Process of Competency Mapping
Are you aware of ALL of their skills when employing new staff, or just some of them?
Most companies view their employees in terms of the abilities specified in the job description for which they were employed. Tracking staff abilities presents significant challenges, especially for small businesses. But there is a simple technique to monitor the development of staff skills. It is referred to as competency mapping.
The knowledge of what your team can and cannot do that results from the process of competency mapping can be used to accomplish a number of objectives. In this post, we’ll examine competency mapping in detail, including what it is, how it works, and its potential advantages for both individuals and employers.
Talented people are needed by organizations to improve daily operations, foster a healthy culture, and pursue long-term objectives. As it can be difficult to quantify “talent,” many businesses utilize competency mapping to specify the crucial abilities needed for job functions. By using this application, employers may find competent candidates and make sure staff are aware of their expected responsibilities.
In this blog, we go through the process of competency mapping, go through its advantages, and outline how to put it into effect in your company.
What is Competency Mapping?
The process of competency mapping is identifying the abilities, knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed for a job title. Companies frequently start this approach by identifying their objectives and assessing the skills of their current workforce. Then they make sure staff have the skills they need to thrive in their roles and clearly explain the expectations they have for each position. As an illustration, competency mapping for an information technology professional may highlight the significance of communication, problem-solving, and operating system expertise.
Competence is the ability to successfully use or use knowledge, skills, talents, behaviors, and personal qualities to carry out activities, fill a specific role, or hold a particular position.
Acquiring knowledge about the significant traits (knowledge, skills, and behavior attributes) that are necessary to successfully carry out job classification or any other recognized process is what the process of competency mapping for employees is all about. It aids in assessing a person’s strengths and shortcomings and demonstrates where career development efforts are needed. By identifying their Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat, it enhances workforce growth (SWOT). It aids in determining the knowledge gaps needed to achieve an organization’s goals and objectives.
Nowadays, businesses are focusing on hiring multi-skilled workers that can handle the demands of the position. Thus, the process of competency mapping requires separating a work function into its individual tasks before finding the competencies required to carry out that job successfully. The degree of fit for the work function is then determined by mapping an individual’s competencies onto the defined competencies.
Classification of Competencies
- Capabilities that are demanded of every member of an organization are referred to as generic or core competences. These competencies outline the qualities that the company appreciates most in its employees. With changes in the business environment, core competences are always changing. They change over time and are adaptable. It will need to adapt and modify as the firm develops and as opportunities and circumstances change.
- Specific abilities can be divided into the following categories:
- Functional or professional competencies: They are often referred to as functional competencies. Each job within the company has a group of these special talents. By possessing the necessary technical abilities, performance can be optimized
- Behavioural Competencies: These are skills necessary for people to act in certain ways
- Technical Competencies: The application of the knowledge and abilities necessary to successfully carry out a job. It closely resembles the “know-how”—the information and abilities—necessary for successful performance
- Threshold competencies: Qualities needed by an employee to do their job well
- Differentiating competencies: It makes it evident who is a superior performer and who is just mediocre. Average performers don’t exhibit these qualities
Why is Competency Mapping Important?
Here are some key benefits of implementing the process of competency mapping:
Enhanced performance
You can pinpoint the organization’s current strengths and weaknesses because competency mapping entails evaluating current employees. With this knowledge, you may assign workers to assignments where they have the best chance of succeeding and maximize their potential. The company may provide new training opportunities and find additional areas where they can support their team more effectively by recognizing the areas where each employee has difficulties.
Improved productivity
Roles within an organization are frequently more precisely defined by the process of competency mapping. Employees with this specialization can concentrate their talents on the most pertinent activities and rely on peers for support in areas linked to their area of competence. Organizations often see results like better productivity and higher profitability as a result.
Streamlined hiring process
A streamlined hiring procedure might be experienced by a business with well-defined jobs. It can design thorough job descriptions and draw in brilliant workers with the right credentials by using its competency mapping. Because of this, hiring managers might have to go through fewer resumes and can devote more time to speaking with applicants who are a good fit for the position. Also, because new hires have the necessary core abilities for their positions and receive the best training, retention rates typically go up.
Increased morale
By laying out expectations and ensuring that workers understand how to earn high assessment scores, competency mapping can boost morale. Since everyone is aware of the expectations, it may also be simpler for workers to request assistance from their superiors. The openness that the process of competency mapping produces also makes career progression easier. Developing industry-specific skills encourages creativity and equips workers for higher-level roles within the organization.
Process of Competency Mapping
There are various approaches to using competency mapping. For some businesses, the first step is to identify their needs. Others begin by determining the competencies that each individual employee possesses (or lacks). There are various ways to gather the data you need on the competences of the employees, such as through staff group interviews, surveys, skill assessments, and staff evaluations.
Regardless of the strategies your business uses, the process of competency mapping may be summed up in the following crucial steps:
- Identify the organization’s goals
By determining its objectives, a business can start the process of competency mapping. To comprehend the bigger objectives that staff members are attempting to attain, it can reread its mission statement or consult with senior executives. This step enables the process to lay a solid foundation, identify smaller goals that workers pursue every day, and remove any ambiguity regarding the organization’s aims.
- Perform a Needs Assessment
The process of competency mapping must be based on your overall goals and needs for it to be truly effective. Make a list of the roles and positions your firm has, the competencies required for each, and which are most important for you to achieve your goals. Then, conduct a requirements assessment. If you have individuals with valuable and distinctive talents who may be challenging to replace after they leave? Moreover, bear in mind that competency mapping doesn’t have to be started from scratch; it may be done in incremental steps. For instance, you may choose a particular department to serve as a pilot group and assess the results before going live. Rather, limit the number of competences to a select few essential ones that are extremely important for you to monitor. - Analyze competencies of existing employees
The process of competency mapping allows an organization to establish competence maps and spot chances for improvement by reviewing the abilities of its current workforce. Employees have a distinctive viewpoint on their skills and can highlight them as they relate to their roles, making self-evaluation an effective analysis technique. Supervisor evaluations are another tool that organizations use to get a more objective view of employee performance. Whether you choose to employ one of these evaluation techniques or a mix of the two, think about tailoring them to each department or job.
If you want to improve the accuracy of your evaluation reports, think about going over the employee work history. These reports might test an employee’s weaknesses or provide useful information about their progress. For instance, an employee’s work history may show a gradual improvement in leadership abilities that enhanced their capacity to delegate duties. It may be a sign of a poor exam and prompt the business to rethink its evaluation criteria if an employee’s work history demonstrates competency in a skill that a current evaluation doesn’t reflect.
- Identify Competency Gaps
What are your strengths and shortcomings, and what areas of your ability still need improvement? Use a so-called competency matrix during your process of competency mapping to compare your current competency level to your competency targets and pinpoint any potential competency gaps in order to gain an overview of the company’s ability. In a competency matrix, each column corresponds to a competency, each line to an employee, and each person is ranked in accordance with their current proficiency level. Newer HR systems typically provide extra options to obtain a graphic overview of your data, such as a radar chart. It is an effective technique to evaluate your current situation to competency needs and objectives and to see where your strengths and shortcomings are.
- Define competencies
An organization can specify the abilities for each job post if it is aware of the employee goals and the knowledge required to achieve them, and if it is willing to apply the process of competency mapping. List crucial abilities and connect them to crucial responsibilities. For instance, to foster effective client interactions, a product designer may need to have strong communication and negotiating skills. These experts also use analytical thinking abilities to create prototypes and carry out user research that accurately identifies consumer preferences.
- Create an Action Plan
It’s time to develop an action plan once you have a comprehensive understanding of the needs, existing competency, competency gaps, and other important elements. Which actions should be taken in light of your objectives? Do you need to hire someone, or perhaps there is an employee who either possesses the necessary skill now or who could benefit from additional training? Whatever you decide to undertake as a first effort, it should be connected to a specific objective, a timetable, and a plan for how to follow up on the outcomes. - Determine metrics
By giving them metrics, competences can be defined more precisely inside an organization through the process of competency mapping. A typical illustration of a metric is a sales quota, which shows the performance goals for an employee. A sales quota may only be a number, but it is strongly related to abilities like communication, negotiating, and active listening. An employee’s capacity to accomplish their work is better understood by the company if they meet or almost meet their quota.
- Provide additional resources
Companies may notice employee demand for extra resources as the competency mapping process progresses. To carry out their responsibilities effectively, departments might need extra training or modernized equipment. Organizations can improve morale and show that they can manage expectations by allocating these extra resources.
- Implement results of the process of competency mapping
An organization can share outcomes both internally and publicly once roles have been clearly defined through competency mapping. To draw in qualified people, it might, for instance, include the findings in job descriptions. Employees can prepare for performance reviews by hearing the outcomes from their employers.
Many studies on the process of competency mapping have demonstrated that this method of skill development is the most accurate way to determine a person’s work and behavioral competencies within an organization. To spur organizational growth, efforts should be made to implement a competency-based approach to HR processes.
The fundamental tenet of the process of competency mapping is that behavioral and knowledge traits can be improved, and that the behaviors and knowledge sets people exhibit on the outside only make up a small portion of what they are competent at displaying. Competency mapping advocates believe that if a person is aware of the skills required to function effectively in a certain role or circumstance at work, he or she can work to develop those skills.
HR managers can get a relatively accurate picture of the employee thanks to competency mapping. The employee advances to a higher level and starts there at the base when he “tops” every indicator at his level; in other words, he is promoted. Also, it aids in determining the requirements for training and development, and most importantly, it aids in motivating the top talent and developing the remainder. Both the company and the employees benefit from the process of competency mapping.
