Competency Framework

Steps for Developing a Competency Framework in the Organization

Among all the factors that affect the performance of a business, such as an employee engagement, feedback, surveys, reward and recognition, the competency framework is usually an overlooked aspect. Yet, it has the capability to redefine the pace of success and growth of the company.

The competency framework refers to the model that outlines the skills, abilities, and knowledge required to perform a job responsibility efficiently. It is to be noted here that each individual job role requires a different set of skills and competencies.  

Enterprises rely on competency management software for creating this framework that helps them to identify skill gaps among their workforce, streamline hiring processes and much more. Through this blog, we have explained the benefits of creating a competency framework and some crucial steps to follow while developing one in the organization. Read on!

Benefits of competency framework

When done right, a competency framework comes with a host of benefits for businesses and enterprises. These are given as follows:

  • Simplify HR processes

When companies develop an effective competency framework, they leverage benefits in managing human resource activities. This is because the model clarifies the skill set needed by the candidate during the talent hiring process. As a result, the procedure becomes more streamlined and glitch-free.

  • Smoother succession planning

For many businesses, succession planning is a challenging process, which can be streamlined easily with the help of the competency model. It helps business owners to understand the traits and requirements required of eligible employees to serve in leadership roles and move up within the organization. 

  • Better skill gap management

With clarity on role requirements and needed skill sets, managing skill gaps becomes easy. Managers can analyse the traits that employees lack and, according to training and development programs, can be aligned. 

Steps for developing a competency framework

As mentioned before, the skillset requirements for different roles might vary depending upon the set of responsibilities. However, a universal competency model can be developed, which can be further funnelled down to a complex framework for targeted roles. Let’s look at the steps to be followed for creating a competency framework:

Step 1: Define the purpose

When planning for a competency framework, employers must identify the purpose and context of the plan. This will include identifying the needs of the framework and analysing the expected outcomes. With a purpose set, the core competencies for every individual job role can be easily identified, which further helps to match current skill standards.

Step 2: Assign core team 

Once the purpose is identified, the next step is to pick a specific team that will be responsible for the creation and development of the framework. Here, one thing to remember is to pick a team comprising members from different departments. For example, a member from HR business partners, operations executive, C-suite, training consultants, etc. In simple words, promote diversity within the team for better outcomes.

Step 3: Create a framework draft

With the allotted team members, start making the draft for the competency framework. This will include collecting data and completing the research part. While drafting, try to ensure that the competencies you include in the framework must be measurable and reconciled with different seniority levels in the organisation.  

Step 4: Take the help of a competency management tool

Employers and business owners can use competency management tools like entomo to benchmark and identify competencies. The software simplifies the process of refreshing or building a new competency framework to assure safety from talent drain. 

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, creating a competency framework can be a daunting task if not executed following the proper process steps. The framework acts as a basis for the competency evaluation process. Moreover, it helps to define the crucial skills and competencies required for each role in the organisation to make the business ready for future challenges.

Hopefully, the above-mentioned steps will help you develop an effective competency model for your enterprise. Along with this, also remember, the process of developing the framework can be optimised with the help of competency management software, easily available in the market with several other features. This may include, can be tweaked periodically to adapt to the changing skill set requirements of the roles and responsibilities in the near future.