An essential component of any change process is the need to be very clear with both managers and employees with regard to the new behaviours that are required to lead and implement the change.

Clarifying competencies is an effective technique for helping managers to focus on what they actually want people to do in terms of behaviours to meet both current and future demands in the company.

Our process results in a specific competency-based profile that can be used for many activities, including selection, assessment, and development.

Introduction and Overview

Competencies are a common language to help organisations identify, manage, and develop the specific behaviours that drive successful performance. Competencies can be defined as sets of behaviours that are instrumental in the delivery of desired results. They reflect the behaviours that a person demonstrates in order to achieve specific business objectives. These objectives can either be actions to achieve specific business results or actions to support general aspects of an organisation’s culture and strategy.

Opsis Consulting use a Universal Competency Framework that establishes a common language for competencies linked to a structured approach, built on empirical evidence. The Framework is based on extensive scientific research that looked at hundreds of competency models in a wide range of different organisations around the world, resulting in an easy-to-apply model that provides standard terminology to:

• help identify and develop the competencies organisations require, and
• describe key behaviours that drive performance in virtually any job, at any level, in any organisation.

Benefits

Our Competency Development approach results in concrete, tangible outcomes, such as:

• Translating general business strategies into specific employee behaviours.
• Clarifying performance expectations for employees in an organisation or department, focusing on both what and how they are expected to perform.
• Identifying relationships between organisational strategy and knowledge, skills, and abilities needed in the workforce.
• Clarifying specific or collective development needs.

Our Approach

We use Competency Profiler Cards to help people identify, manage, and develop the specific behaviours that drive successful performance. The Cards are used as part of a hands-on, interactive process that helps to foster user involvement and participation in the job profiling process. This in turn helps to increase people’s confidence, commitment, and appreciation for the value that competencies have for increasing organisational effectiveness.
Opsis Consulting's Competency Development Programmes include:

• Developing a Competency Based Profile, and
• Using Competencies to identify an Individual’s Strengths and Development Areas.

1Developing a Competency Based Profile

Our Approach

Our Competency Development approach can be used to create a vision or a blueprint for a current or new job.

• We typically facilitate this process with line managers, leaders, and anyone responsible for defining either a pre-existing or a new job.
• Stakeholders sort through the dimension cards to identify the most critical dimensions required to achieve the job’s objectives.
• Our process can be conducted as part of a focus group with all stakeholders working together or by working with each stakeholder separately. The later approach requires the integration of results across sessions to produce a consolidated competency profile.
• The outcome is a competency-based profile of the requirements for successful performance in an existing or a new job.

Benefits

The benefits you can expect to achieve include:

• Developing a greater understanding of the requirements for successful performance of a new or existing job.
• Refining the job itself to ensure a better fit with the department and organisation.
• Developing a specific competency-based profile that can be used for many activities, including selection, assessment, and development.

Please note that this process is not intended to lead to a standard job analysis or job description. Rather, it will help you to understand competencies necessary for success given the responsibilities of a new or existing job.

2Using Competencies to Identify Strengths and Development Areas

Our Approach

• We typically facilitate this process with individuals in professional/managerial positions.
• Based on a pre-defined competency profile for their job, an individual is asked to sort Competency Cards to identify their individual strengths and development areas.
• The assessor then leads a discussion around the chosen Cards to compare how the individual views their current competencies in relation to the competencies required to succeed in the job.

Benefits

The benefits you can expect to achieve include:

• Shared clarity about a person’s strengths and development needs.
• Individual ownership of the need to develop competencies critical to success in the job.
• A focus on which competencies should be given priority for professional development.

Key Considerations

This process assumes that a competency model has already been developed for the target position. If a competency model does not already exist, we recommend completing a Competency Based Profile first.