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Competency management is the practice of identifying the key skills necessary for an employee to reach target performance in their specific role, and then developing and optimizing those skills to best align with the business strategy of an organization.
When looking at the meaning of competency management, it is first helpful to look at competencies themselves.
Competencies are also known as skills, values or behaviors, and represent the ‘how this should be accomplished’ rather than the ‘what is the objective’ of a goal.
Having clearly defined competencies allows employees to know exactly what is expected of them and how they should accomplish their tasks. Examples of competencies are integrity, customer focus, safety or technical ability and more.
The competency management definition also covers the core competencies of the organization itself.
Every organization should have a competency framework, which consists of a set of four to six core competencies. This serves to strengthen and illustrate the core culture of the organization, while highlighting differences from competitors.
When taking an in-depth look at what is competency management, management teams should create a list of seven to ten competencies for each role within the organization.
These competencies will create the competency model that will inform the employee what is expected of them in their job, and allow them to achieve their performance targets more easily.
The importance of competency management is increasing each year.
Organizations are facing ever greater challenges to retain highly skilled employees in a competitive market while improving performance and developing leadership talent from within.
Competency management can help with those issues, among others.
Identifying the core competencies of a role creates a stronger employee.
Understanding and clearly communicating the values and skills that are required to succeed in that role will allow the employee to spend their time more productively, mastering the required skills, rather than trying to understand what is expected of them.
A strong culture of competency management will allow for a company to develop both employee and organizational competency, adding value to the company as a whole.
Increasingly, this type of management will make a difference in recruiting and keeping the most talented employees.
Learn how to build a competency model for your organization.