With the focus currently on recruiting and retaining good staff, it is all too easy to rush into a recruitment process just to get `bums on seats'. Unfortunately, this approach can result in wasted time, money and precious resources by recruiting and training staff, only to find that they are either not suitable or for them to move onto other roles / companies before you see a return on your investment.
When recruiting, many of us simply ask, "What does it take to do a job well?" and stop there. But there's more to it than that. What skills and knowledge are necessary for effectiveness in a certain job? Does the employee have the appropriate skills and knowledge, or is some kind of training necessary? Are these job expectations aligned with the culture and strategy of the organisation as a whole?
These questions are essential to performance improvement efforts. And competency modeling is designed to help you find answers to questions such as these. A competency model is a descriptive tool that identifies the skills, knowledge, personal characteristics, and behaviours needed to effectively perform a role in the organisation and help the business meet its strategic objectives.
Historically used purely for recruitment purposes, competence is a subject which is increasingly popular in business circles and is now being used for a wide range of activities, such as:
In a highly competitive business environment the ability to develop and maintain core competencies will set both you and your company well ahead of the competition. This involves an evaluation of the current functionality and skill sets required to perform the key / core tasks for a role or series of roles.
Pearlcatchers take competency modeling out of the domain of academics and social scientists by creating practical 'how-to' steps for developing and using competency models, dealing with topics such as: