Transparent Expectations Are Key to Success
What is a Competency Model?
A competency-based model is a framework that describes the knowledge, skills and behaviors required to perform a job successfully. Many companies use a competency model—a critical coaching and development tool—as a foundation for talent management. When built correctly, companies can also employ competency models as a recruitment tool by asking specific behavioral-based interview questions linked to specific competencies.
Most competency models contain skills and behaviors specific to a particular job role or function. Others models contain foundational guiding competencies that are common to every job. The most common competency model structure includes the following:
Competency ⇒ Skills ⇒ Observable Behaviors
This framework lays the groundwork for a team to embody your organization’s values and possesses the skills necessary for success. Alexander Group’s industry-specific experts can assist you in developing a competency-based model that will lead to an aligned, engaged and higher-performing workforce.
Benefits of Using a Competency Model
Competency models help recruitment teams hire the right talent and equip leaders to gauge employee performance. Competencies can include essential competencies for all members of the commercial team, as well as job-specific competencies for each role.
Alexander Group can help you build out a competency-based model that allows you to:
- Hire the right team: Use the competency model to create an interview guide tailored to the skills required for the new sales roles. For example, if a skill is “Align solutions with customer needs,” an interview question might be “Describe a time when a company required you to prove the value of a product or solution; what techniques did you use?” The answers to these behavioral questions will help identify strong candidates for the new roles.
- Assess existing talent: A competency model will allow you to rank the level of proficiency for each skill and incumbent. Then, your team can organize the incumbents to identify the best fit for a particular role. In addition, you’ll be able to look at the overall averages for each skill, identifying training gaps.
When used correctly, effective competency models provide:
- Effective performance management and career pathing
- Recognition of high performers
- Effective coaching
- Improved recruiting tools to identify and hire the best candidates
- Enhanced new hire onboarding and ongoing training requirements
- Increased revenue through high-achieving individuals
Alexander Group experts work with you to build comprehensive competency models leveraging industry expertise, interview feedback and elements of your pre-existing methodology to ensure connectivity to adopted programs. We also can partner with you through implementation to ensure adoption success.
Need Help Retaining & Attracting Talent?
Experts at the Alexander Group look to top organizations within your industry to see how they are maintaining a motivated salesforce in today’s market.
