1. Introduction
One of the strongest trends in the business world in recent years has been Competency Management. In Cuba, the use of Competency Management has been institutionalized in cutting-edge companies, through NC 3001/2007 of the MTSS, which obliges these companies to design, implement and certify their Integrated Human Capital Management System (SGICH) based on in that standard.
There is a great diversity of opinions about what each organization understands about management by competencies and how to incorporate it into people's management strategies.
Successful experiences, in this sense, lie in the organization's ability to establish a framework of competencies that reflects its philosophy, values, and strategic objectives. This framework becomes the mandatory reference for the different actions in the management of human capital.
Management by competencies becomes a valuable support, since it allows taking into account the characteristics that people must possess, in the short, medium and long term, in order to respond effectively and efficiently to the changes that occur as a result of the evolution of the company.
We support what Pía Hernando puts forward: “there is no single formula; all organizations are different; the contexts that surround them are different, the competitors, the leaders, the available resources vary from one organization to another and it is impossible to implement and generate a project of new HR applications without taking into account all these determining factors.
In this paper some of the good practices that the author has identified from his personal experience in the Design and Implementation of the SGICH, based on Labor Competencies, are exposed.
The main purpose of this presentation is to provide some practical advice to managers and professionals responsible for Human Capital Management (HCM), who are currently in the design or implementation phase of a new competency management model, which will serve them to streamline and improve it.
It is not about repeating what the experts or the gurus say on this important issue, although of course there are coincidences, but rather explaining the good and useful things that we have experienced leading this process, in two Cuban companies: Food Productions, (PRODAL, 2007-2010) and the Empresa Comercializadora y Servicio de Transporte (ECOST, September 2011 to date), belonging to the food and oil industries respectively.
We hope that this work constitutes a modest contribution to the still incipient, but necessary, management by competencies in our country.
2. Practical advice for the design or implementation of a new competency management model
Below are the validated Good Practices
2.1. Breaking the "utopian" idea of the General Directors and the rest of the Board of Directors of wanting to design and implement the SGICH in one or two months.
In general, we have noticed that there is a "divorce" between what the CEOs of the Companies and the Directors of Human Capital think about what it means to design and implement an SGICH.
For the former, pressed more by the pressure to comply with short-term indicators and directives of the business groups to which they are subordinate, it is a matter of time and therefore they consider that in one or two months they can comply with the design of such an important management system.
For the latter, (within which I include myself), it means that we are building the people management tools that all managers must subsequently use and that therefore goes beyond fulfilling one more task. They know that the quality resulting from this design will largely depend on the success of our business management in the medium and long term.
We are also convinced that any human capital professional is in a position to prepare all the necessary documentation (policies, manuals, procedures, regulations, instructions, etc.), but we know that achieving the commitment of all managers and middle managers to using that documentation effectively is not an easy task. We would obtain that commitment, if we achieve the real involvement of all managers in all phases of the design of the management system, since it would be easier to implement a tool that is designed by the people who are going to use it later. Undoubtedly, resistance to change would be much less than issuing indications from the Human Capital Directorate (DCH), with proposals that would later be perceived as "imposed". According to Gómez-Mejía and others,"All managers, regardless of their functional area, their position in the hierarchy and the size of the company, must effectively resolve HR issues because these issues are the essence of being a good manager."
Therefore, breaking with that utopian idea of the CEOs of wanting to design and implement the SGICH in one or two months, becomes a basic or key issue for the development of the design and implementation process.
A good strategy to break, would be to clarify, explain, persuade and train the management team in the scope, importance and complexity of the entire process, as well as the role they play in it. Only in this way will we be able to negotiate an adequate and reasonable term, in accordance with the characteristics of the company, with the quality of the management team and that of GCH, with the consequent design adjusted to them.
2.2. Adjustment of functions and responsibilities of the GCH team.
Undoubtedly one of the big problems that our GCH areas have today is the poor or ineffective distribution of functions and responsibilities. The functional organizational structure has prevailed and it is difficult for the same person to close the entire cycle of a HCG sub-process. In the last three companies where I have been in charge of the DCH, we have had to adjust the functions and responsibilities of the team, to be able to carry out the design and implementation of the SGICH, in the most organic, systemic, effective and less traumatic way possible..
This adjustment should not be imposed, but rather should be agreed with all members of the CH team, based on their personal abilities and inclinations, even giving them the opportunity to initially agree on themselves and decide on which HCG sub-process they would feel. more comfortable. Recently, Professor Calviño, in one of his excellent conferences, where I had the privilege of participating, assured that the "system should not force me to be dysfunctional, to perform tasks that I do not want and cannot do" and immediately clarified that "task that it doesn't fit me is the same as the emotional version that I don't know how to do it.
Finally, if there are contradictions on this point, the Director of CH must intervene and clarify the functions and responsibilities in writing.
2.3. Process Approach linked to Human Capital Management (GCH).
We must make it clear to our collaborators that from now on they will be responsible for a sub-process that implies that planning / organization, execution, verification / control and acting / improving it will depend on their performance. They have to master the importance and location of the sub-process, of which they will own, within the Company's GCH Model, as well as their interrelationships. Annex No 1
It is a significant change in the way our collaborators act, who will have more and more responsibilities towards internal clients (managers, workers, union) and external clients (business group, training providers, government agencies, community, etc.). We must ensure that their mentalities and ways of doing are focused on the satisfaction of those customers. We must be flexible enough to realize that when a procedure is collapsing the agile operation of our company, we start by reviewing and changing it and not just thinking about what it is necessary to comply with, as we traditionally did. The most important thing becomes helping managers meet company goals and not having managers work for us.
2.4. Preparation of the DCH Work Strategy. Active participation of the entire team. Balanced Scorecard (CMI) associated with the GCH.
We elaborated the Work Strategy that would guide the proper functioning of the DCH according to the strategic objectives of the company, which included the SGICH Design and Implementation Plan, establishing the necessary stages or phases for its successful completion.
In both cases, we achieved the participation of all members of the CH team, with whom we developed three work sessions, starting with Mission, Vision, Values that we were going to share and the well-known SWOT Matrix, which served as the basis for identifying the objectives. strategic strategies and those of the current year for our DCH aligned with those of the Company and ending with the set of actions necessary to carry out the design and implementation of the SGICH. To communicate and manage this strategy, we design and implement a BSC that allows us to monitor the evolution of the main indicators and to be able to make the pertinent improvements to the sub-processes that make up the GCH. “The scorecard will not cure poor HR management, but it can provide the means to collect true data,predictable and timely that will help direct the organization's attention to the most important elements of the HR architecture.
2.5. Feedback of the results in the Boards of Directors.
If it was important to develop strategies, even more important was and continues to be the feedback of the results that are being achieved in the Boards of Directors (DC). In the programming and execution of the annual thematic plan of the DCs, we include the Analysis of compliance with the design and implementation of the SGICH, once a month, in addition to all the issues related to each of the GCH sub-processes. This decision-making space of the company gives us the opportunity, on the one hand, to follow up on what is programmed and, on the other hand, to increase the commitment of the managers who were constantly being evaluated and compared.
In addition, the quality of these analyzes in the CDs will largely depend on the credibility that we acquire as managers. Fitz-enzy assured: “I am convinced that personnel management is the most important task of any organization. And if my conviction is true, it follows from it that the professionals directly in charge of creating the systems to attract, remunerate, advise and develop employees must be appreciated members of the management team ”.
2.6. Training of the GCH team and the rest of those involved in all areas
We organize and carry out the training of the HCG team, through the «learning by doing» method. To the same extent that we were teaching and learning to do, we were facing tasks or actions of the SGICH implementation plan. Even before training the rest of those involved in the design of the SGICH, we did pilot tests in our area. Example: We started the elaboration of the competency profiles, precisely for our area.
Key topics that should not be lacking in this preparation: strategic planning, management by processes, management by competencies, balanced scorecard, the current GCH procedures that are applied (emphasizing their weaknesses / opportunities for improvement, among others.
We must achieve the necessary competence, not only technical, but dominate the business where we operate, for as Wayne Brockbank and Dave Ulrich say, “HR professionals must strive to become protagonists to define the direction of the business and to leverage human and the organizational capabilities necessary to achieve success.
We recommend that the actions that are planned and executed on these issues, first include the fundamental elements, which are, at the same time, as simple as possible, with a language that can be digestible by all team members, and then gradually increase the quality and quantity of training actions.
2.7. The use of supporting documents
We recommend having at hand a group of documents that serve as support and reference to design the management system, in addition to the traditional ones:
- Bibliographies related to competency management, dictionaries or competency catalogs, practical reference documents, which help us to adapt ideas, concepts to our reality and create our generic competences package, as well as our own procedures to carry out the entire process. It is important to remember what Celis Carvajal says: In the enunciation and description of the competencies, the strategic and cultural component of each organization must be impregnated and should not be limited to a “simplistic” copy of the textual definitions of the generic competencies glossaries or traces of other companies A competency profile model understandable by all. (Annex No 2) The predetermined list of performance indicators or criteria by areas prepared by the DCH,adjusted to the company's strategy, it facilitated the work of managers who later enriched it taking into account their particularities.
2.8. The use of a mixed approach (a mixture of two of the best known, behavioral and functionalist).
We have liked, and it has paid off, using a mix of elements from two of the world's most widely used approaches to competition.
From the Behavioral Approach: We define competencies as skills that reflect the individual's ability and describe what he or she can do.
We work with the reference in the best: we identify the best workers; to those who are achieving the best results. From there they derive the competency profile under the assumption that, if better performance becomes a standard, the organization as a whole will improve its productivity.
From the Functionalist Approach: We define the performance criteria based on the functions of each position / individual and the identified competencies.
2.9. The execution at the same time of another very important process: Load Balance and Capacity of all jobs
It was very interesting and profitable, the fact of working at the same time, two important processes that were complemented: the preparation of the Load and Capacity Balance of all the jobs of the company and the process of identification of Labor Competencies.
All the managers and a large part of our workers were involved in both processes. On the one hand, we were adjusting the functions and responsibilities of each position, identifying the time necessary (estimated) to carry out said functions, defining the number of people per job position and, on the other, defining the main performance criteria of the areas and Job positions.
These performance criteria were key for the preparation of the competency profiles.
2.10. Breaking of some rules and steps of the general procedures established for the identification of labor competencies.
Initially having a procedure (homogeneous for the entire Business Group / Union to which each company belonged) for the identification of labor competencies was an indisputable strength, but we did not "fall in love" with it. Along the way, we realized that some steps were feasible for other types of companies, but not for us, and we made the appropriate adjustments and developed our own in each company, based on the first experience in PRODAL.
2.11. Accompaniment of external consultants.
Working with external consultants has brought us two very different experiences. In one company it was a great strength and in the other not so much, since we did not have the opportunity to continue the work started.
In the first case, joint work with the CETED-University of Havana Advisors brought us tangible benefits such as:
- Design of all required documentation Preparation of the Management Team and the DCH Usefulness of the jointly created procedure for the identification and validation of labor competencies, in addition to the model to reflect the CL.
In the second case, without demeaning the consultant who assisted us (at that time I was not in this company yet), we were able to verify that the results were not entirely good. They started (they did not finish it) the process of identifying labor competencies but from a point of view far removed from the business reality. Suffice it to just point out that once we reviewed the work carried out by them, we realized that they identified too many job competencies and their dimensions, which were going to constitute a great obstacle, because they were really unmanageable by any manager. Furthermore, they did not take into account the Performance Criteria, so it was going to be very difficult to measure competencies. Here the work of the DCH failed,in not conceiving this process in a rational way and to the measure of the company and perhaps the dynamics of working with these consultants.
In summary, the accompaniment of external consultants can be a viable way to carry out this process, but provided that the company's requirements or what Codina proposes is met: ensuring that the solution proposals "come out" from the members of the organization, generate enough synergy and security so that they feel that they can solve their problems.
2.12. Benchmarking in other companies / participation in meetings to exchange experiences or best practices organized by GECYT.
We are champions of the use of Benchmarking as an instrument for the continuous improvement of GCH policies and strategies. We investigate, evaluate and try to understand the best practices of companies within the sector (in our case of food and oil), as well as those of others, which stand out in areas of this function, to improve, set new objectives. We do not copy from them, rather we try to understand their strengths, know how they work, why they are better and when it is the case, adapt and build on their excellent practices, ours, to be different.
We also try to participate in those events, meetings for the exchange of experiences, that we consider may be useful to us. Among them, the meetings that have been and are organized by GECYT stand out, where the companies that make the most progress in the design and implementation of SGICH, exchange their experiences (from 2008 to date, we are regular participants in these meetings). It is also good to highlight the role of facilitator that the Cuban Human Capital Network has played, by creating a space where we can approach colleagues with similar interests and concerns.
2.13. Recognition to the Executives, Specialists and workers who stand out the most in the GCH.
In our work system, we have defined morally to recognize those managers, specialists and workers who stand out or significantly support the management of human capital. We deliver Recognition Diplomas to them using several channels: Quarterly and Annual Balances of Human Capital Management, Boards of Directors, Newsletters, messages on the Radio Base, Morning. This has undoubtedly reinforced in the managers, the repetition of these favorable behaviors and a fraternal emulative climate between them.
3. Conclusions
- The new human management mission must be formulated based on its contributions to the competitiveness and productivity of the company, hence special importance is given to the provision of the competencies required by the organization. The Good Practices that were exposed, not they mean a series of steps that must be fulfilled, nor do they constitute recipes that guarantee success in all companies. They are only positive experiences, suggestions that can be adapted and assumed by others, in their contexts. The only claim we had was to provide some practical advice to managers and professionals responsible for the HCG, which will help them speed up and improve the design or implementation of a management model by competencies, based on the experiences lived by the author.
4. Annexes
Annex No 1: Human capital management model in ECOST
Human capital management model at ECOST
Source: self made
Annex No 2: Profile of skills used
Skills profile used
5. Bibliographic references
Magazine Articles
- Ortega, Manuel / 2006 / Comprehensive and integrated strategy for the management of people / Human Capital / No 201 July-August / page 82. Rodríguez González, Francisco, Herrera Lemus, Katty and Páez Núñez, Juan Carlos / December 2009 / Labor Competencies: Procedure for its strategic management / Cuban Journal of Human Capital Management / No 1 /. p. 53-58
books
- Alles, Martha Alicia / 2004 / Dictionary of Behaviors, Competency Management. / First Edition / Buenos Aires, Argentina / Ediciones Granica SABecker B., Huselid M., Ulrich D. / 2002 / Company human resources scorecard. / Barcelona / Ediciones Gestión 2000, SACodina Jiménez, C. Alexis / 2009 / Management skills and tools / First Edition / Havana, Cuba / School of Higher Studies in Hospitality and Tourism.Fitz-enzy, Jac / 1999 / How to measure management From Human Resources. / First Edition / Spain / Ediciones Deusto SAGómez - Mejía, Luis R.; Balkin, David R. and Cardy, Robert L. / 2001 / Direction and Management of Human Resources./ Third Edition. / Madrid. Spain. / Prentice Hall.Mertens, L. / 1997 / Labor competencies: systems, emergence and models. / Cinterfor, ILO, Montevideo.
Reports
- Narbarte Hernández, Christian; Álvarez García, Susana; Cortés de las Heras, Javier; Hervás Ferríls, Rosa M. ª; Girona Latorre, Luisa; López Manzano, Pilar / 2007 / Process Management Guide / Valencia, Spain / Generalitat Valenciana, Conselleria de Cultura, Educació i Esport.Wayne Brockbank, Dave Ulrich / 2002 / Study of Human Resources Competencies, interpretation of individual feedback report / University of Michigan Business School.
Thesis or dissertation
- María Pía Hernando / 2007 / Good Practices in Human Resource Management in Mar del Plata Organizations / Master in Business Administration. / National University of Mar del Plata, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Calviño, Manuel / 2012 / Anyone directs the good, but what do we do with those who are not / Cycle of Conferences on managerial skills / GECYT-CITMA, Havana, Cuba.
Online electronic resources
- Celis Carvajal, Lucero / 2010 / Implementation of management models by competencies / 02-08-2010 / Gálvez, Mónica / 2010 / Interview with Miguel Sanz, General Director responsible for Human Resources at Banesto / December 2010 / Available at: www.equipos & talented.com.2004 / The 40 most frequently asked questions about labor competence. / Available at: temp.oitcinterfor.org/public/spanish/región/ampro/Cinterfor/temas/complab/index.htmPíriz Sánchez, Raúl / 2006 / Benchmarking as an instrument for continuous improvement of HR policies and strategies / 15 / 11/2010 / Available at: www.rrhhmagazine.com.
Presentation at event
- Páez Núñez, Juan Carlos; Rodríguez González, Francisco / 2009 / Experiences in the implementation of the Integrated Management System of Human Capital in the company PRODAL / Presentation presented at the SGICH-TECNOGEST / GECYT Workshop / Havana, Cuba.
