There are many competency models in existence, and it often seems like almost as many definitions of what a competency is. These definitions can range from specific sets of behaviors, skills, and abilities that are dozens of pages long for a single job, all the way to generic statements about character or leadership. If you follow the HR function that started the development of these competencies, you’ll generally find your answer of how the design came about – competencies driven by learning and development tend to be extremely detailed and therefore unusable by functions like talent acquisition and succession planning. When performance management holds the keys, competencies are usually broad, results-based, and unspecific and learning and development is left out in the cold.
To be clear, nothing is inherently wrong with these types of designs as they are done for a specific purpose. However, if your goal is to link together your talent management functions with competencies you must strike a balance on how your overall model is designed, so it can be effectively used for each need. Whether you enlist a licensed library of competencies through a company like Talent Mandala or set out to design your own, here are some “rules of thumb” to consider in a quality and effective competency library.
Competency “Rules of Thumb”
1) The competency library should be right-sized; specific enough to be usable, without being so specific that certain HR functions drown in the details. The “rules of thumb” in terms of quantity here are:
– The library should be more than 10 competencies – otherwise the competencies are too broad to serve a wide range of levels or functions (note that you can get away with a smaller number if these competencies have subordinate descriptions with clear levels of performance).
– But a library of less than 50 total competencies. Any more (and even slightly under that number) and jobs will often need over a dozen competencies to have complete coverage of critical skills/outcomes.
2) The competency library should be organized logically, meaning each competency should be of similar scope and weight, and its content should be encapsulated in such a way that the skills and behaviors included generally fit together (e.g. someone strong at ‘persuasion’ is also likely strong at ‘understanding their audience’; this same person however may or may not be strong at other people-related items like ‘listening’ or ‘empathy’. Individual competencies should be designed accordingly.)
3) The range of the competency library should be holistic – competencies should cover the full range of potential strengths that commonly make people successful in the workplace. Building relationships, managing projects, managing workgroups, setting strategy, envisioning the new and different, and many other areas. Every HR function has different purposes for using a competency model, and the model should contain all needed aspects of performance in the workplace so that people’s particular strengths and gaps can be managed.
4) Each competency within the library should be distinct. Competency definitions should be clearly separate from other individual competencies in the model; they may be related but the competencies should be at ‘arms-length’ in terms of language, so that skills don’t bleed from category to category, causing confusion and muddled data.
5) Lastly, (but also most importantly) whether including behaviors, skills, abilities, or other aspects of individuals, competencies should ultimately be written with observable behaviors. A rater cannot know that someone has a ‘strong sense of ethics’, but they do know if someone makes ethical decisions, or works to create an environment where ethics are important in teams they lead. Most HR functions require competencies to be observable to be effectively used.
A well-designed competency library can be the glue that holds your talent management processes together. To ensure the competencies within the library work for all functions, design them to be right-sized, logical, holistic, distinct, and observable.