Training Competency Models

Training Competencies have been defined as the "skills, behaviors, and attitudes that lead to high performance" (Orr, Sneltjes & Dai, 2010). A competency model is a model of the competencies that need to be in place to ensure high performance in a specific role, and more generally in the organization. Having a competency model helps the organization to target its training, by identifying both the competencies that the organization needs to succeed and matching this with the prevalence of those competencies within the organization (Noe, 2012).

The first step in developing a competency model is to identify the roles within the company, in particular ensuring that the roles presently within the company are the precise roles that the company needs to fill in order to be successful. Assuming that the right roles exist within the company, having a set of job descriptions that lead to success in that role is essential.

Thus, part of the training for competency concept is that the company needs to understand the jobs it has, complete with an understanding of specific competencies necessary for each position. It should be noted that it is important that the job roles are understood realistically. Some companies have a poor understanding of the competencies that drive success in certain roles -- they throw out terms like 'team-player' and other such things even when they do not genuinely apply to the position.

If blunt honesty, or strong analytical skills are the most important facets of a position, the company has to be honest about that when it assesses that position. Competency models are therefore closely related to job analysis. The job analysis serves to identify the competencies that are genuinely associated with success at that position. The better the job analysis, the better the competency model.

With an accurate competency model in place, the organization is now in a better position to train its people for the competencies that are needed for success, or to move people to positions that are better-suited for the abilities. A competency model can sometimes be built on the basis of who is most successful at that position at present. There can be different definitions of success, too. This is an area that can trip a company up.

Two people with very different competencies can succeed in different ways -- think of a courier who is well-organized and can make a lot of deliveries vs. one who is very personable and delivers exceptional customer service. Both are valuable in their own way, and the company will need to decide which competencies are the most valuable to that role. There are probably going to be different types of competencies. As Orr et al.

(2010) note, every firm will have a set of core competencies that it should want all employees to have. Beyond that, individual positions will have individual competencies. A financial analyst will require different competencies than a sales person. So the company needs to understand the firm-specific competencies. Once these are understood, the competency model should provide an understanding of the set of competencies that make an ideal employee at each position, or the combination of competencies that are required within an ideal work team.

These competencies should be difficult to replicate by.