investment
(ROI) analysis. The following includes Kirkpatrick's four analysis
levels plus Phillips' ROI:
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Level
1: Were participants satisfied with their training?
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Level
2: Did learning occur and were new competencies developed?
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Level
3: Did participants exhibit new behaviors?
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Level
4: Did participants create beneficial results from their behavior?
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Level
5: Did participants create a monetary return on the investment?
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ROI=
Gain (program benefit) minus the program cost divided by the cost,
times 100 [ROI=(G-C)/Cx100].
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Example: |
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Utilize
agency training and development staff and GOER as a resource as
well as consultants on contract through GOER.
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| 2. |
Collect
a wide range of data to determine how well the competency program
is working. Ways to collect evaluation information include periodic
discussions with managers, assessing impact on performance measures,
conducting an environmental scan, and implementing levels 1-5
ROI tools. These can be used to assess the effectiveness and efficiency
of the overall development effort as well as each training resource.
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