Competency based development

Everyone today is talking about competency based development. Let’s start from the beginning, i.e. the meaning of competency. There are many definitions of competency doing rounds, for the article we’ll look at competency as a trait or characteristic that allows an individual to successfully accomplish work or task assigned. These characteristics are the culmination of individual’s; skills, knowledge and attributes. The traits or characteristics are known as competency only and only if they allow or result in superior performance.

The next question is often asked why use competency as the predictor of performance? Why not simply look at the individual’s performance?

Well the answer is simple while in the short term which might mean in the current role the performance of the individual might be a good indicator but for future performance competency is not only a better option but more often than not the only option. The reason being that; people perform tasks or jobs using their competency to achieve desired results. While work or jobs might change, competencies are of more enduring nature and immune to change in the job or work context. To summarize competencies are what individuals use to perform successfully and without it consistent performance is not possible.

Now that we have attempted to state the meaning of competency we take on our next important phrase “employee development” is the pursuit of any activity that leads to continuous learning, personal growth, and which contributes to the achievement of both an individual’s and their employer’s or organization’s objective(s) on the longer term.

Keeping the above two definition in mind we have tried to list down certain steps which might be used work towards doing a pilot and then institutionalize competency based employee development.

The Background
• Identify a champion, target employees, and structural framework for an employee development process
• Assess the need for a competency development process; get an estimate for the organization’s competency needs
• Complete employee competency assessments and define estimates of target employees’ competency acquisition needs.(A SWAT of the target group’s competencies)

The Plan and Implementation
• Understand the target groups “personal aspirations”
• Develop a plan for implementation of the competency based employee development services
• Brief all stake holders and obtain resource support to implement the start-up process plan
• Create a steering committee (there should be representatives from all stat holders)
Implement and evaluate the start-up process

The follow up
• Make case studies of the implementation and spread the learning’s amongst the stake holders
• Institutionalize the learning and take the process to a larger group

How to build an engaged workforce?

You must be really surprised with the high attrition in your organization despite paying such good packages and must be wondering that why the competitors are not facing the same.

The scenario has completely changed and it’s no longer the good package that builds up a committed workforce.

The employee longs for much more than the just the salary that he takes home. The concept that plays a very important role in today’s scenario is Employee Engagement.

So what’s this Employee Engagement?

It’s the psychological commitment of the employees to the assigned task. It means that how well an employee relates himself to his work, how dedicated the employee is towards his work and so on.

The primary behaviors of engaged employees are
• Speaking positively about the organization to coworkers, potential employees and customers,
• Having a strong desire to be a member of the organization,
• Exerting extra effort to contribute to the organization’s success.

The association of the candidate with the organization begins from the day when he’s given the offer letter.

• The candidate should be made feel that he is a new member in the family. The time lag between the joining date and the offer letter should be well managed by the HR
• A New Year mail or birthday card though seem to be a very small thing but it really has an impact
• A new entrant must feel welcomed it does not call for standing at the entrance and greeting him with a garland. What we are talking about is that before the actual joining of the entrant a proper seat and all the essentials that he needs for carrying out his task should be made available
• There should be proper structured inductions, which make the employee fully aware of the environment he’s entering into. Thus it can be said that the task of getting your employees engaged begins from Day 1

Now after the first day initiative, let’s see the essentials that make the workforce engaged:-

• The employees must be fully clear with what is expected out of him unless and until he knows what the organization expects out of him he won’t be able to give his 100%
• Unless and until the boss lends the helping hand whenever the subordinate needs it don’t expect your workforce to be engaged The materials and the equipments those are essential for carrying out the task by the employees should be provided to them
• The peers should be supportive enough and the whole team should function efficiently The employees should be informed at a regular interval about their performances and due arrangements should be made which help them overcome their loopholes
• Fair and appropriate reward, recognition and incentive systems it increase the trust of the employees in the management and thus adding to the motivation and the level of commitment towards the organization

Besides the above listed one many other factors might be affecting the engagement level depending on the particular business requirement. Don’t forget upon the birthday bashes, annual functions and other small - small events that add to the motivation level of the employees and give them a good break from their hectic work life. The employee engagement requires a two-way relationship between the employer and the employee.

Do listen to the ideas of the employees and acknowledge them it really adds to their morale and the confidence level. Work upon the engagement process and see wonders happening in your organization. It will really make a difference try it out.

EXIT INTERVIEW- Purpose, Process and Format

Gone are the days when people use to stick to one job for rest of their life. The trust is lost and the faith is lost as well from both sides. If an employer is having a policy of hire and fire, employees are also free to change their jobs whenever they want. As we need experts to take hiring interviews…we also need experts to take EXIT Interviews. Not everyone can take exit interview.

Purpose While attrition is a natural process for organizations, replacing employees is expensive. The cost goes beyond merely placing an advertisement for the opening in a newspaper. It includes training a new employee, staff time for selecting a new employee, lost productivity while the position is open and lost productivity until the new employee gets up to speed. Understanding why people voluntarily leave the company can provide an opportunity for the firm to make changes to reduce turnover rates -- and reduce the associated costs.

The exit interview serves a number of important functions. When trends in voluntary separations are tracked, the firm may be provided valuable insights on discrimination, training & development, lack of opportunities, concerns relating to benefits & compensation etc.

Conducting the Interview HR managers are a critical part of the separation process. Exit interviews are traditionally conducted by HR staff members with the knowledge and input of the immediate manger of the departing employee. Using HR managers as interviewers, improves the chance employees will open up and provide more valuable feedback. One need to ensure that exit interview is not taken by same department manager or same HR representative of the employee, otherwise employee will not open up or end up with arguments.

There are a number of key issues to keep in mind. The interviewer should always begin the process on a positive note - perhaps by offering a thank you for the employee's service to the organization. And above all, the employee should always be treated with dignity and respect. In some sensitive situations, employees may even be asked how they would like their departure to be handled with peers. It is important for every organization to ensure that all employees leaving the company (especially those leaving for disciplinary reasons or lack of performance) have been provided due process. Every individual must be given the opportunity to have his or her side of the issue heard. It is always important to provide documentation. If the employee has resigned, a letter of resignation should be included with the termination paperwork.

The primary key to an effective exit interview is preparation. The planning becomes an essential component of success in conducting the exit interview. Interviewers should plan out issues to be covered and the questions to be asked. Structured interviews are recommended with the use of questions prepared in advance.

Introspection/ Probing the Reasons Interviewers usually want to determine the real reasons of voluntary separations. This provides an opportunity to make changes - particularly when the separation may also be impacting other people. For example, management is often cited as a common reason people leave the organization. It is good for the company to know the reasons so they can take corrective action.

It is critical to get beyond the "politically correct" reason that the majority of employees provide when leaving a position. The critical portion of the interview should probe the employee for feedback about the working conditions and how they might be improved.

Conclusion With the recognition exit interviews can provide an opportunity for valuable feedback, new approaches are being used. Trends in exit interviews today include outsourcing and automated surveys. Some companies have opted to delegate the exit interview to a third party firm that specializes in conducting these interviews. The rationale is departing employees may be more open and honest with an objective third party. These interviewers are often trained in asking probing questions and can elicit more information.

The information solicited from the exit interview is only valuable if it used. It must be disseminated to the appropriate people within the organization and then actually used to make positive changes. Otherwise, the company has missed a valuable opportunity.

Work place conflict resolution

Meet with the antagonists together. Let each briefly summarize their point of view, without comment or interruption by the other party. This should be a short discussion so that all parties are clear about the disagreement and conflicting views. Intervene if either employee attacks the other employee. This is not acceptable.

Ask each participant to describe specific actions they’d like to see the other party take that would resolve the differences. Three or four suggestions work well. If the situation needs further exploration, use a process in which you ask each participant to additionally identify what the other employee can do more of, less of, stop and start.

All participants discuss and commit to making the changes necessary to resolve the conflict. Commit to noticing that the other person has made a change, no matter how small. Commit to treating each other with dignity and respect. It is okay to have reasonable disagreements over issues and plans; it is never okay to have personality conflicts that affect the workplace.

Let the antagonists know that mediator will not choose sides, that it is impossible for a person external to the conflict to know the truth of the matter. Finally, assure both parties that you have every faith in their ability to resolve their differences and get on with their successful contributions within your shared organization. Set a time to review progress.

Actions to Avoid in Conflict Resolution
Do not avoid the conflict, hoping it will go away. It won't. Even if the conflict appears to have been superficially put to rest, it will rear its ugly head whenever stress increases or a new disagreement occurs. An unresolved conflict or interpersonal disagreement festers just under the surface in your work environment.

Do not meet separately with people in conflict. If you allow each individual to tell their story to you, you risk polarizing their positions. The person in conflict has a vested interest in making himself or herself “right” if you place yourself in the position of judge and jury. The sole goal of the employee, in this situation, is to convince you of the merits of their case.

Do not believe, for even a moment, the only people who are affected by the conflict are the participants. Everyone in your office and every employee, with whom the conflicting employees interact, is affected by the stress. People feel as if they are walking on egg shells in the presence of the antagonists. This contributes to the creation of a hostile work environment for other employees. In worst case scenarios, organization members take sides and the organization is divided.

Inspired Leadership

Leadership is almost certainly the most written about and discussed topic in organizational literature- even more so in today’s turbulent times.

Organizations and societies these days have become excessively focused on short term and narrow thinking. There seems to be a strong desire to acquire financial wealth quickly without paying attention to the means adopted for doing so. It is this evident lack of value based leadership and indulgence in unethical practices, which has led us not only to an economic crisis, but also to a crisis of confidence.

Why do people become self-centred? What makes us turn a blind eye to the plight of millions of poor people around us? Why do we use methods and processes that damage the eco-system? What makes us continue to lead our lives without reflecting upon these issues? Why do we attract more people of the same kind who reinforce this thinking rather than ‘diversity’ that challenges our assumptions?

These are extremely important questions. It has taken us many years to reach the current state, and this poses a serious danger to our society. Let us look deep within and introspect about what has made us cause this to ourselves.

The erosion of human value begins with the selfish pursuit of own ambitions without paying attention to the means that are fair and just. When many others see me become ‘wealthy’ by adopting these means, they too emulate the dangerous ways. Organizations that have become large corporations by following these methods have made millions of shareholders wealthy, but only in the short run. The system has become so corrupt that the evil network of politicians, self serving bureaucrats and businessmen are working seamlessly to benefit their own selves while giving ‘lip service’ to serving society. The only way to overcome this problem is to pay attention to a new model of leadership. We need to develop ‘Inspired Leadership’ by overhauling our existing ways of working.

Inspired Leadership has five dimensions. Ethics is at its centre. When we know the difference between our fundamental ‘rights’ of thinking and the ‘right’ action to take, we become more ethical. Self awareness and mindfulness are necessary for us to become more conscious of the choices we make. If only we were to pay attention by invoking our own consciousness, we would become aware of the consequences of our ways of living. This would make us more compassionate towards those who are suffering and are less fortunate- the people whom we have been ignoring and even exploiting. It would make us think deeply about how to use the earth’s resources in a sustainable way and learn about why global warming and the green economy are critical issues of today for everyone of us. Further, this would make us attract people in our organization who are genuinely diverse and bring multiple intelligences of creativity, emotional and social ability and spirituality. Such people would challenge our assumptions and help us become even more evolved and aware. These are therefore the five pillars of Inspired Leadership: Ethics, Mindfulness, Compassion, Sustainability and Diversity.

Deploying technology to deliver results

Many will recollect the vintage Personnel Departments where stacks of files and reams of forms were stock in trade. The Personnel Officers were busy processing forms and maintaining records, submitting one report or the other almost all day long, intercepted by meeting with union representatives or few employees then again going back to those stack of papers. Senior managers too were doing nothing very different, except they had Assistants to get the reports. Personnel Department was considered a support function by business leaders who called the organizational direction. And those in the erstwhile Personnel department took pride in calling their function “grease that oiled the organization’s wheels”. One day folded into another, predominantly doing transaction work. How times have changed. HR function today stands out as a major strategic partner to business and HR professionals are shaping organization’s destiny.

But has HR become smarter? Has it leveraged technology to make a bigger impact? And have the HR professionals kept pace with the times and become technology savvy? And in doing so, have they freed themselves from service delivery mode and become partners to business?

HR service delivery will continue to assume a greater importance as businesses combat challenges of spiraling cost, demands of global workforce and processes, need for instant and round the clock information, flexible and changing organizational boundaries and of course rising customer expectations.

HR function has been a late entrant into the area of making technology work to its benefit. Technology can provide HR professionals scope to dramatically improve and automate processes and at the same time, streamline delivery services, besides reducing cost of such activities. Decision making process and employee satisfaction can improve substantially as the workplace embraces higher level of technology. In many organizations, HR services delivery has been adversely impacted due to ineffective use of technology.

As per Forrester Research, HR professionals spend nearly 50% of time on administrative activities. Much of this can be saved with implementation of HR Management Systems which would eliminate routine paper work besides reducing costs by automating basic HR activities. It would also facilitate better decision through accurate and timely reporting and analysis.
Hackett Group study found that high-performing world-class companies operated with 16% fewer HR staff than the others mainly by more efficient use of IT. Self-service technology contributed to higher levels of efficiency and productivity and simultaneous reduction in costs. The study also established that HR leaders in these companies had a deep understanding of technology and made a strong effort to derive as much value as possible from the technologies they had deployed.

Use of Second-Life concept to onboard new employees and inducting them into company culture has received favorable response from tech-savvy generation. Besides using technology for basic activities like disseminating information on company policy, benefit enrollment; organizations are now using it extensively for talent Management, skill development, self paced learning and simulations. It has made significant stride in improving communication with employees through simple yet highly effective techniques like e-notice boards, interactive chat forums, share nets, virtual town hall meetings etc. Even use of Podcast as means of disseminating knowledge or information is fast gaining popularity for its simplicity and acceptance by younger generation. Technology is being leveraged to build employees’ skills though ‘Touch Point’ calls or short e-meetings which enable employees to discuss business and technical topics with experts in a small group setting. Use of 'Mail Cast', a five-minute, flash based tutorials is a creative way of spreading knowledge, convey policies and processes and also provide an interactive learning platform, it provides good pointers in those few minutes.

Despite current economic challenges, progressive organizations are continuing to invest and find value in HR technology systems. According to a Towers Perrin's study of HR service delivery and technology, close to a third of the respondents have increased their investment in HR-related technologies, and 55% are maintaining their technology budgets at 2007 levels. For organizations to sustain or even increase their HR-related technology spend in a year of such economic uncertainty and cost-cutting is a testament to the importance companies are placing on managing their talent and having the right systems and capabilities in place to do that well.
The human resources function in its journey of evolution is migrating from an isolated back office and occasionally bureaucratic function to one that is viewed as a competitive advantage helping organizations achieve strategic business objectives. A little help from technology is going a long way …

Workforce Analytics and HR

Not only does the development of workforce analytics such as cost per hire, time to fill, absence rates, benefit costs per employee and other metrics change the way human capital issues are viewed outside of the HR function, it is also helping to transform HR into what is known as a “decision science.” HR as a decision science means that as a function it has analytical rigor and empirical precision with a measurable impact on business results. The use of workforce analytics supports this by helping to define what is to be measured in order to better understand the return on investment of HR programs and processes and using the data derived from these measurements to make further improvements and drive change as it relates to human capital and talent. As Boudreau and Ramstad write in their work on a decision science for human capital talent, “the marketing decision science enhances decisions about customers, and the finance decision science enhances decisions about money, so a talent decision science should enhance decisions about talent, both within and outside the HR function.”

The evolution of HR into a decision science depends largely on the ability to measure human capital accurately because, without measurement, the human capital notion is just a concept and difficult to apply in the real world. Increasingly, measurement and application depend on technology, especially when forecasting or using complex calculations that take into account a large amount of data. As a result, new technical applications are being developed across HR functional areas and may be used to better link HR functions. For example, workforce analytics were first developed with a significant focus on the cost of benefits and compensation, while knowledge management systems were developed to track and measure company skills, knowledge and the effectiveness of training programs.

As human resource technologies evolve, it will become easier to link human capital measurement systems and, in so doing, better understand how different types of human capital interventions relate to and impact each other.