|
|
|
|
Every month, the AvR Partnership posts a new idea or 'tool' relevant to not-for-profit management on this website. Each idea is intended to be practical and useful so you can take it away and put it into practice in your own organization. New ideas come out at the beginning of every month. Please email us with any feedback: avr2@sympatico.ca. Idea of the month
Competencies – Why Bother?Over the years, a lot has been written and talked about competencies and a competency approach, and much confusion still exists around the topic. Organisations have sometimes adopted a competency approach without fully understanding its purpose or how they should go about implementing it effectively. So let’s start to talk competencies, let’s move away from all that is confusing and discuss fundamentally what a competency approach might be about and why your organisation should bother with it.
What are competencies?Competencies are simply about effective performance. This can apply at an organisational, individual, team, occupational and functional level. The key is that effective performance is characterised by inputs (behaviours comprised of knowledge, skills or attributes) that lead to beneficial outputs, rather than the outputs or effects themselves.
Why are competencies important?There are several reasons why a competency approach might be important. Here are two key reasons: Environmental Changes: More and more often in today’s marketplace, customers/funders/donors are inundated with more offerings/services than they can cope with. Given this overload of competition, organisations are finding it harder and harder to differentiate their organisation from their competitor. Ask yourself, how many organisations are currently offering the same service within your sector? They may be advocating a similar cause, seeking funding from the same donor base or merely interacting with your funders/consumers/customers in a similar way. So organisations are seeking to differentiate and improve the way they interact with external stakeholders and they are doing this largely by focusing on behaviour. E.g. An employee may be particularly good at organising fundraising events (output) and generating income (output), however if these outputs are achieved through fabricated examples (input) or by targeting the vulnerable (input) then the organisation - although it may be achieving required outputs - is not necessarily gaining them in the long-term (will the funder/donor return?) or through acceptable ways that don’t challenge the organisation’s ethics. Organisation Development: Competencies aren’t just about dealing with external stakeholders. They also are used to promote and cultivate an organisation’s culture. ‘Teamwork’ and ‘Innovation’ are just two examples of competencies that can be used across an organisation to enhance the effectiveness of the behaviour of the organisation as a whole. A competency model that applies to the whole organisation is just one way of communicating the behavioural expectations made of employees and ensuring that they represent the organisation and interact with each other appropriately.
So how do we use competencies?Competencies should be used as the part of an organisational development strategy. Their fit in with the overall direction of the organisation must be considered. We can help you and your organisation develop a competency approach to organisational development, that would be useful to your organisation and which would take into account its culture. We won’t offer you an off-the-shelf model or approach because we believe that organisations are unique and one size simply doesn’t fit all. Areas where we might be able to help you include:
Feedback on the AvR Idea of the Month The idea of the month has been a feature of AvR's website since it was first launched. We’d like to find out how useful you find it. Please email us with your comments: is this the first time you’ve looked at the idea of the month, or are you a regular? Are the ideas too short? Too long? Are the subjects relevant to your work? Any other subjects you’d like to see an idea on? Do you have any good management ideas of your own? |
|
|
