"ASMs International E-Journal on

Ongoing Research in Management and IT"

E-ISSN-2320-0065

ASSESSING COMPETENCY MAPPING OF EMPLOYEES:

A CASE STUDY OF AN ELECTRONIC COMPANYDr. Sweta Banerjee (India)

ABSTRACT :
A lot is going on in recent times on the issue of competency mapping. A lot of resource is
spent and consultants are invited to do competency mapping. Competency mapping is
gaining much more importance and organizations are aware of having good human
resources or putting the right people on right job
Competency mapping is important and is an essential exercise. Every well managed firm
should have well defined roles and list of competencies required to perform each role
effectively. Such list should be used for recruitment, performance management, promotions,
placements and training needs identification.
In performing or carrying out work, it is essential that the required job skills first be
articulated. This information not only helps to identify individuals who have the matching
skills for doing the work but also the skills that will enhance the successful performance of
the work. Yet often to perform well, it is not enough just to have these skills. It is also critical
to complement the skills with the necessary knowledge and attitudes. For e.g. the necessary
knowledge will enable an individual to apply the right skills for any work situation that will
arise while having the right attitude will motivate him to give his best efforts. These skills,
knowledge and attitudes required for the work are usually collectively referred as
competencies.
Introduction:
What is Competency?
A competency is defined as a behavior or set of behaviors that describes excellent
performance in a particular work context (e.g., job, role or group of jobs, function, or whole
organization). These characteristics are applied more and more by organizations because they
provide significant help with key problems such as:
clarifying workforce standards and expectations
aligning individuals, teams, and managers with the organization's business strategies
creating empowerment, accountability, and alignment of coach, team member, and
employer in performance development
developing equitable, focused appraisal and compensation decisions
Competency as a cluster of related knowledge, attitudes, skills and other personal
characteristics that
Affects a major part of ones job
Correlates with performance on the job
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Can be measured against well-accepted standards

Can be improved via training and development
A competency is what a successful employee must be able to do to accomplish desired
results on a job.Competencies are built up over time and are not innate. It typically takes
experience on the job to build competencies. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs), by
contrast, might be brought into the job by entry-level employees. For example, an entry-level
accountant who has just completed college might know the IRS Tax Code and basic
accounting principles. Yet it is unlikely that this person would be competent at filing a
corporate tax return. This is another way of saying that the employee has the KSAs that
underlie the job but has not yet developed the job competencies. Development and
experience are needed to become competent.
Competency Mapping
Competency mapping is a way of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a worker or
organization. It's about identifying a person's job skills and strengths in areas like teamwork,
leadership, and decision-making. Large organizations may use some form of this technique to
understand how to best use each worker or how to combine the strengths of different
employees to produce the highest quality work. Individuals may also find that this type of
assessment can help them prepare for a career change or advance in a specific job field.
Many competency mapping models break down strengths into two major areas: functional
and behavioral.
Functional skills include all of the practical knowledge that a person needs to perform a job.
For instance, functional requirements for a secretary might include typing ability, familiarity
with computer systems and office machinery, and book keeping knowledge. These skills are
generally easy to measure through skill tests or task-specific questions, and can help define
whether a worker is capable of carrying out his or her basic responsibilities.
Behavioral assessment is sometimes more difficult to quantify, and is the focus of most
competency studies. This type of analysis examines personal skills such as leadership, active
listening, teamwork, and morale. Crafting questions and tests that accurately identify
behavioral strengths and weaknesses can be difficult, because a worker may try to answer in
a way that makes him look his best rather than providing an honest response. This type of
testing is important for getting a complete picture of an individual's skill-set, however.
Questions might focus on how the person sets goals for himself, how he adapts to changing
situations, or how he deals with failure.

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RATIONALE FOR STUDY

Some Tips on How to do Competency Mapping?
Pick up a job or role that is relatively well understood by all individuals in the company. For
e.g.
Sales Executive, Assistant HR Manager, Receptionist, PR Manager etc. are known to all and
easy to profile. Work out competencies for this role if necessary with the help of job analysis
specialist or an internal member who has knowledge of competency mapping.
The steps involved in competency mapping with an end result of job evaluation include
the
following:
1) Conduct a job analysis by asking incumbents to complete a position information
questionnaire (PIQ). This can be provided for incumbents to complete, or you can
conduct one-on-one interviews using the PIQ as a guide. The primary goal is to gather
from incumbents what they feel are the key behaviors necessary to perform their
respective jobs.
2) Using the results of the job analysis, you are ready to develop a competency based job
description. A sample of a competency based job description generated from the PIQ may
be analyzed. This can be developed after carefully analyzing the input from the
represented group of incumbents and converting it to standard competencies.
3) With a competency based job description, you are on your way to begin mapping the
competencies throughout your human resources processes. The competencies of the
respective job description become your factors for assessment on the performance
evaluation. Using competencies will help guide you to perform more objective
evaluations based on displayed or Not displayed behaviors.
4) Taking the competency mapping one step further, you can use the results of your
evaluation to identify in what competencies individuals need additional development or
training. This will help you focus your training needs on the goals of the position and
company and help your employees develop toward the ultimate success of the
organization.
Competencies include the collection of success factors necessary for achieving important
results in a specific job or work role in a particular organization. Success factors are
combinations of knowledge, skills, and attributes (more historically called KSAs) that are
described in terms of specific behaviors, and are demonstrated by superior performers in
those jobs or work roles. Attributes include: personal characteristics, traits, motives, values or
ways of thinking that impact an individuals behavior.
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Competencies in organizations tend to fall into two broad categories:

- Personal Functioning Competencies. These competencies include broad success factors not
tied to a specific work function or industry (often focusing on leadership or emotional
intelligence behaviors).
- Functional/Technical Competencies. These competencies include specific success factors
within a given work function or industry.
Three other definitions are needed:
Competency Map. A competency map is a list of an individuals competencies that represent
the factors most critical to success in given jobs, departments, organizations, or industries
that are part of the individuals current career plan.

Competency Mapping. Competency mapping is a process an individual uses to identify

and describe competencies that are the most critical to success in a work situation or
work role.
Top Competencies. Top competencies are the vital few competencies (four to seven, on
average) that are the most important to an individual in their ongoing career management
process. Importance to the individual is an intuitive decision based on a combination of
three factors: past demonstrated excellence in using the competency, inner passion for
using the competency, and the current or likely future demand for the competency in the
individuals current position or targeted career field.
Why Should Individual Employees Map Their Competencies?
A list of compelling reasons includes, at a minimum, the following. An individual:

Gains a clearer sense of true marketability in todays job market; once the individual
knows how his/her competencies compare to those that are asked for by the job market in
key positions of interest.
Projects an appearance as a cutting-edge and well-prepared candidate, who has taken
the time to learn about competencies, investigate those in demand, and map his/her own
competencies prior to interviewing.
Demonstrates self-confidence that comes from knowing ones competitive advantages
more convincingly, and from being able to articulate those advantages in specific
language.
Secures essential input to resume development - a set of important terms to use in
describing expertise derived from prior career experience.
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Gains advanced preparation for interviews, many of which may be delivered using a
competency-based approach called structured behavioral interviewing or behavioral
event interviewing. (See the section below titled How Does Competency-Based
Interviewing and Selection Work?)
Develops the capability to compare ones actual competencies to an organization
Competencies are becoming a frequently-used and written-about vehicle for
organizational applications such as:
Defining the factors for success in jobs (i.e., work) and work roles within the
organization
Assessing the current performance and future development needs of persons holding jobs
and Roles Mapping succession possibilities for employees within the organization
Assigning compensation grades and levels to particular jobs and roles
Selecting applicants for open positions, using competency

Literature Review:
The use of Competencies can include: assessment during recruitment, assessment during
further development; as a profile during assessment to guide future development needs;
succession planning and promotion; organisational development analysis.
Techniques used to map Competencies include Critical Incident Analysis and Repertory
Grid
Critical Incident Analysis
Respondents are asked to relate specific incidents, which highlighted exemplary behaviours
in critical situations. This is based on the assumption that the best and the worst of a person
surfaces in a crisis
Repertory Grid
Identify important attributes
For each attributes, establish a bipolar scale with differentiable characteristics and their
opposites
Competency is an underlying characteristic required to perform a given task, activity, or
role can be considered as competency. Competency has the following forms:
Knowledge
Skills
Attitude
These three factors are important for identifying competency in a person. Different
individual requires different competency for e.g. a person working in a manufacturing unit
may require different competency than a person working in an IT sector. Competency
difference from industry to industry. According to Harvard Business Review Daniel Katz
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grouped competency into three areas which later expanded in to the following four:
Technical
Managerial
Human
Conceptual
In competency mapping all details of the behaviors (observable, specific, measurable etc) to
be shown by the person occupying that role are specified.
Application in the workplace:

Benefits for Individuals

Competency mapping can also be used to help those seeking employment show the specific skills
which would make them valuable to a potential employer. Many employers now purposefully
screen applicants for specific characteristics, so once a person knows her strengths, she can
emphasize them on an application or in an interview. A company may be looking for someone
who can be an effective team leader or who has demonstrated great active listening skills, for
example. Knowing that she has these strengths and being
being able to discuss personal examples
of them with prospective employers can give job-seekers
job seekers a competitive edge in the market.
Usually, a person will find that he or she has strong skills in five or six areas. Employees who
want to increase their worth may
may find that an area identified as a weakness is worth
developing. In other cases, the process may reveal that a person needs to find a new type of
work or a different work environment that is better suited to his or her abilities.
Challenges for Individuals
One potential limitation of personal testing is that individuals often have a few blind spots
regarding their own skills and personality. People tend to overestimate their abilities, which
can limit the usefulness of any test. They may also have difficulty
difficulty accurately answering
questions that ask how others view them in the workplace. This gap between how a person
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sees himself and what his skills really are can sometime make the results of self-testing
assessments questionable. For the most accurate results, test-takers must be prepared to
answer questions candidly and resist the temptation to overestimate their abilities.
Competency Mapping is a process of identify key competencies for an organization and/or a
job and incorporating those competencies throughout the various processes (i.e. job
evaluation, training, recruitment) of the organization. To ensure we are both on the same
page, we would define a competency as a behavior (i.e. communication, leadership) rather
than a skill or ability.
Who can do competency mapping?
Competency mapping is a task which can be done by many people. Now days all
Management schools and those specializing in HR train the students in competency mapping.
Any Masters in Management or Social Sciences or an Employee with Equivalent Experience
and training can develop these competencies.
ADC & AC are used to identify Competencies?
Assessment Centers are centers set up by an organization for periodic or continuous
assessment of competencies required to perform current, future likely or higher level
jobs/roles/tasks. They are increasingly used to identify high fliers and develop leaders/
competencies for the future.
They are also being used for recruitment purposes to assess the suitability of the
candidate for entry level as well as for senior levels positions.
Assessment Centers use multiple methods like in-basket presentations, role plays,
simulation exercise, leadership group discussions, case studies etc.
They are also called as development centers or ADCs in the recent.
Role of Competency in Recruitment & Retention
Competency mapping can play a significant role in recruitment and retaining people as it
gives a more accurate analysis of the job requirements, the candidates capability, of the
difference between the two, and the development and training needs to bridge the gaps.
As far as individuals career aspirations are concerned, once the organization gives an
employee the perspective of what is required from him to reach a particular position. It drives
him to develop the competencies for the same. Competencies enable individual to identify
and articulate what they offer-regardless of the job they happen to have at the time so that
their organization can see, value and utilize what capability is actually available.
Competency Mapping at Zensar & L&T Infotech
Zensar has a behavioral competency model which is based on various job roles in the
organization. The following is the process of implementation of competency mapping.
Having defined the various job roles, a focused study was initiated where job role holders
were interviewed on the critical incident method and the data of success-critical factors
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collated.
The job roles and deliverables were finalized on the basis of the competencies derived
from the data. This data was further analyzed, and on the basis of this competencies that
had an impact on the job roles and deliverables were finalized.
After identifying the competencies, a job analysis exercise was carried out where the
importance level of every competency was ascertained before freezing the competency
model.
L&T Infotech a PCMM Level 5 company has a successful competency based HR system.
Recruitment, training, job rotation, succession planning and promotions all are defined by
competency mapping. Nearly all our HR interventions are linked to competency.
Competencies are enhanced through training and job rotation. He adds that all people who
have gone through job rotation undergo a transformation and get a broader perspective of the
company. For instance a person lacking in negotiation skills might be put in the sales or
purchase department for a year to hone his skills in the area.
Summary:
Competency mapping is a way of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a worker or
organization. It's about identifying a person's job skills and strengths in areas like teamwork,
leadership, and decision-making. Large organizations may use some form of this technique to
understand how to best use each worker or how to combine the strengths of different
employees to produce the highest quality work. Individuals may also find that this type of
assessment can help them prepare for a career change or advance in a specific job field.
Competency mapping is a process of identifying key competencies for a particular position in
an organization, and then using it for training and development, performance management,
and succession planning.
Our competency mapping features include:
Aggregation of individual roles within the organization.
Skill set gap analysis.
Scheduling and planning e-learning courses in correspondence with role and skill set
demands.
Benefits:
Key Competencies for a particular position in an organization
It helps to identify the knowledge and skill that the employee requires in functioning in a
job role, effectively and efficiently.
It ensures that relevant training is provided.

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Identifies Competencies?
Competencies can be identified by one of the following category of people:
Experts
HR Specialists
Job analysts
Psychologists
Industrial Engineers

What Methodology is used?

The following methods are used in combination for competency mapping:
Interview
Group work
Task Forces
Task Analysis workshops
Questionnaire
Use of Job descriptions
Performance Appraisal Formats etc.
How to Identify Competency?
The process of identification is not very complex. Some of the methods are given below:
1. Simply ask each person who is currently performing the role to list the tasks to be
performed by him one by one, and identify the knowledge, attitudes and skills required to
perform each of these jobs. Consolidate the list and present it to a role set group or a
special task force constituted for that role.
2. Appoint a task force for each role.

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Conclusion:
The conclusion that can be drawn from all above observations in HR and GA department
at the company hold a very responsible position inside the organization and handles most of
the tasks that are must in any similar organization. All the employees
employees at HR and GA
department work like a single team and share responsibility wherever required.

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Mapping Process:
First stage of mapping requires understanding the vision and mission of the organization.
Second stage requires understanding from the superior performers the behavioural as well
as the functional aspects required to perform job effectively.
Tool for the first and second stage: BEI/ Structured Interview Third stage involves
thorough study of the BEI Reports/ Structured Interview Reports
a) Identification of the competency based on competency frame work
b) Measurement of competency
c) Required levels of competency for each job family
d) Development of dictionary which involves detail description of the competency based on
the indicators. Care should be taken that the indicators should be measurable and gives
objective judgment.
Fourth Stage requires preparation for assessment.
a) Methods of assessment can be either through assessment centres or 360 Degree Feedback
b) If assessment centre is the choice for assessment then tools has to be ready beforehand
i. Tools should objectively measure the entire competency required.
ii. Determine the type of the tools for measuring competency
iii. Prepare the schedule for assessment
iv. Training to the assessor should indicate their thorough understanding of the competencies
and the tools and also as to how the behaviour has to be documented.
Fifth Stage involves conducting assessment centre. Usually it is a two day program which
would involve giving a brief feedback to the participant about the competencies that has been
assessed and where they stands to.
Sixth stage involves detailed report of the competencies assessed and also the
development plan for the developmental areas.
Steps in competency mapping
Step1-Identify departments for competency profiling
Step2-Identifying hierarchy within the organisation & selection of levels Step3-Obtain the
job description
Step4-Preparation of semi structured interview Step5-Recording of interview details Step6Preparation of a list of skills Step7-Indicate proficiency levels
Step8-Validate identified competencies & proficiency levels with immediate superiours &
other heads of the the concerned department
Step9-Preparation of competency dictionary Step10-Mapping of
competencies References:
http://www.citehr.com/topic/competency-mapping.html
http://xisspm.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/competency-mapping_vats.pptx
http://www.citehr.com/128409-competency-mapping-business-development.html#
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