training professionals

Training professionals, over 55,000 of whom belong to the American Society of Training & Development, are vitally interested in Competency Modeling. Trainers are being called upon to justify their existence and to document their results. Blanket training by department or by title is no longer acceptable. Management is looking for individualized plans based upon factual development needs which are linked to business goals. Consequently, competency based training and development planning is a frequent topic at training meetings and conventions:

Nearly 15 percent of the attendees registered their names at CooperComm’s ASTD convention booth introducing our Competency Coach software and services

Distributors from over 20 countries expressed interest in representing the product

At a training administration users convention, only one of 110 large enterprises had completed a competency modeling project, yet over 70 organizations attended an optional breakfast meeting called to discuss potential changes in the program to facilitate Competency curriculum tracking

quality professionals seeking
organizational certification

The continuing focus on TQM makes quality specialists another important market for Competency Modeling concepts. The American Society for Quality has approximately 138,000 members world wide. The AQP has about 10,000 members nationally. Quality specialists are drawn into Competency Modeling by various international, national, statewide and local quality award and quality certification criteria.

The Baldrige National Quality Award “Employee Education, Training and Development” criteria asks applicants to:

“Describe how the company’s education and training address key company plans and needs, including building knowledge and capabilities, and contributing to improved employee performance and development.”

This is also important for organizations seeking local quality awards since the Baldrige criteria are often the basis for state standards.

In recent years, the Baldrige criteria has developed a stronger focus on business results. It requires organizations to look for specific measurements of effectiveness – actual changes in competencies which provide measurable benefits for the organization. A closely related concept in Baldrige scoring is trends, i.e., being able to show progress over time. This requires a periodic check of competencies.

The international ISO 9000 standards and automotive ISO 14000 standards are focused more on documentation of quality processes and adherence to those processes. This means that an organization must have a procedure for verifying that employees are qualified to do their jobs. Any gaps between desired position competencies and the capabilities of individuals must be identified and addressed.

ISO 9001 quality specification 4.18 states:

“The supplier ... shall maintain documented procedures for identifying training needs ... personnel shall be qualified on the basis of appropriate education, training and/or experience …”

This is frequently one of the most difficult areas for organizations seeking quality recognition or certification. The Competency Modeling process can help quality professionals determine standards, identify gaps, and create individualized remediation plans.

HR professionals

The Human Resources department of an organization has the primary responsibility for insuring that personnel development efforts are generating the desired business results. There are approximately 63,000 members of the Society for Human Resource Management, with another 4,000 belonging to the smaller HRP and NHRA. Competency topics are frequently included in national meetings or periodic specialized conferences such as:

International Society of Performance Improvement’s conference and publications

Case Western Reserve University/Linkage, Inc. sponsored “Using Competency-Based Tools & Applications to Drive Organizational Performance” national and international conferences

finance professionals

Today, top executives are asking the question, “Are we spending our training dollars effectively?” Finance/Administration, to which the Human Resources department often reports, is reexamining its expenditures for personnel development.

For example, in the early 1980’s it was estimated that approximately ten percent of IBM’s entire work force was in class on any one day. IBM was committed to the training and development of its personnel. It competed in a high-technology, fast-changing industry and was the dominant player in nearly all its markets.

Facing the troubled 1990’s, a new executive team began to reevaluate IBM’s commitment to training – expenditures of billions of dollars per year. Was that investment paying off? Although IBM was a benchmark organization in training measurement, there was still no way for it to know for certain without competency measurement and modeling.

executive management

Executive management faces the challenge of connecting strategic objectives at a global level to specific job activities for front-line individuals. This can be a top-down process starting with core competencies. Or it can be a bottom-up process starting with job/task analyses. What typically occurs in a large organization is that both approaches are being utilized, but they are not connected. Executives can initiate a process that makes the connection. top