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Competency Management News-To-Use
| Best Practice: Proactively Aligning Business Goals with
Training Efforts |
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Proactively Aligning Business Goals with Training
and Development Led to a Successful Multi-Billion Dollar
Merger for this Banking Client
Prior to one of the
largest bank mergers in history, this banking client made two
pre-acquisition workforce goals; to measure the competency
levels of its workforce for staffing, and to align training
with the client’s organizational goals. The following
successful merger is a testament to the proactive nature of
this industry-leading organization.
Business Overview
The bank wanted mergers
in its future and was willing to put in the work prior to its
anticipated mergers to ensure their success. Knowing the
success of the mergers would be secured only with a rigorous
examination covering several areas of business practices, the
bank’s management team set to managing several large-scale,
organization-wide changes that laid the groundwork for
successful future ventures.
Challenge
The bank sat down and created a
list of workforce goals that it believed were necessary to
accomplish in order to be adequately prepared for any
acquisitions or mergers. Workforce challenges included a lack
of knowledge of the current skill base which would create an
even bigger challenge when adding more to the talent pool, an
undirected training and development department, new technical
and standards systems to train on and disperse throughout the
organization and no relevant competency models. As one
example, the bank knew the workforce as a whole was not using
some of its systems at a desired efficiency level, but didn’t
want to waste training time and resources on those already
competent with the systems.
For
the Solution and Results
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| Avilar Webinars & Surveys |
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Webinar - Competency Management: Aligning
Individual Performance with Business Results
Tuesday,
September 26, 2006
1pm EST
Organizations don’t get results. People do. For
learning professionals to be fully effective, we need to fully
understand factors that influence overall organizational
success as well as individual learning. In this session, we’ll
discuss:
The role that organizational strategy, structure and
competency modeling play in workforce development.
The combination of learning, engagement and accountability
that enable individuals to transform competence to results.
The role that competency management and training play in
aligning individual performance with organizational goals.
Reserve
your space in this webinar
Webinar - Take Your Training Business Online:
Success Stories and Success Factors
October 11,
2006
2pm EST
Join Avilar's Joe Jaynes, Director of Customer
Operations, and client Jim Kranz, VP of careLearning, for a
webinar on the success factors of Avilar training provider
clients. Hear Joe overview Avilar and its Learning Management
System, WebMentor LMS. Listen to Jim share his experience in
bringing a training business online. careLearning exceeded one
million registrations earlier this year and Jim certainly
knows the do's and do not's of growing a successful training
business. A Q&A session will follow.
Reserve
your space in the webinar
Training Provider Survey
Avilar is sponsoring a survey to better uncover
training provider business needs, challenges and suggestions
for the clients they serve. All survey partcipants will
automatically qualify to receive a portable DVD player.
To
participate.
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| Avilar Events |
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Avilar will be present at the following conferences:
HR Forum 2006 Conference and
Exhibition
Mexico City, Mexico
September 13-14
www.amedirh.com.mx/apartados/foro2006
HR Technology Conference and
Exposition
Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
October 4-5
www.hrtechnol
ogy.com
If you would like a free exposition day pass to
the HR Technology exposition, please e-mail Niki Herr at
herr@avilar.com.
1st Iberoamerican Forum on Professional
Training
Mexico City, Mexico
October 25-26
Learning 2006 - Hosted by Elliot
Masie
Orlando, FL
November 5-8
www.masie.com
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| Industry News - Assessments for Compliance, Study:
Executives Want Skill Gaps Addressed, The American Workforce
Skill Gap |
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Using Assessments with Compliance
A new
white paper demonstrates how assessments can be used to assist
in compliance matters. The white paper details how several
methods used for this purpose including identifying knowledge
gaps, measuring knowledge gained from compliance training,
analyzing results in order to improve future training,
documenting employees’ mastery of required knowledge, creating
an effective and accurate audit trail and reinforcing learning
and knowledge.
For
the full article.
Executives Unsatisfied with the Addressing of
Skill Gaps
A study by Accenture shows that of 250
senior executives, only 14 percent of respondents believe the
skill level of their organizations are industry- leading. The
study shows that executives place the performance problems in
part on HR and training departments. Only 10 percent of
executives surveyed were satisfied with the performance of HR
and training. The reasons cited in the study that cause the
dissatisfaction include a lack of connection to business
drivers, failure to measure the business impact of HR and
training efforts, ineffective or non- existent knowledge
capture and sharing capabilities, and a lack of leader
involvement in people issues.
For
the full article.
Skill Gaps and the American Workforce
This
article by Monster covers some of the basics of the impending
workforce gap. The article overviews how many employers have
trouble finding fully qualified workers, the skills gap is
widening, and many companies shun the cost of on-the-job
training. The article gives a short explanation as to the
possible origins of this problem, some of the more dominant
skill gaps being noticed, and how companies are approaching
the problem.
For
the full article.
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| How to Start a Competency Development Unit, from "Dear
Workforce" |
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Dear Workforce, from Workforce Magazine and
Carl Nielson, The Nielson Group
Question:
We're establishing a new unit on
competency development. What should its basic mandate be, and
how do we determine which activities are to be prioritized?
Answer:
Creating a new unit specifically
for competency development suggests the scope or impact of
this unit applies to most if not all of the positions in the
company and involves the development of both hiring and
training systems that focus on the job’s key accountabilities.
For that reason I’ll argue the primary mandate is to
articulate and otherwise ensure a solid foundation has been
defined for each job, that is, to identify the key
accountabilities in the job and the related competencies
required to deliver on those key accountabilities. Once that
has been accomplished, this unit can begin the process of
putting hiring and training systems in place to deliver the
most important competencies in the job and manage the
development of competencies across the organization.
Developing competencies within the organization can
occur in two ways: 1) hire the needed competencies 2) train
for the needed competencies. Both are methods that result in
more of a given competency. Neither of these tasks needs to be
owned by the Competency Development unit, rather, they should
be owned by the individual business units or departments.
By some standards, building a competency development
unit might be considered a huge undertaking requiring a large
budget. The fact is that the application of best practice
methodologies and technology have now made the task of
revealing the true key accountabilities in a job and
identifying the required competencies to be a much simpler and
less expensive undertaking than ever before. These
advancements are also empowering department managers to drive
this process and use the results effectively, eliminating the
need for this new unit to perform all of the required tasks.
If the new unit wants to hit a grand slam home run in short
order, it must consider how to balance high production levels,
high quality results with total stakeholder acceptance – none
of which can happen without stakeholder involvement.
A high level of production suggests competency
development for every position occurs not in years but in one
to two months, regardless of how many positions need to be
profiled and studied. It also suggests putting more effort
into selecting off-the- shelf training modules. The level of
quality suggests the end results of each job study must be
valid and reliable and that training and development programs
must be focused on development of the right competencies for
each employee. That requires the ability to quickly compare
the talents required in the job with the talent of the person
in the job. You will also want a solution that managers and
employees will accept and embrace. The best measure of
stakeholder acceptance is when managers are demanding more of
it. That only happens when they feel the program is delivering
results as defined by them, isn’t expensive and is easy to
understand and use without an interpreter.
To summarize, the primary mandate of the Competency
Development unit is to
- Create and communicate to stakeholders a solid strategy
for developing and documenting the key accountabilities of
each job including measures of success.
- Empower managers and high-performing incumbents to
identify the key accountabilities. Use the key
accountabilities as the reference point for stakeholders to
identify the most important competencies required in the job
(online job profiling tools allow stakeholders to identify
the key competencies in a manner of minutes).
- Implement job-talent assessment tools that identify gaps
in competencies.
- Implement work processes that assess applicants early in
the hiring process to reveal best fit candidates quickly and
to expedite the recruitment of high potential candidates.
- For the most popular competencies, those found across
jobs throughout the organization such as a set of management
or leadership competencies, drive the development of
internally delivered training programs (purchase
off-the-shelf programs where possible) or contract with
training/consulting firms to deliver the program on a
regular basis at your locations.
- For unique or not-so-popular competencies, provide
guidance to department managers on the most cost-effective
training and development alternatives. Many times,
competency development requires nothing more than correctly
identifying the competency, correctly assessing the level of
the competency within the organization and providing some
basic strategies for developing skills in the competency.
For a list of competencies used to identify job
requirements and talent, go to http://www.nielsongroup.com/articles/list_of_c
ompetencies.pdf. For an article on how to develop key
accountabilities in the job, go to http://www.nielsongroup.com/articles/laying_t
he_foundation.pdf.
SOURCE: Carl Nielson, principal, The Nielson Group,
Dallas, TX, USA, June, 2006. The Nielson Group provides proven
solutions for individual and organization performance
improvement, hiring the right person for the job and
developing effective teams. www.nielsongroup.com (972)
346-2892.
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Avilar Announcements |
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Competency Management Leader Christine Hipple
Joins Avilar as Director of Workforce Solutions
Avilar is proud to add HR veteran Christine (Chris)
Hipple to its highly experienced list of consultants. Chris
boasts over twenty years experience and a long list of project
accomplishments in strategic HR leadership and training. As
Director of Workforce Development Solutions, Chris will
consult with the users of Avilar’s competency management
product, WebMentor Skills, as well as lead the participants in Avilar’s
WebMentor Skills Consortium.
“Chris not only brings outstanding experience, she
has a contagious enthusiasm for competency management,” says
John Skowlund, Avilar’s CEO. “Chris’s combination of
experience and passion provides Avilar clients with an
invaluable addition to their competency management
implementation and continued use.”
Chris left her position as Director of Leadership and
Professional Development at Magellan Health Services where
recently finished the development of a mentor program. The
program paired seasoned staff with those interested in
advancing their career. The pilot programs boasted double the
expected participation and preliminary evaluations showed
protégés were progressing on development goals while mentors
stated a better understanding of other parts of the
organization. At University Physicians at the University of
Maryland School of Medicine, Chris launched a centralized
learning program, a skill certification process, developed a
competency-based pay-for-performance program, and initiated a
“float pool” of internal temporary workers that dramatically
cut costs and turnover rates. Working with the office of the
Sergeant at Arms and a number of US Senate offices, she was
instrumental in developing and piloting a competency-based
talent selection process.
“I’ve always been convinced that appropriate use of
technology-supported learning can significantly and
efficiently improve performance at the individual, work group
and organizational levels,” says Chris on her transition to
Avilar. “I’m excited about the opportunities to help a wide
variety of organizations make a greater impact with their
learning resources and am proud to join a company that offers
such well-designed products and customer-focused services.”
Chris was introduced to Avilar through both parties’
participation in the American Society of Training and
Development, ASTD. Chris served as President-elect and then
President of the Maryland ASTD chapter. In her two years of
office she helped increase membership by six percent and
increase cash reserves above required levels by reviving the
annual conferences, adding a number of informal networking
opportunities and enhancing program offerings, the chapter
website and publications. In 2005, Chris presented at the ASTD
Leadership Conference on the chapter’s success.
“Chris is unique in that she sees competency
management from all angles,” says Hal Gerrish, Avilar’s
Director of Competency Management. “She has experience using
competency management as a client and consultant and it shows
in her perception of today’s HR problems. Her practical
knowledge of theory versus reality will result in high success
rates for the competency management projects of Avilar
clients.”
Chris will be hosting a webinar in September entitled
"Competency Management: Aligning Individual Performance with
Organizational Goals." For
a description and to register..
For more Avilar news...
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