Competency Mapping
Competency Mapping is a process of identifying key competencies for a company or institution and its jobs and functions. Competency mapping is important and is an essential exercise. Every well-managed firm should – have well-defined roles and a list of competencies required to perform each function effectively. Such a list should be used for recruitment, performance management, promotions, placement and training needs identification.
The competency framework serves as the bedrock for all HR applications. As a result of competency mapping, all the HR processes like talent induction, management development, appraisals and training yield much better results.
Behavioural assessment is more difficult to quantify and is the focus of most competency studies. It examines personal skills such as leadership, active listening, teamwork and morale. This type of testing is essential for getting a complete picture of an individual’s skill set.
Key Components of Competency Mapping
- Identification of Competencies
- Competency Models
- Employee Competency Assessment:
- Competency Development
- Linking Competency Framework to Other HR Systems
Our Competency Development Model—The RepGrid
RepGrid is based on the personal construct theory proposed by Kelly (1955) which says that people view their surroundings based on their cognition, and past experiences. According to Tan and Hunter (2002), RepGrid is a cognitive mapping technique that attempts to describe how people think about a phenomenon in their world. For the purpose of discussion, we choose to capture the cognitions of the Team Leaders about their colleagues. According to Easterby-Smith (1980), there are three major components in the RepGrid; Elements, Constructs and Links. As per our study Elements are the Team Leaders; Constructs are participants’ interpretations of elements; and Links, are the relationship between constructs and elements, that is, the competencies of Team Leaders, and their relationship with effective and not-so-effective performance. We follow the process suggested by Tan and Hunter (2002) to develop the grid