Competencies

A description of the characteristics, knowledge, skills and behaviours a person needs in order to perform effectively in a job or organisation.

Competencies describe the characteristics a person needs in order to perform effectively in a job or in an organisation. ‘Threshold’ competencies spell out the characteristics required for an adequate performance. ‘Differentiating’ competencies distinguish superior from adequate performance.

Competencies are typically a mixture of such things as motives, traits, attitudes or values, knowledge, and cognitive or behavioural skills. House styles differ, but the normal pattern is to have a label for the competency (eg ‘Strategic Thinking’), a one-sentence definition (eg ‘Taking the longer term into consideration and developing broad-scale objectives’), followed by a list of specific behavioural indicators (eg ‘Considers whether short-term goals will meet long-term objectives’, ‘Establishes a course of action to accomplish a long-term goal or vision’). Similar competencies are usually put into groups or clusters.

Provided that competencies are specific, unambiguous and written down, they are useful in helping everyone know what is expected of their performance. Competencies also have the potential to aid learning and development, but only if they are fully integrated into other key processes such as recruitment and selection, feedback and appraisal, coaching and mentoring, and (the most contentious) pay and remuneration. Without this integration there is a real danger that competencies are relegated to meaningless lists of words with no real impact.