Encouraging your organization to adopt competencies

This comprehensive report from Brandon Hall Group, a leading research analyst in the HCM space, covers the key pieces you need to get buy-in on competencies from stakeholders. 

You can read the full report here, but we will cover the main points in this post.

Overall, the report explains how companies can leverage competency management, and why investing in competency management technology is a smart business decision.

So what impact do competencies have on business? Brandon Hall Group’s survey results indicate that organizations with aligned competencies and business goals are:

• 55% more likely to have increased revenue over the past year.
• 45% more likely to have increased customer retention over the past year.
• 41% more likely to have increased market penetration over the last year, and more!

Unfortunately, according to the same study only 19% of organizations have their competencies and business goals aligned, meaning they aren’t receiving full benefits. One of the biggest barriers to competency management is a lack of budget, while a lack of automation and difficulty aligning competencies and goals aren’t far behind.

Investing in competency management technology is important because it helps simplify the process. Only 11% of organizations have fully automated competency management, and they enjoy a much more effective competency initiative.

By doing it manually you’re missing out on the added benefits of integrating assessments, development, career pathing, succession planning, and more. The full version of the report includes a comprehensive list of questions and considerations for planning a new technology solution that range from pricing to implementation, to timeframe, delivery model, and metrics.

The report also identifies several important steps for moving forward with a competency initiative:

1. Identify a project leader to support the initiative, ideally someone outside of talent management/leadership development.
2. Build your team from IT professionals, procurement professionals, and other business leaders.
3. Ensure your selection process has a realistic timeframe alongside other organizational objectives.
4. Identify your unique competency management needs before investing.

Once you’ve gone ahead with a competency management system, it’s important to measure its effectiveness. By defining the metrics for success first, you can continue to monitor the system’s efficiency.

Some of the best targets for measurement according to Brandon Hall Group include: improving organizational performance, improving individual performance, building future capabilities, building a leadership pipeline, and more.

It’s also important to consider how to involve different stakeholders in your competency management system. The report offers a detailed chart of the various key players, their roles, and key metrics they will need to have tracked.

To read the Brandon Hall Group report in full, click here or check out Brandon Hall Group for more insights into key performance areas!

Want to learn more about using competencies? Get started with our Competency Toolkit:

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Post last updated: June 27, 2019.