Kravetz- Building A Job Competency Database: What the Leaders Do Page 6

This is a true pay-for-performance compensation system. It is quite different from a merit system where base pay reflects prior salary adjustments, what type of company someone once worked for, starting salaries out of college, and many other factors that may not be relevant today. This new way of determining base salaries is perceived more positively by employees than a merit increase system. Bonuses or profit sharing continue to be offered and reflect how the individual or company did on goals for the year.

Job Evaluation/Description

Automated job descriptions are created by merely printing out the competencies for a particular job. Since competencies are behavioral and very specific, they lend themselves very easily to describing the job. With each competency being approximately a paragraph in length, ten of them printed back to back form an excellent job description.

Managers and HR professionals can save writing job descriptions over and over again fore each new job. Oftentimes a new job requires merely a different mix of existing competencies. The manager can pick from a list, add any that are missing, and that is all there is to the job description process.

Selection

Job interview questions can be developed for each competency. These can be placed in a guide for use when hiring. The questions can be used to assess the competence level of the job candidate.

Job simulations could also be developed for each job competency. Simulations are structured exercises that simulate a portion of the job, usually measuring 1-3 competencies at a time. Both interview guides and job simulations are objective, job-related ways to determine competence.

Performance Consulting

Performance consultants are often called upon to intervene in department performance improvement situations. They often have to separate training issues from other people management issues. When a job competency database is already in existence, much time is saved. The consultant knows what the current competence levels of the workforce are, and what gaps exist.

The leading companies have one integrated set of competencies for the entire organization.

With this type of information available, the consultant can quickly sort out what the key issues are, and the next steps. Training will not be tossed at every problem but used when needed.

Core Competencies

When the competencies of an entire organization are looked at collectively, it can be determined what the organization does well (is competent at). This information can be used to expand the business in concert with its core competencies. As before, no special studies or consultants are needed. The organization uses the competency database for still yet another purpose. When HR/training is involved in strategic issues like how to expand the business, the importance of the function will increase.

Defining Job Competencies

How do you define job competencies? The most effective technique used by the leading organizations is to interview job incumbents and their bosses (only samples needed for high volume jobs) to determine what they do and what underlies success on the job. By asking a number of open-ended questions pertaining to job responsibilities and activities, the competencies can be determined. Critical incidents for success and failure are also very helpful. Direct questioning can reveal perhaps 60% of all job competencies. The remaining 40% must be inferred from gathering other information, talking to supervisors, etc. This is perhaps the more difficult part (defining job competencies is a competency itself).

The leading companies have one integrated set of competencies for the entire organization rather than separate sets for each department. This avoids reinventing the wheel in each department. Instead the organization looks for as much commonality as possible. Usually 6-20 leadership competencies are defined and a like number of business competencies (see next section for a discussion of leadership, business and technical competencies). The technical competencies are much larger in number since they are unique for individual jobs and departments.

Competencies are usually written as a paragraph in length, though a couple of sentences might suffice. The reason it typically takes a paragraph is that competencies are a series of behaviors. You cannot describe a series of behaviors in a phrase or single sentence. The paragraph is laden with action verbs. The focus is on doing and performing and not merely passive knowledge about something.

The leading companies have defined their own competencies rather than use an off-the-shelf approach. KSAs or personality traits have the potential to carry over from company to company. Job competencies usually do not carry over. This is because each organization has unique jobs and functions. The competencies that underlie being a bank teller are quite different from that of a software designer. Each organization must analyze its own unique jobs to determine what competencies are needed.