OVERVIEW

Competency management deals with determining the types and levels of capabilities (i.e., competencies) that an organization would like each employee to achieve in an organization. Performance management is complementary to competency management in that performance management determines how well the individual is achieving the stated competencies.

Most organizations include roles and competencies for its workforce. Roles are usually defined in the context of positions in the organization, with an attempt to fit all employees under several broad areas. There are also professional skill competencies that are common throughout the organization. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has a professional skills competency framework. According to this framework, there are fourteen FHWA roles: office support, administrative specialist, human resource specialist, project managers, program managers, technical managers, technical/information technology specialist, regulatory specialist, legal counsel, marketing/communications specialist, research and development specialist, team leaders, unit leaders, and senior leaders. FHWA also has categorized its competencies into two major areas, professional competencies and business management competencies, and has further developed these categories into subcategories as follows:

• Business Management Competencies: include competencies related to common organizational management practices and techniques.

  • Organizational Competencies: include planning, evaluation, and understanding the parameters in which the organization operates as well as the factors that impact the organization.

  • Management: represents competencies that deal with daily operations and support of the organization.

  • Marketing: represents competencies needed to assess customer needs and then accommodate those needs in the products and services that are subsequently...