The competencies model is of substantial importance worldwide in the human resource management of many organizations.
In Chile, competencies have been assumed as a management strategy since 1995 and their implementation has been slow and progressive as their real results are being evaluated in companies.
This article describes the conceptualization of the competencies model as a systemic and integrative approach to human resource management, its practical implementation methodology and the effects it has shown in the different human resource management systems of some Chilean companies.
Competency model applied to Chilean companies
Introduction
The competencies model has had a significant boom in Chilean companies in recent years. Unlike many traditional generalist approaches, this approach is eminently practical and behavioral, which makes it highly operational and directly focused on business results at the people level, a fundamental need for any company today.
This article collects what our experience has been in these years in the field of advising companies in the design and practical application of the competencies model.
Below we present a review of the competencies model, starting from its more general conceptual foundations, its description as a tool and impact on human resources management, passing through the practical methodology of its implementation and ending with some insights on its application in Chilean companies.
From organizational alignment to a behavioral approach
Every company or organization, insofar as it is a structuring of elements organized for a specific purpose, can be understood as a system. For this reason, we can apply the model of general systems theory as a useful descriptive mechanism to analyze it.
What characterizes the operation of an organization is coordinated decision-making for a certain particular purpose, so we can say that every organization is a special type of system, a decisional system. Since decisions are a special type of communications, their existence is conditioned on the presence of people who can generate such communications. In this way, people make up the basic support and the most tangible element of any organization, so it is not by chance that it is easier for us to understand an organization as a system of people rather than as what it really is: a decision system. (Rodríguez, 2001).
It is important to make this distinction since the fact that a person is part of the physical reality of an organization - interacting with other people, using tools and materials or operating machinery and equipment within it - does not guarantee that they are making adequate decisions within the logic of meaning of the organizational system. In other words, it may occupy a space but without actually fulfilling a function or being part of the organizational system.
Since every organization is structured around a certain purpose, the decisions that make it up must have a clear and specific meaning according to that purpose. This sense will define validation criteria that will determine what type of decisions are acceptable and which are not, within the organizational context.
Each organization will define its own validation criteria, translating into a statement of vision, mission, values, standards and particular procedures for each one of them.
The fact that an organization decides to structure itself around certain specific validation criteria is a situation that we can call “contingent”, since perfectly the chosen criteria could have been any other. However, the final effect will always be the same: people will have to adjust their decisions and behaviors according to the established criteria if they want to be part of the organization.
On the other hand, people have characteristics that are their own and that determine their ability to act out behaviors appropriate to the criteria of meaning of the organization. This is also a “contingent” situation, since their behaviors could also be different. What is relevant is that the organization must consider this “contingency” when defining realistic demands, attracting and keeping people and generating conditions for the execution, training and development of appropriate behaviors for the fulfillment of its purposes (Rodríguez, 1992).
There must be synchrony between the contingent performances required by the company and the actual behavioral performances of the people. If there is no alignment between the sense of the organization and the work behaviors of the people, the achievement of goals and long-term viability are difficult (Flannery, Hofrichter & Platten, 1997).
The resolution of this double contingency problem must be a permanent process if it is necessary to make the organization viable over time.
The adaptive capacity of the organization in an environment of increasing complexity
According to the logic of systems theory, every organization participates and relates to the environment where it is inserted. The characteristics of this relationship with the environment strongly condition the existence of the system itself, so there must be a certain correspondence between the characteristics of the environment and the system in order to achieve its adaptation.
Our hearing is structurally determined to be able to pick up only sound within certain wavelengths, even though the spectrum of real sounds in the environment far exceeds that range. Similarly, an organization will only be able to capture from the environment those certain aspects that its structural definition allows. Many of these may be irrelevant to the operation of the system. But others may be - and indeed are - critical to their viability, forcing the organization to struggle to capture them.
Although the existence of stable validation criteria is a basic condition to achieve adequate integration within any organization, at the same time there must be sufficient flexibility in the system to be able to diversify and adapt to changes in the environment (Rodríguez & Arnold, 1992).
Today this demand is increasing, due to the emergence of phenomena in the environment that are difficult to assimilate by a traditional structure. Economic globalization, the opening of markets, the massive incorporation of technology, the emergence of new forms of economic exchange and the greater permeability of national cultural limits, make the complexity of the environment progressively increase.
The result is that organizations whose structure does not allow flexibility and that manage with rigid criteria are doomed to disappear in the short term, or in the best of cases, in the medium term. Every day, the alternatives are to adapt or disappear (Ridderstrale & Nordstrom, 2000).
Obtaining results as an organizational conditioner.
In this increasingly dynamic, changing and highly competitive environment, the focus of any organization must be on effectiveness and efficiency in obtaining results. Betting that the traditional patterns of operation will generate a visible result in two, three or five years, is clearly insufficient.
Cycles of evolution in companies that a few decades ago could take periods of 5 or even 10 years, today we can see them in just 6 months. The spectacular rise and fall of the "dot com" is a phenomenon that in another era would have seemed inconceivable.
The permanent changes in the environment even make the five-year planning, so traditional until a few years ago, little recommendable. Today, even a three-year forecast for the future, regardless of the type of business, is considered to be difficult to pin down with any degree of certainty.
It is in this context that current organizations must operate. Therefore, the emphasis should be on limiting the planning deadlines as much as possible, on obtaining effective and measurable results in the short term and, in general, on a sense of immediacy and urgency that should cross the entire the organization, dynamically balancing the need for short-term results with long-term viability (Ridderstrale & Nordstrom, 2000).
Need for a strategic alignment between the performance of people and the goals of the organization.
This great dynamism increases the importance of adequately solving the problem of organizational double contingency. If it is already complex to achieve a good adjustment of the workers' behaviors with the criteria of meaning established by the organization, how much more complex this process of permanent adaptation turns out to be under the conditions of a market that forces to examine, adjust and dynamically make said said criterion of meaning.
The traditional view, which tries to solve this problem by clarifying tasks, functions and responsibilities, today has clearly become insufficient. It is no longer enough to define a set of static conditions, capable of being managed, that serve as a link between the strategic goals of the organization and the daily work of the workers. Taylor's task setting and assignment to particular positions is becoming progressively dysfunctional.
What is currently required is some mechanism that directly links behaviors with goals, so that there is a permanent adjustment of workers' decisions according to the real needs that the organization is having. In this way, every action taken by a worker will be contributing directly to the success of the business. For this reason, the alignment of workers' behaviors with the organization's goals ceases to be a problem only at the administrative level and becomes a need of a strategic nature (Becker, Huselid & Ulrich, 2001).
The behavioral approach as a natural response to these needs
Since organizations move in a context that forces them to permanently adjust their goals and objectives, making the strategic alignment between performance and goals more complex, it is necessary to derive from a static model with emphasis on general descriptive aspects of the positions, towards a dynamic model with emphasis on the specific behaviors that account for the fulfillment of the responsibilities of the position and that are required for the success of the business (Spencer & Spencer, 1993).
The focus of the employee's contribution is no longer from "tasks and functions" but from responsibilities, which implies attributing an organizational sense to individual work, making the personal contribution to the business conscious, and consolidating a look of functional flexibility based on responsibilities.
In a highly competitive context, you have to fight to grow and develop in order to just stay in the same place. This forces organizations to increase the demand on their workers. It is no longer enough to fulfill the tasks, functions and responsibilities of the position. It is necessary to contribute much more to be able to generate value and allow the organization to survive in a highly competitive environment (Kaplan & Norton, 2000).
For this reason, it is insufficient to place the emphasis on obtaining average levels in the performance of workers. We must focus on the specific behaviors that really generate value, those that point the way to excellence.
On the other hand, it is of little use to have staff of excellence who fail to translate their training into specific behaviors that benefit the organization. This is valid, even if in the past you have managed to demonstrate such performances. The urgency exists today, so what really matters is the contribution that, demonstrably through their behaviors, the worker makes in the present. In this sense, “seniority” does not assure or predict an aligned and competent performance.
Even the control systems that make it possible to demonstrate the existence of appropriate behaviors should be based on observations of specific behaviors rather than on general criteria of global appreciation. Otherwise you would run the risk of falling into serious validity and reliability problems. In fact, traditional performance evaluations are massively discredited for their subjectivity. In other words, evaluators make global judgments based on general and common factors, rather than designing instruments that detail the specific successful behaviors required by the company. The role of the evaluator is no longer to judge performance but to identify the presence or absence of behaviors.
This leads us to emphasize the importance of the behavioral approach as a pertinent strategy to face the challenges of organizations today. This approach allows efforts to be focused on identifying the best behaviors for business success, rather than on measuring and controlling the daily functioning of tasks of a common nature (Becker et al., 2001)
The Competency Model
It is typical of a traditional approach to try to define a priori certain factors that should translate into expected behaviors. But through this approach we can only determine in a general way a set of knowledge and skills that, theoretically, should be related to good future performance.
Unlike the above, a behavioral approach does not focus on generically valid relationships between factors and behaviors. On the contrary, the focus is of a more specific and concrete nature, since the conditions in which a certain function must be carried out may differ considerably between one organization and another. Therefore, it is of little use to know, for example, the relationships that theoretically exist between intellectual capacity and problem solving, when in order to solve problematic situations in a particular organization, it is also necessary to deal with political, administrative and financial considerations specific to it., which can strongly condition its effectiveness.
On the other hand, although it is logical, for example, to show certain misgivings about incorporating as a production manager in an agro-industrial company a successful metal-mechanic company production manager, arguing that “he does not know the business”; It is curious to note that a similar criterion is not used when a "family" company decides to incorporate a successful executive with a long career in transnational and highly "professionalized" companies. It is not by chance that this executive soon realizes that he cannot manage as he was used to, losing much of his effectiveness. All of this because the "specificity" factors characteristic of the organization were not considered.
Using a behavioral approach, it is possible to identify those observed behaviors that prove to be "the best expected behaviors" in a specific organizational reality, and determine what are the causal factors that explain the existence of said behaviors. In this way, the generality and the conceptual approach give way to the specificity and the concentration on good practices from reality, which ensures that, given these particular conditions, if such factors exist, such behaviors would have to occur (Lévy -Leboyer, 1997).
In other words, it is the demonstrated work behavior (experience) in certain types of situations and markets, the best predictor of performance, and therefore, the best predictor of contribution to the business at the level of people (Araneda & Calderón, 2001).
Conceptually, a competence is a set of skills, abilities, knowledge, behavioral characteristics and other attributes, which, correctly combined in a work situation, predict superior performance. It is what distinguishes the exceptional performances from the normal ones and which is observed directly through the behaviors of each occupant in the daily performance of the position (Dalziel, Cubeiro & Fernández, 1996).
Competition is structured on the basis of three fundamental components: knowing how to act, wanting to act and being able to act (Le Boterf, 1996).
The know how to act is the set of factors that define the inherent ability of the person to perform the actions defined by the organization. It has to do with their technical preparation, their formal studies, knowledge and good management of their cognitive resources at the service of their responsibilities. This component is the one that has been most traditionally used when defining the suitability of a person for a specific position and allows contextualizing the emphasis that many companies place on training their staff.
The desire to act is another essential component of competition. It refers not only to the motivation factor of intrinsic achievement to the person, but also to the more subjective and situational condition that makes the individual effectively decide to take a specific action. They strongly influence the perception of meaning that the action has for the person, the image that it has formed of itself with respect to its degree of effectiveness, the recognition for the action and the confidence that it possesses in order to carry it out.
The third component of competence, perhaps the most forgotten in the traditional view, is the power to act. On many occasions the person knows how to act and has the desire to do it, but the conditions do not exist for him to actually do it. The conditions of the context as well as the means and resources available to the individual, strongly condition the effectiveness in the exercise of their functions.
Below we present a diagram where the relationship between the three components is reflected, whose conceptual sum generates the competence of the person.
(See PDF)
Given that the identification of competencies must be specific to the particular organization, it is necessary to identify a set of real and observed behaviors that correspond to “desired” behaviors and proven successful and contributory for the organization. This forces us to identify people who have already demonstrated through their actions that they possess the required “competencies” and to try to identify what characteristics these people possess that make them different from the rest (Spencer & Spencer, 1993).
The skills determination techniques are 5:
- Interview of critical incidents Inventory of successful behaviors Assessment of competencies Panel of experts Focus group
Of these, only the first 3 are recommended, since their focus is to identify real behaviors, and from that base, conceptualize skills. Experience shows that expert panel and focus group techniques normally reverse this direction, conceptually defining the desirable, which is often not directly associated with actual successful work behaviors. The determination of competencies must be guaranteed from the successful labor conduct within the company, in a moment of time.
Of the techniques that range from the behavioral to the conceptual, the most exhaustive is the Critical Incident Interview for the identification and survey of competencies. This technique is aimed at knowing in detail the behaviors effectively worked on by people in critical work situations, both positive and negative. The conceptual basis of this is that it is the behavior that reflects the level of skill and competence of a person, and not the concept or opinion that the person has about it.
The objective of the interviews is to identify the key and determining skills and behaviors in the distinction between normal and exceptional performances. It is asking what behaviors or behaviors are distinctive for success in performance between one occupant of the positions and another. The orientation is to think about actual and current behaviors, and not about ideal or possible ones (Spencer & Spencer, 1993).
The interview is structured in two parts:
- Structured questions about critical successful and unsuccessful work events from the interviewee, emphasizing how it was worked, who was involved, and the measurable and operationalizable results of the behavior. The objective is to know the details of the behaviors carried out, and not what the interviewee conceptualizes of the critical incident. Present each interviewee a set of the key behaviors of each competence, and request the choice and ranking of them for the success of their job. Here the conceptualization of each interviewee is appealed to.
Although by definition a competence will be specific for a position, in a particular organization and at a particular time, it is given that the same competence can be transversely present in different positions and organizational levels, so the greater specificity associated with the position is in which conduct accounts for the competition. In other words, a competence is operationalized by being translated into a scheme of levels of concrete behaviors, from unsuccessful to successful behaviors. Thus we have, for example, the competence of "customer orientation" can appear as desirable at all levels of an organization. However, in the case of an administrative person, he could respond to the following behavioral scheme:
"Maintain Clear Communications with the Client considering Mutual Expectations. Monitor customer satisfaction. Distribute useful information to customers. Provide a friendly and cheerful service. "
while for a Commercial Manager you could acquire this other:
Achievement orientation.
Order and quality.
Information request.
Initiative.
Impact and influence.
Organizational knowledge.
Development of relationships.
Analytical thinking.
Conceptual thinking.
Depth of knowledge
Knowledge extension
Acquisition of knowledge
Knowledge distribution Help and Service Competencies:
Customer service orientation.
Interpersonal understanding.
Team work and collaboration.
Give instructions.
Leadership in the team.
Development of others.
Self-control.
Self-confidence.
Failure management.
Flexibility.
Organizational commitment.
General classification of competences.
It is possible to distinguish a first classification of competencies according to their predictive ability of superior performance:
- Threshold competencies: those that predict average behavior in a given function. Differentiating competences: those that predict superior behavior.
It is also possible to identify the competences according to their degree of applicability and organizational specificity, for which 4 levels are established:
- Corporate competencies of the organization, common to all positions and business lines Common competencies of an area, management or line of business Competencies of job families with similar responsibilities Specific responsibilities of the position.
Competencies are also classified according to their ease or difficulty of development, a fundamental aspect when making investment decisions in human resources, since the cost-benefit of undertaking a development action versus other alternatives is evaluated. The classification is:
- Easily trainable skills, for example analytical thinking Moderately trainable skills, for example initiative Hardly trainable skills, for example self-confidence or flexibility
The competency model is an extremely useful tool for human resource management in companies. This approach facilitates the interrelation of the different processes in the area (selection, induction, evaluation, training, development, compensation, dismissal), making it possible to carry out their management in an integrated manner thanks to sharing a source of information linked to the responsibilities of the positions and a language common to the base.
This is not only helpful from an operational point of view, by maintaining a more fluid and conceptually coherent dialogue between the different functions, but also provides a clear model to obtain an overview of the complexity inherent in human resource management., allowing better management of it from a strategic point of view for the organization.
The existence of a competency profile for each of the positions in the organization offers a very useful tool for the recruitment and selection process of personnel.. Whoever selects can count not only on the traditional description of the functions, tasks and responsibilities of the position but also with a specific description of the competencies that are required for the proper functioning of the individual in the position. In this way, the competency selection process, by focusing on those skills and demonstrable behavioral characteristics that are at the base of the critical competencies of a position, predicts with high effectiveness future job performance, providing important elements to consider during the interview. and fine-tuning the determination of what type of evaluation methodology to carry out. Currently intellectual tests, specific skills tests, personality questionnaires, projective tests and psycho-occupational interview,They are being complemented with assessment of skills through panels of experts and the application of inventories of successful behaviors, which increases the efficiency of personnel selection (Fernández & Reyes, 2001).
The objective of the selection by competencies is to find the candidate that fully fits the profile of competencies required in the position, through the technique of comparing profiles. The selection by competencies allows determining which are the gaps that exist between the competencies of the selected candidate and those required by the position, providing relevant information to be able to carry out a more specific induction process and reduce the preparation time needed to perform efficiently in their responsibilities (Wood & Payne, 1998).
By having a competency profile based on observable successful behaviors, the process of setting performance goals becomes more precise and adjusted to each particular case, which facilitates the planning of improvement actions and the evaluation process. Both the validity and the reliability of the evaluation benefit from having easily verifiable measurement parameters - the presence or absence of specific behaviors -, thereby reducing possible criticism and resistance to the evaluation process itself. As we said, the objectivity of the process is anchored in the design of a performance evaluation instrument in which categories of behaviors are associated with each evaluated competence, from unsuccessful to successful, so the role of the evaluator is to define what level behavior is the most frequent in a worker, and does not qualitatively judge their performance.
Just as induction is facilitated by a selection process based on competencies, in the same way trainingit is aided by a competency-based assessment process. The natural determination of existing gaps between the desired behaviors and those observed, provides the necessary information to efficiently direct the training actions. Many companies have invested significant resources in the training of their workers and in several of them there is the conclusion that they have leveled their knowledge and skills, but that a development ceiling was reached. The available training offer is usually quite standard in content and methodology, so the competencies approach adds a substantial qualitative change: it determines what behaviors must be developed within a particular organization to add value to the business, contributing from one's own position.This implies a challenge for training experts, since the design of skills development workshops is completely adjusted to the behavioral development needs requested by the client.
Competency training provides key information as a criterion for resource allocation. Knowing that there are easy, medium and difficult to train skills, the organization has a clear criterion of where to invest to ensure the highest return. Research in training shows that normally the development of skills that are difficult to train (among others, self-confidence, failure management, self-control, flexibility) is scarce, and is not recommended. This allows knowing where to invest and provides useful information to make decisions regarding people with gaps that are difficult to improve, whether they are relocations, other development actions or disengagement.
One of the most important potentialities of competency management is the possibility of using it as a tool for promotion and developmentinternal. Traditional systems, which describe positions only in terms of their functions, tasks and responsibilities, do not allow a direct comparison between different positions since, due to their very functional nature, they can differ greatly from each other. On the other hand, with the competency profiling methodology, the same competencies can be present in many different positions, although with different required levels. This makes it easier to compare the competency profile observed in a person with the competency profile required in a position other than their own, managing to find adjustments that would otherwise be difficult to determine.
In this way, if you want to project a certain person to be able to occupy a certain position in the future, it is possible to compare their profile of competencies with the one they would require in that new position and plan their training and education according to the existing gaps. And conversely, if there is a vacant position, it can be determined which people in the organization already have a suitable profile of competencies for that position, to be considered as potential candidates for it. Talent management, coaching and executive development through professional navigation plans are based on this concept.
Management by competencies can help to refine criteria for the application of the compensation policyof the organization. For example, it is known that one of the problems that affects remuneration for meeting objectives is that the emphasis is placed on "what" should be done without providing clarity on "how" it can be achieved. Precisely management by competencies is an excellent complement to an administration policy by objectives, since it provides the element of process by indicating what behaviors will allow the achievement of the goals set. Thus, a compensation policy could integrate both elements "evaluation of goals" and "evaluation of competencies" to reward successful behaviors that allow the success of the organization not only in the short term but also in the long term.
Current global compensation trends show that fixed compensation increases as a function of achievement of the competency standards defined for the position (through an annual competency certification process), while variable compensation is paid through achievement-linked incentive systems. of measurable objectives and goals.
In Chile, payment for skills is almost non-existent, however it is foreseeable that companies that decide to implement a people management based on skills will have as a natural way, reward and incentivize through the achievement of competence standards (Fernández & Baeza, 2001).
The disengagement by competencies allows determining with a high degree of objectivity, who has the greatest gap between their competencies and those required by the position. At the same time, the analysis is focused on the degree of trainability of the deficit competences, because if these are difficult to train and for cost-benefit reasons, the organization is not willing to make such an effort, it seems reasonable to make a professional separation.
Finally, the integrated management that the competencies model allows, enables business objectives to be properly considered on a day-to-day basis. This management allows for a monitoring of the alignment between organizational goals and the performance of workers, which if complemented with strategic monitoring with methodologies such as the balanced scorecard, substantially increases the probability of achieving the company's goals in its 4 basic perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, and people and technology (Kaplan & Norton, 2000).
Methodology of Application of the Competences Model
The operational process developed in the interventions that we have developed, aimed at implementing management by competencies, comprises the following stages:
The process of determining the desired competency profiles and evaluating the existing gaps with the actual competency profiles observed, is a process that involves broad participation by the organization's staff. For this reason, it is important to provide information so that people understand its meaning and usefulness in order to get them to commit to participating in it. They should be considered:
- Meetings with the participants, in order to provide transparency and clarity of the objectives and scope of the work. The relationship between the organization's human resources policies and the possible results of management by competencies. Meetings with the union organization.
Given that competencies are those that explain superior performance, it is essential to divide the sample of people interviewed into 2 groups: people with good performance and people with low performance as expected.
This performance classification is made by the organization's executives, who rely on existing performance management systems or, if they do not exist, on a consensual decision regarding them.
In this way, when the competency analysis is carried out, it will be compared in which competences there are significant differences between both groups and in which not.
The number of people to be interviewed varies substantially according to the total number of occupants per position. The criterion used is that in positions with less than 20 occupants, all persons should be interviewed and in positions with 21 occupants or more, a percentage of no less than 70% of the persons should be considered. This is because, since it will be necessary to compare the competencies demonstrated by the 2 groups of people, a representative sample must be available.
This stage implies previously deepening the knowledge of the charges, in order to be able to carry out the interviews with as much relevant information as possible and to be able to intend them properly. It should be considered:
- Knowledge of the positions: analysis of descriptions and visit to workplaces. Develop structured guidelines to carry out behavioral interviews.
Interviewers require specific training to conduct the interview towards identifying how the person works in practice. Hence, it is invited to analyze critical incidents in the work history of the person in charge, since it has been demonstrated that in such incidents, whether they are successful or unsuccessful, the highest levels of competence and incompetence are verified (Spencer & Spencer, 1993). Analysis of people's actual behavioral responses determines what can actually be achieved in a particular position and organization.
Inexperienced interviewers can fall into the error of assuming as work behaviors, the concepts that a person has of their performance. There are highly desirable responses, such as mentioning that situational leadership is applied and teamwork is believed. An approximation of this type does not reflect competition as it is only a conceptual statement. The focus is on eliciting and analyzing real behaviors.
With the most resistant interviewees, it will be necessary to insist on several occasions on “can you describe to me how you acted in this situation”, “who participated”, “what happened”, “what did you do”. The temptation to consider ideas, intentions, and concepts as behaviors must be avoided.
This is the central stage of the intervention and, therefore, it is the one with the greatest complexity. The different stages involved are described below:
- Transcription of interviews and classification of skills. Each interview is recorded on an audio cassette and fully transcribed. This information is analyzed by the panel of consultants, who proceed to analyze and categorize the data obtained in the interviews of critical incidents, identifying the behaviors described by the participants and associating them with the competencies with which said behavior is directly related. Behavioral responses are categorized according to the sample group, either performing well or poorly. Classification using the Competences Inventory. This dictionary (a summary of all the competence scales and the detail of their levels of behavior) is the frame of reference to categorize the observed behaviors and associate them with competencies. If the process of analyzing behaviors and classifying them is done by only one person, there is a risk of subjectivity, which is why the methodology considers the analysis of all the behaviors extracted from all the interviews by the panel of consultants, who by consensus categorize the behaviors. competencies. This guarantees objectivity in the process of detecting the competency profiles of each position and is described as the most statistically effective methodology for developing competency profiles (Spencer & Spencer, 1993). Its disadvantage is the time required to analyze each of the behaviors.Administration of the Inventory of Successful Behaviors. A questionnaire for determining successful behaviors is also applied, designed with the same information as the Inventory of Competencies, and which allows, in a faster and cheaper way, to determine the profile of competencies of a person. For the purposes of designing the position's competency profile, this information is statistically correlated with the results of the panel of experts. Determination of observed profiles. The behaviors demonstrated by both performance groups are compared. Those competencies in which there are significant differences in favor of the group of good performance, finally constitute the competencies that in practice account for that better performance. This is what we previously called differentiating competencies.
The result of this analysis will be the observed profile of each position, which includes:
- Competencies of each position. For each competency, the following are indicated: The categories of behavior observed, from unsuccessful to successful Description of the specific work behaviors that describe the competency
- Preliminary report to the organization. A preliminary report is prepared with the observed profile of competencies of each position, which is sent for the analysis of the leadership of the position analyzed. Validation of the observed profiles. The objective of this analysis is for the leadership to validate the profile observed as the desired profile for it, and introduce any modifications it deems necessary. This point is vital for the involvement of the leadership, and that experience indicates that although the profiles observed are very similar to those desired, sometimes there are relevant competencies that the occupant does not have, and that are usually associated with strategic corporate competencies, for example. example, customer service orientation or results orientationDetermination of the desired skill profiles by the client, based on the profile observed. The validation of the desired profile has 2 requirements: define if all the observed competencies are the desired ones, and determine the behavioral category that will be required. This is fundamental because it defines the standard of behavioral demand against which each occupant will be evaluated, and it will be defined whether or not there is a skills gap. This definition is the responsibility of the human resources areas and the line managers of the organization studied.
Based on the desired competency profiles, the Competency Assessment instrument adapted to the successful behaviors of the organization is developed, which will allow the individual assessment of the occupants of the positions to determine the skills gap. A common and general instrument will be developed to allow the evaluation of the skills of the positions, the desired profile of each position being different.
All managers that will assess the skills gap must be trained in familiarization with the assessment instrument (which follows exactly the same format as the desired profiles) and with the questions that stimulate behavioral (and non-conceptual) responses.
With the evaluation instrument, the leadership and a consultant interview each of the occupants of critical positions to determine their current level of competence. This joint interview is very important because the results are determined by consensus of both professionals and the methodology is transferred to those who will continue to apply it in the future. Biases due to previous performance judgments or errors due to inexperience in the interview technique are also avoided.
The final products of this process are considered:
- Individual skills gap reports. An individual report with the training needs of each person, indicating the easily trainable, expensively trainable and difficultly trainable skills. Below is an example of these reports:
Skills gap report
Name:
Position:
Interview date:
Interviewers:
Behaviors to be developed to achieve the desired profile
- Final report of the work. It is the global report with the general results, in which the distribution of the skills gaps of the group of people evaluated will be plotted, together with the analyzes deemed necessary: by hierarchical level, by business line or by the relevant criteria. Examples of these graphic reports: Training plan. Based on the analysis of the statistical results, the development and training plan that will be recommended for the enhancement of the skills of the organization's employees is proposed, based on the skills with the greatest gap between what is desired and what is observed, and the ease of trainability of the same.
It is important to highlight that the behaviors to be developed in the competencies with a gap between what is desired and what is observed, constitute the contents of the training workshops, so that the usual approach of standard contents after courses already designed is obsolete and poses interesting design challenges instructional and methodological skills development workshops.
Our experience indicates that companies have always started their training plans with easily trainable skills and that allow a greater transfer from the training workshop to the real work situation, establishing the cost-benefit criterion as the axis of resource allocation. training.
3 communication instances are recommended:
- Deliver one envelope per participant with their individual skills gap report and their training recommendations. Said delivery should be made by the direct boss of the person, as it closes the work cycle and allows a supervisor-supervised communication instance from the perspective of performance management. Presentation of the results of the work to the executive team of the organization. presentation of general results to participants. Once again, openness and transparency in the results is recommended, as they will be the axis of future skills development activities.
Conclusions of the application of the competency model in Chilean companies
Based on the applications carried out in various national companies, we have been able to verify some interesting situations, such as:
- The competencies model is attractive for organizations with a good degree of professionalization in human resource management:It is interesting to note that the incorporation of the competency model is still a minority, which in our opinion has to do with its relative novelty and, above all, that it requires professional management of human resources management. In Chile, 80% of people work in SMEs, companies focused on subsistence and with few resources to manage human resource strategies, so the focus is on compliance with labor legislation. The companies interested in the competencies approach are those with a good level of professionalization in people management, where the owners or the executive team have concluded that people are a comparative advantage in their businesses and in the viability of the business. in the long runInterest in competencies has arisen mainly from the need to achieve better results with training: In seeking to overcome the skill development ceiling of their workers, companies have approached the competencies model from the need to design training that develops skills. concrete successful behaviors that are required for a position and that allow its evaluation. Thus, the competency profile comparison methodology allows for a pre- and post-training evaluation, and, above all, an evaluation of competencies carried out by the leadership to determine the transfer of the behaviors developed to the real work situation. There is little understanding of what competencies are and their organizational scope: It has been found that there is little clarity in company executives about the concept of competition, especially from its operational aspect. In general, they tend to call "competences" what were traditionally called "aptitudes and abilities", with no operationalization in terms of specific behaviors, much less defining levels for each one of them. This misunderstanding may eventually lead to a loss of prestige of the concept, making it difficult to incorporate it as an important management tool in our organizations. A certain arrogance is also observed in some human resources professionals in terms of estimating that “I already know this”, when in the conceptual conversation it is clear that the concept of competence is not fully understood and, above all,its enormous impact as an integrated management system for human resources processes.There is dissonance between what is stated and what is observed: There is not always a concordance between what the organization declares to be its core corporate competencies and what is observed in reality, especially when the organizational structure favors certain types of behaviors while its vision statement and mission points the other way. For example, it is common to find a statement of organizational principles with an emphasis on teamwork, while the organizational structure - assignment of functions, evaluation and even compensation - openly favors individual work. There is a clear association between skill groups and job functionsAlthough it may seem obvious, it is found that there are indeed certain competencies that are good predictors of performance for certain groups of functions or work areas. Thus, we have that technical competencies acquire a differentiating character in operational areas with a strong technical component, that interpersonal effectiveness and communication competencies are differentiating in more commercial areas and that impact and influence competencies are also differentiating at executive and managerial levels.. Low demand is observed in the definition of the desired profilesWhen the time comes to define the desired profiles, most executives tend to set as performance parameters less demanding levels of competence than those evaluated in the personnel defined within the sample. It could be assumed that this attitude obeys a conservative criterion used to avoid frustrations due to not being able to reach a higher standard than the average performance. However, it is a risky policy since it tends to level more towards the average than towards the superior performance. There is a tendency to define competences from the conceptual and not from the behavioral: A tendency to define “values” as competencies is observed in the executive teams of organizations. This makes it difficult for them to be operationalized in specific behaviors of a specific nature. There are also certain general agreements on some competencies (for example leadership), but without showing much clarity on how to operationalize them (what type of leadership is required and in what situations). In other words, organizational competencies continue to be established from the conceptual point of view, without visualizing that the process is the opposite: observing what are the real successful behaviors in the workplace, in order to conceptualize the basic skills that make up competencies from them.There is a positive qualitative evaluation of the result of the application of the competencies model: Given that the implementations in Chile of the competencies model are still few, there are no quantitative evaluations of their impact on the contribution to the business, which is in line with the difficulty It is common for human resources areas to measure their contribution. The qualitative evaluation made by the line executives is that the competency model aligns the performance of the workers with the objectives of the company, gives transparency to human resources decisions, motivates people by clearly indicating what behaviors they should develop and it allows them a clear view of what to do with the people they supervise.
Final thoughts.
In the current conditions, the competency model presents some obstacles for a rapid implementation in Chilean organizations. Within them the following can be noted
- It implies a new and radical way of managing human resources, naturally existing barriers and important individual and organizational resistances to this “cultural change.” Implementing it implies a professionalization of the organization, if not strict enough so that it exists a strategic vision in which the technical foundation in decision-making in the human resources area is valued, a condition that today is only fulfilled by multinationals or large-scale companies within our environment The model involves people exposing themselves to the organization as a whole, which transforms it into a “threatening” approach that can expose certain “personal incompetencies” that have been concealed to date by a traditional management system that maintains the status quo,and shielded behind the nominal hierarchies that grant the positions (positions that could also be exposed to external judgment). The greater objectivity of the system, although it turns out to be one of its great strengths, can also be interpreted as inflexibility, especially when it comes to wanting to perform human resource management not only based on technical criteria but also "political" criteria specific to the organization. It is a model whose operational implementation may be relatively simple, but which has a theoretical foundation that is difficult to understand and requires good conceptual management, not only of those who must administer the system but also of the rest of the organization as a whole.The implementation and maintenance of the model over time, implies investment in periodic consulting activities,the training of personnel to be involved in the operation of the system, the generation of new administrative tasks and committing the time of the personnel required for analyzes and evaluations, among others, which implies allocating important time and resources from the organization.
In this way, the competencies model, although it is recognized that it can be a great contribution to management, can be seen by some people as a complex, inflexible, threatening and resource-consuming approach.
However, the importance of the contribution that its application can make to organizations, more than justifies concentrating efforts in favor of minimizing its difficulties and facilitating its incorporation as a key tool in the management of people in companies in our country.
Our experience indicates that openly presenting the model and its scope to workers and their union organizations, although it activates initial resistance, is key in the process of cultural implantation, since in the short term and once people verify that there are no hidden objectives of layoffs or losses, they see it as an opportunity to have a clear, fair, and focused human resources management system focused on their performance and capabilities. In other words, workers perceive great advantages with a well-managed skills model, being allies and promoters of it.
From the managerial perspective, the model provides objective elements for human resource decisions and, as indicated in the previous paragraph, improves the work environment. Human resources decisions are taken from discretion, subjectivity or the exclusive use of hierarchy, to bring it to a technical level anchored in the resources of the workers and their contribution to the goals of the organization.
The cultural change involved in managing within this new context makes it advisable that such intervention begin with some pilot experience in a specific area of the organization. In this way, through the successive incorporation of the other areas, resistance can be minimized and contribute, through the validation of the results of its application, so that the cultural change finally occurs.
Some of the difficulties already indicated are the product of certain intrinsic conditions of the model, such as the case that people and positions are “exposed” and subject to an evaluation based on more objective criteria. However, these "problems" have the angle of objectifying and making HR decisions clear and understandable.
The implementation of management by competencies is facilitated if it is administered instrumentally through software that makes the implementation of the process easy and creates the conditions to integrate the different human resources processes. Competencies constitute the common database that feeds all human resources processes, so it is recommended to manage it as such.
The conceptualization of the management model by competencies, as well as the results that it has demonstrated in the world and incipiently in Chile, constitute an organizational and business approach that will occupy a central role in people management, since it allows the alignment of talents and capabilities of the workers with the organizational objectives, increasing the contribution to the business and the personal and professional satisfaction of the people.
References
- Araneda, D. & Calderón, C. (2000). Competency assessment model for human resource management. Thesis to qualify for the degree in Psychology, School of Psychology, Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile Becker, B., Huselid, M., & Ulrich, D. (2001). The Human Resources Scorecard. Boston: Harvard Business School Press Cravino, L. (1997). Performance management. Digital market, No. 24. Retrieved September 10, 2001, from http://www.mercado.com.ar/mercado/mo/lazzati/l24-0997/htm/L24-0997.aspDalziel, M., Cubeiro, J. & Fernández, G. (nineteen ninety six). Competencies: key for an integrated management of human resources. Spain: Ediciones Deusto.Fernández, I. & Baeza, R. (2001, July). Compensation trends in the Chilean market. Paper presented at the XXVIII Inter-American Congress of Psychology, Santiago,Chile Fernández, I. & Reyes, MI (2001, July). Executive search criteria in the Chilean market. Paper presented at the XXVIII Inter-American Congress of Psychology, Santiago, ChileFlannery, T., Hofrichter, D. & Platten, P. (1997). People, performance and pay. Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidós. Kaplan, R. & Norton, D. (2000). The Balanced Scorecard. Barcelona: Ediciones Gestión 2000, Le Boterf, G. (1996, September). Management approach by competencies. Conference given for human resources executives, Telefónica Events Room, Santiago, Chile. Levy-Leboyer, C. (1997). Management of competencies. Barcelona: Ediciones Gestión 2000. Ridderstrale, J. & Nordstrom, K. (2000). Funky Business. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. Rodríguez, D. & Arnold, M. (1992). Society and systems theory. Santiago:Editorial Universitaria Rodríguez, D. (1992). Organizational diagnosis. Santiago: Catholic University of Chile Editions Rodríguez, D. (2001). Organizational Management. Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile Spencer, L. & Spencer, S. (1993). Competence at work: models for superior performance. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Wood, R. & Payne, T. (1998). Competency based recruitment and selection. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Competency based recruitment and selection. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Competency based recruitment and selection. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
