Competency-Based Talent Development

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello everybody and welcome to today’s webinar Competency-Based Talent Development. My name is Luciano Gregoretti.  I am a Consultant here at TalentFirst, and I will be conducting today’s session.  The webinar will last for around 30 minutes. Due to some technical issues today we won’t be able to have a q&a session. I apologize for that and I invite you to write your questions directly to my email and I answer to you within a couple of days.
• #3: Before we begin with todays session, I’d like to remind you that this webinar is part of a webinar series called 7 steps to Building Top-Performing Organizations Using Competency Models. The goal of this program is to share part of our experience and best practices on creating integrated talent management processes that are based on competency models. The reasons why we decided to conduct this webinar series come both from a problem and an opportunity. The problem is that all too often companies spend a lot of time and money developing competency models but then they don’t use them to their fullest potential. On the other hand the opportunity comes from the greater results that companies can achieve when their talent management systems are aligned and integrated. In the previous webinar that you can watch or rewatch on TF youtube page, we provided with practical guidelines to create competency models that not only are scientificallyvalid, and also actionable and easy to apply. Today I am going to share with you processes, best pratices and examples to use CM in talent development.
• #4: But first of all let’s begin by asking Why do companies invest in development? We do development to help our people performing more effectively in their jobs. On an individual perspective, development allows people to accelerate their learning process and acquire skills necessary to achieve results. If you watched our last webinar, we defined competencies as skills knowledge and abilities applied for specific outcomes. So competency models, off course if designed with a valid method, identify behaviors that are linked to top performance. By developing against those competencies, people will automatically achieve better results. And this is also a big motivational driver. But for profit organizations exist…to make profits. So any business process should somehow be linked to increased profits. Development, especially if based on competency models, will impact on business results. For example, if sales quota are partially influenced by a competency such as business acumen, then if all sales reps increase their competency level even by 10% , you can see how much further the whole company can go! Developing competencies impacts on business results also by boosting work engagement. Dutch Organizational Psychologist Wilman Shaufeli identified developing skills as one of work engagement main predictors. This means that a well designed development system can contribute to reducing turnover, increasing productivity and reducing risks of burnout and work related stress as part of the outcomes of work engagement. All great reasons to take development seriously.
• #5: Many times when we talk about development we think almost automatically about training. Formal off the job training is only one and not always the best solution to develop organizations and people. Formal training alone is not as effective as it could be if paired with other on the job activities. These developmental actions, such as special assignments, development in place, rotations can multiply the effectiveness of a training course. One very powerful approach we recommend is combining training with continuous feedback and on the job activities.
• #6: But training itself can be more or less effective depending on how well is aligned with the overall business strategy. Unfortunately most training tends to be reactive instead of strategic. As a best practice, we recommend that you provide your organization/people with thoughtful, targeted, competency-based training to optimize ROI. This may sound logical, and even rudimentary, but more times than not, we find training assets are not aligned to competencies. We recently developed a field coaching report for an organization with the goal being to link it to training offered by the company. While they were strong advocates of their competencies, their training was misaligned and “all over the board” - in fact, they were using 7 separate learning management systems (of LMSs) that housed their training content. This was so confusing and unfocused that training was actually ignored. Competency models make training aligned, focused and more accessible to people in your organization.
• #7: So the first step you need to take to develop people using competency models is assessing where people are against the model. There are various approaches to do that. There could be an entire discussion about the different methodologies to appraise skills, knowledge and abilities. We will describe one that is frequently used by Fortune 500 companies, which is probably the most cost-effective.
• #8: We call this method competency proficiency assessment. The process is quite simple. The employee rates himself and is rated by the manager on the model to assign current levels of skills, knowledge and ability. The output is a quantitative view of the proficiency stage according to the Competency Model that is then used for developmental purposes. The feedback itself plays an important role in development by increasing self awareness we mentioned before. To this point I recommend to read a research conducted by Zes and Landis called “A better return on self awareness” that basically shows how self awareness is correlated to better individual and organizational performance. Another advantage of the proficiency assessment is that provides leadership with a dashboard of current capabilities that can be incorporated into talent planning and/or development, as we will see later in the presentation.
• #9: So now I will show you some guidelines and principles around the proficiency assessment. First of all, rule number one, we recommend to clearly communicate the exclusive developmental purposes of the assessment. Employees must know that this process is separated from the performance appraisal and will not be considered for compensation purposes. When you create a model, we also recommend to conduct the proficiency assessment as the first activity after launching. Starting with the performance management for example is a probably something you should avoid. The reason is obvious. Instead of perceiving the utility of the model for their professional development, people would actually feel threatened. So conduct the proficiency assessment as the first activity after launching a model and do it within the first 30 days. Rule number 3. Conduct the assessment using observations of consistent demonstration of behaviors that are specified in the model. Both manager and employee need to bring examples of consistent and effective behaviors to sustain their judgments. This is a great exercise to activate meta-learning processes that will accelerate the development of new skills. Tenure does not always equal expert. Competencies evolve over time as the business environment continuously changes. It can happen that an employee with a long experience in a role finds himself or herself in a learning or applying stage. What this tells us is that we need to continuously re focus our energy and attention to develop competencies, since the time they become obsolete is very short. Another best practice is to repeat your assessment no more than two times a year. In fact you need to leave people enough time to develop their competencies. The consistent demonstration of new SKA does not happen overnight!
• #10: So here is an example of a proficiency assessment with iCoachFirst. This screenshot relates to the evaluation phase. On the top you have the name of the competency, sales aptitude in this case. Then you can see the success factors, with each proficiency levels.
• #11: Here is an example of a competency proficiency assessment report of an overall competency model. We have the name of assesse and assessor. Then there are instructions for managers and their direct reports # Moving down you can see the assessment cycle in this case opened in spt. 2012. Finally the reports: In blue you can see the ratings of the manager and in yellow the self rating.
• #12: And this is an example of a competency proficiency assessment report of a specific competency. We have the definition on the top left. Moving down the three success factors. And then the proficiency level for each of the success factors both assessed by employee and manager. And at the end of the report there is a space for comments both for manager and employee, to support their evaluation.
• #13: Here is an example of how you can use competency assessment results to conduct broader analysis. This an extract of a project we conducted with a sales organization for Fortune 500 company. On the x axis we have the success factors, which are the main components of competencies. On the y axis we have the proficiency stages. Three different teams were rated in each success factors and here we can see the compared results. From this graph we notice for example that the team 1 and 2 display similar proficiency levels in most competencies. On the other end, the team 2 differs substantially. While they seem to be very capable in coaching and cross functional partnering, they have an evident developmental need in performance and results driven as well as business planning ands insights. You can see how effective is this type of analysis to prioritize development investments and make sound decisions!
• #14: Another way to conduct competency analysis is by comparing teams over time. This exercise can be executed with the purpose of understanding progresses over time and evaluate the effective of training and development.
• #15: In this following section we will take a closer look of competency development on an individual perspective.
• #16: We said before we begin with the proficiency assessment. This will make the development plan targeted and focused. It also provides the managers and HR with a tool to monitor progresses towards the achievement of desired results, evaluate the effectiveness of the program, understand if changes are needed in the overall process. The next phase is a developmental discussion finalized to identify competency-target, agree on developmental goals and establish a proper plan. During the implementation phase manager and direct report should have a continuous informal bi-directional feedback process. Considering that for many reasons this might not always be possible, we recommend to set a few on-going formal check-in session to ensure progresses are happening as planned. At the end of the process, the assessment should be re-conducted to evaluate the achievement of the desired goals Now until the developmental discussion phase we see companies being usually diligent. Where we see them falling short are the following two steps. CLICK. In this situation the managers should take the role of a coach. He needs to be able to recommend a plan, ensure commitment, remove barriers and when needed, provide motivational support. By limiting the developmental program exclusively on assessment and feedback the risk is to restrict the opportunities of improvement.
• #17: So here are some best-practices to make your competency development plans more effective. You cannot work on everything. Developing new behaviors takes time. You cannot expect an individual to increase 4-5 skills in 12 months. The best practice of Fortune 500 companies is to focus on maximum two key areas, that will be developed in the course of the year. How to chose which competencies you should focus on? There is not a right recipe but we can provide a few guidelines: competencies need to be relevant for the individual. If the competency-target is considered as important from the employee for his professional development than he would be highly motivated in the development process. The competency target needs to be relevant for the organization and the role as well. A fortune 500 company we’ve consulted with about a year ago, identified a lack of business acumen among their sales managers, which was preventing them from identifying and capitalizing on opportunities. The sales directors together with training and HR agreed on the necessity of filling this gap as soon as possible. So all sales managers was assigned with development plans focused on that competency area. So it’s usually a matter of finding the right balance between individual and organizational goals. I can say is more an art than a science. We’ve been hearing a lot in the past years that focusing on strengths is the best way to maximize the attainments of development goals. While developing strengths is very important, we recommend to focus on weaknesses as well. Development should occur in a vacuum. We advocate temporal and contextual continuity in the development processes. For example if an individual has been working on his negotiation skills for five years, then maybe it’s time to move on with something else. Or if an individual will be likely to make a vertical or horizontal move you might want to focus on skills that will be critical for the future position.
• #18: key components of development plans are the activities. We’ve mentioned before as a common mistake is to limit development activities to formal training modules. Training either if is delivered in classroom setting or online is a valid method to try new skills in a protected and experimental environment. But if training is used as the only developmental resource, than is the impact on development and results is limited. I know it might sound obvious to most of you, but blended learning is the way to go to see real results and impact on business. Coaching, On the Job activities, job rotations and special assignments are some valid approaches you should consider when designing a development plan.
• #19: And here is how competency based developmental activities can be assigned. On the top left of your screen you can see the competency target, with the proficiency stage. Than there is a space for behavioral example of the identified stage and another for developmental tips. Down there are the activities that can be assigned. For example an article link, an elearning program and a special assignment.
• #20: The solution to fill Frank’s competency gap consisted in a multistaged and blended learning. The first step was a ½ day classroom training where Frank was exposed to some new techniques to design and deliver presentations. After the training he was assigned with a presentation that he had to prepare by applying the techniques learned in the classroom. After the presentation he collected feedback from the crowd and then he discussed the results with his manager. He was than assigned to a special a project. Specifically, his main role was to deliver the kick-off, on going and final presentations to the top leaders. This developmental activity allowed him to move his presentation skills to another level as well as being noticed by the senior leadership. At the end of the project, Frank was reassed against the competency model, obtaining the desired results.
• #21: We are at the end of the presentation, but before closing I would like to remind that the next webinar of the series, Using Competency Models to Hire Top Talent will, be online June 8th at 1.00 PM Et and June 10th at 3.00 PM. If you haven’t registered yet, you will find the links in your registration email or visiting our website. www.talentfirst.com. Thank you for being with us today and I hope to see you on board for the next webinars.