Competencies Part 4 Integrating Competencies By Ken Kuzia In my last article, Competencies Part 3 Optimizing Definitions I wrote about making competency definitions more useful by using behavioral statements to define them. Previously, in the article, Competencies Part 2 How Do You Implement Competencies? I began the description of implementing competencies into your HR processes starting with Step 1 Selecting and Defining Competencies. Now I would like to go forward with the implementation of competencies into your hiring, development, performance goal setting, review and compensation processes. Step 2 - Incorporate Competencies into the Hiring Process As job openings occur, use your defined competencies to supplement and improve your various job descriptions as well as to formulate interview questions for job candidates. As in the definition process, interviewing and evaluating job candidates will produce better results if your interview questions are behavior-based. Since your competencies were developed from your vision, mission and values, behavior-based interview questions will help you in identifying those candidates that more closely match what your organization is truly looking for. Additionally, you will find that some of your competencies are easier to learn or teach than others. Therefore, your intention should be to hire those candidates that demonstrate success with the more difficult competencies like Integrity. Competencies like Customer Focus are easier to learn or teach. If job candidates are not strong in such a competency, you may still be willing to hire the candidate knowing that you can develop the competency in that employee fairly easily at least much easier than it would be to instill integrity into a new hire. Step 3 - Incorporate Competencies into the Goal Setting & Measuring Process As soon as performance reviews have been developed and delivered it is time to immediately prepare the employee for the next review process cycle. Right after a performance review you and the employee have a clear idea of where the employee is doing well and where the employee could stand some improvement. This is especially true and useful if the performance review was competemcy-based. a) Work with an employee to define reasonable goals (competencies) for the employee to work on during the next review cycle. b) Define realistic measures to gauge the performance of the employee s achievement of the assigned goals. c) Periodically, throughout the performance review process, meet with the employee to check on the progress being made as defined by the measures. d) If necessary, adjust the goals and/or measures if the goals are too easily attained or too difficult thereby adversely impacting the approaching performance review. 2011 by Ken Kuzia & Up Your Leadership. All rights reserved Page 1 of 5
You want the goals to be a reasonable stretch for the employee, yet not too much of a stretch that the employee has no reasonable hope to achieve the goal. Stretching the goal to a point beyond the employee s current level of expertise helps to assure that the employee continues to grow and attain new levels of skill or knowledge. e) During performance review, use the goals and measures as the basis for the performance discussion with the employee. Did the employee fail to meet, meet, or exceed expectations based upon their level of achievement of his/her assigned goals? f) After the performance review, repeat the cycle starting with the definition of goals for the next review cycle. Ok, now you ve seen how to define competencies and incorporate them into your hiring, and goal setting processes. Now, let s continue down the path to incorporate competencies into your development, review and assessment processes. Step 4 - Incorporate Competencies into the Development Process a) Using the competencies that define an employee s job, supervisors work with their employees to determine in which competencies their individual employees need improvement. (There s always room for improvement/growth.) b) Discuss these improvement areas with the employee to assure you and the employee are in agreement. c) Ask the employee if s/he has any other areas of interest for development that may not tie directly to his/her current job responsibilities. Perhaps the employee hopes to gain knowledge or skills (competencies) that the employee could use if transferred to another department or responsibility. Keep in mind that any competency development goals should be defined in such a way that the goals move the employee on a path from fails to meet, meets, to exceeds expectations. d) Incorporate your and the employee s ideas for development into the building of a development plan. (A development plan is similar to setting performance goals and measures except you are dealing with development issues and not performance issues.) e) Incorporate the employee s development goals and measures along with previously defined performance goals and measures into the performance review process. f) Periodically, throughout the review cycle, meet with the employee to check on the progress being made as defined by the measures for his/her development goals. g) As with performance goals, adjust the development goals and/or measures if the goals are too easily attained or too difficult thereby adversely impacting the approaching performance review. 2011 by Ken Kuzia & Up Your Leadership. All rights reserved Page 2 of 5
h) As the performance review nears, incorporate the goals and measures into the performance discussion with the employee. Progress on development goals are not always judged in the same manner as performance goals. If the development goals are clearly job-related, by all means, rate the employees progress on those goals. However, if any of the employee s development goals are not directly related to the employee s current position and responsibilities (like taking college courses to gain skills for a hopefully future position), give the employee credit for anything accomplished. On the other hand, since the goal is not directly job-related, do not penalize the employee on the performance review for failure to fully achieve his/her goals. Remember: Any outside development like taking college courses, as stated above, is for the employee s personal development, and therefore does not impact current job performance. Any lack of progress does not impact the performance review. i) After the performance review discussion, repeat the cycle. Step 5 - Replace the subjective areas of the performance review process with competency-defined performance and development goals. As you eliminate the subjective and replace it with the objective, you will find that your performance review discussions will go a lot easier on you and your employee. As long as you have been faithful with periodic performance and development updates, the employee can expect to walk into the review discussion without the fear of any new, nasty surprises. You ll also find yourself debating less with the employee about their review, because, through the periodic progress updates, the employee already knows how well or poorly s/he is doing. Similarly, the participation of the employee in performance and development goal setting and measurement has had a direct hand in defining just what goals s/he will be judged by at appraisal time. a) Consult with your Human Resource Representative to develop an appropriate review form that includes all of the employee s performance and development goals for the current review period in competency-based format. b) Add to the review form any additional items by which the employee s performance will be judged. Note: Ultimately, you and the employee want the performance review to be as objective as possible. When adding additional items to the review, try to keep them objective. The more the items are objective, the less debate you can expect during the performance review discussion. c) Periodically, throughout the review cycle, meet with the employee to check on the progress being made as defined by the measures for his/her performance and development goals. d) Adjust the goals and/or measures if the goals are too easily attained or too difficult thereby adversely impacting the approaching performance review. 2011 by Ken Kuzia & Up Your Leadership. All rights reserved Page 3 of 5
e) Incorporate all performance and development goals and measures into the performance review discussion with the employee. f) After the performance review discussion, ask the employee to sign the review form to verify that the review discussion was held. Note: The employee s signature does not mean that the employee agreed with all aspects of the review. It merely means that the review discussion was held between the employee and the supervisor. g) File the signed review in the appropriate filing system. If you are unsure how or where to file the signed review, check with your Human Resource Representative for instructions. Step 6 - Implement competencies into the compensation process. As you might already realize, you, as a supervisor or manager, may not have the authority to impact your company s compensation system. However, you do have at least some level of influence. If your company does not currently incorporate competencies in the compensation process, work with your management and HR to promote and develop a competencybased compensation system. a) Develop specific job descriptions for every position within the company. b) Include competency descriptions into each job description. c) Define how each job description is broken down into levels of performance (Fails to meet, meets, exceeds expectations). d) Assure that the competency definitions are specific to the various levels of the job. Document how the competency requirements differ for each position level. e) Work with your HR Department Representative to match compensation levels to the various defined job levels within each specific position. Document accordingly. f) As employee skill and knowledge levels improve, as evidenced by performance and development reviews, verify the improvement with your HR Representative to see if the improvement warrants a raise or promotion to the next level in the job description. Once implemented, the competency-based compensation system becomes the capstone that completes your transition to a fully integrated and comprehensive competency-based set of HR processes. It s a long, hard process to define and implement competencies into your HR processes, and the use of a consultant or in-house facilitator would make your implementation much easier. Then you will have a common denominator to keep your efforts in line with the company s efforts. Also this person will be committed to the implementation 2011 by Ken Kuzia & Up Your Leadership. All rights reserved Page 4 of 5
and knowledgeable about the implementation processes. If you are patient and it is done well, you will see the benefits that competencies deliver. Caveat: If your organization is operating under a union contract, be sure to review your intentions with your company union experts before taking any direct action with employees to implement competencies into your HR policies and practices. Ken Kuzia is the owner and consultant for Dupere Development Services, a local consulting service specializing in Organizational Development issues and a Senior Partner with Up Your Leadership. 2011 by Ken Kuzia & Up Your Leadership. All rights reserved Page 5 of 5