Competence Management System

Reference is made to the HSE guidance Developing and Maintaining Staff

Competence which was written for the rail industry but applies equally well to the
marine environment and is a point of reference for competence management. The
HSE recognises competence as the ability to undertake responsibilities and to
perform activities to a recognised standard on a regular basis. It is a combination of
practical and thinking skills, experience and knowledge1, and may include a
willingness to undertake work activities in accordance with agreed standards, rules
and procedures.
The standard of competence is the standard of work expected to satisfy a number of
requirements, including business objectives as well as health and safety
requirements.
Competence management primarily addresses personnel performance and is
complimentary to other elements such as remuneration and industrial relations. The
first component of this system to be addressed will be a review of the appraisal
format. The format presented modifies the format that was done last year in that
many of the sub-categories remain however three head categories are now
provided:

practical and thinking skills

experience and knowledge
willingness to undertake work activities in accordance with agreed standards

Using this text as a guideline the HSE has developed a Competence checklist which
outlines how good companies approach competence2:

Know all hazards that could arise in every task (including normal operational,
maintenance and emergency tasks)

Have a good selection process to identify suitable employees or contractors

for those tasks

Know the exact type of person to assign to each task

Have enough people to always be able to put the right person onto a
particular job

Can identify any gaps in a persons skill or knowledge or experience

(competence)

Know the best way of providing the skills and knowledge that people need
(e.g. training, including on the job)

1
2

Developing and Maintaining Staff Competence. HSE (2002), ISBN 0 7176 17327
HSE Human Factors Briefing Note No. 2 - Competence

Have access to the best training resources (training facilities, trainers and
equipment)

Make it easy for people to get the training they need

Always use actual work instructions/procedures in our training

Continually improve managers as well as staff competence

Never make a person do a job theyre not competent to do

Assess whether training has worked

Retrain people if they need it

Keep good records so that we know what training/experience each person

has had and what they need next

Change the selection, training and assessment system if it isnt working