Job skills and performance evaluation

Summary

From the promulgation of Decree-Law 187, the implementation of the Business Improvement came into force in 1998. As part of this process, the selected companies begin to apply the concepts of Labor Competencies and Performance Evaluation.

However, both concepts have been developed independently and asystemic, which means that General Principle No. 4 is violated, which is one of the principles that must underpin the process.

Both concepts, treated in a systemic way, must tend to the productive and personal development transformations of the workers that are objectives of the Business Improvement, since they are related to the strategy of productivity and human resources.

This process requires people who, in addition to knowledge, have skills, attitudes and motivations compatible with their development at a personal, collective and organizational level.

The most objective way to determine if that person is competent is to have evidence that they were able to carry out the work safely and efficiently, that is, to achieve the expected result. A person is considered competent to do something when he shows that he "knows how to do it", and the performance criteria define the quality of the work done.

But this is an incomplete and reductionist vision, since it is not just about "knowing" or "knowing how", but to combine it with another set of competences: social or participatory, leading to the improvement of the collective, and those of improvement personal.

An essential tool to face this challenge today is Competency Management, which becomes a continuous channel of communication between workers and the company. The organization must begin to redefine itself by redesigning a new vision that starts from the improvement and development of people, and the development of collective skills, otherwise it remains a technical, mechanistic organization.

This poses a challenge, both from training, which must be integrated into training and experience, and from professional work to create new values that modify the behavior of the individual, the group and the organization itself.

This work is carried out experimentally in two companies.

1. Introduction

A new assessment of Labor Competencies and Performance Evaluation is imposed.

In previous moments, and for many decades, when Job Analysis became important, and as part of this, Task Analysis (requirements) and Task Specifications (requirements or characteristics of personnel), it was possible to identify or establish a parallel with what was called the study of requirements-requirements, all of which was part of the job description. Emphasis was placed on the characteristics of the person, and was long reflected in the profesiograms. As a philosophy, and also conceptually, it does not stray far from what functional competencies are.

In the last two decades, Labor Competencies have become more important, with this new name, and of course with more drastic consequences. To the same extent that the labor market in capitalist countries has become more competitive, and the competitiveness between companies more aggressive, labor or professional skills become one of the main elements of competitiveness, internal and external; and of course, on labor disputes.

In our country, from the promulgation of Decree-Law 187 that put into effect the implementation of Business Improvement in 1998, and as part of this process in the selected companies, the concepts of Labor Competencies and Evaluation of Performance, as tools to seek greater effectiveness of the human component of the productive forces.

However, both concepts have been applied, and to some extent developing, independently, and above all asystemic, which means that General Principle No. 4 of the General Bases for Business Improvement that must underpin the process is breached., and that says: “All the organizational measures that can be adopted have to keep the necessary integrity. The company is a system that must act as a whole ”.

If this principle is not followed and worked, each and every one of the others is violated to some extent; being another of the essentials that of "developing the widest participation of all workers and that constitutes an element of business management and organization…", without which the systemic and strategic approach cannot be carried out.

Since then, and even today, in the world and among us, in general, the traditional concept of the company and the employment of the person has continued to be used, because the philosophy and reasoning that prevail over the company or organizations, they are the same, as well as the operation of the company. Hardly sails on the crest of the "second wave".

The job position is still considered basically as a set of operations and responsibilities for the technical elements, and it is necessary to identify and characterize the specific requirements of the suitable personnel to fulfill the requirements of the organization, functionally conceived, in a fragmentary way, and with low integration at the individual job level.

So that the competencies come to emphasize the aspect of the demands of the personnel, historically relegated to the background and little treated, also as part of the Analysis of the work, which in addition sometimes does not even respond to the level or degree of development of the organization, which imposes certain higher requirements, and yet does not go beyond the functional approach.

Ultimately, these would be the most basic Functional Competences, which do not go beyond individual characterization at the job level. But, Labor Competencies have followed the same development and reasoning along with the vision of the role of human resources and their impact on the organization.

To the same extent that the “human resource” approach has gained importance in the world, in the logic of costs and the market, Labor Competencies have gained interest; Thus, Management by Competencies is spoken of as a substitute for human resources, and in recent times there is talk of “talents” instead of competencies, seeking to make the so-called Human Capital respond more to the logic of capital.

Impact measurement has evolved from statistical to financial terms, to express the profitability or rate of return of education, which is ultimately what the concept of Human Capital responds to in terms of "competencies, knowledge and skills".

But, undoubtedly, Labor Competencies and Performance Evaluation, which would be the measurement of the degree of coverage of the demands-requirements in a result, can represent a major change in the treatment of Human Resources in the management of the organization.

2. Development

Let's look briefly at some of the most important definitions. Thus, the International Labor Organization (ILO), associates skills with qualification and is understood as an acquired capacity, defines it as "suitability to perform a task or perform a job effectively by possessing the qualification required for it."

In this sense, for our country, with great experience in qualifiers, it does not represent anything new, since developing this approach or analysis would only be to refine existing qualifiers, which in fact has also been carried out for more than a decade by defining the demonstrated actual suitability.

It should be borne in mind that this definition emphasizes the task and the demonstrated real capacity, and responds to the traditional functional approach and an organization that is also traditional, and currently limited, and in the capitalist context, to a market-oriented education, or in other words, the coordination of needs between the company and the individual.

But there are other definitions that go beyond the ILO definition, depending on the technological and organizational characteristics and the objectives of the countries. In our case, it is necessary to overcome them to develop new organizational forms, which especially require advanced services.

Thus, the INEM of Spain goes beyond knowledge, and says that it is "a set of behaviors, powers of analysis, decision-making, transmission of information necessary for the full performance of the occupation."

In Canada it is also defined in terms of "set of socio-affective behaviors and cognitive, psychological, sensory and motor skills that allow an activity or function or process to be carried out properly".

And in Germany, they say that in addition to knowledge, skills and aptitudes, “autonomous and flexible professional problem solving and the ability to collaborate in their environment and organization must be taken into account, for which the social competences ”.

In the English system, rather than finding a definition of labor competence, the concept is latent in the structure of the standard system. The Labor Competence is identified in the norms through the definition of elements of competence (labor achievements that a worker is capable of achieving), and the performance criteria (definitions about quality), the field of application and the required knowledge.

In this system, five levels of competence have been defined that make it possible to differentiate: the degree of autonomy, variability, responsibility for resources, the application of basic knowledge, the breadth and scope of abilities and skills, the supervision of the work of others, and the transferability from one area of work to another.

Each of these goes beyond functional competences, which according to the Mertens model, L. (1997) establishes concrete and predefined performances or results that the person must demonstrate at the operational level and that is limited to technical or operational aspects only.

In our framework of references, and as a development trend of our organizations, we can define Labor Competencies as: the set of observable, measurable and quantifiable behaviors related to effective performance in a job and organization given in a personal and social situation determined, in which knowledge, coexistence, values and skills are displayed, which allow professional problems to be solved autonomously and flexibly, and to collaborate in the professional environment and in the organization of work.

From this concept, it is necessary to go towards the understanding of developing Behavioral and Constructivist Competences, which identify the underlying competencies, characteristics of the personnel or the demands that respond to higher requirements depending on the degree of development of processes, technology (in a broad sense) and behaviors, and they are built on the go, and they are not predetermined. It is a necessity and reality of the cultural and qualification level reached by our workers.

A holistic vision, oriented to processes and systems, leads to increased demands for the development of analysis, decision-making and initiative capacities, involving not only the highest levels of the hierarchical pyramid, but also all workers in the company, regardless of its occupational category.

For the development of competences beyond the functional ones, which go towards modifying the behavior of individuals, groups and organizations, it is vital that the company redefines itself with respect to its vision (value-oriented), the satisfaction of all human needs (Live, Love, Learn and Leave a Legacy) and the creation of a space of leadership and proactivity.

In this regard, it is proposed to work on modifying current behaviors both individually and collectively, for which it is necessary to introduce and develop new, value-oriented skills.

3. Prospects

Current trends in the development of competences emphasize the development of generic competences such as: Ability to learn, Adaptation to change, Creativity and innovation, Teamwork, Effective vision oriented to values., Ethics., Responsibility, Loyalty and sense of belonging, Adherence to norms and policies, Service orientation, Attitudes, Enthusiasm, Positivism and optimism, Persistence, Flexibility, Pursuit of excellence

What are the important aspects to highlight?

The development of generic or key competences in which technical competences are integrated with social ones. If the competencies do not identify the demands of teamwork, developing critical thinking, solving systemic problems, communication skills, handling information, self-confidence or self-esteem, among others, look for the relationship with training (education) based on what the UNESCO Report (1996) indicates that to assume jobs in a changing society it is necessary to focus education on:

The ability to learn Teach how to use information How to adapt to new situations Ability to understand Complex Problem Analysis through the development of dialogue workshops High skills Ability to communicate Work in community

The Delors Report specifies that there are four pillars of education:

Learning to know (knowledge) Learning to do (new vision of work) Learning to live together (solidarity, respect) Learning to be (diversity, unity and complexity)

These pillars constitute the platform for competencies:

Technical or knowledge skills (knowledge) Doing or organizational skills (skills) Social or participatory skills (coexistence) Personal skills (personal improvement)

This constitutes a superior philosophical and conceptual development of the competences currently. It leads to a cultural transformation, towards La Cultura de La Confianza (Rojas Nieto, E. and Hernández Negrín, I. 1997), and this is fundamental for a systemic change at the organization level.

Only if people change, and one of the values to develop is self-responsibility, will organizations change.

On the other hand, but not separately, the Performance Evaluation must be understood as a systematic assessment of the development of the person and the effectiveness of work skills.

The objective is to stimulate the person for their personal improvement, recognizing their qualities and the development of their potential, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization; train staff; stimulate productivity; collective development; validate the selection process; stimulate self-improvement; identify critical organizational processes that affect vision compliance. It allows, above all, to align individual and collective objectives with organizational ones.

These new proposals and perspectives on Labor Competencies and Performance Evaluation have been developed in two project companies.

The Performance Evaluation in the two companies studied is characterized by:

In both, there is a results-oriented Performance Evaluation The Performance Evaluation system is out of alignment with the Labor Competencies system. Labor Competencies are functionally conceived In both, the definition of Competencies is generic, but this is not accompanied by organizational maturity and current interpersonal relations system necessary to be able to develop them There is confusion between the concepts and their measurement and ignorance of the evaluation criteria by the workers The current Strategic Planning process presents an systemic approach with the systems designed for the evaluation of performance and labor competencies

In both companies, Competencies are understood as acquired skills in terms of "suitability to perform a task or perform a job effectively by possessing the qualification required for it." Then, the task is emphasized, the traditional functional and limited approach referred to above is maintained.

In order to change this situation that is currently latent in the organization, it is necessary to start a learning process that consists of training personnel in important topics for an effective transformation, such as: Mission and Vision, Effective Communication, Teamwork, Motivation, Intranet effective.

The following scheme has been used for these purposes, integrating the Balanced Scorecard.

From the identification made by the staff, an alignment of the objectives and the activities carried out by each individual as part of a group is sought with the strategic objectives and planning of the organization.

At the moment, with the development of the first three actions, the group involved in the experience has been led to assume new competences, from the understanding of the need to modify their behaviors and achieve superior performance, which starts from the contribution of the members as a collective to the fulfillment of an effective mission of the organization.

The group-collective has managed through dialogue workshops to analyze complex issues that have allowed it to change consciousness, as well as decision-making that guides the team's work and its alignment to a shared vision.

Bibliography

Alhama Belamaric, R; Alonso Arrastía, Francisco and Martínez Núñez, Tania. New Organizational Forms. 2004

Maynard, BH and Mehrtens, ES: The fourth wave. 1993.

Mertens, L.: Labor competencies: systems, emergence and models. Cinterfor, ILO, Montevideo, 1997.

Rojas Nieto, E and Hernández Negrín, I. Evaluation of performance in the Culture of Trust. 2005.

Rojas Nieto, E and Hernández Negrín, I. Labor Competencies in the Culture of Trust. 2005.