Competency Management

Introduction:

This paper seeks to explain the role of competency management in public sector entities. It will discuss how competency management is expected to support and complement important human resource management processes and how it is used to strategically align the workforce with the aims of an organization. In order to gauge the potential impact of competency management on an organization, it will be necessary to discuss both difficulties and key successes of the concept. This analysis is intended to go beyond simply addressing competency modeling as a concept and is intended to serve as a practical guide for practitioners seeking to understand what it takes to successfully implement a model and mange it in a public sector context.

Background: Competency management is a concept that has recently been adopted from the private sector by public management entities. Competency models guide competency based management. At a basic level, a competency model attempts to link human resource processes with organizational strategies. On a more specific level,it is a descriptive tool that goes beyond traditional job analysis in identifying the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform a role or task in an organization which will advance the strategic goals of the organization. A competency model is implemented and put into practice through competency based management. The intent is to support human resource processes such as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance evaluation, workforce planning, and career guidance (Getha-Taylor pg4). In the private sector,firms use competency management as a means to maintain a competitive advantage over competitors. A good competency management initiative will make clear how specific competencies will support the mission and values of an organization.Advocates of competency models have argued that a well-constructed model can aid succession planning by helping to identify areas of strength as well as areas for improvement. Competency management means that an organization has a systemic process to identify, articulate, and develop the knowledge and skills that are linked to a strategy.It is able to identify the distinction between poor, average, and superior performance. Competency management makes the determination that people are the key resource within the organization and they determine whether a strategy will fail or succeed. There are two types of models that “originally underpinned competency frameworks;the American behavioral model, where competencies are expressed as the behaviors that individuals need to demonstrate their competency, and the British ‘minimum standards of competent performance’ model which relates to the ability to perform activities within an occupation to a prescribed standard”(Horton et al. pg4). This paper will deal with the American model.

Competency-Based Management Competency-based management emphasizes the role of an individual and then concentrates on their outputs or result. This person-oriented rather than job-oriented perspective better positions competency management to support the key functions of HR processes. Competencies “drive recruitment, selection, placement, orientation, training, performance management, and workers’ rewards(Dubois pg34).” An organization has a competency based management strategy when these processes are screened through the lens of competencies as opposed to traditional job analysis. Some of the outcomes organizations can use competency based management toachieve are:Enhance competitive advantageDevelop better quality in products and servicesIncrease productivity Position the organization for future growth Facilitate culture change and transformationAssist with large-scale organizational changeFoster positive outcomes with customers or suppliers Increase financial performanceEstablish systematic linkages and integration among HR management practices Align HR management practices with the mission, vision, values, or business strategies or objectives of the organization. Ultimately, competencies should be seen as a way to integrate HR strategy with an organization’s strategy, thereby increasing the value of performance in organization. The implementation of competency based management has resulted in“linking individual competencies directly to the organization’s strategies and goals; developing profiles for positions or roles and matching individuals to task sets and responsibilities; affording the opportunity to continuously monitor and refine competency profiles; and facilitating the selections of employees as well as the training and development (Dubois pg35).” Through competency based management, an organization is able to target factors that will lead to success. This narrow focus on success allows an organization to amplify those factors through training and employee development when an employee falls short of the required competencies for success. The ability to identify competencies allows organizations to reward those who are successful in order to retain talent. Competency management allows an organization to connect pay, promotions, and growth to what it deems to be of value. Articulating these competencies to the workforce allows for understanding and highlights what should be the goal of every employee to achieve.

Aligning Competency-Based Management with Strategic Goals:

In an organization, management and key decision-makers construct strategic plans for the express purpose of clarifying long-term direction. It is the means to achieve an end, in other words it is a roadmap. Increasingly, organizations are adopting strategies that will incubate competencies. When competencies are aligned with strategy they are better able to fulfill an organization’s objective. Human resources play an important role in crafting strategy as they are in a position to identify an organization’s weakness and strengths. As such, HR should be “able to suggest methods for determining the kind of culture that will maximize opportunities and must also be prepared to provide reasons for their suggestions (Dubois pg39).” Strategy is often formulated in the context of a rapidly changing environment and often deals with change in an organization. In the traditional job-based approach, change is difficult to implement as it presumes that the worth of an individual lay in the ability to do a particular job and individuals can be paid according to the job they are doing. However, when a rapidly changing environment enters the equation, the whole idea of job stability becomes inappropriate. “In most cases, individuals need to rapidly change what they are doing and in some cases, to change the skills that they have in order to perform in new and different ways (Lawler pg5).” Competencies are better able to account for change in organization than traditional job descriptions which are usually static and pre-determined to address a status quo environment. It is argued that with a traditional job based approach, organizations focus on filling jobs at the expense of ignoring skill competencies of individuals. Competency management better positions an organization to address the change that is often inherent in a strategic plan. Once a decision is made to initiate a competency based management strategy, HR professionals must develop a conceptual plan to implement the application. An action plan is the primary tool to manage the workload, review and appraise project progress, and communicate with project team members and key stakeholders about the work to be done (Dubois pg53). The plan becomes a blueprint against all organizational practices. It assures how an organization hires, sets and tracks goals, assesses performance, develops employees, and identifies an organization’s future leadership cadre. All this is done with an organization’s vision and strategy in mind.

Benefits of a Competency-Based Management Approach: The benefits of competency based management go beyond the alignment of the workforce to strategy. The impact of competency modeling can first be discerned at the recruitment stage, when an employee is hired. Competencies can be used in the crafting of job announcements. As the hiring process progresses, competencies become more important. For example, a model can be used to develop job-specific interview questions which will help gauge the compatibility of an individual with a position. It helps increase objectivity and can be used to rank candidates in accordance to knowledge, skills, and abilities that will lead to successful performance in a job. In terms of the development of the workforce through training, competency models can help narrow the focus of what skills are sorely needed. Competency based training ensures that capital is not being misspent on efforts that will have only marginal effects on the bottom line. It is important to ensure that training initiatives address shortfalls in competencies. The development of a competency model can help identify skill gaps, which will in turn be addressed through training or through the hiring of individuals with the desired skill set. This will help narrow the gap between successful individuals and those performing at the lower margins.

Competency Management in the Public Sector Competency: management has emerged in the public sector for many reasons including: to increase competitiveness under severe resource limitations, to focus on the quality of customer service, to implement cultural changes leading to a greater emphasis on employees taking responsibility for continual learning and self-development, and has emerged to increase flexibility (Šiugždinienėpg30). It has become clear that the performance of managers and employees are key factors in the implementation of any government reform strategy. A number of governments have adopted competency management as a strategic tool to achieve better performance and to introduce cultural shifts. In the public sector, competency management is generally introduced as a part of an overarching organizational reform strategy. The application of competencies help reconcile fragmented governmental systems both vertically, through aligning workforce performance with strategy, and horizontally to implement processes essential to the human resource cycle, as discussed previously. The attempt to introduce coherence in fragmented government systems, where various agencies have different missions and values, has been supported through competency based management efforts. The role of “human resource professionals should be to act as internal consultants to line managers on a wide range of organizational issues(Šiugždinienėpg31).” Competency management in the public sector should facilitate capacity building efforts. It is important that training activities address shortfalls and are targeted to human resource managers and heads of departments, who will in turn lead important change initiatives. Competency management can be geared to improve recruitment in an increasingly competitive prospective employee pool, retention in an environment where experienced and talented employees take their skills to the private sector and assessment in order to meet important challenges. “The use of competency models must be meaningful to employees and should ideally be updated every 3-5 years to reflect changes both in the workforce and in the conditions of public work (Getha-Taylor pg7).” This is particularly important in the US government where retirement projections for 2016 demonstrate that 60% of full-time federal workforce would be eligible to retire. According to the Office of Personnel Management, competency management at the federal level will require continual reevaluation. Competency models need to be flexible in order to allow for modifications as the need for change and reevaluation emerges with shifting priorities among federal agencies. Using a Competency-Based Management Approach at USCIS. At USCIS, competency models have been developed and put into practice in an effort to create a more structure-based approach to identify and cultivate leaders. The broader effort under which these competency models were developed is known as the Workforce Restructuring Initiative (WRI). The challenge presented to USCIS dealt with the issue of career paths not being clearly defined and thus many “dead-end jobs” offered no opportunity for growth and upward mobility. According the workforce team findings, there was a lack of tools and processes to make informed promotion decisions. There was also a lack of guidelines for training that would lead to career growth. All these shortcomings stemmed from the fact that there was no competency model in place to guide decisions in those arenas. Over 140 positions were reorganized into three broad umbrella positions: Operations Support Specialist (OSS), Immigration Services Analyst (ISA), and Immigration Services Officer (ISO). In the summer of 2009, the initiative to create competency models for those positions began with a focus group of subjective matter experts (SMEs) from each career path. The SMEs identified work to be performed at each level. Out of that effort, draft competency model was developed as were competency proficiency levels. It highlighted that as a person moves into progressively complex levels, the knowledge and skills necessary to perform at those levels change. Essentially, proficiency requirements increase during career progression. The team that developed the competencies made sure that they aligned with core DHS competencies, and thus aligned with overarching DHS strategy. In order to validate the competency models and proficiency levels, a survey was conducted by 422 managers and supervisors. It was able to identify competency gaps a teach level by having supervisors rate needed and actual proficiency. There has been a renewed focus on competency modeling at USCIS since the beginning of 2012. This has been led by the Human Capital and Training division. Specifically, the competencies for Immigration Services Officers (ISOs) has been reviewed and updated to address current needs. That review was only part of a broader effort to implement a competency based approach across all of USCIS. The ultimate aim of this renewed focus on competencies is to ensure that these models are kept current in order to account for any changesin the strategic vision of the agency. The new focus on competencies will have the biggest impact on recruitment. The way the agency hires will be complemented by competency modeling and will ensure that new hires are the right fit for the

Once they become a part of the agency, competency management will facilitate promotion and rewards based on successful performance. All in all, these efforts will transform competency modeling from an academic concept into a practical effort that will advance the mission of the agency. Conclusion Competency management can bean important mechanism to enhance policy coherence across divergent agencies in the public sector and facilitate a culture of change. It is also of strategic importance for an organization seeking to ensure the each employee is invested in the broader goals of the organization. Through tailored training initiatives, competencies can be utilized to address areas where shortcomings exist in the workforce. The focus on the individual as opposed to the job ensures that key HR processes are focused on the person and not a set of technical jargon. Competency management, when used effectively, plays a big role in fostering change.It is essential for senior management take competency modeling into account when developing strategic plans that is why at USCIS, HCT has taken the initiative to start the process of developing competency models and implementing competency management across the entire organization. The intent is to transform competency management from something that is often talked about but never actually implemented into something concrete that will guide future hiring efforts and help identify and develop future leaders.

Further Reading:1.http://soc.kuleuven.be/io/ned/project/pdf/hrm27_country_report_us.pdf2.http://ceo.usc.edu/working_paper/from_jobbased_to_competencybas.htmlWorks Cited:Dubois, David D. Competency-based Human Resource Management.Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black Pub., 2004. Print.Getha-Taylor, Heather. “COMPETENCY MANAGEMENT IN THE US FEDERAL.” KU Leuven, 2010. Web. 14 Sept. 2012. <http://soc.kuleuven.be/io/ned/project/pdf/hrm27_country_report_us.pdf&gt;.Horton, Sylvia, Annie Hondeghem,and David Farnham. Competency Management in the Public Sector: European Variations on a Theme. Amsterdam: IOS, 2002. Print.Šiugždinienė, Jurgita. “Competency Management in the Context of Public Management Reform.” Competency Management in the Context of Public Management Reform18 (2006): 26-33. Print.Lawler, Edward E. “From Job-Based to Competency-Based Organizations -.” From Job-Based to Competency-Based Organizations -. Center for Effective Organizations, July 1993. Web.14 Sept. 2012. http://ceo.usc.edu/working_paper/from_jobbased_to_competencybas.html