Competencies are the skills, behaviors and performance standards that turn the “what” of an expectation into the “how.” Business owners can use core organizational competencies to define the business culture, support strategic goals and make hiring decisions. All these uses ensure the business and its employees meet their goals.
The objectives of competency mapping are to help a business become more efficient, effective and competitive. It starts with a set of high-level core competency standards such as innovation, creativity, technical expertise, quality and a customer-oriented focus, all of which reflect strategic business goals. Through the process of competency mapping these goals become employee performance benchmarks. Managers use these benchmarks to identify training needs that ultimately increase the productivity and performance of employees and the efficiency, effectiveness and competitive nature of the business as a whole.
After identifying core competencies, management often includes individual employees or employee focus groups in the creation of new, competency-based job descriptions. The use of interviews, questionnaires, existing job descriptions and performance appraisal forms are commonly used as work groups identify the skillset, knowledge level and attitude necessary to meet core competencies within each role. Once complete, mapping involves a thorough analysis during which a manager and employee work together to identify weaknesses and strengths and chart a course for further action.
Competency mapping establishes a level of objectivity that encourages open communication between management and employees. Managers are able to more objectively appraise performance and be more specific in communicating to employees what is necessary for success. Employees gain a clearer understanding of the expectations of their role. Following up with competency-based training not only provides ways for employees to expand their current skills, but it also provides a well-defined path for learning new skills through cross-training and for moving up in the organization.
Mapping core competencies to the skills potential employees already possess is another way that competency mapping can help a business. Including core and job-specific competencies in job opportunity announcements provides an objective basis for evaluating applications and weeding out unqualified candidates. Competency mapping can also shorten how long it takes to hire and reduce training requirements by allowing hiring personnel to bring in only those candidates who already possess or are well on their way to possessing core competency requirements.
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