A common language for human capital
Competence management
Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School is currently conducting a panel study into competence development in companies, commissioned by Steunpunt WSE, the Flemish Policy Research Centre for Work and the Social Economy. The study will run until 2011. An interim update from researcher Sara De Hauw and Professor Ans De Vos.
What added value does a competence policy offer?
Ans De Vos: “The competence idea asks you what you are doing as an organisation, where you want to go and how you can translate that vision to your human capital. An organisation that assumes that people can only perform on the basis of who they are now, their character, IQ and qualifications at this point in time, will pursue a very rigid HR policy. A competence policy, on the other hand, assumes that you can develop aspects such as skills, attitudes and so on. It gives you the opportunity to develop the people that you have in-house, to allow them to grow.”
Sara De Hauw: “The added value of a competence policy lies in the common working language that it offers you. Which competences you emphasise and how exactly you define them varies from one company to another, but a company’s individual dictionary of competences offers a common frame of reference, facilitating consistent terminology and shaping the rest of your policy.”
How do organisations view competence management?
Sara De Hauw: “For the organisations participating in the panel study, their decision to embark on competence development is a strategic choice aimed at giving them a competitive edge. They see it as a way of letting their employees grow and making them more flexible, so that they are ready for action in a changing market.”
Ans De Vos: “We don’t have any recent data on how many companies are engaged in competence development. The extent to which competence development is entrenched in strategic policy and runs like a leitmotif through everything HR departments do also varies considerably. Competence management is more than just a dictionary of competences; it’s a way of looking at the upward mobility, turnover, evaluation and development of your employees. Companies that confine themselves to producing a quantified inventory of competences often end up rather disillusioned. That’s one reason why some organisations end up abandoning competence management.”
Do different sectors have different competence policies?
Sara De Hauw: “Competence management is less closely associated with sectors than with the employee population. Communication with them is the key to rolling out competence policies to all regions. An organisation with mainly highly qualified staff will translate, interpret and implement competences differently from a company employing less qualified people. There’s a lot more done through the intranet, for instance, because most employees sit at their PC every day and are usually also familiar with the terminology used. Companies with less qualified personnel invest more time in face-to-face discussion and explanation of their competence policy. Their list of competences is often shorter, too, but it will be referred to more often.”
What are the critical factors for successful competence management?
Sara De Hauw: “It’s very important to have enough support within your organisation, otherwise your competence policy will be an insubstantial construct without content. One way or another you have to get your employees involved in developing it. In most companies the competence model is devised by HR and then tested on a pilot group of employees. Time and communication are crucial to this. A company mustn’t confront its people with a fait accompli; they must be given time to deal with competence development and translate it to their own job. In the long run competence development has to become entrenched in the learning culture, as an integrated component of training, career management and other development paths.”
Ans De Vos: “The assumed competences also have to be relevant to the job. There’s no point identifying a catalogue of competences, half of which are irrelevant to the employee. That way you’ll lose their commitment and enthusiasm. Many companies implementing competence management also take it for granted that their employees know what areas they need to develop. It’s implicitly assumed that everyone knows what they’re good at and where they want to go with their career. Companies recognise the importance of competence development, but they forget the training and coaching around that metacompetence.”
What’s the best way to integrate the competence model into your training and development strategy?
Sara De Hauw: “An organisation that takes a competence-based approach doesn’t stop at development through training but works on other aspects as well, such as job mobility. Competence development is seen as far more than just formal training. It’s a combination of training, career management and a bit of on-the-job learning with in-house mentoring and coaching.”
How can you guarantee that competence development is an ongoing process?
Ans De Vos: “Ideally competence management is part of a personal development plan. Appraisal interviews or feedback from colleagues can reveal which areas individual employees need to develop as part of the annual performance management cycle. The next step is to find out the best way for them to hone those skills.”
How do you measure the effectiveness of your competence policy?
Sara De Hauw: “Most companies are still searching for a suitable method to measure the return on their investment. Some organise employee satisfaction surveys, and tie them in with certain key figures such as turnover, but the link between the different elements always tends in the same direction, and there are other factors at play of course. At the same time, you see companies having really high expectations of their competence policy, especially in the context of the war for talent. They use it to position themselves in the market and to show that they invest heavily in their people. So companies see a lot of potential in their competence policy, but they’re still struggling with how to make a strong case for it to the board.”
Panel study into competence development
In its role as co-promoter of Steunpunt WSE, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School has been conducting a panel study into competence development for the Flemish government. The government launched the initiative in order to gain a better idea about competence policies for different groups of employees. The study began back in 2007 and will continue until 2011. The School has been tracking 22 companies that are involved in initiatives relating to competence development, in order to learn as many practical lessons as possible.
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Info: Sara De Hauw |