Competency Mapping in the Auto Industry: How Can I Get Started and Implement a Balanced Scorecard?

Hi,

I'm working as a Manager HR in the automobile industry at a dealership. I want to do competency mapping and balance scorecard.

Kindly help me.

Najam

Competency mapping is something which is not new, but now it has been recognized as a tool of management that helps organizations manage their human resource-related issues.

Competency mapping involves mapping the required level of competencies needed to perform a particular job and assessing the employees to determine their actual level. This process, in turn, aids in conducting gap analysis.

The results obtained can be utilized for training and development, recruitment and selection, performance appraisals, determining employee compensation, and more.

If you found the information helpful, please provide feedback.

Shringarika Srivastava
Email: shringarika.s@gmail.com

First of all, let me make it clear I am Ms. Shringarika and not sir. There can be various forms that can be designed to map competencies of employees against respective jobs.

The procedure is to level the required competencies for a particular job. For example, take customer service orientation as one of the behavioral competencies. Now, map what is the required level on a scale of say 1 to 5 (1 being least required for the position and 5 meaning very much required). Similarly, map the person. Suppose you map the required to be, say, 3 (that means a good knowledge) and the person is at 2, so the difference is 1. Now, this difference means that there is a gap of 1 between the required and actual. You may decide what to do with this result.

It would be too long if I start with the whole procedure, but I think you must have got the idea.

Hi Shringarika,

I am currently working on a project of skill matrix in an automobile industry. I have finished collecting data on the various technical skills and knowledge required by workers of the different shop floors and now have to assess them. I have defined the assessment levels as 1-needs training, 2-can perform under supervision, 3-can perform independently, 4-can also train others. Now I am confused as to which assessment technique should I adopt keeping in mind the above levels. A written test will not provide such a level of assessment. Can you please shed some light on this?

Regards,
Reema

Dear Reema,

To find answers to this question for each worker is a real hectic and time-taking job, and the process can't be fast or immediate. First of all, I would like to suggest you segregate these people department-wise. After that is done, you will have a list of identified skills according to the divisions. Now, prepare a questionnaire with the help of the division heads. This questionnaire should not directly identify behavioral skills. Pose questions in the form of situations and cases to make them think and answer, and then rate them accordingly. For the technical part, you can assess them based on what their heads speak (allowing for biasness, as this may occur).

If you found some help, please do reply! :)

You can use tools such as a Spider Web chart to map competency. It is advanced and helps you map several competencies simultaneously. Do search the web for it.

Regards,
Jason

Hi,

Competency mapping is a process of identifying the strengths of an employee individually and as part of an organization. This is to analyze the combination of strengths in individual employees with the intention to build the most efficient teams and to produce quality products/services. It is advisable to go for a holistic approach. If we can map the knowledge, skills, and behavior of employees against a particular job, evaluating employee/team/unit performance, training needs assessment, mentoring, etc., would be easy and more transparent. So, my recommendation is to plan for a complete profile mapping. Initially, this would require a lot of patience and quality time from HR, Line Managers, Corporate Team, etc., but over a period of time, this will become a routine affair, and HR will become more strategic than an employee administrator or grievance handler.

Some of the key tasks would be:

1. Define job profiles for all existing positions.
2. Collect required data from existing employees.
3. Process the collected data and store it properly for analysis (it's better to do this in your HR Management System).
4. Map employee profiles and standard job profiles and identify the gaps (if possible, request your software vendor to create a custom module for this).
5. Prepare a performance management process, including training, incentives, and corrective action.
6. Evaluate the performance model at least once a year.
7. Extract job profiles for new hires from the profile inventory only.
8. For new positions, conduct a job study and prepare a complete job profile before initiating resume sourcing.

Before implementing profile mapping, please prepare a process document and gather feedback from line managers and the board.

Spider web charts are useful when you want to look at several different factors all related to one item. Spider web charts have multiple axes along which data can be plotted.

For example, you could use a spider web chart to compile data about a wide receiver on a professional football team. On one axis, you could plot the percentage of passes caught. Another axis would show his yards per completion; another, his completions per 100 plays; another, blocks made; and a final axis might show his interceptions.

If a team did this for all their wide receivers, they could easily spot the best player as well as each player's strengths and weaknesses.

In a spider web chart, a point close to the center on any axis indicates a low value. A point near the edge is a high value. In the football example, we would see high marks near the outside due to the nature of what was being measured. In other scenarios, you might want points near the center, or low values. When you're interpreting a radar chart, check each axis as well as the overall shape to see how well it fits your goals.

Spider web charts statistics:

For the spider web chart, the following statistics are calculated:
Mean: the average of all the values in the series.
Maximum: the maximum value in the series.
Minimum: the minimum value in the series.
Sample Size: the number of values in the series.
Range: the maximum value minus the minimum value.
Standard Deviation: Indicates how widely data is spread around the mean.

Hi Friends,

I've been reading all the posts on the issue of competency mapping. Since I am doing research on the topic for my doctorate, I thought I would share one of the articles titled "COMPETENCIES AND COMPETENCY MODELS: DOES ONE SIZE FIT ALL?" by Patricia K. Zingheim, Ph.D., Gerald L. Ledford Jr., Ph.D., and Jay R. Schuster, Ph.D.

Maybe by reading this, you'll get an idea about competency mapping. I will share further materials as time goes on.

Regards,
Major Raman Kumar
Email: majorraman@gmail.com