Introduction
Today globalization has caused, due to the free flow of information, the creation of new ways of working, operating processes, directing them and their organizations, higher levels of required skills, and inevitably higher levels of stress.
For this reason, companies must adapt to, and even anticipate, changes, adequately planning their strategies and properly aligning the contributions of their intellectual capital with those strategies in order to achieve the objectives and goals of the organization.
Making these processes work efficiently, that is, increasing productivity and resulting in a return on investment in human capital, requires competency-based human resource management.
What are Labor Competencies?
We are not talking about anything new, since this concept was used by David McClelland some 30 years ago, who through his research showed that the traditional evaluations and tests that claimed to predict successful performance were insufficient.
Over time different definitions have become known, however, I think I can summarize them below:
Competition:
Ability to effectively develop a job, using the necessary knowledge, abilities, skills and understanding, as well as the attributes that facilitate solving contingent situations and problems.
It could also be interpreted in the following graph:
Based on this concept, typologies, classifications and gradations of competencies have been tested, from different points of view and emerging trends.
Once the identification of the competences has been achieved through a technical analysis of the "behaviors of successful individuals", a structure is obtained consisting of: applied knowledge, developed skills and demonstrated attitudes. With these concurrent elements, we can form the criteria that allow us to select, evaluate, train, develop and remunerate workers.
Conducting comprehensive management with a focus on well-targeted skills will allow us to:
· Align the contribution of human capital with the strategic needs of the organization.
· Efficiently manage the intellectual assets of our workers and through it the assets in their charge.
· Evaluate their performance based on results and know the average performance personnel that require development for superior performance.
· Remunerate staff fairly.
· Determine the so-called technical gap and the training effort necessary for the functional mobility of personnel.
· Quantitatively establish the added value through skills, as well as the return on your investment (ROI)
· Establish your competitive advantage in the market.
It should be noted that Competency Management is not only the responsibility of the Human Resources function, but also involves both Senior Management and line personnel.
Panorama in Latin America
Efforts to establish competency-based training guidelines in Latin America have had their most notable fruits in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, El Salvador and Mexico.
These efforts have been largely driven by the ILO, through various channels. Likewise, a series of international organizations such as IDF-CORFO, IDB-MIF have supported research and dissemination programs and projects on these topics in entities such as Fundación Chile, in the Certification of Labor Competencies; Ministry of Labor of Argentina within the framework of the Pilot Experiences Certification of Labor Competencies project; The National Learning Service of Colombia, with a similar project; the Salvadoran Institute for Professional Training (INSAFORP) in preparing the Professional Training Program with a focus on Competencies; and the Council for the Normalization and Certification of Labor Competencies (CONOCER) of Mexico.
In Peru, the Ministry of Labor and Social Promotion (MTPS) began some years ago, a process of establishing Competency-Based Training, structuring projects and programs, with the support of the Ministry of Education and entities such as the Colombian Cooperation Agency International, the Argentine Fund for Horizontal Cooperation (FO-DR), the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation (JICA), CONOCER of Mexico, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI), the Swiss Agency for Cooperation (SDC) and others.
The projects developed in Peru have different degrees of progress and some of them remain on standby, which has resulted in poor progress in the area of competencies in relation to the other countries in the region.
Examples of initiative in professional training entities have been sent by CENFOTUR (Tourism Training Center), SENATI (National Training Service for Industrial Work) and SENCICO (National Training Service for the Construction Industry), always counting on the collaboration of foreign entities.
Given that the basis for a business and educational culture based on labor competencies is based on the training of individuals, it is up to the private sector to contribute to give the necessary impetus for the establishment and / or implementation of projects already initiated by the government.
