Reading Three

WHAT IS A COMPETENCY?
There are various definitions given for the term competency. Combining
the basic ideas embedded in all definitions, competency can be defined
as:

“ A combination of knowledge, skills, attitude and personality of an individual as applied

to a role or job in the context of the present and future environment, that accounts for
sustained success within the framework of Organizational Values.”

Sometimes competencies are also defined as “ cluster of successful behaviors.”

FIVE TYPES OF COMPETENCY CHARACTERISTICS:

1. Motives: the things a person consistently thinks about or wants that cause action.
Motives “ drive, direct, and select” behavior toward certain actions or goals and away
from others.
E.g. Achievement-motivated people consistently set challenging goals for themselves and
use feedback to do better.

2. Traits: physical characteristics and consistent response to situation or information.

E.g. reaction time and good eyesight are physical trait competencies of combat pilots.

3. Self-concept: A person’s attitude, values, or self-image.

E.g. Self-confidence, a person’s belief that he can be effective in any situation is a part of
that person’s concept of self.

4. Knowledge: Information a person has in specific content areas

E.g. A surgeon’s knowledge of nerves and muscles in the human body.

Skill: The ability to perform a certain physical or mental task.

E.g. A dentist’s physical skill to fill a tooth without damaging the nerve.

The type or level of a competency has practical implications for human resource
planning. Knowledge and skills tend to be visible and relatively surface, characteristics of
people. But attitude, trait and motive competencies are more hidden “deeper” and central
to personality. Surface knowledge and skills are relatively easy to develop. But core
motive and trait competencies are at the base of the personality iceberg and are more
difficult to assess and develop as shown in the figure on the next page:
 visible

hidden

WHAT IS A COMPETENCY MODEL?

A competency model is a set of success factors (competencies) that include the key
behaviors required for excellent performance in a particular role excellent performers on
the job demonstrate these behaviors much more consistently than average or poor
performers.

A Competency model provides a “road map” for the range of behaviors that produce
excellent performance.

BENEFITS OF COMPETENCY MODELS

Competency models have strategic value as performance improvement vehicles. Benefits

include...

They make explicit the clusters of knowledge, skills, and personal attributes that
lead to high performance in specific jobs and roles. This information can be
transmitted to employees.

They embody the core values of a business, aiding in the communication of these
values throughout the organization and helping to shape a business culture and
identity worldwide.
 Competency models are behavior-based performance standards against which
people and units can be measured. They provide a behavioral vision for the kinds
of performance necessary to successfully implement worldwide business
strategies

NEED FOR A COMPETENCY MODEL

Organizations are using competencies in virtually every human resource domain.

STAFFING ASSESSMENT PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT CAREER MANAGEMENT

Competencies are used as the “key criteria” for implementing each application.
Therefore, competencies can be used as a tool to produce results in each of the above
areas. All the Integrated Human Resource Practices can be based on competencies.
WHAT IS COMPETENCY MAPPING?

Competency Mapping is a process of identifying 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.

BUILDING COMPETENCY BASED PEOPLE PROCESSES

1. COMPETENCY BASED SELECTION

Competency based selection can be a way to gain competitive advantage. The market for
human talent is imperfect. A firm that knows how to assess competencies can effectively
hire the best at a reasonable price, for example hire under priced but highly
entrepreneurial MBA’s from lesser-known business schools.
There is a need for competency based selection because:
The person employed performs poorly in a critical job for he lacks the
competencies required for that role.
There is high turnover due to high failure rate among new hires.
The organization needs to identify new hires with the potential to become future
managers or leaders.
A gap between the competencies needed and what the organization can hire for
indicates the training new hires will need.
A lengthy training period may transpire before new hires become productive.
New hires with the competencies to do a job become fully productive faster.

Therefore if the selection is based on competencies i.e. if the selection interviews are
competency based then the above mentioned, commonly faced problems by
organization can be taken care of.

2. COMPETENCY BASED PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Performance has two dimensions

a) Achieving business results
b) Developing individual competencies

These days performance appraisal is seen by managers and employees as a bureaucratic

“paperwork” exercises that they do not take seriously because it has little impact on
employee development. Performance appraisals do not address the employees’ questions
about skill development or career advancement.

Competency based performance management would

 Focus on “HOW” of performance and not on “WHAT” of performance i.e. not
on results but how the results are achieved
Link to development of the individual and not just rewards

Competency based PMS shift the emphasis of appraisal from organization results to
employee behaviors and competencies demonstrated and hence help identify
development gaps.

3. COMPETENCY BASED TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

If the training programs can be aligned to the development needs emerging out of the
appraisal system and to the market led training needs they can contribute better to both
individual and business objectives.

Firstly there is a need to determine the competencies for a particular position

Secondly identify the competencies of the person holding that position
By mapping the competencies, gaps can be identified in terms of the
competencies for that role and the competencies of the person doing that role to
diagnose the training and development needs.
Identify the most appropriate training and development methodology for each
trainable competency

Accordingly, the person can be trained on those competencies only.

Competency based training programs clearly tell what should be the competency level of
the person entering the program. This would drastically reduce the training cost for the
organization

It is also helpful in career planning. Employees can match their proficiency in

competencies with the competencies requirements of various jobs. Based on the match
employees can apply for a job or consider other job opportunities.

4. COMPETENCY BASED COMPENSATION

Competency based compensation is compensation for individual characteristics, for

skills and competencies over and above the pay a job or organizational role
commands.
Various elements are considered for arriving at compensation increase. Enhancement
in competencies has to be one of them.

There is a need for competency based compensation system

To attract more competent than average employees
To reward for results and competencies developed
 To motivate employees to maintain and enhance their skills and competencies
regularly
By rewarding employees who develop relevant competencies the organization
can benefit by improving its own capability to face the future

BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTING A COMPETENCY-BASED APPROACH

For the company

 Establish expectations for performance excellence
 Improved job satisfaction and better employee retention
 Increase the effectiveness of training and professional development programs by
linking them to success criteria
 Provide a common understanding of scope and requirements of a specific role
 Provide a common, organization wide standards for career levels that enable
employees to move across business boundaries

For Managers
 Identify performance criteria to improve the accuracy and ease of the selection
process
 Provide more objective performance standards
 Easier communication of performance expectations
 Provide a clear foundation for dialogue to occur between the managers and
employees and performance, development and career-oriented issues

For employees
 Identify the behavioral standards of performance excellence
 Provide a more specific and objective assessment of their strengths and the tools
required to enhance their skills
 More clear on career related issues
WIPRO CONSUMER CARE AND LIGHTING (WCCLG), BANGALORE

At Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, Bangalore a competency framework was

developed for the sales force to ensure that all the people processes at WCCLG are
competency driven. The methodology adopted to identify competencies was as follows:

METHODOLOGY

1. Collection of data by way of:

 Observations (Sales Visits)
 Questionnaires
 Behavioral Event Interviews
 Other Interviews
2. Identify behaviors from the data collected through the above mentioned sources
3. Forming clusters for similar behaviors and putting them together to define
competencies
4. Validate the competencies with other Sales Models and the results obtained from
questionnaires.

The data to form the competency model for the three positions of Stockist’s Salesman,
Sales Officer and Area Sales Manager at WCCLG were collected from various
sources. The sources included:

1. OBSERVATIONS

2. BEHAVIORAL EVENT INTERVIEWS

3. OTHER INTERVIEWS (Comparing the best and the worst employees)

4. QUESTIONNAIRES

OBSERVATIONS

Observations were made in the form of SALES VISITS. These market visits were done
to understand the nuances of the sales process followed at WCCLG and the behaviors
displayed by an SO and SSM in the market while making a sales call.

During the visits the behaviors of superior as well as average performers were observed,
which helped determine the behaviors required for a particular position.
BEHAVIORAL EVENT INTERVIEWS

The Behavioral Event Interview is the heart of the Competency Assessment Process
A behavioral event interview is a method to identify the competencies to do a particular
job well. The objective of the BEI is to get very detailed descriptions of how a person
goes about his or her work. The interviewer asks the interviewee to focus on the most
critical situations they have faced to describe the specific behaviors, thoughts and actions
he has shown in actual situation.

The main reason why behavioral interviews were conducted for the following reasons:
 To come out with behaviors demonstrated which were later clustered to form a
competency
 Precision about how competencies are expressed i.e. how they have been used at
work
 Empirical identification of competencies beyond or different from those generated
by other data collection methods

The Behavioral Event Interviews were conducted at the level of:

 Stockist’s Salesman
 Sales Officer
 Area Sales Manager

The interview included questions like “Can you cite an incident which has led to an
improvement in your performance?”
A copy of the questions asked during the BEI is given in the annexure

An extract of one of the interviews and how it was used to identify behaviors is given
below:
Statement made by a SO
“I show my team the outlets they can go to and help them sell”

Behaviors identified from this statement are as follows:

 Personally monitors the team’s performance

 Gives practical assistance and support to the team
 Gives them suggestions to improve their performance
 Sensitive to individual issues

On the same lines, other behaviors, which were similar, were clustered together to form a
competency.
OTHER INTERVIEWS (BEST VS WORST)

In this method of collecting data the respondent was asked to identify the best and an
average employee under him at that level and then asked to compare both in terms of
what differentiates the two.
Through this approach we were again able to identify the behaviors of the best and the
average employees at each level.

An extract from one of the interviews for the level of an ASM is given below:

BEST WORST

Able to handle strong team members, They love to work with yes men
strong in terms of independent kind of people; nobody
challenging
thinking – able to work with them their authority

This clearly helped identify behaviors for various competencies.

QUESTIONNAIRES

Made a few SOs, RMs and ASMs fill a questionnaire where they were asked to rate
certain competencies in the order of importance for a particular position.

In the questionnaire competencies from two validated models were used:

1. Competency Model for Salespeople from the book “COMPETENCE AT

WORK” by Spencer & Spencer

2. Competency Dictionary of Wipro Technologies

This approach was used to identify top competencies for the levels mentioned below and
later use them to validate the competencies arrived at in the competency model that was
developed.

Behaviors from the above mentioned sources were clustered and leveled for three levels:
Area Sales Manager, Sales Officer and Stockist’s Salesman.
The following competencies were identified:

 Client service
 Team Building
 Specialist Knowledge
 Planning
 Initiative
 Problem solving
  Self Confidence
 Achievement Orientation
 Drive
 Persuasiveness
 Oral Communication skills
 Innovation

Few of these competencies have been described below with definitions, positive and
negative indicators.

CLIENT SERVICE

DEFINITION
Understands client’s needs, their expectations by building good interpersonal relationship
with them and provides them with regular service and reasonable solutions to address
their needs.

DESCRIPTION POSITIVE INDICATORS

 Understands client categories and
modifies own behavior
BUILDS GOOD INTERPERSONAL  Initiates conversation with the
1. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENTS clients (retailers and distributors)
 High visibility through frequent
visits
 Develops contacts
 Develops trust with the
retailers and distributors
 Understands non verbals
UNDERSTANDS CLIENT BEHAVIOR  Listens to clients perspective
2. AND EXPECTATIONS patiently
 Updates the retailers with the
changing schemes
 Does regular follow up
 Presents reasonable solutions to
the retailers/ distributors
ADDRESSES THEIR UNDERLYING  Goes beyond routine to address
3. ISSUES their issues
 Takes personal responsibility to
address their issues
 NEGATIVE INDICATORS

 Complaining customers
 Low frequency of visiting the market
 Getting into fights with distributors
 Not responsive to client issues and requests
 Leaves the retailers uninformed of changing schemes

DESCRIPTION SSM SO ASM

Initiates High visibility Develops
conversation with with the retailers credibility
the retailers and distributors with the
Builds good Builds trust with Makes retailers distributors
interpersonal the retailers and aware of Builds good
relationship with distributors changing rapport with
the clients High visibility with schemes the
the retailers Initiates distributors
Understands client conversation with and other
category and the retailers external
modifies own Develops clients
behavior contacts

Updates retailers Understands non

with the changing verbals
Understands schemes Listens to clients
client behavior Listens to clients (distributors/
and expectations (retailers) retailers)
perspective perspective
patiently patiently
Follows up with the Follows up with
retailers the retailers
Takes personal Provides the
responsibility to retailers with
Addresses their solve their options to solve
underlying problems their problems
issues Goes beyond Takes personal
routine address responsibility to
their issues resolve their
problems
TEAM BUILDING

DEFINITION
Clearly delegates responsibilities to the team; provides the team with proper assistance,
resources, feedback and training to achieve targets; invites ideas, suggestions from the
team; and promotes excellence in the team by rewarding performers and setting high
standards for the team.

DESCRIPTION POSITIVE INDICATOR

DELEGATES
1. RESPONSIBILITIES CLEARY TO
THE TEAM

 Provides team with suggestions and

support to meet their targets
 Provides them with practical
2. HELPS TEAM UNDER assistance
PRESSURE  Personally monitors their
performance
 Keeps their morale high
 Gives them regular feedback
 Sensitive to individual issues
 Takes responsibility for team’s
performance
 Invites ideas from the team
 Shares information with the team
 Involves them in decision making
EMPOWERS THE TEAM  Tries to implement the suggestions
3. given by the team
 Respects them and gives them
enough independence
 Able to handle strong team members
 Shares the credit for success with
team
 Identifies performers in the team
PROMOTES EXCELLENCE IN  Appreciates the effort put in by the
THE TEAM team
4.  Rewards the performers
 Sets examples for the team
 Coaches and trains them
 Updates them on products, industry
 Promotes team work
NEGATIVE INDICATORS

 Keeps decision making to himself; doesn’t delegate

 Loves to work with yes men who don’t challenge his authority
 Threatens the team to meet targets; doesn’t motivate
 Criticizes team’s performance
 Exposes the team to superiors
 Non supportive in terms of giving assistance / resources
 Gives inappropriate/ critical feedback
 Makes no effort to train people

DESCRIPTION SO ASM
Delegates Assigns duties clearly to
responsibilities SSMs
clearly to the
team
Personally monitors teams Provides the team with the
performance resources required to meet
Gives them practical support the targets
Helps the team and assistance Takes responsibility for
under pressure Sensitive to individual issues the team’s performance
Gives them regular feedback
Keeps their morale high
Sets examples for the team Tries to implement
Invites ideas from the team suggestions given by the
Shares information with the team
team Respects and gives them
independence
Empowers the Open to ideas from the
team team
Includes the team in
decision making
Able to handle strong team
members
Shares the credit for
success with the team

Appreciates the effort put in Appreciates the efforts put

by the team in by the team
Promotes Trains and coaches them Updates the team with
excellence in the Sets examples for the team products, industry
team Sets high standards for them Promotes the team work
Identifies performers
Rewards the performers
PERSUASIVENESS

DEFINITION

Is assertive in approach and has the ability to influence others opinion and ideas; is
skillful at negotiation.

DESCRIPTION POSITIVE INDICATOR

1. BASIC INFLUENCING  Assertive in approach
SKILLS  Able to get people on his side with conviction
 Exerts subtle pressure on distributors/retailers
2. NEGOTIATION SKILLS to convince him
 Makes parties arrive at consensus through
negotiation

NEGATIVE INDICATORS

 Very soft while making sales pitch

 Unable to influence the client
 Unable to close an issue through negotiation
 Lacks conviction

DESCRIPTION SSM SO ASM

 Aggressive in  Aggressive in
Basic influencing skills approach approach
 Able to get
people on his side
with conviction
Negotiation skills  Exerts subtle  Exerts subtle  Makes
pressure on pressure on external parties
distributors and retailers and come to
retailers to distributors to conclusion
convince them convince them through
negotiation

Other competencies have also been defined in a similar way.

CHAPTER- 3 VALIDATION OF COMPETENCIES

QUESTIONNAIRE
COMPETENCIES MODEL COMPETENCIES

ACHIEVEMENT ORIENTATION ACHIEVEMENT ORIENTATION

INITIATIVE INITIATIVE

SELF CONFIDENCE SELF CONFIDENCE

CUSTOMER SERVICE ORIENTATION CLIENT SERVICE

PROBLEM SOLVING PROBLEM SOLVING

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING TEAM BUILDING

INTEGRITY PERSUASIVENESS

ORAL COMMUNICATION ORAL COMMUNICATION

SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE

DEVELOPING STAFF DRIVE

EFFECTIVE DELEGATION INNOVATION

PLANNING

Therefore it was found that most of the competencies identified in questionnaires did
appear in some form in the model developed
This competency framework has been put in the Recruitment Manual of WCCLG,
which is used by them as a guide to select employees on the basis of the competencies
defined for each level.
They are working to include the concept of competencies in other HR processes so that
they are aligned to each other and speak to each other using a uniform language called
COMPETENCIES.