conducting
performance reviews, doing 360 degree evaluations,
selecting employees, or determining the training that
someone needs, they are always talking about the same job
competencies. To explain how this is done, we first need
to define what a job competency is, then show how it can
be used for many different purposes.
What is a Job Competency?
Dictionary definitions often fall short in
describing a concept. But the leading companies might
describe a job competency as "a series of behaviors
or actions that make up a portion of a job." Notice
the emphasis on behavior and doing rather than passive
knowledge of a subject. Also notice that a competency is
not an entire job--usually there are several competencies
for each position. A competency is what a successful
employee must be able to do to accomplish desired results
on a job.
Competencies are built up over time and are not
innate. It typically takes experience on the job to build
competencies. Knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs), by
contrast, might be brought into the job by entry-level
employees. For example, an entry-level accountant who has
just completed college might know the IRS Tax Code and
basic accounting principles. Yet it is unlikely that this
person would be competent at filing a corporate tax
return. This is another way of saying that the employee
has the KSAs which underlie the job but has not yet
developed the job competencies. Development and
experience are needed to become competent.
| Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
(KSAs) or Personality Traits |
Job Competencies |
| More basic fundamentals |
More advanced--require multiple
KSAs or traits |
| Might be possessed by new hires |
Usually developed by time on the
job |
| Prerequisite for developing job
competencies |
Outcome of synthesizing several
KSAs and traits |
| Valued for entry-level jobs |
Needed to perform more advanced
jobs |
| What organizations often pay for |
What organizations should
pay for |
| Difficult to measure as
performance outcomes |
Easy to measure as performance
outcomes |
Table
1. The difference between KSAs and job competencies.
Personality traits are also different from job
competencies. Employees bring certain traits into the
workplace such as being "flexible" or being
"independent." These traits are not learned on
the job. While traits may underlie competencies just as
KSAs might underlie competencies, they are not the actual
competencies.
Why bother with this distinction? If you try to
design a training course on KSAs, you may find that many
of your employees already have these KSAs. For example,
conduct a training class on basic accounting concepts for
your entry-level accountants and they will probably feel
they already know this. Similarly, the entry-level
accountant may possess the correct traits as well (good
luck at changing someone's personality in a two-day
training class).
What employees more commonly lack are the job
competencies. Conduct a behaviorally-based training class
on how to file a corporate tax return and you are
building competencies that employees in tax accounting
need. This is how you "hit a home run" in
training--have courses that build needed competencies and
do not conduct courses on unneeded areas. It all starts
out with the job analysis and what you call competencies.
Job competencies are most likely to be confused
with KSAs and personality traits. Table 1 contrasts the
two.
Presented next is an example of how KSAs might
combine into a competency--namely the competency of
playing golf. In this example, we will consider playing
golf to be one competency and not many (i.e., putting,
driving, etc.). We could choose to break this single
competency into several--it is merely an issue of how
specific or general we want to define competencies.
However, for this example we will regard golfing as one
competency. The KSAs for golf are followed by a possible
competency definition:
|
|
KSAs
Required to Play Golf |
|
|
Knowledge
of the proper grip |
|
|
Knowledge
of the proper stance |
|
|
Knowledge
of which clubs to select |
|
|
General
hand-arm dexterity |
|
|
General
locomotor skills--walking, twisting, swinging |
Golf
Competency Definition
Scores less than 100 on a regular basis through
proper use of woods, irons, and putter. Plays a
wide variety of shots with skill. Can adapt to
different conditions on a given course and play
effectively on different types of courses.
Demonstrates the proper technique, form and club
selection. |
Now consider a competency from the treasury function at a
corporation--making trades in the financial markets. The
KSAs and a sample definition for this are as follows:
|