Back Holistic Competence Development of the 75% employee
What is your development plan for your employees?
Competences, which we have today, are most probably not the ones needed tomorrow.
Competence is the ability and willingness to apply knowledge and skills successfully and efficiently.
Therefore, competence development is essential for employee satisfaction and sustainable business,
especially in a dynamic growing or changing environment.
When interlinking commonly used Human Resource tools, the benefits from each single document
can already be used for Competence Development. These commonly used tools are:
Job Description
Succession Plan / Headcount Plan
Self-Assessment / Coach Assessment
Skill Matrix / Gap Analysis
Trainings & Training material
Career Path / Development Plan
Training Plan
A database or a specific software is then the right choice to handle this process efficiently and with a reduced administrative effort.
Despite the personal preferences for a career path of an employee, it is essential to strategically plan
which competencies and which quantity (headcount) is required on a mid-term and a long-term basis for a company.
Another important step is to monitor the progress. While certificates have the advantage of clear measurable events,
they only measure the access to knowledge.
While small, multiple-choice tests may be able to measure the status of knowledge
they won’t be able to identify the individual’s ability to apply that knowledge.
Therefore, a self-assessment, followed by a coach assessment, appears to be the tool of choice.
A skill matrix (or more accurately a competence matrix) is a requirement for several quality systems like IATF 16949
and gives a visual tool for analyzing the gap between skills required versus skills that are currently available.
A quarter scale for rating is frequently used, where the 75% employee is on a professional level and can work independently,
while 100% means trainer and/or expert level (Hold onto this thought when applying it to the hiring process).
The analysis of the gaps leads to a training plan, which will then not only cover the needs for the actual year,
but also consider the career path of the individual, as well as the needs of the company for the upcoming years.
As I haven’t found a software in the past, which fulfilled my needs, I’ve decided to develop my own, which brings
transparency into the process and also covers the documentation of the trainings,
such as training material and participant lists.
