The Importance of a Competency-Based Approach to Recruitment and Employee Development

Definition of Competencies

Competencies are defined as "the measurable characteristics of a person (e.g., behavioural skills, technical skills, attributes, attitude, etc.) that are related to success at work" .

"Lominger", Example of a Tool for Assessing Comptencies

Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger, co-founders of Lominger Limited Inc., have conducted significant research in the area of management and executive development, and co-created the Leadership Architect Suite of management, executive and organizational development tools.  These tools can be used to access existing and prospective employees' level of capability in relation to leadership competencies. They can also be used to diagnosis developmental needs and create development plans.

Once an organization has determined what leadership competencies are critical to to driving business results, they can  conduct a competency-based assessment of their current talent pool in order to identify how best to approach leadership development and organizational succession planning initiatives.

The Importance of a Competency-Based Approach to Recruitment and Employee Development

1. To recruit for specific leadership competencies that are lacking in your current employee group, enabling you to bolster the current capabilities within your team or organization.
2. To be more strategic in how you deploy development dollars or opportunities to ensure you maximize your return on investment.  (For example, research has determined that the most difficult leadership competencies to develop at the executive level are conflict management, innovation management, personal learning and understanding others.  The same research also suggests that these competencies are the least prevalent within the general population.  Therefore, assuming these are competencies critical to your organization, you would realize a greater benefit by hiring candidates into your organization who are already strong in these competencies, rather than trying to develop current employees who are weak in them.)
3. To develop concrete developmental action plans that will have a much greater chance of success and thus greater level of credibility with employees.
4. To support your organizational succession planning efforts in a more structured and fact-based manner, which will yield better results in these efforts.

Cheers,

Neale Harrison*

*Neale Harrison, President of Talent Matters Inc., has been certified and licensed in the Lominger Leadership Architect Suite since 2003.