In my last post, I suggested that HR take a look at job competencies again, so we can help employees make the most of the business climate. Given the challenges that most jobs are encountering, this is a great context for savvy employees to learn and grow.
I received a couple of comments on the pros and cons of competencies, so I thought I’d take another shot at the topic. Just some thoughts this time on their value and purpose, a couple of case studies, with a bit of text book thrown in.
Have you driven on the highway recently?
Have you noticed how behaviors matter?
Remember your mother’s warning that table manners will come in handy when you grow up (and join the CEO for a lunch meeting)?
Most companies have “a way we do things around here.” In other words, this is the way that we expect people to act. As it turns out, those behaviors actually differentiate companies from each other and can contribute to their success or downfall.
Many companies understand that competencies help drive their business future, and design them to close the gap between where they are and where they need to be. In other words, sometimes “the way we do things around here” has to change. This is hard stuff, a big change, messy and requiring lots of HR planning and attention. On the other hand, it’s a great example of HR as a business partner.
Here’s where a legendary company comes in
In the comments on my earlier post, I gave the example of how a division of Toyota redesigned their reward system when they began to lose market share. Consumers still loved Toyotas for reliability and overall excellence, but they were beginning to be seduced by flashier doodads that other companies were marketing.
Toyota chose a competency based system to illustrate what they meant by creativity, and to build those expectations into everyone’s job. They felt the message had not been as loud before, but that the behaviors described by the competencies are what distinguished their product from others.
Then there was the case of the bicoastal competencies
In another case, I worked on a merger of two financial companies that had very different cultures. One was known for excellent record keeping and financial knowledge, the other had developed a strong customer service brand but in a single product. One was in the South; the other was in the Bay Area. Yikes.
A competency-based reward system was introduced to illustrate the business needs of the new company, which had a very different business strategy than either of the original players. In this case, HR expected the lifespan of the new reward system to be the period of transition. Once the company was on its feet, another approach was probably going to be more useful.
It’s easy to get lost
Most companies do not rely solely on competencies to describe employee performance expectations. Instead, competencies supplement objectives or other results-based measures. And many have had mixed results with their competency applications.
If your company is still muddling through or is giving up, there are a couple of quick things to consider. Are your competencies designed to help employees differentiate your business from your competitors? If so, is the stretch that’s built into them clear to employees and managers? If those competencies represent a magnitude of change in “the way we do things around here," do you really reward people for demonstrating the changes? Are you helping them understand the purpose of the changes?
There are lots of other areas of confusion associated with competencies, but I thought I’d start at the beginning. What do your company’s competencies actually mean?
Margaret O’Hanlon is founder and principal of re:Think Consulting. She has decades of experience teaming up with clients to ensure great Human Resource ideas deliver valuable business results. Margaret brings deep expertise in total rewards communication to the dialogue at the Café; before founding re:Think Consulting, she was a Principal in Total Rewards Communications with Towers Perrin. Margaret earned her M.S. and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology at Indiana University. Creative writing is one of her outside passions.
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