Want a good chef? Check out their food!
Want a good employee? Check out their behaviours!
While raw ingredients are vital to a great meal, the difference between a good chef and a great one is in the subtleties of their cooking process!
Hire for demonstrated behaviours
Sadly, in the world of work, we have traditionally hired based on the technical knowledge and skills—WHAT an individual brings to the job. Although these raw ingredients are important, performance issues generally arise from HOW employees apply their knowledge and skills. In other words, how employees behave on the job can determine their success or failure! And whether we realize it or not, we intuitively assess an individual’s ability—their competence—by these on-the-job behaviours.
For example, does an employee analyze a situation to figure out the root problem, or do they get overwhelmed by the details? Do they cooperate well with others, or are they more concerned about being the star? Do they recognize what needs to be done and do it, or do they sit around and wait to be told what to do? Do they do everything they reasonably can to overcome obstacles, or do they point fingers and make excuses?
For example, does an employee analyze a situation to figure out the root problem, or do they get overwhelmed by the details? Do they cooperate well with others, or are they more concerned about being the star? Do they recognize what needs to be done and do it, or do they sit around and wait to be told what to do? Do they do everything they reasonably can to overcome obstacles, or do they point fingers and make excuses?
However, without an objective way to describe behaviours, we tend to put personal labels on negative behaviours—labels like disorganized, lone rangers, lazy, blamers… And we all know how impossible it is to drive positive change and development when we use that kind of language!
The good news is that a competency assessment can provide an objective way to describe the productive behaviours we desire to see on the job. These productive on-the-job behaviours are commonly referred to as transferable or personal/professional competencies.
Building blocks of a competency system
There are three essential building blocks in a functional competency system, i.e.:
- The base is a dictionary or library of competencies that contribute to individual and organizational success.
- The second essential is a library of job profiles. These set the standard for acceptable performance in any given role.
- The third is a set of reliable competency assessment tools. They should enable you to measure and compare an individual’s performance to the job profile.
Competency Assessment Tools
− to take the sting out of awkward performance discussions
− to facilitate increased employee productivity and development.
We designed the Entegrys Focus® tools to give managers an objective evaluation of how well an individual matches the requirements of a job. Quality begins with the Entegrys Competency Dictionary and Job Profile Library tools that underpin the tools.
As illustrated below, the tools collect assessor ratings for each behaviour in a feedback questionnaire. Then they compile the results into a comprehensive Focus® report.
The Focus report shows an individual’s overall performance score (strengths and development needs) for each competency in the job profile. It also shows the average ratings for each behavioural statement in the feedback questionnaire. As well, the report includes graphs to highlight similarities and differences in the rating patterns of assessor groups.
Together, these report features offer specific, concrete information for an objective performance discussion focused on relevant behaviours rather than personality.
Find out more here and try a self-assessment−Career Focus−now for free!
