Some key use cases for competency model adoption

By Alexis Katigbak, Platform Product Manager at Ibbaka. See her skill profile.

Ibbaka is doing extensive research on how to evolve business models in the event of a gradual or even a sudden industry shift. HR leaders have a strategic role to play in supporting a business model shifts and the transformations required. How does this apply to skills and competency management? Let’s unpack the ways your competency model enables transformation. 

Competency models are a powerful tool. The first step to applying them is to understand goals. 

Trying to achieve too many goals at once leads to confusion. A lack of focus can be detrimental to success, so choose just a few goals for a pilot implementation and then scale according to the lessons learned. It is important to align the initial goals to the key business objectives. Each use case will apply the competency model differently. (To understand the steps in building models, see our post on how to build a competency model.)

Aligning skills with current needs

The first use case of applying a competency model has to do with understanding the skills available in the workforce today. This helps build a picture of the capabilities that either cover the necessary capabilities to meet goals, standardize expectations across certain job levels (as in the case where the competency model supports a job architecture) and define a strategy to address skill gaps. 

In this approach the competency model is used as a baseline with standardized targets for individuals to align to certain competencies and skills with jobs and roles. Then a gap analysis is applied to see where skill gaps exist. This can be done for individuals, jobs, roles, a business function, a geography or any other filter that creates a meaningful group of people.
By aligning skills to current needs and identifying skills gaps, one  can target the talent investments needed to address skills gaps.

Aligning skills with future needs

Aligning skills to future needs applies the competency model in a different form. The strategy has pivoted from a finite set of known competency models to an infinite set of unknown competency models. This strategy means an organization is preparing for the future. Uncertian, gradual or sudden changes have various degrees of impact and risk. Resilient and adaptive organizations prepare for these risks. Modeling out future scenarios need not be daunting. Most leaders can identify 2-3 large scale shifts that need to be considered and that is enough to get started. 

Featured resource: if you want to know where to start, download a free template for designing your competency model here

Once you have built one or more future competency models you can follow the same approach as you did when aligning skills with future needs. Each model with target skill levels can be mapped to either a team, department, geography or other groups of individuals. With this insight, leaders can assess which skills can be leveraged for the future, and where investments are needed to prepare for future scenarios. 
Organizations that can align skills with future needs of varying scenarios are better prepared to respond in times of gradual disruption (as in the case of industry wide automation and responses to climate change) or sudden disruption (natural disasters, global economic downturns or pandemics). 

Increasing staff utilization

For professional services organizations, staff utilization is one of the most important metrics. If people are not working on projects for customers they are not earning money for the firm.

A competency model then becomes a baseline for the skills needed on the various roles required to delivery different types of work. Connecting individuals to the model creates a consistent view on finding people with the skills and capabilities needed for certain types of projects and teams. It may also be a way to find the key people with niche skills that need to be leveraged or whose skills need to be taught to other people in the case where demand on that skill is growing at a faster pace than it is available in the firm.

A bottom up approach to evolving the competency model also applies, as the emergence of new skills either through formal or on-project learning, may signal new forms of work staff can be applied to and as a result, new opportunities for the firm.

Rationalizing learning resources to fit skill development needs

If an organization has an existing competency model, or a finite set of future models, they can begin to define a path towards equipping their workforce with the skills and capabilities needed to meet specific business challenges. This is where the diversity of the individual plays an important role. 

Not only do individuals have different learning styles, individuals may also have different aspirations for their career paths. By defining key skills and capabilities to meet outcomes, individuals can get greater transparency on how they fit into several of their own future scenarios. Personalized and adaptive learning in its true sense requires competency models relevant to the individual. With these models, we can create skill development plans for individuals based on their learning styles and aspirations. 

Here the competency model takes on a different role as it needs to interact with other systems and provide them with information about target competencies. Then, these tools need to measure growth over time to correlate learning investments to performance outcomes. 

Understanding which skills are driving outcomes

If a competency model has existed and evolved over time, the data collected on the model and the individuals’ alignment to the model gets richer. As this is happening, leaders can spot patterns such as what competencies show up more often in specific roles, projects or lines of business, and which of those projects, products or lines of business have driven performance outcomes. These competencies define the critical skills that the organization has. With this data, leaders can evolve the model to better align with superior outcomes - opening up new markets, finding new ways to innovate and re-transforming their business. 

The key to a successful implementation of a competency model is to connect it to a business outcome
Organizations that can consistently transform their business are able to sustain long term growth through changing landscapes. Sustained growth is primarily driven by people and the skills they bring to the table. These people need to align their skills and capabilities to the overall business objectives. When applied and aligned to the business goals, competency models can be a powerful tool to find the patterns of talent differentiation that connect people to the most important problems a business needs to solve.

Ibbaka Posts on Competency Models and Competency Frameworks

• Competency models as learning plans

• From user experience to competency model design - Margherita Bacigalupo and EntreComp

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Jeff Griffiths on transversal and vertical skills

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: The chunkers and the slice and dicers

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Victoria Pazukha

• Two podcasts on competency model design from Vancouver

• The A in KSA is for Abilities or Attitudes or Attributes?

• Do competency frameworks need competency definitions?

• Should you have a personal competency model?

• Designing a skill competency model - the Ibbaka approach

• Design research - How do people approach the design of skill and competency models?

• Designing a blueprint for your competency model framework

• From competency model design to competency model generation

• The WEF on Building a Common Language for Skills at Work

• Aligning skill and competency models with microcredentials - a conversation between Don Presant and Kul Sharma

• Three Metaphors for Skills and Competencies

• The Skills for Career Mobility - Interview with Dennis Green

• Competencies or skills - what should you assess?

• Lessons Learned Launching and Scaling Capability Management Programs

• Designing a Competency Model for Innovation Coaches

• Talent Transformation - A Conversation with Eric Shepherd, Martin Belton and Steven Forth

• Who cares about skill and competency models

• Competency Model Definitions - the IEEE ups its game

• Competency Models Made Easy - Two Simple Spreadsheets to Build Your Own Competency Models

• Simple (very simple) skill and competency models

• Individual - Team - Organizational use cases for skill and competency management

• Design decisions for developing a competency framework

• What is skill management?

• Competency models are living documents and need curation

• Some key use cases for competency model adoption (this post)

• Designing the Open Competency Model Architecture

• A third skillscape

• Building skill and competency models together

• Getting past competency model PTSD

• Co-creation of Competency Models for Customer Success and Pricing Excellence

• Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change – An Interview with Dr. Robin Cox

• Architecting the Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change Open Competency Model

• Introducing open competency models

• Integrating Skills and Competencies in the Talent Management Ecosystem

• Organizational values and competency models – survey results

• Why your job architecture needs a competency model

• Are values part of your competency model?

• How to build competency models

• A skill name is just a word, isn’t it?

• Current trends in skill and competency management

• Enabling internal mobility - a design thinking approach