Hello everyone, in the previous topic we understood the meaning of job analysis and its two parts job description and job specification. The job analysis concept that we discussed in the last article is referred to as traditional job analysis. Where more focus is given to job descriptions over job specifications and when giving the details about your job more importance is given to the details about the job such as the roles and responsibilities than to the qualities required in the candidate.

However, with changing times the focus is shifting more towards the qualities of the candidate. In this regard, a new concept gaining popularity is competency-based job analysis.

Today in this topic, we will discuss all about the meaning of competence, the KSA model of competency mapping, and the different types of competencies.

What is Competency?

Many people consider it as a skill. However, in the field of HRM, it has a slightly different meaning. Competencies are typically defined as a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitude (KSA). That can be reliably measured and that can be shown to differentiate performance. These should be observable behavior, so as to avoid biases and gut feelings.

Example– So let’s say, I want to hire a driver for myself. Now let’s remained in time and understand how the person would become a driver. So he would have gone to Driving School perhaps and the first few days with the trainer would have told him things like how to take a U-turn, how to take right or left or reverse e.t.c.

This is just knowledge initially then the person started driving and over time his knowledge would become a skill. Now has both knowledge and skill but is that enough for him to be hired as a driver? well, let’s see this candidate has 20+ years of experience and it comes to the interview we can be confident that has the knowledge and skills.

But what about his attitude? Let’s say I tell him that I will be traveling to different client locations and the timings of the job will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and sometimes you may have to extend the ship and he replies with the no, that it cannot extend it shift in any situation or maybe he drives the car beautifully on the road but every time he comes across someone who is not driving properly he creates a big fast on the road.

You see how in both these situations his attitude is not ideal for this job. so attitude is missing here and even though his knowledge and skills are complete but he will not be a match for my requirement.

KSA model of competency mapping

Now, how can we assess the knowledge, skills, and attitude (KSA). Well, we can do it by his or her behavior or actions. So it’s sort of having a checklist of what we required in the candidate and assessing him or her against this checklist by observing their behavior while taking an interview. As we said earlier competencies are something that can be reliably measured and that can be shown to differentiate performance.

For example– if I am looking for a candidate with excellent English language competency. Now how can I assess this person maybe, I can do it by trying to observe his or her behavior to the lowest as I am expecting is can the candidate to understand when someone is speaking in English.

The next level will be, does the person speak English in a local accent and makes a few mistakes. then we look at the candidate speaking fluently and with no mistakes. Such behavioral indicators will help me assess the candidate.

Defining competencies behaviorally provides a solid basis for differentiating between employees who were performing more or less effective than others. So, we have seen that competencies are a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA).

But there are other models as well that are used to define competency. Let’s look at what these are so, we will look at two other models here one is the KSA model where KSA stands for Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities.

So, if you see we have replaced the earlier attitude of KSA with abilities here and the other model is the KSAO model where each alphabet stands for Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other individual characteristics respectively.

The other individual characteristics include but are not limited to motives, personality traits, self-concepts, attitudes, beliefs, values, and interests. Now, the term ability in both these models stands for the potential or the ability to apply knowledge and skills.

The concept in all these 3 models remains the same one can choose to use any of these models. What is important is that all these competencies should be reliably measured and that they can be shown to differentiate performance. there should be observable behavior to avoid bias or gut feelings.

It is important that you do not confuse competency with the word competence. if we go back to the dictionary both the terms are perceived to be the same meaning a few other words associated with them are qualified, ability, proficiency, and capacity.

However, if we talk about the HR domain then they are slightly different concepts. Competence means the ability to do the job while competency includes a positive attitude too. So we can say that competency is equal to commitment + competence. Where commitment stands for intention and a positive attitude.

So I hope now when someone uses competence instead of competency in reference to the HR domain you will be able to tell them the difference.

Types of competencies

There are two broad types of competencies which are as follows:

• core/generic/organizational level competencies
• functional/technical competency

The first one is core or generic or organizational level competencies which are usually the same for all the profiles in an organization. Such as an organization may want all its employees to have certain competencies. Such as teamwork, good communication, integrity e.t.c.

The other type is functional or technical competency which is specific to every job profile. For example– Payroll processing is a competency for the HR role or good convincing skills can be a competency for the sales profile e.t.c.

I hope you have an idea of what competency is, the KSA model of competency mapping, the competencies that are equal to commitment + competence, and two different types of competencies which are core or generic or organizational and functional or technical competencies.

So, that is all for today guys see you in our next blog. If you like our article please don’t forget to share it with others & follow our Instagram page for your daily dose of Motivation, and if you want jobs & internships updates or more articles like this you can follow our Linkedin page too.

Thank You,

Regards

Grooming Urban

Also Read What are Job Analysis, Job Description, and Job Specification? What is Human Resource Management (HRM) The Functions of HRM, SCAMPER Technique, & Challenges in the Role of HR Manpower Planning, Its importance, types, steps & factors involved in forecasting manpower requirements. Attrition Rate and Retention Rate

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