Background Introduction
Within the evaluation of work and its application in the detection of training and development needs, although it is not a recent topic in the literature, from traditional human resources administration to modern human talent management in organizations, if It is one of the most neglected in terms of methodological rigor. It seems that the easiest way is to practice it, regardless of meeting scientific requirements in a measurement and research study, such as the validity and reliability of the data thrown up by obsolete and subjective processes, techniques, and tooling. One of the first antecedents that was found and that addresses the specific topic in the field of training and personnel development is the work of "… Robert Schaffer in his article"Job satisfaction as related need satisfaction in work ”, published in 1953. This constitutes, perhaps, the starting point of concern for needs and satisfaction in the workplace and professional sphere.” (Reyes, SM 2012)
Another old limitation is that few authors have understood the practical implication of embedding the same concept of need for training, which in addition to defining it as the gap or lack between the required competences and those that the person has, should be emphasized, which are eliminated or diminished with learning-teaching processes (adapted from Patiño, H. 1992), “… in this sense, we assume“ needs ”as the lack of something that is considered inevitable and that is capable of being supplied with training processes, … (Molina, Nuby and Contreras, A. 2007).
This is vital in its conceptualization and practical utility since many of the gaps are caused by other types of variables in the organization, such as the lack of resources in the organization, nonexistent or poorly designed work processes, or the external social environment. One of the authors (Aguilar - Morales, J., 2010) explains it as: “The objective of the DNC is to identify discrepancies between what is and what should be (and in another section adds the author)… It differs between training problems and those of an administrative nature… ”. In other words: " A training needs assessment is used to determine whether or not training is the right solution to the problem in the workplace." (Cekada, T. 2010)
Within the traditional ways of evaluating performance and detecting training and development needs in the staff of an organization, the tooling and methodology have changed and evolved since the appearance of total quality approaches and competencies, specifically the European one. “A detection carried out in an inorganic or unsystematic way, as well as the absence of a process of analysis and reflection, will lead to the execution of training actions that are not based on objective and comparative work with respect to other interests and organizational needs, and many times, they will probably imply underutilization of resources and the loss of opportunities to achieve levels of performance in line with quality standards and medium and long-term strategic guidelines…The Detection of Training Needs involves a series of stages and develops tools that seek to objectively determine the real demands of improving job skills. ” (Carrión, H., 2005, p. 5)
In the 70's it was popular to point to various instruments that formed an old tradition, such as the “card technique” (the functions of one post were listed one by card and the occupant as well as his boss ordered them by virtue of perceived needs); or the so popular interview and survey, that their frequent use contrasted with their low reliability and validity; or the inventory of skills that, in comparison to the others, was truly focused on qualifying various occupants of the same position, after defining a scale, which was normally subjective Likert-type (good, very good or based on ranges from 1 to 5)., etc.).
In this first trend, other methods, techniques and tools that have always been widely used, which, on the one hand, made it possible to cover large populations in a short time and with little investment are interviews, surveys (recently applied by the organization's Intranet), that its limitations are strong in terms of reliability due to its subjective reagents, validity with respect to the content far from the work itself. Do not forget also the very widespread modality, in which a catalog of courses was made and it was sent so that the staff chose which ones they wanted to participate. However, while employee morale can be temporarily increased, improvement in job performance has been limited.As one of the reasons is that this approach is not based on job performance and employees very often identify desired training versus training needs (Cekada, Tracey 2010, p. 29).
Subsequently, and very in vogue, there was also the technique and simulation method of the Assessment Centers, which based on documented “type” cases, observed the behavior at work and the results of the individuals; but that the limiting factor at times was the null relation between the cases to be solved and the real work and the turn of the organization. The cases of the content to be solved with the reality of the work of the evaluated person differed, mostly executives with particular contexts and little representation in the type problems to be solved. Additionally, other simulation techniques of case studies and business games like Harvard appeared,
The third trend of the methods and instruments used, happened in the eighties, which in parallel to the previous trend, the popularity of the seven statistical tools in quality broadens, and some of us began to apply them for these evaluation studies. at work and detection of needs. Such is the case of the Ishikawa diagram for causes, X - R control charts, to detect problems and Pareto to order problems based on their frequency and contribution to organizational problems.
A fourth trend that took root strongly, was job evaluation based on job analysis and job descriptions, which was consolidated as one of the most widely used methods and techniques, and which in itself was a breakthrough. by depositing the perspective of the evaluation, in the content of the actual work. This was a great advance, as at the time the previous trends gradually made their contributions. At last it was broken with orienting oneself towards other external factors of personality, or desirable factors of universal values such as "entrepreneur", or in personal attributes that the ancient psychological tests were in charge of both "labeling" the individual, under extremely normal "features" questionable,in which aspects such as deviations of behavior were detected a priori without taking the demands of the position - processes - area - economic sector of the organization.
The other side of the coin was the abuses, errors and biases that its widespread application brought to government institutions and private companies. In a recent publication by the Institut National de Santé Publique of the Canadian Province of Quebec (Labesse, ME, 2008), it is stated that: “ Although the evaluation of personnel is the most common way in which training needs are identified, still involves a number of disadvantages. The first is that staff evaluation is not always based on measurable criteria. The second is that it is very often applied once a year, while the process of estimating training needs is carried out in the inter. Since professional skills can change significantly throughout the year, the accuracy of this method is uncertain. ”
The abuse was to design descriptions for purposes of valuation of positions and administration of wages and salaries, in which ambiguous definitions prevailed and without measurement indicators, which caused the neglect of other characteristics in the quality of the information that the training and needs detection. Many of these definitions of subjective “responsibilities, duties, and activities” were characterized by generating conflicts between the evaluator (a manager, for example) and the evaluated person (a manager, boss, or operating personnel).
These errors in its design and application purpose, forced to “interpret” this minimum pairing of people as best they could, in the evaluation at work. The discrepancies in ratings were almost constant and the judgment of the highest ranking power prevailed. Outcome? Work was dehumanized by not always making the best decisions, in training, salaries, recognitions and career plans, not to mention the selection of not always the best human talent.
Thus, the techniques, methods, instruments and tools of evaluation, study of work and detection of training needs, from those highly subjective of interview, survey, cards, etc., to those of simulation based on type problems were widely used (and even many organizations still use them), and finally, job evaluation and detection of needs by job descriptions, up to processes derived from total quality management, have slowly given way to world-class processes and practices, derived of the approaches of competences in the world and particularly, of the European for its emphasis in the labor competences derived from functional organizational maps (similar but not in all the same to the school of analysis and process improvement).The contributions will be summarized in the following, which should include any instrument for evaluation, study, work administration and analysis of training and development needs:
- Define results made up of the products and services that, based on their reason for being, each occupation or position, within the work processes must provide their internal and external clients. Homologate the best work practices (performances), which as processes standards build quality within them and take care of quantifiable aspects and normative references at work (instructional, team, quality standards, nationally approved practices as in NOM, etc.) Define the required knowledge, but linked and specific to the results (products and services that the occupation must generate) and not enunciating topics in general. Before, this knowledge was indicated as generalities and not as reagents and specific aspects to be mastered by each product and step in performance, when required.The definition of attitudes based on the agreement reached by specialists from various countries, departing from those made under the aforementioned approaches, as stated factors, without operational concepts and if included, these were subjective and defined for the entire position., without relating each of them to the performances to be achieved. Critical job situations were sometimes identified with techniques as "critical incidents", but without linking them to any particular competence, that is, they were not linked to a set of knowledge - skills - attitudes, which should produce quality products and results, based on external and internal customer demands. These particularities of competencies are now called at critical moments,emergent situations and are part of the competencies of the occupation. The evaluation scales now specify the contributory value or weight of the various “components of the competition” so that the idea is eradicated (implicitly existed) on the assumption that everything what a person should do is just as valuable for the organization, regardless of the process, the impact on customers, or the plans and strategies of the company and institution. Now, in addition to the previous technological incorporations, the one of cause analysis is proposed and variables that cause breaches of non-compliance in the work of different people and that can be multivariate situations, related to obstacles that prevent productive and quality work; competency requirements or refusal of individuals to want to achieve results,expected performances and behaviors (what became popular as "can", "knows" and "wants"). This has been the methodological step that has been forgotten, which does not appear in the performance evaluation formats, it is the great absentee that for this reason, causes so many conflicts between evaluator and evaluated, or better expressed, between facilitator of improvement in human work and the person with current and future skills. It has been conspicuous by its absence in the evaluation of performance and work and even the European competencies process itself does not explicitly contemplate it (nor the Mexican modality of the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competence, CONOCER)It does not appear in the performance evaluation formats, it is the great absentee that for this reason, causes so many conflicts between evaluator and evaluated, or better expressed, between facilitator of improvement in human work and the person with current and future skills. It has been conspicuous by its absence in the evaluation of performance and work and even the European competencies process itself does not explicitly contemplate it (nor the Mexican modality of the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competence, CONOCER)It does not appear in the performance evaluation formats, it is the great absentee that for this reason, causes so many conflicts between evaluator and evaluated, or better expressed, between facilitator of improvement in human work and the person with current and future skills. It has been conspicuous by its absence in the evaluation of performance and work and even the European competencies process itself does not explicitly contemplate it (nor the Mexican modality of the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competence, CONOCER)It has been conspicuous by its absence in the evaluation of performance and work, and even the European competencies process itself does not explicitly contemplate it (nor the Mexican modality of the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competency, CONOCER).It has been conspicuous by its absence in the evaluation of performance and work, and even the European competencies process itself does not explicitly contemplate it (nor the Mexican modality of the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competency, CONOCER).
The first six aspects of improvement and innovation are the great contributions of the competence approach in modern human talent and organization management (although the last is not explicitly contemplated as mentioned).
Undoubtedly, the greatest advance from the scientific point of view to the study of people's real work, with respect to criteria and quantifiable indicators aligned to work processes and the same mission or organizational purpose, was the appearance of the approach of competitions, in its European version and more specifically the British and Mexican version (the latter was still improved in 2010). Thus “consider using a competency structure or architecture as a basis for job design, evaluation and analysis of training needs. Competencies are descriptions of the behavior or effective conduct to achieve a particular result... develop internal competencies or design on existing competencies.
National occupational standards are a good starting point for identifying competencies in particular roles. They can also help the individual establish career development pathways. ” (National Council for Voluntary Organizations and Skills Third Sector, England 2012).
These seven aspects contain contributions within the measurement, evaluation and assurance control of indicators at work, they are the elements or components that any technique, method or instrument for detecting needs should incorporate, for an effective, fair job evaluation for the individuals, that throws information to the organization, to the executives for the administration and improvement of the human work.
In partial summary so far. These deficiencies that traditional technology presents, still yields, in the present, poor, subjective, limited results that produce products in training plans and programs that, when implemented, will cause large budgets to be expended, without justifiable impact, with training actions. of long duration and prescribed in the form of courses, Diplomas, Postgraduates that perhaps only a part of them is required. Therefore, the custom of defining training needs as “big issues” continues to be very frequent.
For learning and educational purposes, let's look at a needs study to illustrate an “anti-example”, carried out very recently and on a large scale (Government of Chile, 2010), in which the international consulting firm Deloitte reports, the following training needs: "Government Accounting", Quality Management in Public Services "," Diploma in Public Management "and" Entrepreneurship in Innovation Course in public and private companies ". Now let's analyze the evaluation scales 1 to 5 (with the meanings of each number as Not evident, Clear need for development, suitable in this area, clear skill and outstanding), and a scale of evaluation of competencies grades of mastery 0 to 3. The authors point out: “In the process, both transversal as well as specific competences.
Evaluation Degree of Development:
0: Not evident
1: Basic
2: Intermediate
3: Satisfactory ”
Finally, let us cite an example of an assumed definition of competence (p. 21):
Competence e: Commitment to service
Domain Level 1.
- Know the vision, mission, values and objectives of the Institution
- Accept the rules and procedures of the Institution, complying responsibly
- Strive to continually improve your performance
- He is careful with his personal image, recognizing that it affects the image of the Public Service
What is the alternative to avoid these subjective contents and evaluation scales? The answer is the evaluation criteria directed to the work. "The evaluation criteria can be expressed as:
1. Performance and / or;
2. Products, and;
3. Knowledge (if applicable). ” (KNOW, 2010)
It should be emphasized that under these perspectives in Mexico and Great Britain, the measurement scales are reduced to “competent” or “not yet competent”, for each element and characteristics of each, in each competence, which we will explain later.
These correspond to our first three explanations and foundations on the methodological contributions that must be incorporated into technology to evaluate and manage the work of people and that allow us to have valid and reliable data for decision-making on training needs, development career plans, personnel selection, salary administration and recognition, as well as in the retirement phases and use of human talent in this phase.
To finish this background and introduction, it is worth mentioning the fact that the National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competency of Mexico (CONOCER), as the body responsible for the national management of competences, has published a series of guides. One of them is dedicated to the so-called now and since 2010, competence standards, since the previous nomenclature was Labor Competence Technical Standards (Ntcl´s).
Within this important documentary heritage, a limitation is seen, since it does not contain the theoretical foundation of each step in the new "methodological architecture" of our country, a situation that gave rise to this work, to try to explain, the reasons for each step taken by Mexico. Its purpose and meaning in this manual, which is part of a Diploma at UNAM (see Patiño, 2012), is to contribute, not to criticize…
1 of 7: Identification and definition of results.
People are hired to achieve results that serve as input for other occupations and areas such as internal customers and that add value to the products and services expected by the user and external customer of the organization (company or institution of goods and services).Starting from this premise and in the best case, to identify and define them, we should first have used two equivalent techniques: the breakdown of processes from the organization's value chain to levels of 4 to 6 derivations, passing through processes of each stage of the value chain or mega processes, sub processes, sub sub processes etc.; or, design of a Functional Map under the competency focus of the Mexican or English model, from the purpose of the organization (equivalent to the synthetic statement of the mission) or from the global purpose of the organizations of an economic sector, going through the level of disaggregation of critical, intermediate functions (which can have several levels), individual functions to elementary functions, which constitute what he called, the “raw competencies”.
From this is when we must have the results and services that within the internal supply chain client expect from each occupation and job (which are not the same as the latter, the former refers to a set of professional activities by those that work in the market is remunerated and do not often correspond to the internal “positions” of the organization).
Let us pause in the analysis of why this first evaluation evidence should be present in any instrument that is designed to evaluate, remove causes of non-compliance and improve work (performance management), and define it according to the 2010 Mexican competency model: "The evaluation criteria expressed as Products refer to tangible objects, the result of the person's competent activity, through which it is possible to observe" a posteriori "the person's competence…" (CONOCER 2012, p. 20)
Each product in the form of a tangible result that my internal client (another person, process or area, who receives the products and services from work) expects, must be quantified to know, "what must be achieved as an indicator" and for this we can do use of the management approach for total quality, which since the 80's indicated quantity, quality, cost and opportunity as the parameters under which everything can be quantified, regardless of its hierarchy, whether it be a position of auxiliary, command medium or executive of a large corporation.
2 of 7: Define best practices in terms of processes for each result "how the work should be done".
"The evaluation criteria expressed as performance refer to the actual performance of the person's actions that allow direct observation of their competence… The characteristics of a Performance refer to the way in which it is carried out and / or the moment in which is carried out." (KNOW, 2010 pp. 18 and 19).
Therefore, in this example, the key is on the one hand, the order of steps or sequence, within them, the prescription of the most important and critical, and the adherence to other normative criteria such as procedures manuals of the corporation or institution, and in the case of other performances other than the previous example, up to NOM, ISO standards, equipment manuals, etc. It is only necessary to clarify that in the case of ISO procedures, in some organizations, they do not imply and guarantee the best work practices, they only guarantee standard operations, which by definition may or may not be effective with respect to benchmarking the competition, sector, or other world-class companies.
These first two components (results and performance as evidence) together with the next one of knowledge (for each result or performance that requires it), when converging on a comprehensive response or execution, when carried out in a certain period, together with the fact of be related to specific organizational contexts, by definition integrate a competition.
3 of 7: Identification and definition of knowledge.
Always as a rule now, they must exist, together with a work process or a product, and must be evaluated in order to measure the level of depth of the need for training and guarantee an investment in training that is not excessive and unjustifiable. So the restriction is that they will never find themselves disconnected from either or both of them. Thus, there will be work sets expected and measured by agreed quantifiable indicators, which are formed from results, more knowledge, others of work performance and knowledge, and others of the three. Not every product or performance must be accompanied by knowledge, since this is “complementary evidence” if it is required in the evaluation and guarantee of quality compliance at work.
The key is not to state "themes or topics" but indications of all the expected responses that constitute concrete knowledge, such as: new definitions of the new law, description of new procedure, mention of articles, etc. And only those that are demanded for that product or performance of steps, not for anything else.
Specific care must be taken, with the use of verbs that do not indicate clear and observable executions for a community of people, and especially with the use of taxonomies that were useful at the time and from contexts different from those of an organization (Bloom for example, it emerges in educational contexts), since not all verbs are currently operational. The least important thing is to choose a verb at some particular level, since what is expected is to define the job, as required by the company and its users and clients, regardless of the level that corresponds or the consistency that it has when being expressed. in other words to "comply with the taxonomic rule".
Taking care of these personal recommendations that are not explicit in the respective Technical Guide (define them in terms of the expected answers and reactive type or evaluation questions) and differing in the use of behavioral taxonomies (especially Bloom's in various verbs such as “help, globalize, sponsor, co-participate, assist, administer, coordinate, share, serve, study, protect, and other equivalents indicating sets of step actions and relative concepts); all that remains is to state the official definition provided in the Mexican model."The" knowledge "refers to facts, concepts, principles, rules or procedures whose possession, being critical to achieve the result referred to by the element of competence, cannot be directly and sufficiently observable only through the performance (s) and / or product (s). "Knowledge" should be expressed in the most specific way possible, taking into account that it is only a matter of including in the description of it, only what a person must know to achieve the element of competence. " (KNOW 2012, pp. 23 and 24).
Said more clearly, where it is necessary as evidence of competence evaluation, each result, or each step of a performance, if it is required to specify the knowledge of that segment, the rule is that its dimension is not greater than that of that performance step or product in particular, and taking care of the vices and abuses that have been previously commented on by experience. If the result is “the elaborated strategic plan that contains x, y, z,…” quality attributes, the knowledge does not go beyond those borders. Thus, it would be correct to prescribe as knowledge "Definition of the steps in strategic planning according to the Hoshin Kanri model…", but it would be incorrect to ask for critical knowledge "knowledge in contemporary strategic planning",because at the time of evaluation you could demand all the theories from, for example, the last 20 years, how absurd, and how expensive for the purposes of content and duration of training, worse still, if a Diploma is later sent to contain mostly content irrelevant to the lack of that particular knowledge.
4 of 7: Identification and definition of expected attitudes.
As in the previous case of knowledge, let's think about the following. For many years, for example, a “positive attitude” has been requested as desirable, which has two drawbacks. First a general attribute is enunciated, and second, not always related to specific jobs, but to all the position, position or occupation. Today and under the modern perspective of the countries that we follow the European school in competencies, it is about defining in which products and / or performances of steps at work, one or several attitudes in particular, for example "teamwork", is critical. and very important: the way it should be manifested, that is, in the words of specialized literature "the way it is done…" and it is demonstrated.It is to establish what the individual must do in an observable way when achieving that result or product (a tangible good such as a strategic plan carried out or the result of a service as clients without complaints). Or in the case of competently executing a series of expected performance steps. These new and additional performances characterize the appearance and evidence or not, of the attitude.
5 of 7: Expected performances in emerging situations.
Although in some versions of the method that some companies and institutions follow, related aspects such as “critical situations” or in some other way stated (example “Hay Group” method, among others) are considered, they are rarely linked to specific product work and performance of steps and the set of responses expected of a competent person is never prescribed.
In the case of the Mexico model, an emergent situation is defined as “… actions that a competent person is expected to take in the face of contingencies presented during their workday and related to the nature of the element of competition, which, when they occur, can put risk to their physical integrity, that of third parties and / or that of the equipment / machinery involved. ” (KNOW 2012 p. 27).
6 of 7: Distribution of weights.
The guide in this case of design of evaluation instruments indicates a series of steps that must be carried out when constructing these standardized instruments, however, the user does not have explanations of the why, of the methodological foundations, to go beyond their application, towards a conviction about the reasons and benefits, that made these guidelines take, over others. Thus it is pointed out that, once the standard or norm has been completed, one must proceed to:
"Determine if the evaluation criteria and their characteristics can be made:
- Necessarily by an Expert in the job function, or; By someone Not Necessarily Expert in the job function…
A person Not Necessarily Expert in the job function is one who lacks some or some of the skills and / or knowledge essential to develop, with efficiency and effectiveness, the work activity… (CONOCER 2010, pp. 19)
What is expected is that the total number of those indicated as feasible by an expert will always be greater in the instrument, than those that are not necessarily required from an expert. Why? If this is not complied with, it is assumed that the instrument is not reflecting the "must be" and therefore, it is not sensitive enough to discriminate against a competent person, from whom it is not yet, which would make its detection difficult of training, development needs, and having data to make successful personnel movements, salaries, recognitions or succession plans.
Then:
By virtue of its complexity, assign low - medium - high weights, in such a way that:
“The total number of the components assigned for each category of Relative Weight (Minor, Medium and Major), considering that, IN ALL CASES, the number of aspects to which a“ Minor Weight ”was assigned must be greater than or equal to that the corresponding to those that were determined with “Average Weight”, and that, in turn, the number of this last category must be greater than or equal to those that are classified as “Greater Weight”. (KNOW 2010, p. 21)
Let us move on to the reasons and benefits, which underlie the previous guidelines of the technical guide. For this we must start from the following analogy and premise: Just as within the field of total quality management for decades, it is stated that not all processes contribute equally to organizational strategies and mission (including even critical, non-critical and contributory or support; as well as structurally there are areas more related to the turn of the organization; and, similarly to how the causes of organizational problems negatively impact in a different way and quantity; with the same principle, competencies (knowledge,skills and attitudes that come together and are manifested in the same period of interaction with customers in a given context) also have an impact and therefore different value for the process or intermediate function, depending on the approach used, that is, management by organizational processes or competency management.
A first discrimination consists of identifying the components of the competences, that is, the products, performance steps, observable behaviors or behaviors and competences to be observed in emerging situations, such as high, medium and low impact.
In a second moment, 50 points are prorated among the components or elements of the aforementioned competitions among those of low weight, 30 among those of medium weight and 20 in those of high weight. This device allows, on the one hand, that all of each type of impact have the same value and, on the other hand, to guarantee that those with high impact have a higher relative value, and so on. Expressed in other terms, those of each level of impact are apportioned on assigned values that would add up to 100% and that when evaluating the work achieved, their summation of compliance would allow identifying global compliance on the one hand and on the other hand having the range tolerance to declare the person competent. This range can be obtained, for example, by subtracting from 100 a value less than that of a high impact component,to guarantee that due to the simple fact of not complying with a high impact component of competition, the person is not certified as competent.
One of the questions that will be asked is Why 50 - 30 - 20? And the answer has at least two explanations: a) it was the agreement validated by experts from Mexico after studying world versions, and b) already in modern management schemes (before evaluation) of performance (example see Patiño, H. and Jiménez, A. 1988 and -992), these values were considered in the weighting for the evaluation of the work with respect to a benchmark of success. Surely these pioneering works and those of other authors influenced in agreeing these pesos for Mexico.
7 of 7: Analysis of causes and variables of breaches of non-compliance at work.
Due to its length, the integral diagram is not presented and only some general considerations will be made.
To the original diagram (Mager and Pipe, 1977), the integrating circles that relate to the actions of the flow chart with “know - want - can” were incorporated (Patiño, 2010).
Other considerations are: a) if the person who uses this diagram for the identification, classification and definition of actions to remove the causes, is not an Organizational Psychologist, who is related to the techniques of behavioral modification of the experimental analysis of human behavior, will require In order to understand it, some aspects of reinforcement, extinction, punishment techniques, superstitious behaviors and generalities on the triple contingency of discriminatory stimulus - performance behavior - consequence, therefore, a preliminary reading of these aspects of theoretical foundation is recommended. This will allow the reader, be this administrator or executive, head of area, consultant, professor or specialist, to explain things such as Why are there people who become "tricky"?What to do to avoid incongruously treating productive and non-productive employees? What causes negative behavior or performance to be maintained over time?
These psychological aspects are not yet fully and globally applied in the organizations of the various Latin American countries, because the contributions of social disciplines that for many years have found answers to the obstacles of traditional methods of evaluating work, are ignored, either for personnel selection, detection of needs, promotions and transfers, salaries and benefits, recognition of quality or life and career plans.
Let's move on to some considerations, with respect to another temporal dimension of possible gaps between the existing competences and those required by the organization, in this case, with respect to the strategic vision of the business or institution.
Future training needs of the organization's staff
One of the key questions in the traditional approach to the investigation of training needs and development of the psychosocial subsystem in organizations is that related to the temporal perspective, since the custom has been to identify deviations in the work “from what has already been did ”, that is, with a corrective approach. The modern approach now pays more attention to the changes planned by the organization under its plan and more, if the company or institution has a long-term strategic plan, which in the best case should have met a phase of internal organizational diagnosis and its respective counterpart, in the diagnosis of the environment to foresee trends in competition, clients or users of services and products, as well as economic, social, political, environmental, educational contexts,They could also generate changes that imply needs for new or different job skills.
In a brief review since 1986, the author Agut, Sonia (obtained from the internet 2012), makes a bibliographic review of authors who agree on this future and preventive perspective when analyzing the training and development needs, which under the approach of total quality in The world of companies and institutions also has an impact on training and development thinking.
“Rothwell and Sredl (1992, cits. In Phillips and Holton III, 1995) describe needs assessments as either being deficiency or opportunity oriented. According to the authors, the needs assessment has been deficiency-oriented, designed to identify and address existing or gaps in performance. A deficiency perspective is by definition focused on the present. Opportunity-oriented needs assessment is future-oriented, identifying performance gaps that are likely to occur in the future and proactively implementing solutions to prevent them. According to the authors, if organizations are to manage today's fast-paced business environments, needs assessments should be more focused on the future.
Likewise, Wright and Geroy (1992) argue that needs analysis should ideally be more proactive than reactive. Most of the training that is done today relates to existing issues related to goals that have not been achieved. The ability to predict training needs is of utmost importance if what is desired is that training contributes more to productivity. Along these lines, Burdett (1990) argues that training and development often face short-term individual needs, rather than addressing productive, competitive and social elements where the organization must operate in the long term. Traditionally, trainers have reacted to unfulfilled goals or issues related to those goals,instead of anticipating where the company is heading and linking the needs analysis with the training strategy (Mitchell, 1987).
Hall (1986) recommend the inclusion of future job requirements and you should not just consider the current job requirements. Boydell and Leary (1996) propose that the training need should not be limited to the present moment, but should consider future changes. Thus, when identifying training needs, information must be collected regarding the present moment as well as information about future changes. Latham (1988) also underscores the desirability of broadening the notion of training need focused on the present moment and knowing the future strategic objectives of the organization to identify future training needs. ” (op.cit. Agut, Sonia 2012)
“The identified needs are based on expectations regarding the current occupational role in the present time. If the role changes, for example, by virtue of changes in the labor market, technological innovation or changes in goals, structure or organizational processes, such needs may also change in a future time. A possibility of developing prospective needs identification techniques was demonstrated by Guimaraes et. Al. (2001). ” (Roma de Castro, P. and Borges - Andrade, J. 2002)
Summary
For many years people have suffered in the evaluation of their work, and in the training actions that are included, the unfair decisions that have been made about our work, due to many factors, which we can group into:
a) Methods and techniques with lack of validity (orientation to work and not other factors that are not a direct part of it, such as personal aspects of behavior via obsolete and non-standardized psychological tests). The evaluation contents should only be evidence of results, which are quality products and services; the steps in a standardized and effective performance, the indispensable knowledge linked to quality work with clients and internal and external users; and the performances and products that demonstrate attitudes and competences in emerging situations.
b) Evaluation scales and ranges that do not start from objective and quantifiable definitions of products or results, performance and knowledge, with indicators of quantity, quality, cost and opportunity expected by the user and client. Based on the combination of these four universal evaluation parameters, define the ranges of each scale, which will be different between each knowledge, ability and attitude, since they contain different indicators.
c) Measurement and evaluation of a person's work by “memory” in interviews and surveys, instead of gathering evidence and evidence of actual performance achieved and recorded on the day of the day and as a normal part of performance management. This will avoid the arguments of "excessive cost" of evaluation, since it is generated as a normal part of the operation and not an additional exercise to daily work.
d) Measuring instruments built for other purposes, which are not defined under what Deming called “measurement culture”, such as job descriptions for purposes of evaluating positions and salaries, this method being the least limited, in comparison others as subjective task listings, organization manuals, or overly detailed operating procedures. Instead, the seven aspects of improvement and innovation must be incorporated for job evaluation, performance management via employee counseling, training, recognition, etc. And a detection of needs that does discriminate real needs from other factors that impede the quality work expected by the user and client.
Two final examples to illustrate the application of the competence approach in the study of work, its evaluation and the detection of training needs: Keeping in mind the concept of competence, let's think of a bank branch teller who attends us. As a result, you should obtain the payment of a check without error, in a maximum time of 9 minutes, without customer complaints. In this expected result with quantifiable indicators, it is not only important, but the steps that must be followed to exhibit competent work.For example, the sequenced steps that you must perform to operate the computer terminal, or the order that follows to count the cash and verify it, recording each amount by denomination in your records. In addition, the expectation is that you have the necessary and sufficient knowledge to answer any questions that one as a client may have, for example, as to how to endorse the document. But even so, fulfilling these demands in results, skills and knowledge, it would be useless to obtain a quality service in his work, if "the way he" treats the bank user does not contain precise behaviors of verbal human interaction, non-verbal product of learned organizational and personal values and habits (modern concept of attitudes).
These four elements or components of labor competence (result in product and service, technical skills, knowledge and human interaction skills) to meet a modern definition, must be presented in the same time period and are related to a particular organizational context.
In the case of an executive that results in designing the strategic plan with others, it not only matters the quality attributes that that product must meet to be considered quality, but the steps it followed under a methodological order that implies a qualitative organizational diagnosis and quantitative, formulation of strategic objectives, including tactical ones, etc. With their respective plans and initiatives, the control instruments, etc., etc., etc., under that order, using the knowledge of modern and accepted management practices, additionally, must demonstrate behavior of interest and conviction about it. Again, the four components of a competition, at a given moment and in particular contexts and conditions that make up a successful job.
In summary and under the perspective of competencies: “ The identification of competences corresponds to the time of job design and the manuals of functions and requirements, which has been gradually developed in territorial and national entities and from different perspectives: either from the capacity to generate the results of a productive (functionalist) function; from successful behaviors that obey characteristics of individuals (behaviorist); or from the constructions carried out by individuals and groups to solve problems or organizational contingencies (constructivist). ”(Jiménez, G. Caridad et al., 2007)
The final diagram in its design contains another message in its components of competence that it represents and is the fact that they come together to satisfy the needs of the client, in such a way, and by definition, that if a component (performance or results, etc.) missing, it will not be possible to meet the needs and expectations of the client or external or internal user. Thus, one of the great virtues of the British and Mexican approaches to competencies in the modern management of human talent, including the maxim that it contains, the modern concept of quality: this is defined by the one who receives the tangible good or service.
Another final comment is that the tendency in part of the contemporary revised literature of countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Brazil and the United States tends to substitute the expression "detection of training needs" (or equivalent terms such as identification, definition, determination among the most common), by the "Training Needs Analysis" (ANC). Why will it be? We must remember the great controversies that many authors had in Mexico since 1977, about the convenience of one or another term that is still used today…
University city, Spring 2012.
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