We present another article for owners and managers (not hr), which reveals another aspect of personnel assessment. We will stop there:
- what are competencies?
- types of competencies;
- on the application of the competency-based approach in;
- stages of implementation of competencies;
- the benefits that a company that formulates competencies receives.
What is a competency?
Clear criteria are necessary for the introduction of a systemic assessment of personnel. Most methods come down to evaluating the effectiveness (results of labor) of an employee and recruiting him personal qualities. One of the leading ones is the competence approach.
Competence— an integral characteristic/criterion that describes the quality of human behavior in a particular activity. As a rule, this is some kind of ideal model of behavioral manifestations that allow him to achieve results, to be effective in this type of activity.
It is clear that human behavior in each situation is determined by many factors: internal attitudes and motivation, skills, understanding of technology, knowledge. And even genetic predisposition.
For example, a sales manager working in the marketB2B (large corporate sales), developed communication skills are important for communicating with various professionals and decision makers. And all this can be called "Negotiating":
- flexibility of behavior, the ability to consciously adapt to the style of the interlocutor;
- variability in offering alternatives;
- developed argumentation skills, etc.
Along with these qualities, the "seller" must have perseverance in achieving the goal, the ability to plan and control their activities, the ability to work under pressure. And this is another competence - "Result Orientation".
And thus, we can say that each activity can be described by a cloud of criteria - a competency model. Moreover, for each business, competencies will be unique, reflecting its specifics. That is why we recommend developing your own competencies.
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Behavioral indicators of competence
As discussed above in the Negotiating example, competencies are made up of simple components—specific items that describe the action. And these components are called behavioral indicators. It is on the basis of behavioral indicators that an assessment of personnel is built using or a structured interview.
But that's not all, levels of manifestation of competencies are necessary.
Competence development scale
In order to describe the quality of an employee's actions, set reference values and be able to compare the behavior shown with him, there is a scale for the development of competencies. These are levels that describe the quality of behavior. And the levels can be different. For example, 4 levels (intermediate values \u200b\u200bare also possible - "halves"):
- 0 - competence is not shown/absent;
- 1 - the level of basic development;
- 2 - the level of confident possession of competence in standard situations;
- 3 — skill level (standard, ability to broadcast).
Roughly speaking, the competence development scale can be represented as a “bad-good” thermometer. In accordance with this "thermometer", the employee is evaluated.
There are several options for describing competency levels. The examples below show the differences. It can be assumed that they were created for different evaluation methods.
An example of a competency description: listing all behavioral indicators and levels with values for an employee's performance.
| Formulates a vision ultimate goal. Organizes others / forms a group of "followers". Effectively motivates people in the team and individual work. Encourages colleagues and subordinates to put forward initiatives and independence. Delegates authority and responsibility, taking into account the individual characteristics of subordinates and their career aspirations. Pays attention and time to the development of subordinates. Expresses and defends his own position on the issues being resolved. Provides and requests feedback. | |||||||||||||||
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An example of a competency with an extended description of behavioral indicators at each level.
| score | Level | Description of behavioral indicators |
| 4 | Strategic | In addition to level 3: - Establishes such rules for the work of the group, under which it gives everyone the opportunity to express themselves, while remaining a leader - Ensures the adoption of a group decision that is focused not only on the "here and now", but also on the future |
| 3 | Skill level | In addition to level 2: - Motivates the group to achieve the goal, inspires, influences the mood of the group - Orients other group members to active work in the group - Proposes a decision that the group makes |
| 2 | Base | - Takes the initiative - Interacts with each team member based on individual personality traits - Aims the group to achieve the result, returns the group to the result - Organizes the work of the group, suggests methods and procedures for the work of the group - Takes responsibility for results - Facilitates conflict resolution |
| 1 | Limited | - Takes the initiative at the request of other members of the group, at the direction of the most active member of the group Shows initiative but fails to get the attention of participants - Organizes the work of individual team members - Finds it difficult to justify his opinion when trying to organize the work of the group |
| 0 | Level of incompetence | - Has a non-constructive influence on the team, interrupts, criticizes, devalues the position of others - Shows indifference to the results of group work – Withdraws from the organization of group work, acts only on instructions - Doesn't interact with group members - provokes conflicts in the group |
It is also customary to use the term “target indicator”, which sets the value of the manifestation of competence for a given target audience. For example, for a top-level manager, the competence " strategic thinking” should be developed at level “2”. While the value for the head of the unit, the target indicator will be "1.5".
Based on the assessment received, one can judge the potential of the employee, the need for development, suitability for this activity, etc.
Types of competencies
I must say that this is a conditional classification. Rather, it is a division to designate the "scope" of competencies. Indeed, in the course of his activity, a person uses many integrative qualities. For example, a manager holding a meeting "uses" several of his competencies at the same time - different types.
But still, sometimes you can find a division of competencies into clusters:
- managerial
- communicative
- corporate (value)
- professional (technical)
Managerial competencies
Managerial competencies describe the actions of managers in the process of making decisions and communicating with subordinates. Also, these are competencies that describe the quality of his behavior - often "Leadership".
Examples of managerial competencies:
- Strategic (or systems) thinking
- Planning (and organizing or controlling)
- Development of subordinates
- Motivation
- Leadership
Communication competencies
This is a description of the quality of behavior in the process of communication within the company and with external partners.
Examples of names of communicative competencies:
- Negotiation
- Interpersonal Understanding
- Influence
Depending on the accents, in the description of the competence, you can see the specifics of the activities of employees and the welcome styles of behavior (aggressiveness, assertiveness or partner position).
Corporate competencies
Value competencies are an important part of the competency model. They reflect the corporate philosophy - Values and standards of behavior that are welcome in the company. That is why some companies separately formulate corporate competencies.
Examples of corporate (value) competencies:
- Result orientation
- Customer focus (often, even internal)
- Teamwork
Professional (technical) competencies
Describe the knowledge, skills and behavior of a professional group posts. For example, for the direction of IT or accountants.
It is necessary to understand the expediency of developing professional competencies - is this group of people sufficiently represented in the company, how often do changes occur in their activities and the technologies they use.
Applying competencies - staff assessment
The most commonly used methods where competencies are used:
- assessment center - the most effective method in the course of a specially developed business game;
- assessment "180/360 ° feedback", where the assessment of the employee is given from all sides - subordinates, managers, colleagues, clients.
Development of competencies
The need to develop competencies is encountered by every company that regularly assesses personnel using a competency-based approach.
Admittedly, creating a competency model is a time-consuming (and often budget-intensive) undertaking. As a rule, internal specialists, pardon the pun, do not have sufficient competence for a qualitative description of competencies. The main mistakes can be called vagueness of wording, intersecting behavioral indicators (occurring in different competencies). And it takes a lot of time to do this.
Of course, you can use universal competencies. For example, many companies take the work of the Lominger company as a basis and slightly modify them for themselves. But, if the task is to qualitatively transfer the specifics of the business, one cannot do without formulating one's own model. And in this case, it is better to contact the providers.
Development of a competency model. Main steps
The main stages of the project for developing a competency model can be called:
- Definition of goals and objectives (for what we formulate and how we will apply), development methodology.
- Formation of the project group(s) with the involvement of the maximum possible number of participants. This will further reduce the resistance of employees. Groups can be completely different in direction and time of existence.
- Direct development of competencies.
- Focus group testing and evaluation procedures.
Formation of competencies. Methods
The most well-known methods for developing competencies are:
- Repertory grid method- the behavior of the most effective employees is analyzed, a list of behavioral indicators is compiled. It is carried out more often in the form of interviews with managers, as a result of which a table (grid) is formed with the names of employees and their indicators.
- Critical Incident Method is based on interviews with employees (and managers), during which they talk about critical situations, actions that led to success or, conversely, did not allow to resolve the situation.
- Direct attribute method- the fastest and easiest when key managers are presented with cards describing ready-made competencies. Managers are invited to choose from this set those that are most significant for the business.
Implementation of the competency model
The implementation of the competency model takes place according to the classics of change management. If we simplify the model, then the main areas of attention can be considered the following:
- It is necessary to create motivation for the use of competencies. Show employees that this will be a tool for their learning and an opportunity to develop in the company. And it will allow managers to make more informed decisions. And this can happen in the course of conducting pilot assessment procedures using the example of standard (not adapted to the company) competencies.
By the way, this is the option we offer to clients when the company does not have its own model - to start somewhere. Start process. To show at least at the level of one group or target audience that the assessment of personnel by competencies is “not scary, but useful.”
In this case, we implement, for example, Light-assessment, as a result of which participants receive recommendations for development.
- Maximum informing of employees and involvement in the process. And here, as mentioned above, it is necessary to work both before the development and after the formulation of competencies.
This can take place in the form of mailings with a description of the tasks of implementing the model, a description of all stages, a request for feedback etc. Of course, face-to-face working groups dedicated to development and translation can be considered the most working form.
Already during this preparatory period (which can be implemented even after the development of the model), feedback will be received, the most resistant employees or those on whom innovations can be relied upon will be identified.
- Once the competencies have been developed, it is necessary to conduct a first evaluation episode using them and show the effectiveness of the implementation. This solves the problem of "propaganda" of innovations and the removal of resistance from some of the doubters (the sixth stage of the change model according to Kotter).
- Implementation of changes on a regular basis, consolidation of the competency model at the level of regular management.
For example, one of the parts of the introduction of competencies in the "life of the company" may be their use by managers during regular feedback to subordinates. Operating with the terminology of the competency-based approach, referring to the behavioral indicators of the corporate model forms the conceptual field in which employees live.
And this is not a complete list of areas of attention. For each company they are different. But all of them should be aimed at the formation of a positive attitude to the assessment of competencies. It is clear that the formation of an attitude is a long process. That's what we meant when talking about the possible duration of the project. So, the main areas of attention are motivation, information, involvement, propaganda.
competency model. Advantages
The main advantages of having a corporate competency model are:
- the criteria applied to employees reflect the specifics of the business, the activities of employees and corporate culture companies;
- competencies become for employees a kind of beacons that need to be guided by - they set the standards of behavior that allow them to be successful in this activity;
- a developing environment is being formed in the company (of course, during the regular assessment of personnel in terms of competencies);
- simplifies the decision-making process (in the field of career movement of employees);
- the costs of search, adaptation and development of personnel are significantly reduced;
- simplifies interaction with service providers in the field of personnel assessment and development.
"To have or not to have?"- that is the question. And every company decides. And we, "Laboratory Business Games» we just help to effectively implement our plans: develop and implement a corporate competency model, evaluate employees and propose a program for their development.
Employees who have the right attitude, moving into a better work style, are considered more competent. Find out why. The concept of competencies as a condition for recruitment, selection, hiring and appraisal of employees has become very popular not only among HR practitioners, but also among decision makers.
Although this concept has been known for more than three decades, many are still not familiar with the details of this concept. This is especially true for its proper use.
Competence is still defined as skills, ability to work, capabilities and knowledge. In fact, the term was used imprecisely. While it does not matter much when used casually to refer to physical or mental ability, it does matter when used in job analysis to describe job requirements and performance standards. Competence requires more than skills and knowledge. It requires the right and proper attitude, which eventually turns into a style of work.
Competence is a set of skills, knowledge and attitude, manifested in the style of work of an employee. This is the means to get the job done. For example, a golfer may have the skill to lead 300 yards, the knowledge of why a golf ball stops or moves slowly, but is incompetent if he is not practiced, or if he is easily influenced by his opponent's best shots. A computer service provider may be very knowledgeable and experienced at repairing computers, but if they don't arrive at the customer's place at the scheduled time, they are similarly incompetent.
For managers, competencies are essential if they want to improve the performance of their employees. Competencies should be identified or learned during the selection, admission or already in the workplace phases. It should always be remembered that the competencies required for each position differ from each other. In job analysis and writing job descriptions quick guides can make the task easier. When determining suitable competencies, the following factors should be considered:
- The level of decision-making, responsibility and authority.
- The level of interaction of internal personnel.
- Level of contact and interaction with customers.
- The level of physical and potential skills and knowledge.
Many studies have been carried out on the topic of job competencies for administrative and supervisory positions, and they have been categorized into the following categories:
- Administrative competencies;
- Communication competencies;
- Supervisory competencies, and
- Cognitive competencies.
These competencies proved to be the most important for effective management and control.
For ordinary employees, the level of physical and potential competencies forms a significant part of their consideration. This is due to the lack or absence of decision-making tasks that require significant physical and human resources of the company. Often their work includes certain procedures, clerical and manual. Common to all positions in the ordinary category are competencies that improve interpersonal relationships, physical skills and professional knowledge.
As a person rises up the ladder of organizational positions, his area of responsibility expands, his authority increases, and managing people becomes more difficult. Therefore, competencies must change, or their combination must change, in order to adapt to the requirements of the position. For example, if an accountant or bookkeeper is promoted to a senior manager position, their competencies need to be improved. In addition to maintaining their technical numeracy skills and accounting, he will need to be able to train, mentor, plan work, monitor, evaluate staff and conduct team building. The same is true for a chief financial officer who is promoted to a position. CEO whose competencies will require more risk-weighting and decision-making, setting goals and standards, planning directions, managing an organization, and inspiring employees to perform well than competencies in controlling, managing resources, and solving specific problems. In detail, these competencies could be:
Administrative competencies that provide for the management of work, namely, including:
- Time management and prioritization.
- Setting goals and standards.
- Planning and scheduling work.
Communication competencies, including:
- Listening and organization.
- Transparency of communication.
- Obtaining objective information.
Supervisory or team-building competencies covering:
- Training, mentoring and empowerment.
- Evaluation of employees and their performance.
- Counseling and discipline.
Cognitive competencies that include:
- Identification and solution of problems.
- Risk assessment and decision making.
- Accurate analytical thinking.
1. Time management and prioritization
Spanning all job levels, time management is a must-have competency that everyone should have. It is the ability to manage your time and the time of others. It involves self-discipline, interruption management by shaping the work style of others with different priorities, and efficient and productive use of time.
2. Setting goals and standards
Setting goals and standards is a competency required for administrative and supervisory positions. It is the ability to define actions and projects against measurable goals and standards, and set them together with others in order to achieve clear understanding and interest.
3. Planning and scheduling work
This competence, as well as time management, should be possessed by administrative and supervisory employees and those involved in production. It provides for the control of appointments of personnel and processes using basic management tools and methods. These skills include: analyzing complex tasks and dividing them into manageable elements, selecting and managing resources appropriate for the tasks, using systems and methods to plan and schedule work, and setting milestones and controls to monitor the project.
4. Listening and organizing
Listening and organizing are communication competencies relating to relationships with people in an organization. It is the ability to understand, organize and analyze what a person hears in order to decide what to think and what to do in response to a message. These competencies are required for employees who deal with customers and those who work in a group as a leader or member. In particular, this includes skills such as identifying and testing inferences and assumptions, overcoming barriers to effective listening, summarizing and reorganizing messages for callbacks, and suspending decisions that could affect responses to messages.
5. Transparency of communication
Providing accurate information is a competency required for administrative and supervisory staff. Messages delivered orally or in writing to an audience ( internal staff or customers) must be precise and concise, and must meet the objectives. Skills include: a) overcoming physical, psychological and semantic barriers in interaction with other people; b) goal focus and deviation avoidance; c) effective use of persuasion; and d) maintaining an atmosphere of mutual benefit and trust.
6. Obtaining objective information
For positions that involve significant people management, obtaining objective information is a very important competency to ensure objectivity. It is the ability to use questions, research and survey methods to obtain objective information and interpret it properly. These skills include: effective use of directed, non-directed, projective and mirror questions, use of the funnel method in research, use of research methods to extract additional information, recognition of hidden and implied meanings, confirmation of understanding and reaching an agreement.
7. Training, mentoring and empowerment
These competencies are mandatory for managers and bosses. It is the ability to develop people to achieve higher levels of excellence. Skills may include training, consulting, transferring knowledge and skills, and educating and emphasizing employees on what tasks can be entrusted to them.
8. Evaluation of employees and their performance
The ability to perform structural appraisal of employees, which involves joint assessment of past performance, alignment of future expectations, are administrative and supervisory competencies. Skills include the ability to develop assessment parameters, benchmarking and confronting assessed employees without any hesitation.
9. Counseling and discipline
Ability to advise and advise, as well as to discipline in a positive way- these are competencies that are mandatory for managerial and supervisory positions that manage a large number of employees. This includes restoring within an acceptable range of employee performance standards while maintaining respect and trust. This includes the ability to confidently and decisively impose penalties and sanctions when appropriate.
10. Identifying and Solving Problems
Identification of problems and the search for their solutions covers organizational functions and positions. It is the ability to detect barriers to achieving goals and standards. This includes applying systematic sets of procedures to eliminate and reduce the causes and origins of problems. It requires skills such as distinguishing between problems, symptoms and indicators, inputs and outcomes, collecting and evaluating data related to causes, building a decision matrix and making final choices and recommending the best options. This competency should be mandatory for evaluation positions at the administrative, supervisory or technical levels of positions.
11. Risk assessment and decision making
Risk assessment and decision making are competencies required for senior management positions where decision making may involve the use of company resources and processes that may have corporate-wide implications. Like problem identification and problem solving competencies, risk assessment and decision making involves the ability to build a decision matrix to help identify and evaluate alternatives and options, identify limits, desired outcomes and risks to be considered, assign a weight to each option, and choose the best option to achieve desired goals. and standards.
12. Accurate analytical thinking
The ability to apply accurate logical thinking is a competency required for supervisory and managerial positions. Competence includes skills such as identifying valid premises, drawing logical conclusions from them, separating facts from rumors, unfounded assumptions and false conclusions, applying inductive and deductive logic appropriately, rejecting logical errors, erroneous premises and conclusions based on insufficient information.
By applying the basic process of defining competencies during job analysis, writing qualification requirements and the development of performance measurement tools, postponing positions can be guided by the 12 core competencies previously mentioned. When choosing which competencies and their combinations to pursue, the most important competencies should be placed ahead of all others. The required degree and level of competencies vary depending on the area of responsibility, authority, involvement of people and decision-making authority. Representing them as a matrix can provide a visual indicator that can make tasks easier and more convenient.
An example of competency definitions from the JAQ (Dr V. Dulewicz (1998). This list of competencies is part of the Job Analysis Questionnaire developed by the ASE division. The list is reproduced with permission from the publisher, NFER-Nelson, Darville House, 2 Oxford Road East, Windsor, Berkshire S14 IDF, UK)
intellectual
1. Collection of information
Systematically collects all kinds of information that is necessary to carry out job tasks. Able to extract useful information from the experience of other employees.
2. Problem analysis
Defines the problem and decomposes it into its component parts. Links together and evaluates information from various sources. Identifies the causes of the problem.
3. Numerical interpretation
Receives accurate numerical and statistical information, interprets it meaningfully and correctly.
4. Judgment
Makes reasonable, informed decisions and makes suggestions top management substantiated by objective premises and factual information.
5. Critical analysis
Checks the revealed facts and received assumptions. Quickly identifies shortcomings in employee proposals and failures in the implementation of plans. Establishes the reasons for which failures occur.
6. Creativity
Invents original ideas, develops innovative proposals - such that less insightful and inventive colleagues do not come to mind.
7. Planning
Sets priorities and anticipates changes in work that may be required to meet future business requirements. Determines in a timely manner the resources (including staff) needed to achieve long-term goals.
8. Perspective
Able to intellectually rise above current problems and situations. Able to deal with general organizational issues. Takes into account the far-reaching consequences. Facts and problems are considered in a broad context due to the vision of all possible connections between events.
9. Knowledge of the organization
He is well aware of the situation in the organization. Able to identify problems, dangers and new opportunities. He understands the effect and consequences of his decisions in other parts of the organization.
10. Situational awareness
Aware of events and changes taking place outside the organization. Able to identify potential strengths and weak sides of your organization. Recognizes threats and opens up new business opportunities. Considers impact external factors on their decisions and understands the consequences that are caused by this influence.
11. Learning orientation
Actively detects insufficiency of own vocational training, critically evaluates personal capabilities. Constantly replenishes, effectively introduces new knowledge into the work.
12. Technical expertise
Constantly improves and updates its special knowledge and skills. Committed to reaching the expert level. Effectively uses all his professional arsenal in his work.
Personal
13. Adaptability
Once in a new situation or cultural environment, quickly adapts behavior to new requirements and remains effective.
14. Independence
Behavior is determined by one's own judgments, opinions and beliefs. Not inclined to rely too much on the views of others.
15. Decency
Honest, honest, inspires confidence. Shares accepted in the organization ethical standards. Does not change its principles.
16. Stress resistance
When faced with difficult tasks or under pressure, he remains efficient, calm, and does not get irritated or panicked.
17. Equanimity
Does not reduce work efficiency and in anticipation of trouble. Does not respond to insults and unfair remarks with negative behavior. Disappointment is calm.
18. Attention to detail
Accurately, accurately and without "abbreviations" works with detailed factual information. Methodical and strives not to miss a single detail.
19. Organization
Effectively manages time and other resources. Accurately works with documents. Handles high quality documentation. Uses modern methods of storing and reproducing information.
20. Focus on change
Constantly seeks to change the nature of work and, where possible, environment. Tries to anticipate events. Helps to introduce new structures, methods and procedures into the activity.
Communicative
21. Reading
The quality of the use of written information shows that the information was well learned and securely fixed in memory.
22. Written communication
Written documents are easy to understand. He formulates his thoughts and ideas clearly and concisely.
23. Listening
He listens dispassionately, is not selective in relation to what he hears. It gives the impression that I remember and take into account all the key points.
24. Oral speech
Speaks fluently, loudly, clearly and distinctly. Has good diction.
25. Oral presentation
In formal presentations, be concise and specific. Does not use jargon without explanation. Adapts the content of the speech so that it is understandable to a specific audience. Performs lively and with enthusiasm.
interpersonal
26. Influence
At the first meeting makes a strong positive impression. Enjoys authority and trust. Quickly achieves mutual understanding with colleagues and clients.
27. The ability to convince
Influences others and convinces them to agree to a decision and action that they initially objected to.
28. Sensitivity
Aware of the needs and moods of staff, colleagues and customers. Acts in accordance with them.
29. Flexibility
Demonstrates flexibility, but without excessive compliance. Takes into account the views of colleagues, partners and customers, if necessary, reconsiders his position.
30. Power
He knows how to stand his ground. Takes responsibility for the situation and inspires respect.
31. Negotiating
During the negotiation process, he correctly expresses his proposals. Finds a basis for compromise and reaches agreement through his power and influence.
Leadership
32. Organization
Distributes tasks between subordinates in order to achieve timely and high-quality completion of current tasks. Effectively coordinates the work of subordinates. Perfectly organizes work and rationally uses all resources.
33. Empowerment
Makes a clear distinction between what can be done by others and what should be done by yourself. Delegates specific tasks to subordinates and burdens them with responsibilities corresponding to the powers granted.
34. Grade
Operatively monitors and evaluates the results of the work of subordinates. Gives advice or establishes ongoing feedback as needed.
35. Motivate others
Inspires staff to achieve goals, specifically highlighting those tasks that cannot be solved without enthusiasm and dedication.
36. Development of others
Makes every effort to develop employees both directly at work and away from it. Contributes to the formation of subordinate colleagues knowledge, skills and competencies necessary for career growth.
37. Guide
Gives clear instructions and personally leads the work when needed. Increases the productivity of teamwork by involving subordinates in it. Chooses a leadership style that helps achieve team goals.
Result orientation
38. Risk taking
Makes decisions that involve significant risk, if such decisions promise significant success or a significant advantage in the competitive environment. Open to new experience, not afraid of unexplored situations, not looking for calm, familiar and beaten paths in business.
39. Decisiveness
40. Business flair
Finds actions that increase sales and profits for the organization. Focuses on those activities that are sure to bring the most return.
41. Energy
Differs in liveliness and energy. Manages to do a lot. It works rhythmically and quickly, leaving no mountains of unfinished tasks.
42. Caring for perfect quality
Sets achievable goals and expects high standards and good quality work - personal and subordinate. Constantly improves performance standards and does not tolerate poor performance and mediocre results.
43. Perseverance
Demonstrates an unwavering commitment to achieving goals. Resolutely eliminates setbacks and obstacles.
44. Initiative
He initiates actions and tries to fruitfully influence events with his own positive efforts. Constantly looking for and always ready to take on new responsibilities or additional work.
45. Customer Focus
Tries to thoroughly understand the meaning and content of the client's requirements. Takes proactive actions, anticipates the client's desire to improve the services performed. Constantly develops, deepens and enriches the relationship with the client.
Additional competencies (from other sources and lists)
Able to identify sources of necessary and objective information, analyze them systematically, draw logical conclusions, and then make decisions taking into account time frames and business priorities.
47. Strategic thinking
48. Team Orientation
49. Commitment to the course
50. Mixed reference
A combination of focusing on the opinions of clients and colleagues and the ability to defend one's own point of view
Additional Information
Codling, S. (1995), Best Practice Benchmarking, Aldershot: Gower.
Hay Group (1996), People and Competencies: The Route to Competitive Advantage, London: Kogan page.
Industrial Society (1996), Managing Best Practice Series: Management Competencies, London: Industrial Society.
Pearn, M. and Kandola. R. (1995), Job Analysis: A Manager's Guide, London: Institute of Personnel and Development.
What is a corporate competency model? This problem is faced by personnel officers, consultants who are trying to understand the meaning of competencies, to use them for their intended purpose.
Basic terms
First, let's define the term. Corporate competencies are a volume of professional skills and knowledge, personal attitudes and characteristics that are manifested in the behavior of employees, require the performance of certain job responsibilities.
The competency model is a set of specific competencies that employees need to achieve the goals set by the company's management. Only if employees have certain skills can one count on the successful development of the enterprise.
Corporate competencies imply a system of skills and abilities that an employee possesses in order to be successfully implemented in the professional field.
Components of competence
Currently, it is customary to include several indicators that are their constituent parts. Corporate competencies involve certain skills and abilities. For example, the competence effective communication» is characterized by:
- the ability to listen, speak;
- transmit information in a structured way, build arguments;
- find out the position, check it;
- use additional resources to help ensure understanding.
These indicators allow you to give a description of the person who will perform the duties. When ordering a ready-made model from a provider, you need to clearly understand what exactly the business and the company need within certain competencies.
Behavioral indicator
The assessment of corporate competencies is associated with the manifestation of indicators in the behavior of employees. It can be both negative and positive, have a serious impact on the efficiency of the enterprise.
For example, for the indicator “clarifies the position, checks understanding”, the following characteristics can be used to describe the behavioral principle: monosyllabic answers to questions, listening to the interlocutor. Indicators of the behavioral plan are written in accessible words that are understandable to ordinary people. Each indicator should have a clear and precise wording. In any report on the results of the assessment of professional competencies, there should be information not only about “what to do”, but also “how to do it”. In the absence of detail in the report, it is difficult to get a complete picture, to establish cause-and-effect relationships.
Varieties of competencies
Currently, there are various corporate competencies. For example, managerial competencies are managerial competencies that every head of a company should possess. For example, "decision making", as well as "execution management". Technical or functional competencies are those that are necessary for activities in a particular unit.
Accounting scale
The corporate competency model has a certain rating scale. It consists of the name of the level. Depending on the imagination of the compiler, they can be called differently: “beginner”, “advanced”, “intermediate”.
The description of the level should be consistent, showing an increase in development. If the company has chosen a layerless model, then the description is limited to the terms “does” or “does not”. An appraisal system can be considered as an application to the scale. Each level of competence development receives a certain number of points. For example, when representing levels as numerical expressions, one point is selected for each level.
Purpose of competency models
The development of corporate competencies is aimed at establishing certain standards for employees. First of all, we are talking about the level of knowledge, skills, personal qualities that can become both an incentive for development and a brake on the company. The competency model can be considered an analogue, which includes a range of requirements in a transparent and open format. The model may change depending on the goals of the company, as well as on the conditions that exist in the market.
Definition principles
The development of corporate competencies allows the company to occupy a certain niche in its field of activity, to receive a stable profit from its activities. Competences are determined taking into account the specifics of the organization's activities. They allow you to identify business qualities and professional skills that employees must have in order to realize the ideas of the company. Five to seven different behavioral skills are considered optimal.
Corporate competencies of employees - customer focus, leadership, the ability to make responsible decisions, loyalty in the organization, the ability to work in a team. Only with the possession of certain skills and abilities can an employee benefit his organization.
It is this kind of competence corporate governance is an integral part of the work of absolutely any company.
Among behavioral indicators, focus on results is of particular importance. When setting ambitious goals, achieving the planned results is possible only if the employees have professional competencies. A corporate result can be achieved with the energy, perseverance of each employee, the desire to achieve the planned result.
The subordination of one's actions to the work for the planned result, purposeful activity, self-correction and control of actions - all this can be called real professional competencies.
A qualified employee is able to overcome difficulties that hinder the achievement of results. He knows how to evaluate his own effectiveness by the result achieved, and not by the amount of effort expended.
Features of obtaining competencies
The corporate competencies of an organization involve training on three components: knowledge, skills and abilities.
Knowledge is information about a profession. They are determined by surveys and tests, you can check them in exams.
Skills are conscious things that a person can do at the level of awareness.
Skills are indisputable skills used by a person on an intuitive, semi-automatic level. A person who has certain skills is able to think through the “game” several moves ahead, therefore he is an important employee for the company. He will not make serious mistakes that will lead to a loss of profit for the company.
Varieties of competencies
Modern systems of corporate competencies are a combination of various skills and abilities. If a person is spoken of as a real professional, they mean that he owns a unique system of competencies that turn him into a real master in his field of action. Competence determines a person's ability not only to analyze his skills and abilities, but also to manage his professional growth, set himself new creative tasks, and look for ways to solve them.
A true professional knows how to behave in crisis situation, he "realizes" his abilities, corporate competencies. Examples of such skills: personal, managerial, professional, general corporate.
The formation of a competency model is developed by analysts taking into account the specifics of the company's activities. This process is called the formation of a model of professional competencies. In order for the company to work effectively, an individual system of competencies is compiled for it, containing complete information about the qualities that a candidate for a certain position should have. This process is called job profiling.
In addition, personnel assessment is carried out according to the adopted profiles. Tests, various surveys are created, practical cases are developed, thanks to which the skills and knowledge of employees are assessed, real indicators are compared with the criteria that were originally presented for each position.
Conducting an assessment of the levels of competence formation
There are several different ways to conduct such an assessment. There are alphabetic and digital models. The most common option is the assessment of competencies according to the following indicators:
- "0" implies a complete lack of manifestation of competence at the time of assessment;
- "1" indicates insufficient skill, weak skills;
- "2" implies the presence of skills formed at a minimum level;
- "3" implies the manifestation of skills at a high level, understanding and motivation in activities.
Depending on the position of the manager, a set of certain corporate competencies is developed, while professional competencies are reduced. This does not mean at all that the leader will be inferior in professionalism to his subordinates, but Special attention is given to leadership, the ability to unite people into one team. The manager must understand the specifics of the area in which he works in order to make the right and timely decisions.
Examples of competencies
Let us analyze, for example, corporate and professional competence. For example, such a quality as initiative is a manifestation of corporate competence. Many firms dream of their employees being proactive. But to what extent is this allowed?
One point indicates a weak manifestation of this competence. The employee is aware of the importance of his initiatives, but he himself only sometimes comes up with certain proposals within the framework of his own duties.
The initiatives that are offered to them are related to the specifics of its professional activity. He can implement innovative methods of work that are proposed by his leader.
A score of two for initiative is considered a strong competency. In this situation, the employee comes up with new methods, schemes, methods of work, thanks to which you can count on a significant increase in performance.
Such an employee enriches, refines, develops those methods and approaches that are already used in production, looking for the possibility of adapting them to a particular company. Such an employee is able to take the initiative, he brings to the company interesting ideas. Otherwise, those ideas that are proposed by the leader will not be developed, the company will not be able to make a profit.
From professional competence, one can cite “playing chess” as an example. Employees of the company must be excellent "chess players" in order to show their creative and personal qualities. With weak competence, which can be represented as one point, the employee understands the rules of the game, takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of "rivals", analyzes the actions of colleagues at work. Such an employee does not have sufficient experience to evenly distribute his skills and abilities in order to obtain the optimal result.
For two points in this competence, the employee's awareness of the subtleties, understanding the importance of innovation for production is assumed. If it is critical for a chess player to have professional competence in order to defeat the opponent, then it is important for a valuable employee to have corporate competencies.
Conclusion
The total requirements that apply to the professional and corporate competencies of employees who move along career ladder up should have maximum values. When the leader private company they ask what skills the employee he plans to hire should have, he first of all highlights not diligence, but initiative, as well as the ability for self-development.
Of the core managerial competencies that are required in modern business, highlight the ability to plan their own activities, as well as coordinate the work of colleagues and subordinates. Only if a potential employee has the ability to set goals and objectives, choosing a way to achieve them, can we talk about the formation of corporate competence. The employee must not only see the situation, but also be able to solve the problem, find a way out.
A professional is a person who demonstrates in his work the skills and abilities associated with his competence, can easily answer any question. For example, a purchasing manager must have information about all types of materials and their types, their main technical specifications, purchasing cost, manufacturers.
1. Competences related to the person himself as a person, subject of activity, communication:
health-saving competencies (knowledge and observance healthy lifestyle life, etc.);
competencies of value-semantic orientation in the world (values of being, culture, etc.);
integration competencies (structuring knowledge, its increment);
competences of citizenship (knowledge and observance of the rights and obligations of a citizen, etc.);
competencies of self-improvement, self-regulation, self-development, reflection ( meaning of life, professional development, language and speech development).
2. Competences related to the social interaction of a person and the social sphere:
competencies social interaction(with the object, family, friends, partners, etc.);
competencies in communication (oral, written, generation and perception of text, knowledge and observance of etiquette, traditions, etc.)
3. Competences related to human activities:
competencies of cognitive activity (setting and solving cognitive problems, intellectual activity, etc.);
competencies of activity (game, teaching, work, research activities etc.);
competencies of information technologies (receiving, processing, issuing information, etc.) (Zimnyaya I.A., 2004. p. 22-24).
The ten competencies identified within these three groups are defined by Zimnyaya as key ones.
Here is another classification of key competencies proposed by Khutorsky. The author notes that the list of key competencies given below “is based on the main goals of general education, the structural representation of social experience and the experience of the individual, as well as the main activities of the student, allowing him to master social experience to acquire life skills and practical activities in modern society” (Khutorskoy A.V., 2006, p. 67-69).
A.V. Khutorskoy identifies the following key competencies:
Value-semantic competencies . These are competencies associated with the student's value orientations, his ability to see and understand the world around him, navigate in it, realize his role and purpose, be able to choose target and semantic settings for his actions and deeds, and make decisions. These competencies provide a mechanism for student self-determination in situations of educational and other activities.
General cultural competencies . Knowledge and experience of activities in the field of national and universal culture; spiritual and moral foundations of human and human life, cultural foundations of family, social and social phenomena and traditions; the role of science and religion in human life; competencies in the household, cultural and leisure sphere. This also includes the experience of mastering the picture of the world by the student.
Educational and cognitive competencies . This is a set of student competencies in the field of independent cognitive activity, including elements of logical, methodological, general educational activities. This includes ways to organize goal setting, planning, analysis, reflection, self-assessment. In relation to the objects being studied, the student masters creative skills: obtaining knowledge directly from the surrounding reality. Within the framework of these competencies, the requirements of functional literacy are determined: the ability to distinguish facts from conjectures, possession of measurement skills.
Information competencies . Skills of activity in relation to information in academic subjects and educational areas, as well as in the surrounding world. Possession of modern media (TV, tape recorder, telephone, fax, computer, etc.) and information technology(audio, video, Email, media, internet). Search, analysis, selection necessary information, its transformation, preservation and transmission.
Communication competencies . Knowledge of languages, ways of interacting with others; skills of working in a group, team, possession of various social roles.
Social and labor competencies . Acting as a citizen, observer, voter, representative, consumer, buyer, client, producer, family member. Rights and obligations in matters of economics and law, in the field of professional self-determination. These competencies include, for example, the ability to analyze the situation on the labor market, act in accordance with personal and social benefits, and master the ethics of labor and civil relations.
Competencies of personal self-improvement aimed at mastering the ways of physical, spiritual and intellectual self-development, emotional self-regulation and self-support. The student masters the methods of activity in his own interests and capabilities, which is expressed in his continuous self-knowledge, the development of personal qualities necessary for a modern person, the formation of psychological literacy, a culture of thinking and behavior. These competencies include the rules of personal hygiene, taking care of one's own health, internal ecological culture, ways of safe life.
It is easy to see that the above lists of key competencies have a lot in common, although scientific studies rightly point out that all these issues still raise many questions and should be the subject of further research.
The need for at least a brief review of the competency-based approach here is explained by its innovative nature and importance for modern education, in particular for teaching at the senior level of a complete secondary school, because the identified key competencies that a school graduate should largely own have largely led to an increase in the requirements for modern education. secondary education in general and modern language education in particular.
At a new stage in the development of society, a personality-oriented approach acts as general strategy of education and upbringing, in accordance with which all other characteristics of the modern educational process are built: its active character, for a person exists and develops only in activity, his cultural conformity. cultural centrism because education is understood as human entry into culture like growing spiritual man, man of culture: communicative-cognitive approach, because cognitive and communicative activities are the main ways leading to education and upbringing.
A student-centered approach affects all components of the education system (teaching goals for each subject, its content, teaching methods and techniques / technologies) and the entire educational process as a whole (interaction between a teacher and a student, students with each other, a student with means education, etc.), contributing to the creation of a student-friendly learning and upbringing environment.
Schoolchildren's awareness of the demand for a foreign language in the modern world, its role in the labor market contributes to an increase in motivation to study it.
Modern integration processes in the world and the development of international cooperation make the knowledge of foreign languages personally significant. Therefore, training foreign languages is considered as one of the priority areas for the modernization of education in our country.
What does the change in the paradigm of education and upbringing bring to the setting of goals for teaching foreign languages? It should be noted that they have received a significant rethinking in accordance with the new socio-political, economic and cultural realities, including through the development of scientific knowledge.
As a modern goal of teaching foreign languages, it is considered, as noted, the formation of foreign language communicative competence, that is, the ability and real readiness to carry out foreign language communication with native speakers, as well as familiarization of schoolchildren with the culture of the country / countries of the language being studied, a better understanding of the culture of their own country, the ability to represent it in the process of communication.
Let us consider the concept of “communicative competence” in more detail.
We are talking about the communicative orientation of teaching foreign languages, the focus of training on verbal interaction with native speakers and mutual understanding / communication, that is, specifically on foreign language communication.
The concept of "competence" (from Latin competentis - capable) focuses on the formation of the ability to carry out communication activities, as well as the readiness to actually carry it out and to obtain the practical result of this activity.
Mastering communicative competence even at the elementary level allows schoolchildren to realize in the process of communication all the main functions of communication: a) informational (message and request for information); b) regulatory (expression of a request, advice, prohibition, etc.); c) value-orientation / emotional-evaluative (expression of opinion, attitude, feelings, etc.); d) conventional (compliance with speech etiquette).
Communicative competence as a methodological concept (the desired goal of learning) includes: language competence (knowledge/proficiency in language means); speech competence (ability to carry out speech activity); sociocultural competence (possession of background knowledge, subjects of speech); compensatory competence (the ability to get out of a situation in the presence of a lack of language resources) and educational and cognitive competence (the ability to learn).
Therefore, communicative competence is a multicomponent concept, and a foreign language as an academic subject can be called not only “multifactorial” (I.A. Zimnyaya), but also multipurpose.
Let's represent the foreign language communicative competence (ICC) in the form of a scheme 8
The student-centered approach implies a special emphasis on the socio-cultural component of foreign language communicative competence. This should ensure the cultural orientation of education, the inclusion of schoolchildren in the dialogue of cultures. All this increases the requirements for the level of learning in a foreign language.
In accordance with the school modernization documents, students are projected to achieve functional literacy in foreign language proficiency, that is, real working knowledge of it, which really provides our graduates with the opportunity of verbal interaction with native speakers of a foreign language both for personal purposes and for international cooperation. It means how minimum achievement of the so-called threshold level in foreign language proficiency adopted by the Council of Europe.
However, taking into account the unequal opportunities and abilities of schoolchildren, their various plans for the future and, accordingly, different professional aspirations, the federal component of the state educational standard allows different levels of learning in foreign languages: general education basic and somewhat advanced / in-depth profile, aimed at developing the professional aspirations of high school students by means of a foreign language, focused on the chosen profession and on continuing education at the university.
Thus, a student-centered approach implies flexibility in setting goals, takes into account the personal interests of schoolchildren, their individual characteristics, and thus creates the prerequisites for greater learning effectiveness.
Based on correlation of goals and learning outcomes, one more feature of the student-centered approach to goal setting should be emphasized: at the output of the learning system, there should be real speech products as indicators of increments in foreign language knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as increments in the spiritual sphere of schoolchildren. These are speech works in oral and written form, which are subject to measurement and evaluation. The ability of speech activity to be included in other types of activity - labor, cognitive, aesthetic - allows you to get integrated products in the form of regional albums, collages, dramatizations, etc., which especially clearly demonstrate increments both in the knowledge, skills and abilities of schoolchildren, and in their spiritual sphere in terms of education and development.
In more detail, the goals of teaching foreign languages are given in Part III of the book separately for each level of education - primary (grades 2-4), basic (grades 5-9) and high school (grades 10-11) - in in accordance with the requirements of the state educational standard for foreign languages (New State Standards ..., 2004).
As for the key competencies, there is reason to consider them as supra-subject / meta-subject, interdisciplinary (Zimnyaya I.A., 2004, p. 28; Khutorskoy A.V., 2006, p. 70). This means that they are subject to formation within the framework of all subjects, because they “ensure the normal life of a person in society” (Zimnyaya I.A., 2004, p. 26). This is what the competence-based approach to modern education. So, for example, it is quite obvious that by means of a foreign language as an academic subject, schoolchildren can be introduced to the observance of the norms of a healthy lifestyle (health saving competencies), to the values of culture, art, scientific and technological progress (competence of value-semantic orientation in the world), to awareness and observance of the rights and obligations of a citizen, to feel self-confidence and pride in the contribution of their country to the development of culture, civilization (competence of citizenship), etc. (see the above key competencies in the list of I.A. Zimney and A.V. Khutorsky).
Thus, the traditionally distinguished general educational, educational and developmental goals of teaching foreign languages received present stage significant refinement and refinement.
Their implementation should be ensured by the appropriate content of education (in particular, topics, subjects of speech), as well as the inclusion of schoolchildren in the dialogue of cultures.
What is the modern approach to highlighting the content of teaching foreign languages?
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