The importance of being competent at competency management

Effective competency or skills management, which includes cultivating and managing organisational and job-specific competencies, can drive greater success for your organisation and your employees. Well-defined competencies can help foster a strong corporate culture, build a more aligned workforce and establish key competitive differentiators. They also help make sure you have consistent performance standards for employees, which can help with employee engagement and retention.

According to Bersin & Associates, competency management is “a set of practices that identify and optimise the skills and competencies required to deliver on the business strategy. Competency management provides the foundational data to support strategic talent management processes, including workforce planning; sourcing, recruitment and selection; career planning and development; and, performance management.”

A closer look at competencies

Competencies are also called: behaviours, skills, values, performance dimensions or performance standards. Where goals or objectives describe "what" you want an employee to accomplish, competencies describe "how" you want them accomplished.