Competency Modeling: Link Goals, Integrate HR, and Achieve Results

By Fawaz Alomran

Do organizations utilize their employees’ capabilities to achieve their goals? Think of the implications of this question for a moment. Utilizing capabilities to a high extent is a far cry from just filling a vacancy or moving an employee from one function to another. This process starts at the gate—the main gate of any organization, its recruitment and selection function where selecting the best fit is a real challenge!

One applicant has an excellent educational background while the other possesses strong interpersonal skills. Which one to hire? In a like manner, which training program to choose? Or, what measures to use to evaluate performance?

Regardless of what HR function the question arises from, there is one answer: the people, measures, and training that are linked to the organization’s goals and help produce bottom-line results.

Linking Goals

Someone in HR might argue that this is not a big deal; our HR personnel know that they need to choose actions that contribute to the end results. Yes, this might be true, but let us think about linking a training program to your organization’s goals. I agree that some programs are very beneficial and that they develop employees surprisingly well. However, is what they provide really what your organization needs in order to improve results? One of the ways to make sure is by assessing each training program, as part of your training needs assessment process, and finding out the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that the program creates or improves. The next step is linking the identified KSAOs to the employees’ roles and the goals of the organization. By then, making the decision to approve or reject that training program is easy, because we know whether this program is going to produce positive ROI. The process of defining the required KSAOs that are essential in order for an organization to achieve its goals and sustain its competitive advantage is known as Competency Modeling.

Integrating HR

Building competency models using a top-down approach helps employees better understand their roles, and ultimately, the roles of their functions whether it is HR or any other part of the organization. Furthermore, competency models “provide a foundation for developing integrated human resources systems.”[1] This provides the foundations for making good decisions, and is quite important in building sound talent management systems. Going back to the recruitment and selection function, selection devices should measure competencies that are relevant to the organization’s end results. A competency-based interview is one example of a selection device that helps recruiters assess knowledge and educational achievements, tangible skills, abilities, and other characteristics that form competencies.

All other HR functions can benefit from competency-based linked and integrated systems, not only recruitment and selection or training and development. Building a fair performance appraisal system (results-focused) by structuring evaluation devices around competencies is another possibility. Use competencies to establish promotion criteria, develop careers, link positions to easily find internal replacements, structure compensation systems, and most important, shake off the dust from the distinguished employees who really contribute to the end result, your talents.

Best practices suggests that the number of competencies should not be large and that developing competency models requires defining performance standards and levels for each competency. An employee at the beginning of his or her career is not expected to perform a competency at the same level as a seasoned mid-career manager. Competency models help to answer different types of questions that might arise from different HR functions. In addition, they help link the strategic goals of an organization down to the KSAOs of an applicant, and provide the basis for HR integration. One way or the other, I see this as a framework that helps HR show their influence on end results.

About Today’s HR Daily Advisor Blogger:

Fawaz Alomran has more than eight years of experience working in the field of human resources and compliance within the banking industry at the local and multinational level. He specializes in designing HR practices and training programs to help an organization meet its specific goals and objectives. His tailored programs include needs assessment, target audience definition, training outlines, and evaluation methodologies. Alomran also specializes in writing and auditing training materials and implementing and managing e-learning projects. He is passionate about the role of human resources in an organization and how it can be used to improve business. Alomran demonstrates this passion in his blog, HR Diary, where he shares his thoughts about human capital, competency, and learning.