Future-oriented competencies: a framework for job profilers and competency modellers

Future-oriented competencies help to ensure that the competency framework remains up to date for as long as possible. But future-proofing raises potential problems. James Bywater of SHL UK discusses these issues and shows how they can be overcome.

On this page:
The problem with future-oriented competency modelling
Methodologies in future-oriented competency modelling
Two practical questions to help competency modellers
Question 1: How clearly defined is the organisation in its strategy, and its chosen HR processes for implementing it?
Question 2: Is the organisation determined to express its workforce's roles in terms of tasks/attributes or values/culture?
Forward-looking competencies in organisations with well-defined strategic objectives
Forward-looking competencies in organisations with poorly defined strategic objectives
Six practical steps to identify forward-looking competencies
References
Box 1: About the author
Table 1: Approaches to future-oriented competency modelling
Table 2: A conceptual framework for strategic job competency modelling

Different people talk about different things when referring to "competencies", and this could lead the unsuspecting HR practitioner to fall foul of UK employment legislation. A number of new technologies are evolving in the broad arena of future-oriented job analysis1. These offer some hope to practitioners aiming to design fair and future-focused selection and development processes.

My previous article pointed out that many organisations create competency frameworks that incorporate a forward-looking dimension so that the competencies do not become out of date too quickly. However, too often, this future-focused aspect is vague and imprecise. Organisations must spell out the future requirements of roles in more detail.

This article attempts to move this debate on by proposing a broad conceptual framework for this form of role analysis. This will enable HR practitioners to be better prepared when they help to develop competency frameworks in organisations.

The problem with future-oriented competency modelling

The main problem with future-oriented competency modelling is that the future is, by its nature, unclear. Usually, well-informed "subject-matter experts" are involved in the competency development project to help reduce the uncertainties involved in looking forward.

These experts must be sufficiently senior that they have a good grasp of the overall market for their organisation's goods or services and can comment knowledgeably about the likely future marketplace. They should be sufficiently senior to be in a position to define a competitive strategy for the organisation to compete in this marketplace.

This level of seniority is both a help and a hindrance. The people who are strategy-focused enough to be able to talk about the role in the future are also the least able to fill in the details about the specifics of job content.

The concept of strategic job analysis has been around for 10 years or more, and there has been some progress towards identifying methodologies to make it work. This article presents a conceptual framework for such analysis.

Methodologies in future-oriented competency modelling

There are two main types of data that are collected in future-oriented competency modelling for HR applications, see table 1.

The data are usually obtained by asking two basic questions: "what will people have to do in this job?" and "what skills will be needed in this job?". These questions are firmly rooted in US and UK employment law and the data they produce can be used as evidence in an employment tribunal.

At SHL UK, we find that for many forward-looking interviews these questions are cumbersome, old-fashioned and of limited relevance to a senior audience. Some organisations are taking a different approach, because they are experiencing considerable change and evolution in every role and expect to continue to do so.

These organisations try to recruit on the basis of "fit" to their culture, values and attitudes, rather than to particular roles. They say this is more relevant for them if they are attempting to define and maintain a distinctive organisational culture that their competitors will find hard to copy.

This approach gives rise to the search for people who will add to the organisation in terms of culture or values. This has no defence in law, but it has attractions for senior visionaries attempting to define the future shape of their organisation. It is more in tune with their way of thinking, being focused on high-level, strategic issues, rather than the detailed implications for specific roles and jobs.

Two practical questions to help competency modellers

This discussion is somewhat academic from the perspective of the job analyst as they discuss a future role with a senior line manager and wonder which methodology to select. At SHL UK, we have thus identified two main questions that need to be answered. These arose from a significant number of interviews in which we have experimented extensively with different strategic job-profiling approaches.

Question 1: How clearly defined is the organisation in its strategy, and its chosen HR processes for implementing it?

There is little point attempting to ask seriously strategic questions in organisations that have not really thought through the issues in a formal policy-setting process. These organisations find typical job-analysis questions (such as "what are the key skills that your senior managers will need in the future?") extremely hard to answer because they have not given them due consideration. Perhaps even more dangerously, they may be inclined, given this discomfort, to make something up on the spot.

Question 2: Is the organisation determined to express its workforce's roles in terms of tasks/attributes or values/culture?

Different organisations are inclined to emphasise different aspects of their organisations. Some favour concentrating on the details of task accomplishment above any sort of cultural fit. Other organisations prefer to emphasise their culture and values beyond issues to do with job fit. They are both legitimate.

These two questions give rise to a simple 2x2 matrix of approaches to strategic competency modelling (see table 2).

Forward-looking competencies in organisations with well-defined strategic objectives

The conceptual framework for strategic role analysis illustrated in table 2 confirms that the typical approach outlined in the literature of strategic competency modelling is flawed, although it works beautifully for organisations that have been thoroughly versed in the management process.

HP and Shell are two examples of organisations that have adopted different but equally clear views of their future requirements:

  • Shell has defined four main competencies required at management levels – capacity; achievement; relationships; and technical2; and
  • HP has remained much more values-based, with its "HP innovate" scheme3.

Forward-looking competencies in organisations with poorly defined strategic objectives

Strategic competency modelling tends to fail where there is a more operationally driven approach, governed by shorter-term priorities rather than more strategic concerns. This can happen in organisations undergoing rapid destructive change, or pursuing a more emergent business strategy.

Six practical steps to identify forward-looking competencies

For these types of organisations, we recommend the following practical approach for the competency modeller to use:

1. Be well prepared – you need to appreciate the history, context and business position of the organisation to understand whether or not the strategy being outlined to you has any longevity.

2. Take a number of different tools and approaches to a visionary interview. The framework shown in table 2 works, but is subject to variation. Some people will prefer some processes to others, and the job analysts should be flexible to cope with emerging eventualities.

3. Where there is a strong prevailing culture that has been set up as a deliberate act, then ask yourself these questions:

  • Is it strategically valuable?;
  • Is it hard to mimic?; and
  • Is it different from the competitors?

If the answers are "yes", then build on this language in your analysis.

4. Avoid fads of language, such as "values", "culture", "ethos" and "imperatives", until you have a grasp of their level of buy-in, fit and longevity in respect of the organisation concerned.

5. Keep it manageable. With 10 competencies and six core values you already have 16 new “things” to promote in your HR practices4. This is more than enough.

6. Enterprise resource planning systems can both help and hinder the process of making competencies bite. Take account of their rollout, actual (as opposed to desired) functionality and realistic timescales for implementation in respect of implementing the competency model.

This article was written by James Bywater, head psychologist for SHL UK.

References

1. Strategic job modeling: working at the core of integrated human resources, J S Schippmann, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999.

2. Global recruitment: possible, probable, present here and now?, J Bywater et al, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2006 annual conference, session 182, Dallas, Texas.

3. HP Gets Practical, A Ricadela, InformationWeek, 4 April 2005.

4. The HR value proposition, D Ulrich and W Brockbank, Harvard Business School Press, 2005.

Box 1: About the author

James Bywater works for SHL UK, a developer of psychometric tests and questionnaires. He is a chartered occupational psychologist and specialises in the objective assessment and development of people at work. He has a passion for competencies, the application of psychology at work and the use of the internet to aid and improve assessment processes.

Table 1: Approaches to future-oriented competency modelling

Approach

What question does it ask?

What is it used for?

Job tasks

What will people have to do in this job?

Job descriptions

Human attributes/competencies

What skills will be needed in this job?

Person specifications and in assessments of individuals

Copyright: SHL UK.

Table 2: A conceptual framework for strategic job competency modelling

 

Preferred approach within the organisation

Job tasks/skills

Culture/values

Clearly defined organisational strategy

Tasks clear to identify

Classical strategic job analysis approach should work

Culture drives everything

Competencies flow from desired culture in a linear fashion

No clear organisational strategy

Unclear organisational strategy for the future

Classical strategic job analysis approach unlikely to work

Concentrate on the future tasks required at a local operational level

Unclear set of cultural values         

Avoid getting distracted by talk of culture until this has full endorsement of the executive

Copyright: SHL UK.