The world today has evolved rapidly into a fast-paced business landscape. This has not only pushed people to build bigger and better companies but also a stronger workforce driving these companies towards overall success. Maintaining such a huge number of employees and ensuring productivity can be tough. This is where tools and practices like competency framework development come in. A survey report conducted by WEF in 2018 shows that over 54% feel more comfortable working with a development plan.
Competency framework tools help secure a solid ground for a company’s development objectives, aligning individual goals with those of the company. This ensures a structured approach to defining and developing the knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary for success in specific roles, which is essential to effective talent management strategies.
Understanding Competency Frameworks
The competency framework is an inclusive model that specifies the key development objective required to work effectively in a particular job role or company. The competencies outlined usually consist of skills, knowledge, behaviors, and attributes contributing to enhanced individual performance and organizational success. What makes it more essential to understand these frameworks is that a recent SHRM survey reported that over 24% of companies do not have a formal plan.
A competency framework development isn’t mere corporate jargon. Such frameworks have enormous benefits and allow management to optimize recruitment practices and processes, promotion, learning, and development. Competency plans ensure individual career growth which enhances employee engagement by over 30%. They also help ensure that the employees and the company’s long-term goals align to achieve success.
A properly-designed framework serves the employees and the company as a whole. Under such a framework, employees clearly understand what the company expects from them, and the vital competencies required for different goals. In case an employee lacks in a particular area, such a framework will provide a direction on the skills they will have to work on.
Role of Such Frameworks in Development Objectives
Crafting a well-designed competency framework has several benefits for both employees and organizations:
Navigating Key Components
The most important part of having a competency framework development program is to ensure balance. A broad, generic framework will never align well with your goals. It will also not guide you enough towards your intended goals. However, one that is overly narrow will become too time-consuming and resource-intensive.
However, maintaining this balance will help you create the perfect fit. This balance, on the other hand, will depend on your business needs. Here are some suggestions for the perfect competency framework development program that will help you set the foundation:
1. Competencies and Skills:
Skill and competency might seem similar, but have significant differences. A skill is one’s ability to perform a task or a job. Skills are specific to the requirements of a job and are therefore subjective. It is what people acquire and develop.
Whereas, competency is a broader combination of values that are gained through experiences. These are a part of your existence and basic human values. Understanding this difference is the first step towards making a well–structured framework.
2. Core Value:
Core values are the backbone of the competency framework development of a company. These are essential for every member to ensure a productive workspace. Hence, every employee irrespective of their responsibilities is expected to execute their task with core values within. These include values like hard work and punctuality.
3. Functional Competencies:
Functional competencies are the skills and abilities specific to each position. For example, typical functional competencies for management roles could be interpersonal skills, and handling projects, while for engineering roles they could comprise certain technical expertise and programming languages.
4. Leadership Competencies:
Leadership competencies apply to all those who occupy senior authoritative roles. Higher-level employees in the company should show competencies that will guide them and other employees positively. These may include, for example, stakeholder management, understanding of strategic issues, building partnerships, and so on.
Conclusion
Competency framework development programs help companies understand and define what they need from their employees. When practiced, such a framework helps improve performance among various employees. Additionally, this helps know the needs of each role and nurture the talent within the company.
In the past few years, various companies have developed tools to simplify the performance assessment process. These tools include The Success Circle, Plum Thrive, and others. These tools plan frameworks that strike the perfect balance between the strengths and goals of the company, helping employees understand their roles and flaws.
