Competence Management : Understanding It, Implementing It
Professional competence can be defined as utilizing the knowledge, experience and know-how to work towards the goals of an organization. Competence management helps people do this by showing how employees can use their competence and how they can develop their competence. Comparatively a new segment in human resources area, competence management has become a popular and an important method vital for achievement of an organization's goals.
To implement competence management, it is important to get the support of the management, which can be done through management coaching, as they will be the one in charge of directing the competence management strategy. They would have to evaluate each of the employee's competencies but also establish a set of the competencies needed for every task the company might need to perform. If you don't feel that your management can handle that task, there are professionals out there who will do it for you.
Finding out which competencies are needed for a particular task will enable you to mobilise the adequate employees and use them at the best of their capacities. By using business coaching, try to have your employees realize the importance of competence management and get them part of it.
So employees will rapidly understand for what task their competencies are needed and what knowledge they need to gain to perform other tasks and get ahead in their careers. The employees will therefore realize by themselves what kind of training they need to take, and there will be no more training needs analysis for the management of your human resources.
To get an insight of your employees competencies and measure the level of their skills, we've already suggested professional help, but there are numerous other simple tools that you may use. You could use a form for each employee listing their capacities. Another possibility would be a centralized database accessible to everybody through the company's network, listing each employee's competencies and also the competencies needed for the tasks the company needs to perform.
It is a also a way to get the employees involved and interested in their job, by offering them a chance to participate actively in the fulfillment of your company's objectives.Competency management is the best way to manage the human capital of your company and will also give you great return on investments.
The aim of management coaching is to upgrade the abilities of employees by training them to execute various management tasks effectively. Similarly, competence management seeks to match the knowledge and skills of employees to the needs of the tasks. It also helps employees realize what type of skills they need to acquire to progress in their careers. Through business coaching, employees can be made to realize the importance of managing competencies and to become involved in the process. While the organization learns to manage its human capital in the best way possible, its employees become more interested in their jobs and how they can work towards the organization's objectives.
Published July 20th, 2007
Filed in Management