These days there is a great deal of discussion about Competencies. The discussion often includes attempts to understand and implement Competencies in ways that add value to the business. Unfortunately, many companies find this to be a challenging, if not confusing process. Following are some answers to many of the common questions often associated with Competencies:

What are Competencies? There are numerous definitions for Competencies and mostly they are quite similar. One common definition is "The observable characteristics and traits of people who do well in their jobs".

What are Competencies used for? Competencies are commonly used to measure and develop performance.

Why adopt Competencies? What value do they add above and beyond traditional methods for measuring and developing performance? You may have noted the word "observable" in the definition above. This word is key because it implies that we should measure the "tangible" rather than the "intangible". Think about it, we cannot measure the impact of a person's qualifications or experience, except by observing the ways in which they apply these on the job. So, in other words Competencies provide a way to identify, measure and develop the work-related "behaviours" that impact on performance.

What about skills? How are they different to competencies? Having a skill means that a person can do something. However, it does not mean that a person will apply the skill on a regular basis. Just because a person has the capability to drive a car safely does not mean that he or she will drive safely! Similarly, we can train Sales Representatives in Selling Skills, and we can measure their knowledge through tests and measure their level of skill through role plays. However, we will not really know if they are applying that knowledge and skills on the job unless we observe them selling in the field.

We have a wealth of experience in designing and implementing simple and effective Competency models. For companies that are cascading global Competency models, we will work with you to ensure that your models are customised to suit the local context and culture. and are implemented to achieve the desired results.

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A sample of some of the Competency sets we have include the following functions: Click on each of the links to see a list of Competencies for that function. We can customise these Competency sets to meet your specific needs. Sales, Sales Management, Marketing, Human Resources, Organisation Development, Training, Leadership, Clinical Research, General Management for Mergers, Information Resources. If the Competencies that you are looking for are not listed here, please contact us.