Helios has had many clients inquire as to how they can effectively improve their talent management. While not easy, it is vitally important to attracting, retaining, and developing your employees. The solution — use a common language. Competencies, which are the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for job success, provide that common language.
How should I develop my company's core competencies?
Core competencies, as well as job-specific and leadership competencies, should be developed and validated when implementing organizational competencies. Subject matter experts, past performance reviews and expectations, job analyses, critical-incident interviews, and position descriptions are useful tools in developing and validating.
Proficiencies for each competency should also be developed. The competencies will help to make your organization's performance management system more meaningful as they will be integrated into every aspect of human resources and the business, streamlining all HR programs and processes.
Integrating competencies into recruiting and selection, training and development, workforce planning, performance management, and all HR programs "not only brings a new level of precision and sophistication to these processes, it also binds them together into a true integrated talent management lifecycle" (Schweyer, 2012).
What should my core competencies be linked to?
Core competencies should be linked to job performance, your organization's core values, and the execution of your mission. They are "the integration of capabilities and accumulative knowledge such as techniques, management, and so on that are significant for companies to gain their competitive advantages" (Lee, Lin, & Tai, 2012).
Job-specific competencies can be determined through job analysis and critical-incident interviews, and should reflect what is critical for successful job performance for each role. Leadership competencies can be determined by taking best practices and applying them to your mission, strategic goals and values.
The leadership competencies should reflect what it takes to be a successful leader in your company's culture.
Recommended reading: Achieving Your Organizational Goals with Strategic HR
Why should I implement competencies into my workforce?
Implementing competencies will enable you to have an engaged workforce, where employees are motivated, targeted development opportunities are provided, and effective behaviors are reinforced.
This will ultimately lead to an alignment of the organization's strategic goals providing a win-win for all stakeholders.