Assessment of labor competencies
The evaluation of competences is a complex process, which requires as previous steps the definition of occupational profiles, structured around knowledge, skills and individual and social behaviors. Next, it is necessary to establish the measurement instruments that account for the demonstrations or evidence of each of these competences, but viewed from a balanced and comprehensive perspective.
The article provides the general theoretical framework in which the competence evaluation processes are inserted and outlines the projections that it has for the purpose of determining the training needs of a company.
I. Labor competencies
There is an abundant literature on labor competencies, so much so that, in truth, we could affirm that on this subject trees do not reveal the forest. Significantly, this mess is only just being cleared in European countries.
The funny thing is that almost everyone defines competencies with different words, but the same background. To check it out, all you have to do is take a short web tour to come across hundreds of sites, all full of definitions.
But let's see the bottom line: competencies are those knowledge, practical skills and attitudes that are required to exercise a trade or work activity.
When classifying the different types of competitions, there is also a great variety. However, in my opinion there is no better classification than that of the company Mannesmann, from Germany.
In 1998, when I had the opportunity to visit it and share with its executives, I was given the following classification, which I wish to share:
- The Methodological Competences s correspond to the precise levels of knowledge and information required to carry out one or more tasks. The Technical Competences refer to the precise practical applications to execute one or more tasks. The Social Competences respond to the fluid and positive integration of the individual to work groups and their response to the social challenge that this implies, although always experienced from the labor perspective. Finally, the Individual Competences are related to aspects such as responsibility, punctuality, honesty, etc.
The integration of these 4 competencies related to a trade or work activity corresponds to its Occupational Profile.
Well, when we refer to the evaluation of a person's job competencies, we are saying what he knows how to do, how much he knows, why he knows it, how he applies it and how he behaves in his job… and all this, in addition, sizing to what extent.
II. Traditional assessment
Without wishing to bore anyone, it is clear that before dealing with the subject of competency assessment, let us take a cursory glance at traditional assessment.
As expected, almost all of us have gone through school and many have gone through higher education. We therefore have evaluation experiences that, for most, must have been distressing.
If we analyze the type of evaluations, most of these measured our knowledge, that is, methodological competences.
Only in a few cases, we measured practical competences, and, almost never, in order not to fall into the exaggeration of saying "never", we were evaluated by social and individual competences.
This data is not less, since according to a recent study carried out among Swedish companies, they assign a 70% weight to individual and social skills compared to the others that make up the occupational profile for a job.
It should be noted that modern societies generate the highest supply of jobs in the tertiary sector, that is, in the field of services (over 65% of the available positions).
Therefore, the assessment of behavioral competencies is of vital importance for these companies and companies.
The bad thing is that nobody evaluates behaviors, if not, as it is expressed, most of the evaluations are made up of applications of instruments that exclusively measure knowledge.
In summary, this is the traditional assessment: one that measures knowledge (80%) and skills (20%).
In other words, these are evaluation processes that turn their backs on what the company is interested in knowing about people.
Let us think that, in today's world, information and technology change rapidly, but the essence of a person, referring to his facilities to interrelate, to take responsibility for his actions, to be cooperative in his job and to be interested in his own professional growth, have a more permanent character and are the axis that makes the real difference between a competent worker and an incompetent worker.
III. Assessment of labor competencies
One of the first questions we should ask ourselves is why assess competencies.
We have two answers for this: one, to know what type of worker we are hiring and, two, to know what the level of workers is in terms of their performance competencies.
Normally, in the first case, the result of the evaluation of the competences of an applicant will help us make the decision of whether or not to hire them.
On the other hand, performance evaluation is much more complex and allows detecting deficiencies and deficiencies in people who occupy certain jobs, which may be subject to a subsequent training process.
Adding and subtracting, the objective of evaluating job skills is to take a kind of photograph of the job situation of workers, referring to the level of their knowledge, skills and behaviors in their respective jobs.
And it is that the evaluation of competences, is not applied during the teaching-learning processes that a person experiences, but is used in their work processes.
The modern concept of competency evaluation refers to the need to apply the respective instruments before hiring personnel, during workers' work activities (performance evaluation) and after having subjected them to training processes, for the purpose of knowing in which measure has favored the development of the company.
Assessment of previous competences
To have information about a candidate's previous competences, we can use the PLAR assessment model, Prior Learning Assessment Recognition, which can be interpreted as Recognition of Relevant Competences.
Originally, the PLAR has been designed for the person to certify their competences before an authorized body. Thus, with the certification of a trade the person can be employed in her field.
Unfortunately, this model involves the design of a number of occupational profiles, recognized and accepted by the various business and government organizations, a situation that rarely, to be generous, occurs in Latin America.
Certainly the PLAR, and other similar models, belong to developed countries, which receive waves of immigrants… who belong to our peoples.
In other words, we export more labor than we import, therefore, our needs to approve workers from different latitudes but who claim to exercise a certain trade are very low.
Another reason for not investing in a national plan for occupational profiles is that it requires high investment and a greater capacity for agreements, which in our countries make it difficult to attempt… although there are already positive experiences in this regard.
However, the PLAR model can have a good dose of importance for companies that want to hire competent personnel.
The PLAR requires fairly specific assessment and validation instruments, based, of course, on the existence of an Occupational Profile for the job carried out by the person to be evaluated, a profile that the company must have clearly defined
The PLAR includes various instruments, namely:
to. Matching guidelines, based on the subcompetences (especially practical and attitudinal) that the evaluator must observe in the evaluated.
b. Multiple choice tests to assess knowledge
c. Letters of support (from previous employers, for example.) It is not a letter of recommendation, to which we are so given in Latin America, but a kind of certificate issued by the employer where it is specified, as a list of checkup, the skills of the evaluated.
d. Contribution of tests, based on the product of the work of the evaluated.
and. Also, depending on the complexity, an interview can be accompanied with the evaluated person and / or their employers.
Performance evaluations
The performance evaluation tries to identify the deficit that workers may have in the execution of their functions and tasks. By the way, there must be a defined occupational profile for the jobs.
This is the contrast medium, so to speak, that allows us to detect the worker's shortcomings or shortcomings.
Naturally, not all deficit aspects are of the same level of importance to the organization.
Hence, before carrying out any performance evaluation, the company must have defined its production or service procedures. The functional analysis will then allow the importance levels of the different competences involved in the jobs to be graduated.
Performance Evaluation Conditions
Here it is worth making a parenthesis so that we keep in mind the basic conditions of any process of evaluating labor competencies, which refer to their:
1. Validity: which should answer the question, can the instrument I am going to apply really capture whether the person is competent or not? For example, what is better to observe the evaluated in her job or in a simulation process.
Furthermore, the instrument is valid when it is reliable, that is, it allows its application in different situations and to different people.
2. Authenticity: that is, it establishes with certainty that the person being evaluated is the one who developed this or that demonstration or test.
The point is important when it comes to evaluating the work of a photographer, for example, who provides some photographs as evidence. How is it certified that the author of the samples is effectively the evaluated?
3. Sufficiency: how many times must we observe a process to be sure that the person being evaluated effectively demonstrates the competence that we are evaluating? The principle to be applied in this case is that the productive sector and the council of the administrator unit of the labor competencies accreditation system define the number of times required and the amount of experience necessary to be considered competent.
4. Justice: where all the people who aspire to the recognition of their labor competencies are evaluated with similar standards, criteria and instruments.
5. Acceptance: where the people who are going to undergo the job skills evaluation process for a level X, accept and recognize that the applicable evaluation standards, criteria and instruments are correct and fair. Naturally, this acceptance also extends to employers and to those who contract, in general.
IV. Competency assessment during the training process
The designer of the training program should consider aspects such as: the length and nature of each module (its level and location within the curriculum grid) and the moments of the evaluation.
In general, there is no evaluation other than diagnosis in the first sessions of a module.
However, towards the middle of the allotted time it is prudent to apply some formative evaluation instrument that allows observing the degree of progress and internalization of the implicit and explicit competences of the module.
At the end of the module it is necessary to apply a quantitative or summative evaluation that allows us to compare the degree of internalization in the participant of the objectives and contents of the module.
In general, the instruments will be: tests, questionnaires, comparison guidelines (Likert scale) and, to measure behavioral competences, the evaluation can be applied in 360 degrees.
What to do with the results
The results of an evaluation have different degrees of importance, depending on when they are considered as indicators.
For example, a negative evaluation at the beginning or in the middle of a module, whether by the teacher, the applied methodology, the available resources, the levels of internalization of competences, etc. it allows to make corrections or, in extreme cases, to rethink the entire module.
The same negative evaluation at the end of the module leaves no room for reaction… except to check in and try to forget the embarrassment.
Finally, the impact evaluation applies instruments that are already known, especially the collation guidelines, and is carried out a few weeks or months (2 or 3) after the end of the training.
The result, logically, merits a report that must be delivered to the interested institution, which is normally the contracting company.
The cut between insufficiency and sufficiency is of the order of 60% approval, naturally, the closer to 100% the better the impact of job training will have been.
For these effects, that is, to compare the impact of a training process that occurred some time ago, instruments that evaluate methodological or behavioral competences can also be applied, for example, tests, interviews with supervisors, productivity analyzes, etc.
Conclusions
As it can be observed, the evaluation of competences is a complex process, which requires as preliminary steps the definition of occupational profiles, structured around individual and social knowledge, skills and behaviors.
Next, it is necessary to establish the measurement instruments that account for the demonstrations or evidence of each of these competences, but viewed from a balanced and comprehensive perspective.
This vision is perhaps the most difficult part to achieve. Although it is not complex to find evidence of skills and knowledge, through tests and matching guidelines, it is complex to define people's attitudinal skills.
These can be detected by applying surveys and observation guidelines in which the evaluated person and those who interact with him during his work are involved.
Delimited this, it is necessary to carry out a new dimension: the instruments must provide demonstrations of behavioral competences related exclusively to the functions and tasks that the evaluated person performs.
That is, it is not enough to ask if the worker is punctual when entering the factory, if not how punctual he is when delivering his products; The ease of the person to maintain harmony in their workplace is not enough, but rather how much this benefits the team's performance.
Giving an account of the competences that are possessed versus those required to adequately execute the functions and tasks entrusted to the job results in the training needs of the personnel.
By the way, there are other methods of Detection of Needs, however, finally all those used must come together at a point that allows, among other things, to define priorities, selected groups, programs and training sequences, among other aspects.
