Measuring employee performance: the competency framework
Four in ten UK employees are considering quitting their jobs in the next year, according to research undertaken by YouGov on behalf of Investors in People.
In response to these findings, Simon Jones - chief executive of Investors in People - comments: “Effective feedback on performance is needed… Without it, employees are likely to drift and depart rather than stay engaged with their organisation’s objectives.”
An obvious precursor to providing employee feedback is the effective measurement of performance. In this - the first in a three-part special on performance management - we explore the competency framework; a well-established method which underpins effective performance measurement.
The competency framework
To give context and direction to performance measurement it’s important to link the process to your organisation’s objectives. This involves defining the behaviours that you believe contribute the most value to business performance and long-term strategic objectives.
The competency framework is a logical output of such efforts.
The Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) defines competencies as “the behaviours that employees must have, or must acquire, to input into a situation in order to achieve high levels of performance”. They describe the typical competency framework as containing no more than 12 core competencies for a particular job role, and suggest arranging competencies into clusters, to make the framework more accessible to users. Each competency should be accompanied with definitions and/or examples for each competency.
A recent learning and development survey from the CIPD (2007) found that the most popular key areas found in competency frameworks are:
• communication skills
• people management
• team skills
• customer service skills
• results-orientation
• problem-solving
Source: CIPD Annual Survey 2007
The survey also found that 56 per cent of 663 respondents use competency frameworks to underpin performance reviews and appraisals, and just under half of respondents use them as tools for greater employee and organisational effectiveness.
A well-designed competency framework delivers consistent measurement of performance over time. Consistency enables reliable comparisons between past and present performance, providing valuable insight into where improvements have been made, and where future improvement is needed.
Find out more about competencies and the competency framework on the CIPD website .
Find the right training
Last month we outlined the benefits of conducting a training needs analysis - a method of identifying gaps between your employees’ skills and the skills your business needs to fulfil its organisational objectives. This month we focus on the challenge of finding the right training.
Any training will educate your staff to some degree. The ‘right’ training imparts the relevant skills in the most effective, efficient and cost-effective way. The right training also serves the learning needs of your people, alongside the practical and strategic needs of your business.
Research by the Chartered Institute of Personal Development makes an interesting observation about post-training evaluation which also provides practical insight for pre-training selection decisions. The research suggests that “very few organisations find return on investment metrics to be appropriate as a strategic measure of the value of learning. Instead, return on expectation measures, which make use of both ‘hard’ numerical and ‘soft’ qualitative information, are more effective.”
So, what relevance does this insight have to pre-training selection decisions? If wisdom has it that effective evaluation of training should incorporate ’soft’ qualitative measures, coined here as ‘return on expectation measures’, it follows that businesses should define such expectations before finding the right training. In other words, businesses should define what amounts to a ‘framework of expectations’ which helps select and subsequently evaluate training.
At this point, reconsider the various different needs for training, as outlined briefly earlier. First there are the personal needs and expectation of the employee. Then there are the practical expectations of stakeholders, such as HR and line managers. Finally, there are the strategic needs of the business itself. Each stakeholder has distinct needs and expectations which need to be considered, co-ordinated and managed.
The process of finding the right training therefore relies on the effective management of these different needs and expectations. Arguably, this is best done through open and constructive dialogue between HR and other relevant stakeholders. In doing so, a comprehensive collection of expectations can be defined which provides the right ‘framework’ for first selecting and subsequently evaluating training.
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