OD through the use of Competencies

Today, we live in a fast-past, highly driven business environment. It is no secret that success of any organization is driven by those individuals with innovation, great leadership, knowledge, skills, and abilities that align well with business goals and needs. In order to reach the maximum potential, it is important for an organization to determine what is important to them, what they value most, and how to best position themselves to compete against their sharpest competitors.

Positioning your organization to be faster, better and cheaper sounds great but could your organization or business unit still benefit from higher productivity or efficiency? Are you looking to improve things like team effectiveness, quality, or customer service? Organizational effectiveness can be achieved through a simple process called “Competency Integration.”

In recent years, topics on emerging issues such as workforce shortage, employee performance, managing change, succession planning, etc. have troubled many employers across various industries. How do we develop the internal capabilities to most efficiently and effectively execute organizational goals?

A strategic organization would use competencies to measure characteristics of an individual that are related to superior performance on the job. Measurable characteristics include technical know-how (knowledge, skills, and abilities) as well as other attributes such as individual characteristics (positive attitude, adaptability, accountability, etc.) that contribute to a person’s overall success. In an employee’s mind, success is defined when the work they perform is meaningful, experiential, engaging, and appreciative by the organization and senior leadership. Then they will find the value of their contributions to the organization, their personal and professional growth. When you sum up all these elements, then you have a satisfied employee, low turnover, and higher productivity and profitability.

Additionally, competencies can be a critical component of career paths that help individuals match their technical know-how as well as individual characteristics and behaviors with short and long-term goals in order to reach personal and professional fulfillment. The competencies also provide employees with a basis for discussions about performance management and expectations with their supervisor. On the hand, there are benefits to the employer. Successful implementation of competencies in different programs and processes will benefit your organization in a long run. The competencies provide the organization with information to make strategic business decisions. A clear understanding of the value of competencies will assists your organization in hiring individuals, whose skills and individual characteristics successfully match the requirements of the job, minimizing costly hiring mistakes and turnover. The competencies also enable your organization to forecast the types of skills and characteristics needed to meet future business needs. Linking competencies to business strategy is a key success factor. They will appear throughout many HR programs and processes for a higher efficiency and organizational effectiveness including change management, talent and leadership development.

Ask yourself, what are the critical skills of the future? How do we ensure people possess them or can develop them in relevant ways so that they can step into key leadership roles? Using competencies means consistency. Competencies provide a common language though which we can more easily identify, discuss, and develop the skills needed for the future. Using competencies, we are better positioned to align the people processes within the organization and compete for new markets generating higher ROI and bottom line profits.