About the tool for assessing competencies
You can write a lot and for a long time. I will try to limit myself to a minimum of text and show more pictures that illustrate the content of the case for developing a competency assessment system for one of our customers.
About the competency matrix or model
The main task of assessing corporate and positional competencies is to compare the results of assessing employees with the benchmark assessments of competencies established for individual job groups in the competency matrix.
The competency matrix is a table with the names of competencies and benchmark assessments of the level of their development for certain job groups. There are four of them in our case – managers of two management levels, qualified specialists, and performers.
How the competency model is developed
“Benchmarks” are created by a group of experts within the company – they develop lists of competencies, indicators for their assessment, and also determine what level of development of each competence is required for the “ideal employee” from each of the job groups. The resulting competency matrix later becomes a part of the evaluation results processing algorithm and allows comparing a “live” employee with a “standard”.
Several very important points must be taken into account when implementing a competency assessment project:
- There are no ideal employees, so, normally, no one will score the maximum number of points in all indicators and competencies.
- It is not necessary to expect employees to meet the ideal in all competencies, since the need, and even more so, the opportunity to show that they have a certain competence directly depends on what position the employee holds.
- It is necessary to imagine what levels of development of competencies for a particular position are required, which are desirable, which are quite acceptable, and which do not affect work efficiency at all.
As for professional competencies, they are divided into three groups according to the degree of their importance for their positions, and reference marks are set for each position at the stage of indicators for their assessment.
About competencies, competency indicators and assessment scales
Competencies themselves cannot be assessed. Any competence is an abstract concept, and it is possible to agree on a common understanding of the meaning of which only by describing the desired patterns of behavior.
All competencies are assessed by assessing the severity of a particular behavior characteristic of the employee. The typical behavior of the described behavior is assessed using indicators – phrases describing behavior, by which one can judge the level of development of an employee of the corresponding competence.
The frequency of demonstration of behavior that is an indicator of the assessed competence is used as a criterion for assessment. Behavior indicators used for assessment should contain a description of the observed behavior – actions and deeds.
Indicators should not include abstract concepts, ambiguous words, or characteristics that are not measurable by observation (understands, understands, etc.). A well-chosen indicator should allow reference to examples from real work situations that reliably confirm that the described behavior is characteristic of the assessed one.
The scale used in this example for assessing indicators of corporate and positional competencies contains 5 options for assessing:
- Acts in most cases exactly as described.
- Often behaves this way, but not always.
- Quite often does not behave as described.
- Most often does not behave as described.
- Does not manifest itself in such a way that one can judge which behavior is more typical.
If it is impossible to assess an employee by a behavioral indicator, this indicator is not involved in obtaining the final grade. Please note – the scale described above is not five-point. This is done on purpose so that the assessor cannot predict the final result of his answers.
What the competency assessment form looks like
As it is convenient for the user. Options range from a sheet of paper with a spreadsheet or a secure letterhead in MS Excel format to a web interface where each indicator is displayed separately along with choice buttons.
The task for assessors is very simple – to assess the frequency of occurrence of the behavior described in the competency indicator. You don’t need to put any points, just put a cross or 1 in the required field, or press the required button if you are using the web interface.
The names of the competencies are highlighted in white on a black background on the form, the final grades for which are automatically calculated after filling out the form.
The assessment form contains three blocks of competencies, which look like this:
- Block for assessing corporate competencies.
- Assessment unit for managerial competencies or specialist competencies (for specialists).
- Block for assessing professional competencies.
What the conclusion looks like based on the results of the assessment of competencies
These estimates are processed using a special algorithm and then presented as a text conclusion. The textual conclusion on the level of competence development looks like the phrase “The assessment of competence is fully consistent with that established for this position”, “above”, “below”, “significantly higher”, “significantly below”.
A conclusion on the level of development of professional competencies is based on the same logic. The final form with conclusions about the level of development of competencies by groups and individual competencies may look like the following.
It looks clear – in the project from which the example is taken, this data format was preferred by the management and HR department of the customer company. Although I prefer the textual output of the results – no points. It allows you to avoid the stereotypical interpretation of assessment results on the “school” scale – “excellent”, “good”, “satisfactory”, “bad”.
Even though the data processing algorithm operates with points, the scale used is not five-point. If necessary, tabular values and brief conclusions in the conclusion based on the results of the assessment can be supplemented with detailed text comments and recommendations.
