Competency Management Resources

Without clear visibility into your team’s skills, how can you ensure they are equipped to succeed in a rapidly changing landscape?

Without Competency Management Software support organizations experience

• Lack of visibility into competency needs
• Inability to map skills to roles
• Blind spots in capability assessment
• Frustration over skill shortages
• Ongoing inefficiencies in training
• Missed development opportunities for staff
• Increased employee frustration and turnover
• Lost productivity and business growth

Competency management improves communication by establishing a clear framework for discussing skills and development.

• Shared Skill Expectations: Clearly defines required competencies, ensuring managers and employees have a common understanding of role expectations.
• Career Development Alignment: Helps align employee skill growth with both personal career goals and organizational needs.
• Ongoing Skill Conversations: Encourages regular discussions on strengths, skill gaps, and development opportunities.
• Personalized Learning Paths: Enables managers to tailor training and upskilling efforts to individual needs.
• Technology-Driven Insights: Platforms like Centranum provide data on skill progress, guiding informed discussions.

Because training and qualifications don’t guarantee competence on the job

Competency management helps organizations maximize their workforce potential by;

• aligning talent with business goals
• enabling dynamic and proactive management of employee competencies
• streamlining skill assessments, ensuring consistency
• providing real time data-driven insights into skill gaps
• providing real-time data-driven insights into skill gaps
• managing and tracking employee onboarding and competency development.
• managing and tracking employee onboarding and competency development

but Competency Management is almost impossible to manage without suitable software

Today competency management software is a neccessity not a ‘nice to have’.  Organizations need;

• Seamless Access Anywhere: Everyone can access crucial skills and competency data from any device, at any time. Vital information is always at your fingertips, whether you’re at a corporate office or a remote worksite.
• Efficiency Over Manual Processes:  Its no longer feasible to manage competency data in files and folders or Excel sheets.  The software centralizes data, making it easier to retrieve and manage, allowing your team to focus on what truly matters.
• Industry Versatility: Whether you’re working bedside in healthcare, on the plant floor in manufacturing, or in the field of construction, digitized solutions adapt seamlessly to your industry’s specific needs.
• Enhanced Safety and Quality: Transparent and validated skills data enhances operational safety and quality. By having accurate insights, organizations can maintain high standards and reduce risks effectively.
• Support for Continuous Learning: The software not only manages competencies but also encourages ongoing learning and development, empowering employees to grow alongside evolving business demands

A competency management system should offer a range of features designed to optimize workforce development and align employee skills with organizational goals. Here’s what you can expect:

• Competency Library Creation: Develop or bring in an existing collection of job competencies to tailor fit your company’s needs. This serves as a foundation for assessing and developing skills across various roles.
• Role-specific Competency Targets: Assign specific competency levels required for each job role, ensuring clarity in expectations and aiding in evaluations.
• Dual-Assessment Capability: Facilitate competency assessments that allow both managers and employees to provide input. This dual perspective ensures a more balanced and comprehensive evaluation.
• Expert Assessment Capability: For specialisations support assessment by experts
• Career Transparency for Employees: Empower staff by enabling them to view which job roles align with their current skill set, promoting career growth and fostering internal mobility.

• Enhanced Communication Tools: Provide a platform for managers and employees to discuss assessments, explore strengths, and identify areas for improvement, strengthening the feedback loop.
• Skill Development Tracking: Monitor an employee’s competency progression over time, aiding in personalized development plans and long-term career tracking.
• Gap Analysis: Identify skill gaps within your workforce through detailed competency assessments, allowing for targeted training and upskilling initiatives.
• Comprehensive Reporting: Generate detailed reports that highlight both skill shortages and excesses, informing strategic decisions in workforce planning and development.

This holistic approach not only boosts employee engagement but also aids in strategic talent management, ensuring that your team is always equipped with the necessary skills to succeed.

Key steps outline

1. Define Competencies: Identify the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviors for each job role.
2. Map Competencies to Roles: Align each role with the relevant competencies.
3. Assess Competencies: Use self-assessments, manager evaluations, and 360-degree feedback to measure employee competency levels.
4. Analyze Competency Gaps: Identify areas where employees need development.
5. Develop Skills: Provide targeted learning and development programs.
6. Monitor and Review: Regularly review and update competency profiles to align with organizational changes.

Competency management systematically monitors an employee’s skill growth throughout their career. It begins with an initial assessment to establish a baseline, followed by personalized development plans that include training and mentorship. Regular evaluations and feedback integration ensure continuous improvement, while performance metrics track progress.

Competency management supports career pathing and succession planning, helping employees prepare for future roles. This structured approach ensures ongoing skill development, keeping employees and organizations competitive.

To effectively model their career paths, employees can:

• Compare Job Competencies: By evaluating their current skills against those required for desired positions, employees can clearly see the gaps they need to fill.
• Identify Specific Skills and Development Needs: Understanding the particular competencies required for advancement allows employees to tailor their development strategies accordingly.
• Set Career Goals: Employees with a clear vision of their desired roles can focus their efforts on acquiring the necessary skills and experiences to reach those positions.

Competency management is key to business success by developing employee skills and preparing individuals for future roles. Investing in workforce development creates a strong talent pipeline, while advanced tools help identify skill gaps and strengths for targeted growth. Regular assessments ensure alignment with strategic goals, enabling businesses to adapt, stay competitive, and achieve long-term success.

The competency concept has many different definitions. We review the emergence of the concept and the different ways it is used. We look at the different types of competencies,  competency models and why using competency is an essential business tool.

Read More

How to develop Competency Models – free guide

In depth review of how to set up competency models.  From the most simple to the most complex. Read More

How to define a competency

Competency statements that work. Free ebook

How to structure competency statements for different purposes. Avoiding the pitfalls that can cause inaccurate assessments.  Download

Critical Thinking Skills

Complete competency definition for the modern workplace

Key elements – Interpretation, Analysis, Evaluation, Reasoning, Self Reflection

Get the details of each – free download

Competency Assessment – Best practices – free Guide

Everything you need to know about competency assessment – how to avoid common mistakes and ensure valid assessments.   Read More

Competency Management Business Case

10 reasons you need a competency management system

Competency Management – done right – is the fundamental building block of people strategy.  Read More

What is a Core Competency?

The origin of the concept of Core Competencies together with examples and notes on their use.  Read More

How to Use Core Competencies to shape Organizational Culture

A core competency framework is an essential tool in people management.  Some key questions are whether to use a generic vendor provided proprietary competency library, or define your own, and how then to assess core competencies.  We cover these questions and the 5 key steps to defining valid core competencies.  Learn More

What is a Competency Model?

A competency model is a list or catalogue of competencies identified by an organization to demonstrate its values, to ensure staff work together to support the organizational goals and ensure successful job performance at the individual level.  The use of competency models is a strategic imperative for organizations of size and complexity.   Read More

Competency and its impact on Risk Management

It is well accepted that people are the most important element in an organization’s success – the corollary is that they are also its biggest risk.  Since job knowledge and skill are the best predictor of successful performance Competency Management tools are indispensable for organizational risk management.    Read More

Competency versus Performance – the difference

Competency and Performance are widely used terms in Human Resources that have no commonly accepted meaning. This confuses organizational staff as well as the processes used in people management.  Our model sets out a clear evidence based relationship that can be used for HR process design.  Read More

Certification versus Competence

We assume that a certification means that the holder is competent in the subject of the certificate – unfortunately this is often not the case.  There are several key reasons.. Read More

Competence or Competency

As with so many terms in Talent Management there is confusion between ‘Competence’ and ‘Competency’.  Are they the same or are they different concepts?  and how should they be used?   Read More

Employee Engagement & Leadership Competency

Surveys consistently show staff in many organizations are not highly engaged.  There is some association between engagement and organizational success.  Leadership competency is also an area of concern. This is not coincidental. There is a close link.    Read More

Do Core Competencies improve Performance

A summary of the recent research on the links of core competencies to individual, work group and overall organizational performance. Read More

Core Competency Examples

Evidence based core competencies.  Research shows positive impact on team and  organizational effectiveness.   Learn More

Avoiding bias in Assessment

Understand the relevant sources of bias and strategies to minimise them. Learn More

How to write Competency statements

How to construct a competency statement for consistency of interpretation and assessment.

Making Competencies Work

How to ensure your competency initiative is credible with positive outcomes. Learn More