Human Resources: Competency Models for Organizational Change

Competency models are widely used by businesses as the foundation for important human resources functions such as recruitment and hiring, training and development, compensation planning, and performance management. Models are often built with a future state in mind. They describe the collection of knowledge, skills and abilities that subject matter experts project will be necessary to be successful in a job at some point in the near-term future (3-5 years). Through 3 case studies, we will describe how building the competency model for a future state provided the initial impetus and sustained momentum for significant organizational changes such as changing role expectations, facilitating acquisitions, and changing leadership.

Case #1: “We need to change our sales approach.”
Leaders in a large financial services company realized that the changing nature of their segment of the industry would make their current sales approach obsolete. Instead of relying on prospecting and order-taking sales people, the company needed a more consultative sales approach in which the sales person could understand the individual client’s current situation and their short and long range plans in order to match those with an array of investment tools. We will describe the central role that competency modeling played in specifying the behavioral change required, how we assessed the probability that the incumbent sales people would successfully make the changes, and how we provided developmental guidance to help those individuals achieve competence under the new model.

Case #2: “We were just sold.”
After 10 years of re-engineering efforts, this electronics component manufacturer was sold to a private equity group by its corporate owner. Suddenly, the leadership style that served when they were part of a larger company was inadequate to meet the needs of this 90+ year old “new” company. We will describe how the top 60 leaders of this company came together for the first time in their history to define how they, and the rest of the management team, would need to change their behavior in order to be successful going forward. This competency modeling summit tapped into the collective wisdom and will of the leaders to accelerate the needed change.

Case #3: “Who is the successor?”
When the president of a business unit had to name a successor, he realized he did not feel comfortable with even his strongest subordinate being ready to move up. He had gotten the job when the state of the business was very different and he wasn’t even sure how to describe what was needed in his successor. We will describe how he used a work session with his whole leadership team to define the leadership competency model and then used that model to develop his entire team, including the ones with most potential to be his successor.

This webcast has been approved for 1.0 General recertification credits through HRCI

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Competency Models for Organizational Change – Three Case Studies