Competency Mapping in Kirloskar Industries

INTRODUCTION :

“KIRLOSKAR FERROUS INDUSTRIES LIMITED” was conceived in around 1992 and there by triggered with following factors.

a)                 Rapid growth in Automotive and form mechanization sections.

b)                 De-licensing and liberalization policies of the Government.

c)                  High-Volume demand for castings from above sectors.

d)                 Demand of accuracy of casting with less machining allowance.

e)                 Demand of accuracy of casting capable of being machined in CNC machine in single pass.

Keeping these in mind Kirloskar group came up with an idea of founding KFIL with experience and expertise available in the group in the field of foundry business.

To ensure the desired quantity of raw material and cost effectiveness in the operation.  KFIL simultaneously went for Pig Iron Plant looking at the abundantly availability of raw materials it located its plant near Hospet.

Ø                  A modern plant set to deliver castings of high quality to deliver higher customer satisfaction.

Ø                  The only foundry in ASIA with Backward Integration of liquid metal.

Ø                  Non-stop availability of resources in quadrant.

Ø                  Connected through SH & NH and nearest Railway Station is Ginigera 5 Kms. Away from KFIL.

Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd., is a unit which is presently manufacturing Grey Iron castings for automobile company, engine manufacturer of tractor.

Competency Mapping

Introduction:

In the fast changing world of innovation, turbulence, mergers, diversification and mechanization HR professionals should act as change agents by convincing the top management of the need for change and at the same time inculcate flexibility in workforce mindset to make change process acceptable changes may be necessitated in several fronts like work process (manual to mechanization or in-house to outsourcing).  Compensation and promotion system, organizational structure (hierarchical or flat), or even hiring practices (knowledge and skill to competency based).  Routine administrative functions in HR department can very well be outsourced just at half of the normal cost and HR professionals can add significant value to organizational objectives by taking charge of change management.

The changing nature of work requires evaluating workforce competencies that are different from those evaluated in the past.  Predictions are that work will become more difficult, more fluid and more inter connected.  As a result the competencies required by future workers will change.  Intellect will be a necessary but not sufficient requirement.  Employees will need to be smart able to learn and grow but at the same time be adaptable, responsible and able to work with others.

Competencies provide the formulation through which HR professionals can contribute to the organizational success.  In the part organizations hired those who would perform a set of tasks usually focussing on technical knowledge. The traditional job based selection and development strategies are less flexible than competency based selection and development strategies.

High performing people are critical for high performing organizations.

Review of Literature:

Competency mapping (Seema Sanghi – 2004):

Competence and competency are two different words.  Some dictionaries may present them differently.  ‘Competence’ means a skill and a standard of performance reached.

Competency means that behaviour by which it is achieved.

Hogg.B. (1989) defined competency as ‘competencies are the characteristics of a manager that lead to the demonstration of skills and abilities, which result in effective performance within an occupational area.

Analysis of definition reveals.

Competencies are the characteristics of a manager.

Competencies lead to the demonstration of skills and abilities.

Competencies must lead to effective performance.

The definition which is widely accepted among human resource specialists in the corporate environments is.

 “An underlying characteristic of a person which results in effective and / or superior performance on the job”.

The more detailed definition synthesized from the suggestions of several hundred experts in human resource development.  Who attended a conference on the subject of competencies in Johansburg in 1995, is.

 “A cluster of related knowledge, skills and attitudes that affects a major part of one’s job that correlates with performance on the job, that can be measured against well accepted standards and that can be improved via training and development”.  (Parry 1996).

Scope of the Study:

Competency method can be used in several HRM functions like Recruitment, Promotions, placements, training & development and many other functions.  It can be used at all levels from junior worker to top executive.  Competency method can be applied successfully.

Agriculture, Industries, private sector, public sector, co-operative society or social service organization, competency method can help to find, develop, motivate and retain superior performers.

Competency Mapping:

To assess the competency mapping at KFIC.

To study the importance of competency mapping.

To identify the training and based on competency mapping.

To develop the competency mapping model at HRM Department.

To know the various methodology to assess the competency.

Data Collection:

The data required for competency mapping can be collected using different methods and tools of research, like on the job observation, critical incident technique, repertory grid, computer based expert system, job task analysis, survey, expert panels and behavioural event interview.

It is difficult to suggest which method is more useful or more accurate.  Some methods are easy to use but quality of the data may be inadequate, there are some more and other methods which yield superior quality data but expensive and time consuming.  Certain methods and tools are such that they can’t be used in all cases.  Some jobs may require the use of more than one method or tool for their mapping.

Observation Method:

Observation is a qualitative research technique through which one could gain information required for the competency mapping.  We can directly observe directly the behaviour of the role performers rather than self reported behaviour.  This removes one of the major cause of error in research – memory loss, poor recall etc.

Repertory Grid Sheet:

In this techniques respondents are chosen and were asked to think of the top ten performers and ten poor performers and ten poor performers they have witnessed in a role.  They were then asked to give behaviours that differentiate the best from the worst.  These behaviours were used to create appropriate constructs for arriving at successful behaviours.  In the repertory grid process the respondents will identify a set of superior performers and another group of in effective performers.  They needed to justify their identification of people will identify a set of variables (knowledge, skill, attitude, ethic, self concept appearance etc.)  which are associated with superior and average performers.

Expert Panels:

In this method a panel of experts which constituted of superior performers, consultants, HR Managers etc and are asked to brainstorm about the knowledge, skill, attitude, self concept motivation required of people for superior performance of a particular job.  This panel after detailed deliberation for a few hours and in source cases for a couple of days will list out the competency requirements.

This methods is quick and cost effective but quality of data may not be as good as other methods like observation or BEI.  Because in brain storming sessions members may not recall accurately the competencies they used leading to superior performance.  Sometimes it results in defective data.

Surveys: In the survey method, the HR department or the consultants based on their understanding of the job roles will prepare a questionnaire containing various competencies.  The questionnaires will be then distributed to the role holders who are thoroughly knowledgeable about the concerned job roles.

Job Task Analysis: Job task analysis is nothing but the traditional analysis we study in HRM.  Job analysis provides a complete description of the job requirements and specifications.  It gives uniform data for selection and statutory compliance.  The data for job analysis may be collected by different methods like interviews, observation and discussion.

Steps involved in Competency mapping:

There are four steps involved in competency mapping with an end result of job evaluation.

1.                  Conduct a job analysis by asking incumbents to complete a Position Information Questionnaire (PIQ).  This can be provided to incumbents to complete, or you can conduct one-on-one interviews using PIQ as a guide.  A sample PIQ that we use when conducting this step with one clients was provided to this client.  The primary goal is to gather from incumbents what they feel are key behaviours necessary to perform thin respective jobs.

2.                  Using the results of job-analysis, you are ready to develop a competency based job description.  A sample of the competency based job description generated from PIQ was provided to the client.  This was developed after carefully analyzing the input from the represented group of incumbents and converting it to standard competencies.

3.                  With a competency based job description you one on your way to begin mapping the competencies throughout your human resources processes.  The competencies of the respective job description become your factors for assessment on the performance evaluation.  Using competencies will help guide you to perform more objective evaluations based on displayed or not displayed behaviours.

4.                  Taking competency mapping one step further, you can use the results of your evaluation to identify in what competencies individuals used additional development or training.  This will help you focus your training needs on the goals of the position and company and help your employees develop towards the ultimate success of the organization.

Classification of Competencies:

Competencies can be classified based on

Performance Outcomes.

Universality.

Based on the performance outcomes they can be classifieds

Threshold competencies.

Differentiating competencies.

Threshold Competencies: People possessing the threshold competencies show normal performance results at work and they said to achieve the assigned targets on work.

Differentiating Competencies: People who perform exceptionally well above the assigned targets by fixing thin own bench marking standards.

Competencies based on their universality:

Generic Competencies: Generic competencies one those which are used in general.  For example: Ability to communicate effectively is known as generic competency.

Specific Competencies: Competencies which are technical in nature can be called as specific competencies.  For example: Ability to code instructions into computer language can be called as specific competency.

Competencies can also be classified as higher order and lower order competencies, which they are been classified on the basis of success at work.  The nature and degree of difficulty in developing them and the management level at which they needed the most.

Competencies like motives, attitudes, traits and self concept are called as higher order competencies and competencies like knowledge and skill can be classified as lower order competency.

T.V. Rao classified the competencies into four groups namely.

Technical        (dealing with technology)

Managerial     (dealing with aspects like planning etc.)

Human            (personal, interpersonal & team related)

Conceptual    (Visualization & model building).

Features of Competency Mapping:

People graduated from world class institutions are said to be world class performers at work.  Then those who secure high scores at schools and colleges are also believed to be high performers at work of course there is not enough evidence to show that studying in world class institution or academic merit will invariably result in success at work.  If we look at history of successful people many of them are neither academically brilliant nor have ever studied at world class institutions.

Competency method is based on the fact that academic brilliance or high scores in written tests will not necessarily lead to superior performance at work or success in life.  Competency method is capable of choosing the superior performers from among the reserved categories.  Competency method chosen the superior performers from all sections of the society, there by creating viability of the organization.  Competency method is humanistic and does not discriminate against job seekers on the basis of age, gender, religion, race, caste, nationality, place of birth or any other socio-economic and educational disadvantages to select superior performers.

Historical Development of Competency Mapping:

A team of Educationalists lead by Benjamin Bloom in the USA in mind fifties.  Laid the foundation for identifying educational objectives and there by defining the knowledge attitudes and skills needed to be developed in education.  The task force lead by Bloom took several years to make an exhaustive classification of the educational objectives that were grouped under the cognitive domain.

David McClelland the famous Harvard psychologist have pioneered the competency movement across the world his classic books on “Talent & Society” “Achievement Motive”, “The Achieving Society” brought out several new dimensions of the competencies. These competencies exposed by McClelland dealt with the affective domain in Bloom’s terminology.  The turning point for competency movement is the article published in American psychologist in 1973 by McClelland titled where in he presented data that traditional achievement and intelligence scores may not be able to predict.  Job success and what is required to profile the exact competencies required to perform a given job effectively and measure them using a variety of tests.  This article combined with the work done by Douglas Brey and his associates at AT&T in the US where in they presented evidence that competencies can be assessed through assessment centres an on the job success can be predicted to some extent by the same has laid foundation for popularization of the competency movement.  Latter McBee a consulting firm foundation by David McClelland and his associate Berlew have specialized in mapping the competencies of entrepreneurs and Managers across the world.

The competency method in Human Resource Management has a recorded history of about thirsty years.  In 1973 McClelland published a research paper tilled “Testing for competence rather than for Intelligence”, which has been credited for launching the competency movement in psychology.  They ever developed a new yet simple methodology called the Behaviour Event Interviewing (BEI) to map competencies, with increased recognition of the limitations performance appraisal in predicting future performance appraisal in predicting future performance potential appraisal got focussed  And assessment centre became popular in seventies.  The setting up an assessment centre was in integral part of the HRD plan given to L&T by the IIMA professors as early as in 1975.  L&T did competency mapping and could not start assessment centres until much later as it was not perceived  as a priority area.

Definitions of Competency Mapping:

 “Competency Mapping refers to studying the on the job behaviour of people to identify their knowledge, skill, self concept, attitude, trait and motive which results in success or failure on the Job”.

According to Rao

 “Competency Mapping is the process of identification of the competencies required to perform successfully a given job or role or a set of tasks at a given point of time.  It consists of breaking a given role or job into its constituent tasks or activities and identifying the competencies needed to perform the job successfully.

According to T.V. Rao, Chairman, TVRLS

 “Competency Mapping is any underlying characteristic required to perform task, activity successfully”.

IRI consultants to Management USA

Competency Mapping is the process designed to consistently measure and assess individual and group performance as it relates to the expectations of the organization and its customers.  It is used to identify key attributes (knowledge, skills & behaviour attributes) that are required to perform effectively in a job.

According to Elaine Voci:

 “Competency Mapping identifies an individuals strengths & weaknesses in order to help them better understand themselves and to show them where career development efforts need to be directed”.

 “Competency Mapping is a process of identify key competencies throughout the various process. (i.e., job evaluation, training, recruitment) of the organization”.

Approaches to Competency Mapping:

Generally there are two approaches of competency mapping they are;

Top down approach.

Bottom-up approach.

In the Top-down approach competencies needed for superior performance are identified by expert groups consisting job incumbents, superiors and subordinates after analyzing the organizational objectives.

Bottom-up-Approach: The knowledge, skills, motives, attitudes, traits, self concept and other attributes of consistently high performing employees are studied using appropriate techniques and are bench marked them for developing in other employees of organization.

Competency Frame work – Maruti Udyog Ltd.

The personal competency frame work was used to identify genuine competencies for various levels for Maruti Udyog Ltd.,  The project team Included key position holders in Maruti in the human resource department along with the author as the consultant and team leader.  The following were identified as genuine competencies for various levels.

Planning to develop a competency model.  Like any other development work, a foundation has to be laid in order to develop a model.

1.                  Determine the objectives and scope why are we doing it? What jobs, functions or business units will we target? What methods will we use to develop the model?  Who will carry out the work?

a)     It is important to identify the business need or needs that are to be addressed.  This will help in ensuring the continuous support for the project.  Second it will help the efforts of all participants to remain focused on the objective.  Also, it may add to selection, training and development, performance appraisal, succession planning, compensation etc.  It should also address issues of attracting top talent, retaining key ensuring that skills are available to meet the future challenges, aligning cross-organizational team to get products to market faster and also aligning people’s behaviour with organizational values and strategy.

b)     The objective and scope of the model needs to be focussed on the targeted jobs, functions or business units, increase productivity or until a specific company value.  A competency model is most meaningful if It provides behavioral examples of identified competencies.

c)      While determining the objective and scope, it is essential to determine the method for developing the competency model.  There can be two general approaches.

Ø                  Starting from Scratch.

Ø                  Starting with a validated competency model.

If the objective is to develop a model for any job, function or role in the organization then starting from scratch is an appropriate approach.  Here, data has to be internally collected from interviews with incumbent and informed observers, focus groups and through on-the-job observations.  They data must then be analysed to identify the competencies that are significant to affective performance.  Though this is time conserving, it focuses on role – and company – specific competencies.

d)     The project of developing a model should be assigned to a team of five to nine people depending upon the scope.  The team should comprise individuals with experience and practice in competency model development and a visible sponsor who can act as its advocate within the organization.

2.                  Clarify implementation goals and standards what is the intended result of the project?  How will we know when we have achieved it?  To provide direction to the project the goal should be expressed in terms of performance or output.  The goal should be specific, realistic, alterable, challenging, consistent with the available resources and the organization policies and procedures, measurable and should have a deadline.  This should include a set of standards to identify what actions must be taken to meet them.

3.                  An action plan is essential whet are the tasks that are involved?  Who is responsible for carrying them out?  What are the resources that are required? An action plan is essential to manage the workload, review and monitor the progress of the project and communicate it to the team members.  An action plan should comprise action steps broken into work that needs to be done and deliverables into tasks and activities, accountabilities for carrying out each step; specifying the set start, completion dates and various milestones and requirement of resource including equipment, people, money etc.

4.                  Identification of individual performance against established performance criteria – what does.  Successful performance on the job look like?  The identification of individuals at various performance levels is necessary when developing a model.  First, there is a need to determine the successful performance related to job output or results and then to differentiate the behaviour of successful performers from that of those who are less effective.  Once the performance criteria are agreed upon, an interviewing and observation pool has to be created in order to identify superior performers from that of those who are less effective and those who fall below expectations.  Other alternative methods can be performance appraisals, ratings of effectiveness from direct reports and colleagues and inputs from a panel of judges.  The quality of the performance criteria is very important because that would serve as the formulation for many steps and ultimately indicate the success of the model ensuring that the people whose competencies have been identified have actually demonstrated there by successful performance.

Competency model for HR Managers in Software Development Company:

Competencies	Indicators
Knowledge of HRM	Answered all questions accurately.
Knowledge of Software process	Answered all questions accurately.
Hiring Skills	The people already hired by him are doing well and are staying longer.
Developing, motivating and retaining people	His company has been recording highest productivity, highest quality and lowest employee turnover.
HR cost management	Data shows enhanced performance confinocesly.
Inter personal skills	Rays he has no problems with any one.  No one has a complaint against his behaviour.

Competency Mapping at Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd.,

Developing a competency Model:

Every work should have and need a strong and good foundation to be laid in order to develop a good model.

Determining the objectives and scope why we are doing it?  What jobs, functions or business units will be targeted?  What method needs to be used to develop the model?

Action plan is to be made to carry out the work and to develop the model.

The development of competency model in KFIL, Initially the work of developing competency model was taken in HRM Department.  To know what all competencies the personals have?  Regarding this matter a job Definition Questionnaire was prepared the questionnaire included.

Accountabilities.

Responsibilities.

Competencies required and

Anthracites

These questionnaires were then distributed to seven officers in the HRM Department.  The officials were asked to self assess the competencies required.  They came up with the competencies required.  These competencies were classified and clustered into three groups namely:

Behavioural competencies.

Functional competencies.

Managerial competencies.

The competencies assessed by self assessment were many, but only 20 of those have been taken up.  Then a competency grid was prepared with competencies on one side and the levels of competencies the officers have the levels used were.

Excellent

Good

Average

Fair

Poor.

These levels were used purely for the project purpose.

The prepared competency grid were the grids were given to the appraisers to appraise the competency level in their immediate juniors (appraisee) using the various levels.

This is carried out to identify the individual performance against the established performance criteria (needs to meet average).  The quality of the performance criteria is very important because this would serve as a foundation for many steps and ultimately indicate the success of the model ensuring that the people whose competencies have been identified have actually demonstrated.  There by successful performance.

The results obtained from the immediate superior (Appraisor) regarding the level of competencies his immediate junior (Appraisee) posses.  These levels are calculated using various ratings.  But we used the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 scale to measure the ratings then we can calculate and we can know where the person stands against the bench mark standards of the organization.

Through this, the score obtained is analysed then competencies of concern and competencies of concern and competencies of critical concern are noted.

The organization may take up various training and development programmes regarding the concerned and critical concerned competencies of the personnel to develop these competencies in them which is required to have an standard set of performance level which the company needs.

By analyzing the above data from the clustered competencies:

Behavioural competencies.

Functional competencies.

Managerial competencies.

The personnel’s whose competencies are being analyzed are 5 managerial personnels possess the level of competency above the bench mark level and one is below the bench mark level.

The competencies of concern are the behavioural competencies and the critical competencies are the competencies in the functional and managerial competencies.

Competencies for Competitive Advantage:

Philip, Selgnick in his book “Leadership in Administration”, was one of the first writers to acknowledge that factors internal to an organization.  Such as its personnel and its previous experiences, are cervical to its chances of success on executing a chosen policy.  In essence in the field of business activity, the part determines the present.

Selgnick said that an organizations developmental history results in its having special limitations and capabilities a character or emergent institutional pattern that decisively affects the competence of an organization to frame and executive derived policies.

Strategy formulation and opportunity surveillance are useless exercises unless the company has the internal abilities to execute its decision, or at possesses the chance of developing the required capabilities competence, both genesis and specific, plays an important role in the success of an organization.

Whether it is corporate strategy or internal competencies.  Competencies mapping is more important and has to be related to corporate strategy.

More often not, competencies are an organization most important resources because they are valuable, rare and difficult to initiate organization can capitalize on this resource – managers, after identifying them, can make decisions about how to exploit them and also learn how to expand them.

What is the value addition for the organization?

What the organization desires, is the classic question.  There may be various desired outcomes.

Requirement of quality certification programme for staying in business.

Enhancing organization status and competitive position.

Improved recruitment and selection processes.

Right people in right jobs internally.

Developing people in time and according to needs.

Better performance and the dropping of necessary development activities by focusing on the need of the job.

Overall organization performance by capturing market share, improved customer service, innovation, improved efficiency and better decision.

This message should be reinforced by repeating that the management really means it.

What is the value addition for the Employees?

If the message is communicated that the management ‘really means it’, results one positively going to add value for the employees.

Clarity of processes and skills and knowledge required to meet the established standards. 

Knowledge about where employees meet required qualification, thus not wasting time in unnecessary development activities.

Determine competencies for the jobs that an employee aspires for.

Increase in competency levels and improved working conditions, thus benefiting both the individual and the organization.

Availability of information to determine job qualification and to fill in employees gaps.

Benefits of using competency based Training and Development System

Using a competency model as the basis of a training and development system helps to avoid a short term perspective and ensures that the system focuses on the right things rather than latest things (Davis, 1996-1997).

Enables focus on relevant behaviours and skills identifying strengths & verses seem to be straight forward.  But methods such as feedback from others, introspection, experience, some kind of testing of a combination of these gives the basis of what an individual is good at the where he needs to improve.  Competency model plays an important role in keeping people and organizations focussed on the skills knowledge characteristics that effect job performance there models can also help people better assess their current capabilities and determine the behaviour they need develop to improve their effectiveness (Eubanks, Marshal & O’Driscoll, 1990).

Makes the most effective use of training and development, competency model can be used to remove the guess work of where to focus scarce resources by differentiating between programmes with the most impact on performance and those with little relevance to behaviours people need on the job.  It also helps to determine, who needs which skills and at what point of thin careers.  Then people receive training and development when they have a use for it, increasing the livelihood that the relevant skills will be applied and reinforced through experience on the job.

Benefits of a Competency – based performance appraisal system

A competency model can address many of the issues related to performance appraisal.  This ensures agreement on performance criteria, what is accomplished and what is not accomplished collecting relevant data. 

It also ensures opportunity to supervisors to observe behaviour, specificity and concreteness in discussions about performance deficiencies and handling of large amounts of data in a structured manner.

Provides a shared understanding of what will be monitored and measured.  A competency model integrated with performance appraisal ensures a balance between what gets done and how it gets done. The concern is not only with results but with the behaviour and manner with which those results are attained.  Models aligned with the business objectives specifically outlines the performance criteria that will be used to measure effectiveness and success in that position.

Provides focus for gaining information about behaviours – An appraisal process includes a simple accurate method for a boss to assess job performance.  But what happens when the boss is new, or he / she controls a number of different locations?  By identifying the specific behaviours crucial for effective performance, competency models offer bosses a starting point.

There are many HRM systems which are ensured by a competency model.  Such as selection systems, Training and Development, succession planning, appraisal system etc. other than these systems the competency model also helps in ‘Hiring the Best Available People’.

Competency Based Hiring of People.  Competency models are a highly useful tool to make sure that human resource systems facilitate and support a company’s strategic objectives.  It increases the livelihood of planning the right people into right jobs.  Robert Jog of Colgate explains, that his company tracks the success of competency used selection process by looking at the number of high potential employees in each business unit.  We track our global high potentials for example, if we hired ‘x’ number of people, we track them on basis of how well they are performing.  At the decision level, we look at succession planning to see how many of the people we have hired fall into the high potential box’ (Mcllvaine, 1998).  The process had succeeded in helping the organization locate top talent world wide.

My Suggestions:

Competency mapping can be used to select people based on it.

It can be used for competency based Training and Development programmes.

It can be used for competency based Appraisal system.

It can be used for competency based Rewarding system.

It can be used for competency based Succession planning.