Competencies: At the “Heart” of a Talent Management Strategy

While competencies should be at the core of your strategy, they can be a confusing topic for many HR and Talent Management leaders. Learn more about what competencies are, how they benefit organizations and how to get started.

Whether it is for performance management, succession planning, career development and more, there are many definitions for competencies and the ways they can be used as part of talent management strategies. As time goes by, I feel people try to use competencies in ways that may not support a measured outcome or result –- it’s just another “thing” we need to include in our organizational strategy to build talent. With this in mind I thought I’d talk about some of things I’ve learned and how I've used competencies over the years in hopes I may help to guide many of you as you sail towards this new horizon. For those of you in the more advanced stages of competencies, I’ll talk about that in another posting.

What are Competencies?

There are many definitions out there for competencies, but the one I continue to use is:

“A competency is an observable and measureable attribute (skill, knowledge, value, trait, or perspective) that contributes to success in performing a task or job.”

I know this may seem to be a mouthful, but in reality, competencies are shaped by so many things we do, as well as by who we are. Our emotions, beliefs, experiences and even our genetic make-up play an important part in how we determine success. That’s why it must be an observable behavior (something you can see), so we have a common interpretation.

Because of this vagueness, companies haven’t always used them as effectively as possible. Over time, organizations started a competency-based approach to identify its critical success factors -- what it needs to focus on in order for the business to succeed, as well as the components for the success of its people. Defined either way, competencies continue to help businesses become more efficient, focused and flexible.

When focusing on people, competencies can predict performance, promotion and derailment. Statistics from experts Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger have found:

• Sales managers with higher ratings on critical skills are twice a likely to meet/exceed targets;

• Having the right set of competencies is worth $7 million more in sales per executive;

• And top performers across a variety of jobs have 2 to 12 times the productivity of average performers

Evidence shows that competencies lay the groundwork -- performance improves when clear direction is established and a path is followed.

Organizational Benefits

Just a few benefits (off the top of my head) of using competencies within an organization include:

• Aligning people with organization strategy by a set of competencies and then selecting, coaching and developing people against those competencies.

• Evaluating readiness for change by determining if a future set of competencies are feasible before changes are implemented.

• Driving organizational initiatives by measuring the current state of competencies to determine significant gaps and identify initiative focus.

• Determining success at different levels of the organization by identifying individual potential and the development needed to ready people for new positions and responsibilities.

• Creating a system framework where all of your HR processes are built around to attract, develop and retain your best talent.

To clarify, competencies can be used in a number of different ways to support your talent management strategy, including: recruitment and selection; individual assessment and development; performance management; team assessment; coaching; career development; succession management; and organizational culture and readiness assessments.

At the end of the day the competencies are at the “heart” of these processes, helping to create a standardized approach, language and direction to be followed and measured. This is why competencies need to be at the core of your talent management strategy, with a phased plan of execution to address your business needs and alignment to the organizational strategy.

Getting Started

Where do you start?

One approach might be to determine your pain points or “what’s broken." If you’re having problems hiring and retaining, start with a competency-based selection process. If you don’t have the bench strength needed for the future, structure a competency-based succession and development process.

Anywhere you begin will have positive effects, as long as your competencies are part of an integrated solution and have been embedded into the culture. It will take time, so have patience. And if you don’t know where to start, you’re not sure what’s broken, or if there are many things broken, you can use the philosophy which has guided me through my HR experience as a change agent...

If it’s not broken, BREAK IT!

Laura Durando is a Client Success Manager with Cornerstone OnDemand. She has over 25 years of business experience and has held executive positions in Talent Management and Organizational Development with multiple organizations.