‘The ability to do something successfully or efficiently’ why competency is key in a world full of buzzwords - Alex Gates, MD of Simply Certification.
Competency…something we all expect from co-workers, customer service teams and people responsible for our health and wellbeing. But what about proving it in the workplace? What about ensuring that every process, system and person in your business is working to a competency standard that will ensure quality, consistency and mitigate risk?
What do we mean by competency standards?
The word competency has been used and mis-used in so many ways that the true meaning of it gets lost. Competency standards are a set of benchmarks that define the skills, knowledge and attributes people need to perform a work role and their ability to apply those skills to achieve intended results.
Why is it important?
Why isn’t it important? The benefits of competency are enormous. Competency in the workplace helps mitigate future risks to a business, improves safety and reduces downtime. Not only will you see a marked (and by design measurable) improvement in the performance of your business but by investing in your team, you ensure all trainees are correctly integrated into the working practices of the organisation and you support a positive, healthy and communicative culture- which are all good for your people, productivity and ultimately, profitability.
What does competency mean in real terms? A quick checklist:
Step1- Where are you now?
Start with a defined roles and responsibilities document for each role and audit any competency gaps with a competency evaluation mapped over the top. This can be done on an individual and team basis and can also be done as part of professional development.
Step 2- Define the need
A needs assessment will help you to understand how the team or individual role needs to look. Working with teams to understand what capabilities they need to perform optimally and then building the team around that will help to improve confidence, productivity and encourage development in the direction of business growth.
Step 3- Put skills matrices in place
Developing and putting skills matrices in place will allow you to standardise the competencies to fulfil and optimise roles within your company.
Not only can competency be measured via formal qualifications but also include attributes such as personality traits, communication skills, conflict resolution capability and problem solving.
Step 4- Ensuring certifications are in place
Having a mechanism in place to track certification dates is a great way to not only ensure your business is protected but also that your employees are following the most up-to-date practices. A central place to log certifications and notify when they are due to expire takes the headache away from trying to keep on top of this. As an example, we have created a Competency Evaluation Matrix in SharePoint to measure and monitor our team.
Where other attributes that can’t be certified are required, trackers can be built into your Competency Evaluation Matrix to measure employee growth within these set areas.
What are the quality marks & certifications for competency?
Depending on the sector and role there are a whole host of awarding bodies. Competency is usually easier to track with recognised courses (those that are accredited by an awarding body and delivered by an approved centre or recognised by CPD) but you can also map in-house experience and hours gained in a role, overseen by a team leader or manager with the right levels of competency to determine if the requirements are met.
Competency covers all functions across the business, from finance and HR to marketing, operations and product development, so a whole-organisation approach to competency will ensure the smooth-running of operations now- and critically, the future.