Building a successful career in an organization requires core set of competencies in order to carry out an outstanding performance and desirable outputs. This is what we call competency model. The framework helps employees in identifying the competencies they need to further improve in order to make a more satisfactory performance in their functions and also in preparation for future promotions and job transfer. The model will analyze employee competency to determine the areas the individual lacks development on and to bridge the gap, training and development will be required.
There are three essential types of competency models used by organizations: Leadership Competency, HR Competency, and Management Competency models.
Leadership Competency Model
There are five stages in a leadership competency framework. These are:
Stage One – Assembling a focus group and making a list of processes
In this stage, a focus team composed of a combination of leaders in the higher management will be gathered to create a list of processes out of various methods such as interviews, surveys, and observations. The members in the focus team may share their experiences as well.
Stage Two – Building behavioral indicators for the processes
The team will determine the major behavioral indicators from the competencies that need to be developed. These behavioral indicators (which are mainly classified into skills, knowledge, and attitudes) must be designed for future organizational issues and must be a part of strategic planning.
Stage Three – Categorizing the competency list
The competency list will be classified into three basic categories, which are Core Competencies, Leadership Competencies, and Professional Competencies.
Stage Four – Organizing each category according to its level of importance
In this next step, the competencies will be arranged according to level of importance and usefulness and if there are competencies that need to be discarded.
Stage Five – Assessing the competency model
After a competency model is built, the last stage is to validate it through various ways. It could be evaluated through customer service standards, structured interviews and observations, benchmarking, surveys, and balanced scorecard.
HR Competency Model
The HR Competency Model has the following main components:
1. Roles
There are five major roles that are an HR professional must manifest in order to deliver a good job performance.
• Advocate
As an advocate, the person must know how to value diversity, resolve conflict, communicate well, and respect others.
• Business Partner
As a business partner, the person must be mission-oriented and a strategic planner. The ability to understand team behavior is also a requirement.
• Change
Being a change agent, the HR person must be able to manage change and influence others. The HR professional must demonstrate good coalition skills.
• HR Expert
An HR professional must definitely know HR principles, be adept in using HR tools, and be customer-oriented. This person is expected to know how to manage resources and apply business procedures.
• Leader
An HR employee is also a leader who is ethical in his actions, decisive, capable of taking risks, and knows how to develop the staff.
2. Competency List
Every HR professional must have a set of core competencies essential to individual job performance and must meet the skills required to satisfy organizational needs.
3. Organizational Positions
Job descriptions or organizational positions identify the various roles of HR professionals based on the required core competencies for their assigned job titles. These are examples of HR positions in an organization:
- HR Personnel or HR Representative
- HR Advisor
- Senior HR Advisor
- HR Manager
- HR Director
Management Competency Model
Leadership and management competency models are similar. The process in building the competency framework is basically the same. There are similar core competencies required for organizational leaders and the higher management for organizational success. Let us categorize the competency list into three main parts:
a. Visionary Leadership or Management
- Change Management
- Building Focus
- Knowledge Management
- Vision
b. Developing and Managing Talent
- Empowering and Motivating Others
- Coaching or Mentoring
- Conflict Management
- Performance Management
- Continual Improvement
- Interpersonal Skills
- Influencing Others
- Valuing Diversity
c. Strategic Decision-Making
- Solving Problems
- Systems Thinking
- Risk Management
- Financial and Business Acumen
- Negotiation Skills
- Analytical Thinking
