Competency-based performance management system (CBPMS) has become the key tool for every firm to be in a strategically sustained advantageous position. The objective is to identify relevant and important competencies for successful accomplishment of desired tasks. In this chapter a holistic approach is proposed to review the competency-based approach that is based on the framework of relevant work-related and behavioral competencies. CBPMS is explained in terms of sequential steps of framing the competencies which provide better performance advantages with their expected values and thereby measuring the levels of these work related and behavioral competencies present in the job incumbents with the help of IT interventions. Using this approach, an organization will be able to more effectively use their limited resources to reap more benefits from their investments in both people and technology.
TopWhat Are Competencies?
Often HR is asked about employee productivity. To ensure employee productivity, ‘person organization fit’ should be given with more prominence than ‘person-job-fit’, wherein the person’s personality is matching the organization culture, in order to ensure employee engagement and employee commitment. Those days are gone of matching the job specifications with the qualifications and experience of the prospective candidate to select the ‘person-job-fit’. Therefore, the predictable job related behaviours of the candidates are of key importance to anticipate his future performance which will bring in performance advantages with which the organization is in a competitive advantageous position which the others are unable to duplicate. These performance advantages cannot be capitalized on Knowledge (K) and Skill (S). The A-factor which makes the difference is Attitude (A). Often the combination of Knowledge (K), Skill (S) and Attitude (A) is termed as ‘competency’. This conception of competency is all pervasive in nature, staring from top level management i.e., strategic competencies to individual level i.e, role competencies.
Though the words ‘competency’ and ‘competence’ are used interchangeably, but ‘competency’ is a person related concept refers to as the dimensions of behavior lying behind an effective performer. Whereas, ‘competence’ is a work related concept, refers to as areas of work in which the person is effective. Competencies are often considered as a combination of both.
The term Competency was first popularized by Boyatzis (1982). As he says:
“Competency is a capacity that exists in a person that leads to behavior that meets the job demands within parameters of organizational environment, and that in turn, brings about desired results”.
In English Dictionary the word ‘competence’ is defined as a state of being suitable, sufficient or fit which is very pertinent in today’s dynamic world of business, wherein, job related behaviour leads to effective performance and not an employee’s individual behaviour which may not add value in terms of performance advantages.
Now, the question arises is how to proceed in this journey. An attempt may be made in preparing a list of job related competencies not essentially derived from job analysis but, from the perspective of the industry experts and thereby checking the relevance or importance of these set of competencies in the organization context to derive performance advantages which is the source of competitive advantage. This list once prepared, may be validatedand their benchmark values are set in consultation with the industry experts or professional consultants. Manual maintenance of this and thereby communicating the same to each departmental head for following the same is a tedious task. Hence, an IT enabled system is essential to execute the competencies for better performance advantages. The competencies related to each job role along with their benchmark values, which are essentially derived from job analysis and from the opinions of the industry experts, are fed into the IT enabled system. The system then compares the planned performance with actual performance and generates report on exceeding performance and lagging performance for a specific job role performed by the job incumbent. This gives the management of the organization a clear idea about whether the conceived competencies are relevant or not and if relevant, how to improve the performance of the job incumbent to the specific role.
Confusion Between ‘Competent’, ‘Competence’ and ‘Competency’
The word ‘competent’ represents a condition of fulfillment of capability with the job requirement as recognized by the authentic community of practitioners.
As we have already mentioned that ‘competency’ is a combination of knowledge, skill and attitude, let us elaborate it further: the word ‘competency’ denotes underlying and observable characteristics such as motive, traits, self-concept, values, knowledge and skill that drives as well as predicts performance to pre-defined standards.
The word ‘competence’ is a work-related concept which represents functional skills required to perform a specific task as per the job standards.
Classification Of Competencies
Competency classification depends upon the way the word ‘competencies’ is perceived by the management of the organization. Competencies are classified in several ways: