Thus, they understand that guiding the development of professionals is a strategic decision capable of generating positive impacts and results for the business.

What are organizational competencies

Now that you know the main objective of competency management, it is only fair to clarify what these competencies are.

For that, let’s start with the basics and go through the different types of skills that an HR should know. Check out!

1-technical skills

Technical competences are a combination of the knowledge that the professional acquired through study and the skills acquired through training, workshops, professional courses and more.

We can define them as the basic competences for the exercise of a certain activity or function .

Technical skills can be elementary, basic, fundamental, solid and deep knowledge.

Something that varies from one professional to another ― and, therefore, requires individual attention from HR in its analysis.

It is common for these competencies to be listed within five groups:

• academic education;
• complementary courses;
• languages;
• computer program skills;
• general knowledge.

Of course, these groups are weighted differently in each situation, based on the role to be performed and the needs of the company.

2-Behavioral skills

The technical skills we just talked about can be called hard skills . For a long time they were the focus of recruiters and organizations.

Over time, however, companies have come to better understand the value of soft skills , which can also be known as soft skills .

We are therefore talking about the attitudes and behaviors that lead an employee to put their knowledge into practice and add value to their work.

Just as an example, we have a list of behavioral skills that are already highly valued. Are they:

• leadership ability;
• team work;
• adaptability;
• creativity;
• Communication;
• negotiation ability.

Also, to complement, we also have a list of the main soft skills for the post-pandemic market . Check it out:

• cultural and emotional intelligence ;
• easy adaptation to technologies;
• empathy;
• Time management.

3-organizational skills

Last but not least, we shifted focus to the organization itself.

Organizational competencies are the set of knowledge, skills and attitudes that allow the company to stand out in the market .

These competencies can be basic or essential. The basic ones translate into those that are necessary for the functioning of the organization. The essential ones are those that work as a competitive differential.

Still, it must be clear to you that organizational competencies impact the performance of the company as a whole.

Areas where Competency management applies

Competency management is very useful for the development of professionals, as we have highlighted, but not only.

Next, you will better understand in which areas your HR can apply this type of management.

1-Recruitment and selection process

Finding new professionals to compose the company’s staff is one of HR’s best-known roles.

There are different ways to make this process more strategic and one of them is to opt for competency-based recruitment and selection .

The idea is to make the company more productive by hiring people whose skills meet the demands of the position and who help form more complete teams.

To this end, HR must:

• mapping the skills a professional needs to fill a vacancy;
• describe the vacancy based on expected skills;
• create filters to analyze CVs;
• conduct tests to identify and verify the competencies of each candidate;
• provide good feedback regarding the competencies of the interviewees.

The idea is for the company to find the professionals it needs and, at the same time, help those not chosen to understand what skills they lacked.

2-Performance evaluation

Although, as we have shown, there are significant differences between management by competence and management by performance, an evaluation of employees is still possible.

In fact, this competency-based performance evaluation is important for HR to know how to direct training with each professional or team.

For that, it is necessary:

• determine competence goals necessary for a position, defining technical and behavioral activities that the professional must fulfill;
• formulate evaluation criteria;
• prioritize development to improve skills;
• monitor, document and provide feedback.

It is therefore possible to set goals . However, bearing in mind that the objective is professional development, it is possible to have longer deadlines and a dynamic that favors a gradual evolution.

3-People training and development

Taking the hook from what we said, competency management also helps HR know how to train or work on the development of professionals.

For that, the path goes through:

• identify missing competencies that need to be improved or supplied;
• define the best training and development program ;
• evaluate the effectiveness of the program given to employees;
• define indicators to monitor the results.

It is interesting to point out that, based on training and development by competencies, HR can prepare employees to occupy management positions.

Thus, it can make room for internal recruitment aiming at more strategic functions, avoiding an external search that can be more challenging.

4-Plan for jobs and wages

Having a good job and salary plan is an important differentiator for companies.

This is because the plan is a valuable tool for employee engagement and motivation .

The idea is to use competency management to guide the preparation of this plan. In this way, HR can:

• define the technical and behavioral requirements for each position;
• choose the criteria for a promotion to take place;
• define rewards or benefits per competency.

As a consequence, the search for competence development can be even more proactive on the part of employees.

Main competency management models

Based on what we have just seen, it should already be clear to you that competency management is comprehensive.

To show this even better, in addition to the application areas, we are going to list the main models or the main ways that competency management can be used.

In all of them, the process involves identifying gaps in skills and then defining how to apply this type of management to resolve the situation. Check it out!

1-Basic qualification for work

It is expected that, with the process of recruitment and selection by competencies, the company will already find the professionals who are best prepared for their functions.

The point is that, even when this happens, it may be necessary to apply training and invest in good onboarding to ensure a good cultural fit .

Furthermore, when onboarding a new employee, HR always expects the alignment with the team to be as appropriate as possible. Betting on competency management helps to ensure the achievement of this objective.

It is possible to guide the development of skills and behaviors , in addition to promoting the approximation of employees by aligning teams by competencies.

2-Job specific qualification

In general, the specific qualification aims at the development of skills or behaviors that are more characteristic of a certain function.

Thus, we are no longer talking about what is basic for a person to be a professional in the company.

We talk about what it takes to play a good role in relation to your specific assignments.

3-Developing people

The key to competency management is people development. The idea is to assist professionals in their improvement as an individual and as part of the company.

What is behind this is the strategy to better prepare the organization’s employees for their trajectory, aiming at their growth in the internal hierarchy .

The workers themselves gain from this, in addition, of course, to the company. For this to work, however, HR needs to be clear about the skills it needs and define how to prepare employees.

4-leadership development

And speaking of people and their professional growth, we emphasize competency management as a tool to form new leaders .

HR needs to keep in mind what leadership profile the company needs and assess what employees lack in order to be able to meet this demand.

Based on this, you must define plans to better qualify those who already occupy leadership positions or who can succeed the current leaders.