Competencies and People Inc.

The People Inc. system includes a range of tool designed to define and use a competency framework to manage the staff assessment process and related development activities

For most organisations, the environment in which they operate is constantly evolving. New technologies, new ideas, new products, changes in legislation, and new processes just some of the areas that can change. To adapt to the challenges this presents, the skills, knowledge, and experience of personnel within the organisation will need to evolve.

It is possible to define a library of competencies and record details of competencies against individual employee records using the People Inc system. This is designed to provide the basis for a competency management programme within an organisation. The management of competencies is an optional feature within People Inc.

Competency Definitions

A library of competency definitions can be managed within People Inc. Each competency definition includes quantifiable levels that are used for example, during an assessment. It is possible to record more detail on the competency itself (including examples) and assign a competency to a category for use in analysis and reporting. The competency framework might include:

• Competencies aligned with the organisation’s current values and goals. These competencies will usually apply to all employees.
• Competencies that apply to management and leadership roles. For example, strategic awareness, supervising employees and project management.
• Role specific competencies that apply mainly to particular jobs (or categories of job) or a within the organisation.
• Technical competencies that define the expertise and knowledge associated with an activity, product or process.
• Competencies that relate to the strategic direction the organisation is taking. This helps to build strength in areas that are of interest to the organisation in the future.

A range of levels are defined for each competency. A competency level has a score and a description; it also details the behaviours and performance expected. This makes it easier to ensure employees are assessed consistently. If necessary, organisations can define negative levels against a competency. These can be used to detail unacceptable performance or behaviour.

It is important to consider the scope and level of detail used within a competency framework. If competencies are numerous and very specific, staff assessments are likely to become time consuming and adoption of the overall process is then likely to suffer. If the focus is too wide (the competencies themselves are too general in nature) it will be difficult to ensure consistency during assessments and difficult to provide advice on how individuals can improve once they have been assessed.

Care should be taken to ensure that staff are not discriminated against because the competency framework is constructed in a way that disadvantages different groups of employees.

Staff Assessments

Monitoring skills, knowledge and experience for individuals requires some form of assessment process. Assessments provide the opportunity to establish details of the competencies their staff have (and the competencies they are perhaps lacking). Using this information, staff can then organise appropriate development activities. These attributes will of course change over time. Regular assessments will then ensure that the skills gap narrows, and any new requirements are managed.

This type of assessment is not a review of recent activities; it is not a performance review. Instead, it is an assessment of qualities and attributes that have been identified as important to the individual, or to the role they play within the organisation. During the assessment process it is important to ensure that focus is also given to the potential the employee has.

An assessment screen is available within the People Inc. system to help users record the outcome of assessment activities. This screen can be completed from the Employee Self-Service module (by line managers). The information recoded in this way can then be used to manage and schedule staff development, staff reorganisation activities, and for reporting and analysis.

Competencies and Jobs

A competency profile can be associated with each job role within the People Inc. system. In this way, the attributes (skills, knowledge, experience, etc.) for each role can be defined. To do this, individual competencies are selected from the library of competency definitions, and a level is assigned to each entry (based on the levels defined for that competency).

Building a job profile in this way means that staff who currently work in a particular role can be assessed against a well-defined list of competencies (the same is true for staff who may be promoted into the role). By setting job profiles in this way it is also possible to promote strategic talent management goals by ensuring that competencies that are key to the development of the organisation are included in the profile for each role.

In practice it is important to approach this in a measured way. For example, to help with the adoption of competency management as a tool, it can be beneficial to limit the number of competencies assigned to a role

Staff Development

Skills Gap Analysis

Having defined the competencies that a job requires, and having assessed employees working in that role, it is then possible to analyse the information to show the skills gap that exists. The gap might include competencies individuals do not possess (or for which they have not yet been assessed), or competencies they do have, but not at a sufficiently high level.

A skills gap analysis might be done for an individual, for a team or department, or for the entire organisation. A skills gap analysis will give an indication of the areas where there is a shortfall in the level of competence. It will then be possible to put a plan in place to addresses this. The plan may include development activities, a reorganisation within the team, a change to some of the roles/responsibilities, or the recruitment of new staff.

Training Needs

Where the agreed approach to closing the skills gap is to provide training for employees, training needs can be recorded and managed within the People Inc. system. Several tools are available within the system designed to ensure training needs are met. These include the training matrix plug-in, and the wizards designed to manage training in bulk.

Training needs can be managed from the perspective of the course (a list of delegates), or employee by employee (a personal development plan). When training needs have been met, the system automatically retains a full training history. Once again, this can be accesses by viewing a course, or by employee.

Career Planning

Working with employees to devise a career plan can have a beneficial effect on motivation, focus and productivity. Agreeing a career plan with employees can help to retain staff and build a positive working environment. With a career plan in place, both the organisation and the individual can look to build their competencies to match those required for their next job.

Competencies can also be used to find possible future roles for employees. If an employee already has a number of the competencies required for a particular role, this could suggest it is a job they could do at some point in the future.

Mentors and Shadowing

Assigning a mentor is a powerful tool that can be used to help with staff development. A mentor can provide advice and guidance and look to develop particular skills or oversee work on related projects. Where a mentor is needed to help develop a particular competency (or a mix of competencies), the People Inc. system can be used to identify staff who can become mentors.

In addition to working with a mentor, it may be beneficial to offer some employees the opportunity to shadow another member of staff (somebody working in a role they are interested in). Shadowing, even for a short period of time, can give an employee a much better understanding of the role and what it entails.

Talent Mapping

Talent Mapping is used to identify and promote the skills, knowledge, experience, and qualifications (competencies) that will be required by an organisation to achieve both short-term and long-term goals. It identifies weaknesses within the current workforce and will help to nurture the talent the organisation will need in the future. It will also identify members of staff who are likely to be key to the development of the organisation.

Within a Talent Management program, particular focus is usually given to recruitment (talent acquisition). Where the recruitment of staff is linked to a particular set of competencies, as time progresses and more new employees join, the prevalence and strength of these competencies across the workforce will increase.

There are a number of key steps in the talent mapping process

1. It is important to have an understanding of the organisation's strategy and how this is likely to change over time. This could be driven by changes in the marketplace, or by legislation. For example, an organisation may be looking to build its online presence (move to an e-commerce platform), or it may be looking to improve the energy efficiency of its products. How will these changes affect the structure of the organisation, or the roles of staff who work there?


2. Looking at the changes needed within the organisation, and in the way people work then needs to be analysed. For each role there will be a number of attributes (or competencies) that are important, and for each attribute, a scale of performance (a range of measures) will be required. These measures can then be used for assessment.


3. The existing workforce will have a significant role to play in an organisation’s future. Assessing the current employees will identify those who will fit very easily into the organisations plans, and those who will not find the transition quite as straight-forward. It is important to ensure that an employee assessment is based on both their current performance and their future potential. Having both will indicate that a member of staff has a strong future within the organisation.


4. Having established a clear picture of the future structure of the organisation, and the level of current staff, the next step is to put together a plan to promote and build the talent needed. This plan will include:
• Staff Development. Shortcomings identified during the assessment process should be used to generate training needs and staff development programs. This will focus staff on the correct areas and facilitate change within the organisation.
• Recruitment activities. As part of this, a profile for an ideal candidate will be required. This will focus on particular areas and detail the mix of skills, knowledge and experience they should have.

Implementing a talent mapping program will help an organisation to achieve its future goals. It develops an understanding of the talent needed to implement plans for the future, and it facilitates change by encouraging investment in a workforce that is able turn these plans into reality.

Succession Planning

Succession planning is a useful tool that can help to manage change within the organisation. It helps to minimise the impact when key staff move on, it helps when changes are needed within the organisation’s structure, and it is an effective tool that can be used to motivate staff (as part of their career planning).

Ensuring that successors are identified for key roles within the organisation has several clear benefits.

• It will provide continuity by ensuring that a successor is available when individuals leave. And where successors are found internally within the organisation a similar process may be appropriate for the role they came from.
• It will make it possible to highlight any shortcoming possible successors have (based on competency definitions) and ensure that suitable development activities are organised.
• Planning for possible future roles with employees provides individuals with a goal and with motivation to develop themselves.

It is not unusual for key personnel to have more than one successor to ensure that there is contingency when plans change unexpectedly.

Where staff have undergone regular assessments, it is then possible to search for possible successors using the assessment data.

Managing Leavers

When staff leave a number of areas are affected.

The vacant post will need to be filled; this could be done using successors registered within the system (with a clear understanding of their development needs). It is then likely that the role this person has vacated will also need to be filled.

The staff changes are likely to affect the succession plan within the organisation (and perhaps the career plan for other members of staff). These changes can be managed within the People Inc. system.

It may be that the member of staff who left had key competencies that now need to be found elsewhere. If the leaver was made redundant, their competency profile would be an ideal tool to use to see if they could be employed elsewhere within the organisation.

Adding Competencies to your People Inc. system

The People Inc. competency management screens are added using the Features Browser plug-in. Please contact the People Inc. help desk to discuss adding these features to your system.

More Information

If you would like more information about managing competencies using the People Inc. system, please contact us on 01908 265111, or click the button below to request a call-back.

Discover more about these topics

• Competencies
• Competency Management
• Succession Planning
• Career Plan
• Training Needs
• Staff Assessment

Related Features

People Inc. provides a variety of tools to help build a workforce to meet the challenges your organisation faces. Some examples are provided below:

Training Matrix

The People Inc. training matrix plug-in provides an overview of employee training.

Staff Appraisals

Record and manage employee performance appraisals for your organisation. Click to view.

Organisation Charts

Organisation Charts are used to represent and communicate a company’s structure visually.

External Resources

The following links provide additional information about Competency Management. The links are to pages on websites over which we have no control. This information is provided for reference only.

• A brief guide to competencies (www.gov.uk) - External Link.

• Competence - human resources (www.wikipedia.org) - External Link.

• Competence and competency frameworks (www.cipd.co.uk) - External Link.