HR HIGHS
Find answers to competency issues before hiring
All organisations aspire to recruit, develop and retain the best employees. When companies adopt a competency based talent management system, they ensure a progressive outlook to employee recruitment, development and retention. Competency is defined as the tangible skills, attitude or knowledge that helps an individual to successfully perform his job.
Most companies follow a trial and error method when it comes to defining and implementing policies connected to talent management. Coming to recruitment, companies rely on past achievements of the candidate, the scores in the course/s they have done, standard tests and assessments. The result is hiring employees who may be good in their subject but may necessarily not have the competency to do the job.
Similarly a particular employee may be good at his job and the management might decide to promote him, without really checking if he is fit for it. The result -a good performer turns into an average one and loses interest in the job and starts looking for another job. This is a blow to retention efforts. Likewise when employees have been hired without really assessing their skills, they are likely to be quickly disillusioned and leave.
If organisations have to hire, develop or retain the best talent, they have to adopt a competency based talent management model for their employees. Let us see how it can be used in different facets of HR operations.
Coming to recruiting, companies usually start off with a desirable list of qualities; they are looking for in prospective employees. Fact is it is almost impossible to get the candidate who meets all the criteria. They have to settle for somebody who has at least some of the qualities. Consequently the employee approaches his job without really being confident whether he can meet its expectations.
In a competency-based approach, the company draws up a smaller list of desirable qualities in the potential employees. However, these are well defined and the management is clear that they will hire candidates based on their achievement of certain competencies rather than base the decision on a conventional list of skills.
Once an employee is hired based on his competencies, the management can concentrate on his development and chart out a programme for developing the desirable competencies they want him to acquire.
Similarly, when it comes to retention efforts, once the employees know that they are poised for professional development in the organisation because the management is making efforts to train them, they are less likely to leave the organisation in a short time.
The knowledge of core competencies also helps the management to set appropriate goals for employees and take the right promotion and compensation decisions. This in turn increases employee engagement and retention.
Given the fact that there is the common thread of competency combining all the aspects of HR - employee selection, evaluation, promotion, and reward systems. The management has to find answers to certain competency issues even before it starts the hiring process. These include:
• The skills, qualities most needed by the organisation
• Areas where critical skills are lacking, where already existing talent can meet requirements
• Employees or potential ones who are most qualified to fill certain positions or do critical tasks
• If recruitment, growth and retention efforts are properly aligned
Once the management finds the answers to these pertinent questions, than it can develop the right competency based approach to these aspects. The process begins with identifying the competencies an employee must possess in three different areas:
General- These are management skills, leadership qualities and insight into business.
Functional- These are specific skills for specific functions- marketing, finance, human resources and public relations .
Organisational- Skills specific to the business of the company like marketing, engineering consultancy or website development. These competencies set the organisation apart from others and are most visible to outsiders.
To have a successful talent management system companies must first brief the employees on the competencies required. These have to be ideally linked to the goals and vision of the organisation. This will help employees to develop these skills through self-evaluation and improvement. It will help the managers to design a competency development plan for their team or department. The HR department can plan the hiring needs and develop programmes to help existing employees develop these competencies.
The competencies will have to be precisely described so that leaders understand their importance, employees are aware of what they need to work on and the management can identify already available talent and promote them. This will ensure the involvement of everyone in the process.
In conclusion, competency based talent management is a significant step towards total quality management and long-lasting success for every organisation.
