Organizational Transformation through Competency Modeling
Diana Tyson
The contradictions in the workplace coupled with a very dynamic global market continue to plague and intrigue the Human Resource professional. One contradiction relates to the ongoing outsourcing of jobs to low cost countries and the continuous need for highly talented, very specialized professionals here in the US. The HR professional facilitates the movement of employees off payroll, maintaining, and refreshing the current employee base needed to move the business forward. One major telecommunications company compelled to change its business model based on market forces tasked a team of HR and OD practitioners to do this very thing, that is “refresh” a segment of the employee base to capture the new opportunity. Below is how they approached the project.
Step 1: Revisiting the competency models. The team knew what the current organizational model was and the requisite skills and experiences needed by employees to ensure continued success and growth of the division. However, the direction of the business was about to change somewhat radically and although some of the skills and experiences were transferable, the new model dictated a different skill and knowledge base—one with lots of uncertainty surrounding it. The team collaborated with an external consulting organization, which had a history of working with companies that occupied this market space into which we were trying to break—and who would ultimately be our competitors. Over a period of several months through research, examining various competency models and interviewing analysts and trendsetters in the field, the team created a blended competency model that the organization accepted as their own. What made the new model successful is that it reflected expertise the organization currently possessed which would be pivotal to the success of the new business model.
Step 2: Creating new job descriptions. After developing and gaining organizational support and commitment for the new competency models, all job descriptions for the organization were rewritten, socialized internally and distributed to some of the external employment firms that served as the company’s recruiters. The new model screened served as the framework to hire all new employees into the system and support current employees to re-evaluate their work and development plans accordingly.
Step 3: Performance Assessment. A behavioral based assessment process grounded in the new competency models became the framework. A team of two assessors interviewed incumbents and internal individuals who believed they could contribute to the new organization. The assessment team consisted of external consultants: an organizational development expert and an expert who had many of the attributes of the new positions. Using external resources was critical to the success of the project; the client wanted to ensure that the process was unbiased based on personal or professional relationships.
The face-to-face behavioral interview lasted approximately two hours and the preliminary assessment of the interview was an additional hour where the assessors shared their perspectives and determined the overall performance of the individual. The lead assessor would then document the findings and review with the secondary assessor. The final assessment was shared with the individual and the senior leadership team of the organization and HR. This data, coupled with the employees most recent appraisal and an interim evaluation of the employee by his/her manager using the new competency model determined the individual’s probability of success in the new organization.
Step 4: Talent Management. The new organization reflected an 80-20 (80% former employees and 20% new hires) split. The new competency models coupled with the internal employee’s performance in the various assessments determined if he/she had enough of the required skills and transferable experiences to meet the needs of the new organization. Within a period of two years, the organization continued to morph and change, and as we learned what success looked like and what had to happen to ensure on-going success, the legacy employee population dwindled to about 60% and the new employee population represented 40% of the organization. A significant benefit of the process was that internal employees believed that there was little “politicking” associated with securing the new positions and that they were fairly assessed. Because of this sentiment, as new employees joined the company, they were welcomed to the team.
Diana Tyson is a Senior Manager of Global Organization Development
