Organizational Competencies Archives - CHCI

Building and Maintaining Trust

admin — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 06:09:49 +0000

Trust is a critical component of organizational success. When team members, clients, and stakeholders trust an organization and its leaders, they are more likely to feel motivated, committed, and engaged, which can lead to higher productivity and better results.

Conversely, a lack of trust within an organization can have serious negative consequences, such as lower morale, high turnover rates, and reduced innovation. Let’s take a closer look at how trust impacts the bottom line:

Trustworthy companies outperform non-trustworthy companies by 2.5 times, and 88% of customers who highly trust a brand will buy again from that brand.
People at high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, and 29% more satisfaction with their lives than people at low-trust companies.
Employees’ trust in their leaders improves job performance, job satisfaction, and commitment to the organization and its mission.
The best workplaces, characterized by trust between managers and employees, beat the average annualized returns of the S&P 500 by a factor of three.
The high-trust folks have 11% more empathy for their workmates, depersonalize them 41% less often, and experience 40% less burnout from their work.

Trust Competencies

Stephen Covey, author of “The Speed of Trust,” states that trust is the foundation of any personal or professional successful relationship. But how do you break trust into action? Check out a summary of his work below.

Character

Character is the foundation of trust, comprised of intent and integrity. Intent involves caring, transparent, and open behaviors with team members. It’s crucial to show empathy and listen actively with intent. Integrity is the alignment of actions with honest, fair, and authentic behaviors. It establishes a reputation for ethical behavior and consistency.

Competence

Competence is the second factor in building trust. Do you have the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to get the job done? Capability involves staying up to date with industry trends and best practices, as well as a commitment to continuous learning and improvement. Results are also crucial; establishing a reputation for credibility and high performance is essential to building trust with external partners.

This tool can serve as a diagnostic to identify the behaviors that are either building or eroding trust. To help illustrate this, meet Emily. Let’s say others don’t trust Emily. We don’t know what’s causing the mistrust, yet we can look at the diagram to identify the root cause.

The lack of trust in Emily may stem from her insufficient intent to support her team members or the client’s needs.
It may also come from worries about whether her actions reflect her values and show integrity.
There may be doubts about her capability to manage the project effectively or deliver high-quality results.

If this is the case, how can Emily build trust?

To be trusted by her team members, Emily needs to display her capability for caring, transparent, and open behaviors.
Additionally, it’s crucial for Emily to deliver high-quality results to establish a reputation for superior performance, which will help her succeed in building trust with her colleagues.

By following the guidelines in this diagram, Emily can build strong relationships and achieve success in her organizational goals and objectives.

Building trust is a critical aspect of organizational leadership. By prioritizing both character and competence, you can foster a culture of trust and establish successful relationships with your team members, clients, and stakeholders.

How have you built trust with your team or colleagues in the past, and what were the key factors that contributed to your success? What steps do you plan to take to prioritize trust building in your leadership role, and how do you think this will benefit your team and organization? I would love to hear about it. Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter

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Unlocking Accountability: How to Become an Accountable Leader

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 05:08:37 +0000

Accountability is essential for success in any organization, team, or group. But what exactly is accountability, and why is it so important?

This blog will dive into the importance of accountability and how to become an accountable leader. We will discuss why setting SMART goals is essential for creating an accountable culture, and how to anchor accountability in your organization’s values, principles, and purpose. Let’s get started!

What is Accountability?

Accountability is when we hold ourselves and others responsible for our actions and decisions. When we are accountable, we take ownership of both our mistakes and successes, striving to improve our performance. Accountability helps create an environment of trust and motivation; it is also essential for creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Unfortunately, many organizations and teams lack accountability, which leads to employees becoming complacent and disengaged. But before stating there is a lack of accountability on your team, check first by asking the following question: does my team clearly understand my expectations?

SMART Goals Enhance Accountability

If the answer is no, then set SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

For example, let us say you are trying to increase client satisfaction. You could set a goal to increase client satisfaction by 10% in the next six months. This goal is:

Specific (increase client satisfaction by 10%)
Measurable (by tracking client satisfaction surveys)
Achievable (10% is a realistic target)
Relevant (client satisfaction is a key metric for any business)
Time-bound (six months)

When team members have clear, measurable goals to work toward, it encourages them to take ownership of their work and be accountable for their results. It is also important to make sure goals are achievable; if they are too ambitious, team members can become discouraged and unmotivated.

Prepare for Crucial Conversations to Strengthen Accountability

To hold each other accountable, teams need to be able to engage in “Crucial Conversations.” These are conversations that deal with tough topics where opinions vary and emotions run strong.

Crucial Conversations is a concept pioneered by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. We tend to avoid Crucial Conversations at work. However, it is important to learn how to manage them productively and positively so that accountability can be strengthened.

Use these seven steps to create successful Crucial Conversations that lead to accountability.

Start with the heart: Focus on healthy goals like learning, finding the truth, and strengthening relationships. Why are you having this conversation? Because you’re angry and want to prove your point? Or because you want to improve your working relationship? Focus on healthy goals like learning, finding the truth, and/or strengthening relationships.
Master your story: Stick to concrete facts and avoid judgments about those facts. Instead of saying, “You’re late, again,” try saying “This is the 3rd time you’ve been late in 3 weeks. What’s causing these delays?”
Learn to look: Look at your role in the situation before accusing the other person. How have you contributed to the problem, and how can you improve it?
Make it safe: While engaging in Crucial Conversations, create safety; this includes being fully present without distractions and avoiding dangerous phrases, such as “You always do this” or “You never do that.”
State your path: Create an environment where asking for help is encouraged. State how you would like the issue to be resolved and ask for help in finding that solution.
Explore the other’s path: Looking at the other person’s perspective calms the conversation and helps move the discussion in the right direction.
Move to action: What action steps have you both agreed to and how will you ensure those steps take root?

Accountable Leadership

Accountable leaders are essential for creating an accountable culture. Leaders set the tone for their teams and organizations, and they are responsible for setting expectations, holding people accountable, admitting mistakes, and striving to continuously improve performance.

Having the right systems and processes in place is crucial. This includes having tools to track progress, measure performance, and hold people accountable. Giving regular feedback and inviting bottom-up feedback strengthens accountability across the team and the organization.

If you want to become an accountable leader, start by setting SMART goals for your team and organization. Then, make sure your team has the right systems and processes in place to track progress and measure performance. Engage in Crucial Conversations about tough topics where the stakes are high, the opinions vary, and the emotions run strong. Finally, anchor accountability in your organization’s values, principles, and purpose. With these steps, you can create an accountable culture that inspires and motivates your team.

Have you ever worked on a team that lacked accountability? What was it like? I would love to hear about it. Let us share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Leadership in the Zone – How to Fully Engage Emotionally

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 10:00:26 +0000

The fully engaged leader can harness and expand his or her physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy. Last week, we talked about the importance of physical energy for the fully engaged leader.

This week, expert Tom Ward, founder, and principal of Next Level, will discuss emotional energy—what it is, why it is important and how to expand it.

How to Fully Engage Emotionally

Guest post by Tom Ward

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in life is that lasting happiness has humble origins. For me, it starts with gratitude. Yes, gratitude. For the people in my life – my family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances – and the abundance I’ve been afforded.

Before I attended the Corporate Athlete^® course at the Human Performance Institute, I had the good fortune to meet Shawn Achor and read his book, The Happiness Advantage. In the book, which is rooted in the emergent discipline of positive psychology, Shawn discusses how the set a goal–work hard–achieve the goal–be happy formula for happiness simply doesn’t work.

Paraphrasing Shawn, “after achieving a goal, the goal posts simply get pushed farther away making continued happiness harder to achieve and maintain.” The key to happiness, he says, is to re-write the happiness formula as follows, be happy–set a goal–work hard–achieve the goal. Research shows that Shawn’s approach not only yields greater and lasting happiness but also yields greater achievements and, more importantly, stronger relationships.

So how do we re-write our happiness formulas? For me, as I’ve said, it starts with gratitude. For you, it may start elsewhere. Before recommending some strategies, you might use to help you re-write your formula, it’s instructive to review some emotional energy fundamentals.

Emotions Matrix

Every emotion we experience has a purpose. Some emotions, to be sure, are not the most pleasant or productive. Nonetheless, all of them serve some function. For me, understanding the nature of emotional energy provides useful guidance for how to better manage it.

The following matrix is from the Corporate Athlete® Course and it portrays emotional energy. On the Y-axis is the quantity of energy – low to high. And, on the X-axis, is the quality of energy – negative to positive.

When we’re in the low-negative quadrant, we need to be mindful of disengagement and burn out. Being in this quadrant is sometimes necessary, yet staying here can be harmful.

High-negative energy often results in emotional hijacking and fight or flight behaviors. Staying in this quadrant too long can be toxic.

I like to think of low-positive energy as beach time, while high-positive energy is the energy of the extraordinary. When we think of applying the principal of oscillation (discussed in the last post), it’s ideal to think of oscillating between high-positive and low-positive emotional energy.

Three Strategies to Foster a More Positive Mindset

Armed with knowledge of the fundamentals of emotional energy, what are some strategies we can employ to foster a more positive, happiness-inclined mindset?

Journaling
My favorite strategy is gratitude journaling, as it serves to ground my thinking in the here and now, the positive, and the abundance of my life. Here’s what I do. I grab my journal and find a quiet room, often my home office. Then I write two or three sentences about three people or experiences for which I am truly grateful. I do this three times each week, trying not to repeat any entry. I share my entries with my significant other on a routine basis, and she shares hers with me. The sharing part is key for me because the two of us get to know each other more fully and our relationship deepens through our sharing.
Mindfulness
If journaling isn’t your thing, I have friends who find mindfulness meditation helpful. Others use deep breathing as a means for calming the body and reorienting the mind. I find exercise of any kind keeps me in a positive frame of mind.
Acts of Kindness
Another exceptionally effective strategy is performing conscious acts of kindness. While random acts of kindness (e.g., opening the door for a stranger) are useful too, consciously and purposefully performing acts of kindness is a particularly effective strategy for promoting positivity and wellbeing. Some examples might include calling your fifth grade teacher and thanking her for the patience she modeled during your formative years; writing a former colleague and thanking him for teaching you how to be a better team member; or helping a neighbor paint the trim on her house. There are countless opportunities.

Lasting happiness and positive emotional energy begin with the awareness of what it takes to get there. The right formula is essential. So is having an effective strategy and executing it repeatedly.

Stay tuned for next week when we will dive into the next level of the pursuit of fully engaged leadership: the expansion of mental energy.

In the meantime, is emotional energy something you actively cultivate? Have you experimented with the strategies outlined above? We’d love to hear about your experience.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Using Growth Mindset for Career Success

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 10:54:28 +0000

In today’s rapidly advancing world, continual learning is a given. In the future, people are less likely to be hired for what they “know” and more likely to be hired for their ability to learn what they “don’t know”.

Why is continual learning important to you? According to a survey conducted by Evolution:

• 96% people see a positive impact of continual learning on job performance
• 78% people see continual learning as a factor in promotions and career advancement
• 87% people say continual learning correlates with increases in compensation and salary

So how do you create a habit of continual learning? One way is to apply Growth Mindset, which is finding yourself in a new situation and not knowing what to do – but then figuring it out.

What is Growth Mindset?

Growth Mindset a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. It influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation. People with growth mindset see failure as an opportunity to grow. They see challenges as a path toward growth and let their effort and attitude determine their abilities. They are inspired by the success of their team members and take feedback as a constructive way of improvement.

Source: Fixed v. Growth Mindset. “Mindset” by Carol Dweck | Medium |

Beliefs and Behaviors of Growth Mindset Leaders

Leaders with growth mindset put growth first and unite the business goals around it. They back the risktakers, knowing there is a possibility of failure. The focus is toward action rather than perfection. These leaders infuse those around them with a purpose.

What sets a leader with purpose apart from one without purpose? There are three core elements for experiencing purpose: positive impact on others, personal development, and delivery of work through strong relationships. A purpose-driven leader fosters these experiences for her team and has a mission for her work. This mission is something that every team member knows because it’s communicated repeatedly by the leader.

Working with a growth mindset involves delegating work and having confidence in the people around you. Delegation goes beyond just handing off the job. It includes setting performance expectations, accountability, and providing feedback.

Breaking the Fixed Mindset

The most important factor when building a growth mindset is seeing the value in your journey. When the focus is just fixed on the end result, you miss out on all the things you could be learning during the journey.

If you’re not able to perform a certain task or activity, remember that you just haven’t become an expert in it yet. By using the power of “yet”, you can overcome many obstacles. Mistakes are one of the best ways to learn, so, instead of running away from challenges, take them head-on.

Tips to Build a Growth Mindset

Here are three tips to build a growth mindset:
• Counter stressful situations: Much of the anxiety we experience is due to the uncertainty caused by things outside our control. The best way to combat that is to focus on the things we can control – like our effort, our attitude, and how we treat people.

• Adapt to change: Sometimes the wave of change is headed your way full force whether you’re ready or not. You can either let the wave crash against you, knock you down and pull you under, or you can face the same direction the wave is headed and catch a ride to shore. Make the decision to ride the wave and accept the change.

• Keep a watch on non-verbal emotional cues: Often people express one thing verbally, but their body is telling a completely different story. So, focus on the non-verbals while communicating with others.

Have you worked with a colleague or leader who has a Growth Mindset? How did it effect you and the organization?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Competency Database Management

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 04:43:41 +0000

A well-defined competency database is an organizational game changer. Why? Because organizations with this database optimize performance.

First, what is a competency and an organizational competency database? A competency is defined as a knowledge, skill, ability or interest. Many groups of competencies are inherently difficult to measure, such as strategic analysis or complex pattern recognition. Yet, many other competencies, such as spoken and/or written language capability, have accepted, standardized, and validated tests to determine if they are held and at what level of expertise.

A competency database looks like a standard HR database on steroids. It can include data on existing skills, proficiency (or expertise), certifications, abilities, hobbies and other capability attributes of the workforce. Wherever possible, competency data should include level of proficiency or expertise. In integrated human capital systems, competency data are automatically updated at completion of training and development experiences or when tests are passed to demonstrate a new level of proficiency.

Competency databases can be extensive; for members of the US military, databases contain up to 2,000 HR, competency or expertise fields of information per servicemember. In other public sector cases, organizations will capture 20-50 essential fields in their initial adoption. Mature databases often include 200-300 fields of information per employee. The best size is the one that meets the most needs of the organization. In general, competency databases tend to grow over time as more needs are found.

In essence, an organizational competency database is an essential enabler for effective communication of organizational and individual expectations, finding the right individual or team of experts, workforce and succession planning, defining future workforce needs and current hiring parameters, establishing meaningful career paths, efficiently assessing internal candidates for permanent and short-term assignments, and determining optimal training programs.

Why should an organization be concerned about the skills required to perform work and what competencies their employees currently possess? Because competencies are the most efficient language used in human capital management systems. Both individuals and positions are fully described with competencies held or competencies required. Without competencies, communications are inefficient and/or ineffective. The opportunity for miscommunication is reduced if a competency database is well established, well defined and well known by the workforce. An effective competency framework forms the basis for all HR functions and creates a bridge between employee performance and organizational results.

What does a competency system look like? Four levels of competencies, as shown in figure above, are sufficient to organize or build a competency database. The “Core” competencies are at the center; these are the ones required by all employees. As an example, all employees must hold the appropriate security clearances. A second level includes general “role-based” competencies to describe, for example, the general competencies required by all executives within the organization. Building on these are the competencies specific to “job families” and the specific functional/technical skills for a specific job.

When developing the competency model, it is critical that not only information about the current competencies are included, but that some forecasted competencies are incorporated as well. Focusing on future competencies will significantly and positively impact the talent life cycle, for instance, by identifying training needs, streamlining recruiting, and building a robust leadership pipeline – all leading to a higher return on investment.

An organization’s approach to establishing a skills inventory and a competency management system should account for the four foundational elements outlined below to avoid the pitfalls that have prevented the successful adoption of other skills inventories.

A WELL-DEFINED CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM: Lack of definition leads to an unmanageable array of skills. A pre-defined classification system establishes standard definitions for skills and provides the basis for effective skills inventory management.

A CONSISTENT UNIT OF MEASURE: The lack of a consistent unit of measure leaves organizations without a method to track or verify skill levels. Having an objective skills measurement system will provide the organization with detailed metrics for tracking skill levels across the enterprise even if each directorate or unit creates their own unique use of the system.

AN EFFICIENT MEASUREMENT PROCESS: Skills inventory management initiatives can fail due to lack of employee and manager participation. Having an efficient measurement process and an online objective measurement system that provides fast and meaningful feedback are ways to encourage participation.

A PRACTICAL TRACKING AND REPORTING SYSTEM: Skills data can become mired in disparate administrative processes before it can be manipulated into actionable information. A practical tracking and reporting system that automates the reporting process will protect the organization from this pitfall. The true value of a skills inventory is its ability to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. Because the skills possessed by the employees and the demand for those skills is constantly changing, it is important that the organization have effective skills inventory management tactics that give them the focus and the knowledge to meet their needs quickly and effectively.

Has your organization developed competencies? What lessons did you learn in developing them? Let’s share experiences! Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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Optimize Your Recruitment Process by Using Competencies

admin — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 12:05:02 +0000

Recently, we wrote about the five steps to optimize employee development with a competency framework. This 5-step process begins with identifying organizational competencies and determining expected proficiencies by employee position and continues. The next two steps include assessing competencies and aligning the current proficiency with organizational needs and career aspirations. Finally, each employee should track progress to enhance accountability and results. This process helps develop employees and optimize organizational performance.

A meaningful competency framework can also improve recruiting practices. By aligning organizational competencies and expected proficiency levels with position descriptions, it allows you to hire people who are a good fit for the organization in a strategic and targeted way. Here are three ways to do this:

Assess and categorize competencies by type.
Map the minimum expected proficiency by competency within each group to position descriptions.
Identify and align behavioral questions with priority competencies during the interview process.

Assessing and Categorizing Competencies

Many organizations have “core” or “foundational” competencies that are distinct from technical competencies. Core competencies are the skills, knowledge, and abilities that all employees should have and work to improve, no matter their technical expertise. Examples include effective communication, problem solving, and customer service. Technical competencies capture areas of expertise needed to be successful in a particular job series or position. Examples include competencies related to accounting, mechanical engineering, or computer science.

Identifying the expected proficiency for core competencies can often be streamlined by creating categories instead of defining them position by position. For example, CHCI recently updated its competency framework and categorized its foundational competencies into four groups: 1) Corporate Member, 2) Senior Consultant, 3) Consultant, and 4) Organizational and Project Support. These categories were defined by responsibilities and experience across all current and projected CHCI employees. An example of how the categories can be defined is shown here.

Occupational Category	Corporate Officer	Senior Consultant	Consultant	Organizational and Project Support
Responsibility	Manages overall operations and management of the organization	Integrates the fundamental functions and capabilities to support clients	Provides fundamental functions and capabilities to support clients	Supports the internal organizational and project functions
Minimum Work Experience		10 years	4 years	2 years
Minimum Education		Advanced Degree or Certification		Associates degree or relevant certification

Mapping Expected Proficiency to Position Descriptions

Once the categories are defined, the expected proficiency by core competency can be set. This expected competency clarifies the behaviors and skillsets expected of employees in a particular category, at the time of hire or in their current position. Returning to our example, a small group at CHCI went through each foundational competency and identified the expected proficiency by competency in the four categories mentioned above by using a standard proficiency scale ranging from 1: Awareness to 5: Expert. The process included a select group of individuals who aimed for consensus agreement. The following criteria and/or process steps were identified to ensure consistency:

No category of employee should have an expected proficiency of “5” or “expert.” This doesn’t mean that an individual cannot have a current proficiency of “expert” but that it should not be expected in order to be successful in the organization. This criterion also encourages the idea of development and growth for all individuals, regardless of title.
Key assumptions were identified that distinguished the categories. For example, responsibilities in the Executive Member category focused on organizational outcomes and integrating processes across the organization while the Senior Consultant category focused on integration across the project as well as project delivery and leadership. Other assumptions included general levels of responsibility and proficiency required to be successful across all categories.

To define expected proficiency for technical competencies, a slightly different process was followed in the CHCI example:

Position descriptions (PDs) were written for new hires based on priority needs and organizational capabilities.
Each group member independently identified expected proficiency across technical competencies using the PDs and the standard proficiency scale as their guide. It is worthy to note that not all technical competencies were required for each PD.
The results from each individual’s process were consolidated into a matrix. The group met to review and analyze results.
Expected proficiency scores were agreed upon and finalized for both technical and “foundational” competencies for each position description. A rationale for each expected proficiency was documented across all competencies for each PD to double check the logic.

Aligning Competencies with the Interview Process

The example mapping exercise allowed PDs to become competency-based, aligning potential employees with both organization culture and performance. The alignment then streamlined the interview preparation process for hiring managers, allowing them to prioritize questions based on targeted competencies and expected proficiencies in a particular position.

For CHCI, that meant preparing interview questions for Senior Human Capital candidates in four priority areas. Behavioral questions were developed to understand the depth and breadth of each candidate’s experience. The table below illustrates some example questions based on high-priority competencies.

Competency	Interview Questions
Human Capital Management (technical)	Describe an experience where you had to lead a strategic human capital initiative. What opportunities and/or threats emerged throughout the experience and how did you leverage and/or mitigate them? What impact did the initiative have on the organization?
Strategic Thinking (foundational)	What strategic thinking tools and techniques do you use on the job? What are some best practices that you apply to encourage all team members to think strategically?
Results-Oriented (foundational)	Describe a time when you and your team under delivered and did not meet expectations and/or a deadline? What did you do to mitigate the impact? What did you do after that to ensure lessons learned were captured?
Collaboration (foundational)	Tell us about a time when you had to work with stakeholders who had different perspectives on project priorities and scope? How did you communicate with and manage the stakeholders to ensure project success?

Creating a recruitment process that incorporates the organization’s competency model will lead to high-performing hires that make a good cultural fit for the organization, the project, and the position. When individuals fit into the culture of the organization, they are likely to be more motivated, interact more easily with other employees, and stay happier in the job. All of this translates into higher performing employees who will stay longer and potentially become highly qualified candidates for succession plans.

Once you hire a candidate, you can reinforce the organization’s values, culture, and competencies through your onboarding programs, annual competency assessments, and constructive feedback. This helps bring the entire talent life cycle together Click here.

Do you want to learn more about aligning competencies with your hiring process? Learn more by contacting us.

The post Optimize Your Recruitment Process by Using Competencies appeared first on CHCI.

Eight Ways to Improve People Processes in Your Organization

admin — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 23:11:38 +0000

People are a critical part of every organization’s balance sheet. Investments related to acquiring, retaining, developing, and inspiring employees are critical to your organization’s success, requiring a thoughtful strategy to build and maintain a productive workforce.

CHCI’s talent life cycle, called PRIDALRM, refers to the interrelated strategies that support the most important assets of an organization – the people. Most of the activities that occur within an organization’s human resources, human capital, and talent management divisions can be distilled to one of the eight components highlighted in the PRIDALRM image.

CHCI uses PRIDALRM to diagnose problem areas and develop targeted remediation efforts. This systematic approach to organizational performance encourages the interconnection among elements and alignment to outcomes. Let’s review the eight components.

Starting with the “north star” of the talent life cycle, the workforce PLAN sets up a framework that allows organizations to address current needs and identify future opportunities and threats. It helps answer the following questions:

Does the organization’s workforce have the right capabilities today?
What resources will the organization need to be successful in five years?
How can our human capital approach give us a competitive advantage in our industry?

The next component, RECRUIT, is about talent acquisition. Talent acquisition is the organizational process which fills current and future positions and manages the transition of new employees to becoming fully productive. According to research commissioned by Glassdoor, 95% of companies admit to hiring the wrong people every year. In fact, Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) identified that the cost of a bad hire could be up to five times the amount of a bad hire’s annual salary; so hiring the wrong person is a costly mistake. Here are three categories of questions to ask candidates at the initial hiring process to help determine if candidates are a good fit in your organization:

Prior experience. Describe the work at your previous employer and specific projects you worked on. Describe the tools and techniques you used in that job.
Reasoning. How do you think your skills will impact a specified project?
Motivation. What particularly excited you about [organization name] and what we aspire to achieve?

The third element of the talent life cycle is INSPIRE. Think of inspire as the efforts made to instill and harness employees’ and leadership’s passion. Specifically, this is about employee engagement, which can be seen through the dedication, persistence, and effort in an employee’s work or overall attachment to the organizational mission. The root causes of a disengaged workforce can be bucketed into six categories:

Low trust culture
Lack of transparency
Low employee empowerment
Uninspiring senior leadership
Shortage of resources
Poor support services

The principal question to ask is how does the human capital system nurture engagement and inspiration? When employees know the organization cares about their growth and career, they are more engaged, do better work, and are less likely to leave. That leads us into the next component – DEVELOP.

Meaningful workforce development programs have many connections to the rest of the talent life cycle, from mitigating skill gaps in the planning phase to building effective leaders and minimizing employee retention. It is best practice to develop your workforce using the 70/20/10 Adult Learning and Development model, which suggests that employing a combination of the three types of learning approaches, outlined in the image below, will make learning more cohesive and natural.

Closely aligned to DEVELOP, the fifth component of PRIDALRM is about assignment and competencies. ASSIGN is the ability to use your understanding of an individuals’ knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs) to intentionally delegate tasks, assign work to teams, and provide developmental opportunities. There are four strategies for effective assignment:

Create a delegation strategy for your team. Dedicate 1-2 hours at the end of each week to review the strategy, recognizing what’s unique about individual skills and experiences. Reduce or eliminate assignments that don’t align with the team’s purpose.
Clarify roles. A key element of effective assignment is making sure your team members are clear on their roles and responsibilities. When there is clarity for all, it is easier to assign work, review work, and set performance expectations. This can also help identify talent gaps required for the project.
Set clear expectations. Continually stating the objectives you are trying to achieve, as well as emphasizing the level of effort and engagement you expect, helps focus the team. Create a culture that values outcomes over hours worked by openly praising strong performance.
One-on-one communication. Making time to have individual conversations will ensure people stay motivated and engaged. It provides an opportunity to discuss career aspirations and gather their insights on the project.

As the sixth component indicates, leadership (LEAD) is needed to support and reinforce planning, recruiting, inspiring, assigning work, and developing the workforce. Effective leadership drives the bottom line, leading to higher profits, lower turnover, and improved results. The actions of senior leaders and direct supervisors have a strong impact on employee engagement. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a critical leadership competency, for both formal and informal leaders. The five domains of Goleman’s EI model have become the de facto standard for applying emotional intelligence in the workplace. The image below represents these five domains in four quadrants: two represent personal competence and two represent social competence.

Employee retention, the ability of an organization to RETAIN its employees, is also critical to the talent life cycle. Hiring is difficult, timely, and costly. Once hired, it typically takes eight months for a new employee to get up to full productivity, according to the Allied Workforce Mobility Survey. Employees that have been with an organization the longest are the most familiar with the company’s structure, policies, and knowledge. Below are some important statistics to consider from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that illustrate the importance of employee retention:

25% of employees leave organizations due to lack of recognition.
15% of employees leave because of money.
30% of employees leave because they don’t like their manager.

Finally, the MEASURE component provides a tangible linkage to all components in the talent life cycle. Metrics and measurements that are analyzed and communicated provide evidence of the system working effectively as a whole and which components need specific focus and attention. Performance measurement drives continuous improvement. Remembering the “6 A’s” of performance measurement will help you develop and/or refine your system:

In summary, the eight components that make up CHCI’s talent life cycle approach, PRIDALRM, align all major people process functions. These functions support the organization’s most important assets – their people – and ensure that the investment in its people is strategic, integrated, and driving results.

Do you want to learn more about maximizing your talent life cycle? Does your organization want to optimize its people processes and enhance performance? Learn more by contacting us.

The post Eight Ways to Improve People Processes in Your Organization appeared first on CHCI.

Optimize Employee Development with a Competency Framework

admin — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 21:05:33 +0000

Employee development is a strategic tool for an organization’s continuing growth, productivity, and ability to retain valuable employees. Using a meaningful competency framework when developing employees will focus employees’ behavior on things that matter most to an organization and help drive success. This competency framework can provide a common way to harmonize, select, and develop talent, benefitting employees, managers, and ultimately, the organization.

What is a Competency?

Sometimes referred to as ‘KSA’, competencies are the things people need to know (knowledge), do (skills) and have (abilities) to be successful in a specific role. Competencies can be grouped into technical and leadership areas. They are defined by specific behaviors that describe what that competency would look like if someone were using it effectively. These behaviors are often laid out across a proficiency scale so the employee and manager can clearly assess the employee’s current behaviors and understand what behaviors are needed for the next level.

For example, the leadership competency of problem solving would include the behaviors illustrated in the following table.

Problem Solving

Level 1
Awareness

Asks questions and looks for information to identify and differentiate the symptoms and causes of every day, defined problems.

Level 2
Basic

Begins to investigate defined issues and identify the symptoms and causes of defined problems. Suggests alternative ways to solve identified problem.

Level 3
Intermediate

Begins to apply problem-solving methodologies and tools to diagnose and solve problems. Determines the potential causes of the problem. Analyzes alternatives, risks, and benefits.

Level 4
Advanced

Diagnoses problems using formal problem-solving tools and techniques. Probes underlying issues to generate multiple potential solutions. Proactively anticipates and prevents problems. Identifies potential consequences and risk levels.

Level 5
Expert

Anticipates problem areas and associated risk levels with objectivity. Uses formal methodologies to forecast trends and define innovative strategies in response to the implications of options. Gains approval from senior leadership to solutions of multi-faceted problems.

An important takeaway from this table is that Level 1 is not bad; it provides employees with an opportunity to focus on particular skills and knowledge for growth and development. On the other side of the proficiency scale, if an employee demonstrates they are an “expert” in a particular competency (Level 5), one would expect the individual to be giving back to the organization through mentoring and on-the-job teaching.

How to Use Competencies Within a Framework

Senior organizational leaders drive the development of the competency framework by using their mission and priorities to determine the top technical and leadership competencies that will create successful outcomes. These competencies should align with the values and vision of the organization. Leaders need to be realistic, yet aspirational, with their expectations on the level of proficiency each employee will have as it relates to the chosen competencies. You can think of operationalizing a competency framework using a 5-step process:

Identify organizational technical and leadership competencies and related proficiencies based on mission requirements.
Determine expected proficiency (e.g., level 2 for Junior Analyst in problem solving) by job series and position.
Assess employee competencies using a standardized process on a regular basis (e.g., annual competency assessment or 360 evaluation).
Facilitate career conversations with employees to match organizational needs, career aspirations, and current employee proficiency to learning and development opportunities.
Track progress using accountability measures (e.g., monthly supervisor/employee conversations, demonstrated improvements in proficiency).

Here’s an example of how the framework could be applied. Let’s say Amir owns “Party for You”, a catering company that has doubled in size in the past year. She wants to develop her kitchen staff to sustain her company growth and retain her employees. Using the framework, she would:

1) Identify organizational technical and leadership competencies and related proficiencies.

For “Party for You”, some of the technical competencies could include culinary expertise, inventory management, and sanitation, while some of the leadership competencies could be conflict management, building diverse teams and interpersonal skills. Once the competencies are identified, Amir and her human resource manager would then determine the 5 levels of behaviors they’d expect to see for each competency. For example, they may decide that Level 1 for conflict management includes identifying a customer conflict and Level 5 includes expertise in navigating both customer and employee conflict.

2) Determine expected proficiency by job series and position.

Since Amir’s company is growing so fast, she needs a way to identify the different levels of her employees’ growth. Amir and her human resource manager would then decide that an executive chef needs a Level 4 in conflict and a sous chef needs a Level 3, while a pastry chef only needs a Level 2 in conflict management. This information would be documented in job descriptions within the job series, to be used in recruiting.

3) Assess employee competencies using a standardized process on a regular basis.

Amir’s company informally assesses its employees every 6 months, and formally conducts a performance review every 12 months. Often performance reviews are based on informal conversations that can include biased decisions. Using the competency framework allows a fact-based conversation, with specific examples for each employee on how they’ve progressed in levels within each competency. The employee then knows what behaviors are needed to move to the next level for the next evaluation.

4) Facilitate career conversations with employees to match organizational needs, career aspirations, and current employee proficiency to learning and development opportunities.

Performance reviews are just one part of an employee’s development. Regular career conversations are vital for an employee’s growth and an organization’s employee retention rate. Once the pastry chef knows what behaviors are needed to move to the next level, the sous chef could coach her to take action toward to next level in each competency.

5) Track progress using accountability measures.

Having conversations without tracking progress is ineffective, so the executive chef ensures there is a tracking tool to measure progress. This could be a simple spreadsheet, Word doc or even a dashboard. Whatever tool is used, the chef keeps the conversations going so the kitchen staff know that she is invested in their growth.

If organizations are intentional with their use of a competency framework, they will better align individual needs with organizational outcomes like productivity, performance, and mission impact. The investment in employee development will drive higher levels of engagement and lead to the retention of strategic capabilities and institutional knowledge for the organization. Overall, the use of a competency framework as a strategic tool provides an opportunity to deliberately invest in employees while maximizing value to all stakeholders – employees and customers.

Does your organization need guidance in developing competencies or designing a competency assessment? Or recognize the value of defining the behaviors for each competency and aligning the competencies to mission requirements? Learn more by contacting us.

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