Competences

• Thinking about competence
• Defining competences
• Using competences for professional development
• Assessing competence
• Levels of competence
• Confirming your attainments
• Mapping employers competence statements
• Using published standards

Thinking about competence

The concept of competence has been with us for a very long time. Many qualifications are now based around definitions of competence for specific roles, the most famous of which are NVQs. Using competence springs from the idea of that having a good grasp of the knowledge and theory behind a subject does not guarantee the ability to turn that into competent performance.

Many organisations now use the concept of competence during their recruitment processes, and subsequently to measure and improve employee development. In fact, job descriptions are a basic definition of the knowledge, skills and attitude that are required for a given role. Competence is defined as being the mix of these three things.

It is easiest to define a competence as "the ability to perform activities to the standards required in employment, using an appropriate mix of knowledge, skill and attitude". All three aspects must be present if someone is to be effective in the workplace. To improve competence you need to increase not only your knowledge, but also your understanding of how that knowledge can be applied; your skill in applying it; and the attitude to apply it correctly.

To break this down further, knowledge can be considered as the underpinning principles or theory of a process or procedure. For example, at an extremely simple level, if you are repairing an item of electrical equipment, you may need to know what class of equipment it is and what tests should be performed. Increased knowledge might take the form of managing the test and maintenance programme.

To continue this example, skill could mean the ability to calibrate the test results. Greater skill may be required to immediately recognise that the component is damaged and, subsequently, to propose modifications.

Attitude, in this example, could be expressed as deciding whether it is safe to carry out the test. An extension of this would be ensuring that others, who also carry out the procedure, do so in a safe manner; and taking corrective action if this is not so. It could also mean reviewing the test procedure so that any unnecessary steps are eliminated or that further steps to enhance safety or efficiency are introduced.

Remember, overall competence is made up of competences in many different areas. All technical professionals need to consider the important question of how to develop competences in areas that are appropriate to their job, and these may be commercial as well as technical.

Defining competences

Before you can start to work with competences you need to define 4 things:

• what your role encompasses - i.e. what you need to be competent to do
• the knowledge, skills and attitude that make up that competence
• at what level you need to be competent - i.e. whether a basic knowledge of the subject is adequate, or do you need to be an expert?
• what you could do to prove that competence - e.g. what evidence you could provide.

Defining exactly what tasks you need to be competent at, and to what level, can be very difficult. Wherever possible you should always seek out existing competence frameworks, and your personnel department may be able to help you identify where these might exist for your particular industry or function. Indeed, many companies have already created their own frameworks, or there may be existing published standards you can use. (Find out more about existing Standards.)

If you are unable to find any existing frameworks you will need to create your own. Some organisations have very detailed job descriptions or person specifications, which can go a long way towards helping you create your own set of competences. To start with you should aim to assess yourself at this broad level, rather than trying to analyse the minute detail of every task you do.

You will need to identify the performance standards which apply to your work. Standards may be laid down at international, national or company level, and include quality, safety and environmental standards. Effectively, standards enable you to assess whether you have done the job properly.

Using the broad details of the tasks and standards that make up your work, you can then consider the combination of knowledge, skill and attitude that are needed to perform your work competently. Think about technical, business, managerial and personal skills. Very often, improving your personal skills will enhance the way you demonstrate your wider competences. For example, presentational or time-management skills can substantially raise overall performance and confidence.

Using competences for professional development

Once you are aware of your current position, defining where you want to be and deciding which competences are your priority for development will be much easier tasks. This will then enable you to produce your Development Action Plan. We would suggest that you work to develop only a few new skills or areas of competence at any given time.

If your goal is to perform a particular aspect of your current job better, use your job specification to determine which aspects of knowledge or skills you need to work on. Similarly, you do not have to limit yourself to using specifications that have been created for your current job. You may find it useful to make an assessment of your competence against a framework for a higher level of responsibility or different job, particularly if you are aiming for a promotion or to move into a different role. This will enable you to complete a gap analysis, showing you where you need to take development action in order to achieve your target level of competence - and therefore your goal.

Many of your goals are likely to be concerned with technical areas. However, do not forget your interpersonal skills. Very often improving your interpersonal skills, such as your ability to influence people, can bring considerable benefit.

Assessing competence

Having defined your set of competences, the next step is to assess yourself against these. This will give you an indication of your ability to perform your current role. You will need to examine yourself against each competence statement and decide what level you think you are operating at. Comparing yourself to others may help here, using respected colleagues as a benchmark of good practice.

Of course, you will not always be able to do this for yourself: you may need help from another professional such as your manager or mentor. Arrange a time to talk over your performance with them, but be prepared to accept their feedback!

Levels of competence

It takes time to develop competences, and you will realise that you will have different competences, at varying levels of expertise, in different areas. You may wish to develop some to a very high level, while to advance in others may not be so important or relevant. Remember that it takes time to develop competence and, in order to remain competent in a particular area, you will need to use the knowledge and associated skills regularly, or you will slowly lose your proficiency.

Some organisations have formal scales for assessing competence in particular areas. Here, line managers/assessors are trained to judge levels of competence against set standards. Of course, where standards exist and where they are relevant to you, they may be used as benchmarks. However, many professionals use standards not to measure themselves in any absolute way, but to be able to observe/measure their own improvement. So, if you choose to use levels of competence for your own development, do not worry about defining absolute scales. Do not feel bound to use any particular measures or definitions, but do try to use a framework to help you focus and improve. The broad definitions of supervised practitioner, practitioner, and expert, may be useful. Other possible scales might be:

For grading your knowledge and skill level, use a five-point scale:

Use some form of chart or framework to monitor the improvement in your competences over time. There are some suggested forms in the section on Forms.

Confirming your attainments

In general, providing you are as honest with yourself as possible, you should feel comfortable with assessing your own level of competence. However, you may find it valuable to use a third party, such as those listed below, to question your thoughts and give an independent view:

• your manager
• your mentor
• your colleagues
• your clients

You should, however, be aware of conflicts of interest, which may bias any third party's viewpoint, especially when talking to line managers, clients or colleagues.

Mapping employer's competence statements

If you are using your employer's competence framework/profile, but you also wish to use an additional framework, for example if you want to attain professional registration, then you will need a process for mapping the company competence framework onto the additional competence statements.

This can be a daunting task, but discussion with your manager and/or mentor should help you to match one set to the other.

Using published standards

If you do not have a competence framework within your company that you can use, then you can create your own, based on what other people have done. There are a number of published general standards, elements of which may apply to your particular role and will provide you with a starting point in developing your own.

Some examples can be found in the section on Standards.