COVERAGE OF COMPETENCIES

The Miller et al research found that employers adopted different approaches to the parts of the workforce covered by competencies:

● 22 per cent covered the whole workforce with a single set or framework of core competencies (modified in a further 10 per cent of employers by the incorporation of additional behavioural competencies for managers and other staff);

● 48 per cent confined competencies to specific work groups, functions or departments;

● 20 per cent have a core competency framework that covers all staff in respect of behavioural competencies, alongside sets of technical/functional or departments.

Subsequent research (Rankin, 2002) found that:

● 25 per cent of employers using behavioural competencies had a core framework; 

● 19 per cent supplemented the core framework with additional competencies for single groups such as managers.

The ‘menu’approach

Rankin notes that 21 per cent of respondents adopted a ‘menu’ approach. This enables competencies to be selected that are relevant to generic or individual roles. Approaches vary. Some organizations provide guidelines on the number of competencies to be selected (eg four to eight) and others combine their core framework with a menu so that users are required to select the organization-wide core competencies and add a number of optional ones.

Role-specific competencies 

Role-specific competencies are also used by some organizations for generic or individual roles. These may be incorporated in a role profile in addition to information about the key output or result areas of the role. This approach is likely to be adopted by employers who use competencies in their performance management processes, but role-specific competencies also provide the basis for person specifications used in recruitment and for the preparation of individual learning programmes.

Graded competencies 

Afurther, although less common, application of competencies is in graded career or job family structures (career or job families consist of jobs in a function or occupation such as marketing, operations, finance, IT, HR, administration or support services, which are related through the activities carried out and the basic knowledge and skills required, but in which the levels of responsibility, knowledge, skill or competence needed differ). In such families, the successive levels in each family are defined in terms of competencies as well as the key activities carried out. (Career and job family structures are described in Chapter 46.)