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Technical Competency Framework: Development and Implementation

Conference Paper · July 2016

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 Proceedings of SIMEC-2016, 15-16 July 2016, Karachi, Pakistan

TECHNICAL COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK: DEVELOPMENT AND

IMPLEMENTATION

Muhammad Midhat Ali1*, Muhammad Fahad2, Sheheryar Mohsin Qureshi2,

Chang Wook Kang 3
1
Young’s (Private) Limited.
2
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, NED University of Engineering and
Technology, Karachi, Pakistan.
3
Department of Industrial and management Engineering, Hanyang University, republic of Korea.

*Corresponding author. Tel.: 0321 245 1744; fax: 0213 506 9574

E-mail address: quality_pakistan@[Link]

ABSTRACT
It has been four decades that the use of competencies is getting popular in business and industry among
developed economies. The use of competencies is found beneficial by both employers and the
employees. There are two distinct sides of competencies which are behavioral and technical. The
literature available illustrates that significant amount of work has been done on developing behavioral
aspects of competencies while there is an emphasis on producing technical competencies framework.
There has been few examples where technical competencies are discussed. These are either very specific
to a profession or related to organizations and not individuals. Developing technical competency
framework which is applicable to a wide area of industry and trade therefore, remains a gap. Here in
this paper, methodology of developing technical competencies related to common jobs in industry are
discussed. This is exemplified by taking a job of mechanical fitter and developing the competency map
for this position. The work is expandable to other trades and useful for the entire lifecycle of any job.
Especial emphasis, however, is given to its application during hiring and performance evaluation
process. Work done on behavioral side of competencies is also discoursed and is relation to technical
competencies is stated.
Key words: Technical competencies, framework, methodology, proficiency level, testing.

INTRODUCTION: copied, human resource remains the clear

‘competitive advantage’. The human resource
Recent trends in globalization has accelerated
practices which are based upon competency
the race of competition. Fast Moving Consumer
modeling not only give this leverage but also a
Goods industry has to struggle more to survive
distinct understanding to hire external talent or
in a competitive market. Organizations must
to see if the organization has internally
create ‘competitive advantage’ which is unique
developed required set of competencies [1].
for them. While every resource could be
Therefore, growing organizations have a
available on some fiscal parity or could be
significant stress on enhancing personnel
competencies. As a matter of fact, in modern positions and the required abilities with varying
human resource management, forming proficiency level that the job holder should
individuals’ competency framework is either have or attain in order to be effective in
considered as an ingenious and vigorous tool his job.
[2]. In order to be successful in a business, an
organization should have to look at the factors This project aims to develop a technical
that influence its success and one of the factors competency framework for a specific
is the employment of competent work force. organization with an intent that the same will be
applicable to other organizations or industrial
David McClelland a professor of sectors as well. The “Technical Competency
psychology at Harvard University, is often Framework” which is being suggested here is
cited as the founder of modern competency useful throughout the employment lifecycle. It
movement. In his paper ‘Testing for helps identify and articulate job requirements
competence rather than for intelligence’ he and define work instructions. It may be used in
argued to present it as an alternative to establishing performance expectations, setting
intelligence testing [3]. Since then the use goals for accomplishing the work and assisting
remained popular especially in performance supervisors in providing the feedback.
management context by Hay Group.
Few models conferring a narrow scope of
Competency at workplace is a thorough and
technical competency have formerly been
specific account of the skills and attributes that
published but the proposed work has a wider
employees need to be better performer in their
scope. It is based on real-world system
jobs [4]. Competencies are put together in a
modelling followed by testing and validation.
framework which is constituted of a number of
COMPETENCY CATEGORIES:
There are two types of competencies: behavioral
and technical. Every job may include several of
each. For example, a team leader may require to
possess behavioral competencies like the ability
to work in secrecy, motivate his team mates and
produce monthly reports on time, while related
technical competencies may be knowledge of
procedures, communication skills, and report
writing. Each competency must be attribute to a
proficiency measure so the job holder knows That appears very logical that the competency
what level of accomplishment he must reached models must include technical skills but
to in order to fulfill the competency developers of initial competency models
requirement.

Technical competencies are easy to judge as

these are related to knowledge and skills, thus Figure 1 Competency Iceberg [11]
known to others. Behavioral competencies on
concentrated on the behaviors that emanate
the other hand are related to attitude and traits
outstanding performers and assumed that
which are very difficult to estimate. The iceberg
technical skills were of less importance [4].
concept is found appropriate with this
Since behaviors are situational and
categorization. Figure 1 depicts the idea.
environmental based, therefore, their
importance is differently felt and developments model at par to behavioral competency has
under competency framework is mostly found come to our knowledge.
related to behavioural skills. Though under very
technical jobs like information technology [5], Table 1 enlists some example of both behavioral
technical competency is talked about but no and technical competencies.

Table 1: Competency categories with examples

Category Example
Courteous, motivator, supervision ability,
Behavioral competencies
punctuality, maintains confidentiality
Can troubleshoot problems, Analytical, safety
Technical competencies
compliant, can fill out reports

LITERATURE REVIEW: model of person-organization fit based of social

cognitive theory and suggests that this behavior
The review of literature on the subject indicates modeling and modification theory should
that much of the work has been done either support research on the maintenance and
related to behavioral side of the competencies or development of technical competencies.
to organization’s technical competence. For
Gangani [8] and others in their ‘Competency –
example, Walsha and Lintonc, [6] published
Based Human Resource Development Strategy’
their work of technical competencies
have considered competency to be behavioral
measurements about semiconductor silicon skills so all their work revolves around
industry but these are competencies of the firm,
behavioral competencies.
suppliers, customers and competitors and not
individual members. Martone, [1] in his ‘A Guide to Developing a
Competency-Based Performance –Management
Ennis [7] mentions a nine tier models where tier System’ also considers competencies to be
four and five are industry wide and industry
behavioral and cultural skills. Two of his
specific technical competencies. However,
Exhibits mention some role specific skills but
competency model there is defined as
these are still managerial oriented.
behavioral job description and therefore, only
considers technical competencies as building Thompson [9] and two others have taken a long
block or support to higher level behavioral way to come up with a definition of competency
competencies. as integrated sets of behavior which can be
directed towards successful goal achievement
Mansfield [4] defines competency model as within competence domain.
behaviorally specific description of skills and
traits. The work compares various approaches of One work of Osika and Sharp [10] is however,
competency model development from HR related to technical competency which used
perspective. He couldn’t trace any work related survey method to match the faculty expectations
to technical competencies. Under common set with what pupils think of technical
of building block competencies, he proposes competencies required in distance learning
that human resource staff should meet with students. The survey was of faculty at a midsize
technical people to develop set of specific regional commuter campus in the mid-western
technical competencies. United States. An inventory was established of
Further study also reveals the same outcome the least technical competencies faculty
where practitioners are finding the need to members were of view students should exhibit
develop technical competencies. For example, to be successful in web-based instruction.
Wingreen and Blanton [5] has presented a
Besides that, same university students were education sector, in particular with distance
surveyed to determine how well they thought learning and may not be applicable to business
they met the minimum competencies outlined and industry.
by the faculty. This study is specific to

EXPECTANCY OUT OF COMPETENCY we have to enlist some necessary behavioral

FRAMEWORK: competencies as well. Shown below are these
fifteen competencies technical cum behavioral.
Competency frameworks give employees an
explicit idea of what performance is expected
from them. These specify which skills (and/or
1 Ability to communicate verbally,
behaviours) are appreciated, recognized and 2 Be able to fill out reports,
compensated. The emphasis turns from formal 3 Analytical,
qualifications and career past to ‘standard 4 Be able to trouble shoot problems,
capabilities’ as proven through experience or 5 Can supervise workers,
tests designed to assess an individual’s 6 Compliance to procedures,
capabilities. Each identified competency must 7 Courteous,
8 Develop workers,
define a consistent set of levels (proficiency) to
9 Guide workers in their job,
differentiate the degree to which a competency 10 Motivator,
is required in various jobs [4]. 11 Performs as active technical support,
So far, competencies have been discussed from 12 Punctuality to work,
13 Reliable,
the employers’ perspective. While, competency
14 Safety conscious; personal and property,
models can also be used by the other side as 15 Team worker
well, such as an incumbent worker, a student or
a new employees applying for a position. COMPETENCY MAP DEVELOPMENT:
Competency models are alike useful for The methodology for developing a competency
business planning purposes, individuals seeking map starts with identifying jobs of considerable
employment and advancing or transitioning in importance that a project leader, head of the
their careers. [7]. department or an HR professional see a need for.
A universal list of competencies or library may
COMPETENCY MAP: not therefore, be purposeful for organizational
A competency map comprises of a set of some achievement [9]. The preliminary collection of
competencies, explicit to a particular job as information may include a panel of HR
extracted from the job descriptions [8]. The professional, job expert and psychologist and at
competencies should also define the levels to the same time a focus group of job holders and
distinguish the extent to which a competency is their managers to interview with jobholders.
required. For example, one job may require a The stage of collecting data may also include
basic level of skill while another job may require interviews with customers and direct reports,
a much higher level. Levels could also enable surveys of additional job holders, and direct
the correct evaluation of individuals when there observation of jobholders at work [4]. After this
is a need to identify persons who possess is complete, the next step is scrutiny of data to
particular competencies required for their job or extract it into a competency map that would
project [4]. normally include ten to twenty skills, each with
We have included an example of some technical a list of specific task that describe what exactly
competencies related to a job of mechanical is required of the job to do to be an effective
fitter. For the purpose of completing the map, performer. These are development phase steps
which continue exactly as detailed below but Development Phase: Some technical jobs will
there are two other distinct phases of validation be identified through experience and survey
which our project has to take. Details are which are usually found in industry like fitter,
following (Figure 2). fabricator, machinist, motor winder, AC
technician, generator operator, wiring man,
inspectors, lab technicians, forklift drivers, etc.

Identify jobs for associating

competencies

List corresponding technical

competencies

Give a weightage to every

competency in light of job description
JD

Assign five levels of proficiency to

each competency

Pick a proficiency level (#) against Get a proficiency (#) through Get a performance rating (#) through
each competency which suits JD intelligence and psychometric testing evaluation system on same scale 1-5

Multiply proficiency number with Multiply this number with weighted Multiply this number with weighted
weighted competencies competencies competencies

The resultant should be greater than The resultant should be greater than
The resultant is Weighted Proficiency or equal to Weighted Proficiency or equal to Weighted Proficiency
Number WPN associated with this job Number to get hired Number to be at required level

Figure 2. Process Flow of Competency Map Development Methodology

• Technical competencies will be identified 100. Proficiency level we require for this job is
against each job. Under every competency, ‘Is able to express and report work related
there will be five levels of proficiency defined. issues’ which corresponds to level 4. So WPN
This will be done by literature survey, will be 7x4 = 28.
observation at work, expert opinion, brain
storming and interviews. • The same number against any job could vary
from industry to industry and company to
• Weightages will be given based on the above company based on their needs.
work in each job.
• Work thus done for different jobs will form a
• Based on already present job description, population. The whole work will be referred to
proficiency level will be picked and multiplied as a “Competency Map.”
with weightage to get Weighted Proficiency
Number – WPN. For example, ‘Ability to • A pilot run will be made on a selected
communicate verbally’ is a technical organization to verify that the process runs
competency. For the job (mechanical fitter) we satisfactorily.
calculated WPN, its weightage is 7 on a scale of
Testing & Validation Phase (at the time of drawing a framework to cover major and
‘Hiring’): Specific questions for interview will common technical jobs of the industry. A team
be designed; relevant technical and of relevant staff has to consider the jobs for
psychological tests will be determined; and on- identifying competencies. This team will then
the-job testing will be framed out. These tools enlist required competencies for specified jobs
will be used to derive a Proficiency Level. This and identify five probable proficiency levels
level (number) will be multiplied with the against each. This information is required for
weightages to obtain WPN.
developing the competency map for each job.
• This WPN will be statistically tested to The competency map draws a single weighted
confirm whether it belongs to the population proficiency number to be used later during
derived in the Competency Map. If this number hiring and performance measurement. A job of
comes out to be greater than or equal to WPN in mechanical fitter is taken for demonstration and
the Competency Map, then it is believed that the fifteen competencies with five levels each are
hiring has been done according to the required listed down. Weightages are assigned to
competency. competencies and weighted proficiency number
is calculated. There are HR tools which can test
Testing & Validation Phase (during an individual during hiring process and during
performance): Aforementioned procedure will the course of performance if he meets the job
be followed with an exception that “Proficiency criteria or is performing up to the standards.
Level” is replaced with “Performance Rating
(number).” Here, WPN is the product of this Due to this work, both employer and employees
rating and assigned weightages. If this number benefit from structure and clarity regarding the
is greater than or equal to WPN in the roles and desired performance and be able to
Competency Map, then it is concluded that the identify how an individual’s performance links
incumbent’s performance is according to the to that of the business.
required level of competency. REFERENCES:

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