Competency Models and Retention

Monday, March 29, 2010

 

One feature of a competency model is to assist with the selection of incumbents to fill vacant positions. Whether we are attempting to select a candidate from outside or from within the organization, a competency model will identify those attributes, which increase the likelihood of success. Since candidates who are more likely to be successful are also more likely to remain with the organization, it seems intuitive that a competency model based selection process is likely to increase retention. Richard Finnegan points out in his Rethinking Retention In Good Times and Bad that by narrowing the front door, organizations can effectively narrow the back door by selecting the most appropriate candidate for the role. Clearly then, competency modeling has a role to play in retention by providing a framework for the selection process.

 

Once while employed by a large health insurance company I was responsible for reporting a number of various “metrics”, including turnover. By the mid 1990’s a trend was developing which indicated that our Customer Service Representatives (CSR) for Level 1 inbound calls were leaving at increasingly higher rates. Periodically the organization would hold job fairs and hire a hundred or more candidates, put them through extensive training, and closely monitor their performance. Nevertheless, large numbers of newly selected candidates failed to show for the first day of work, more failed to complete the training process, and even more failed to complete their first 30, 60, 90 days on the job. The organization came to realize that most newly selected candidates had no clue as to what was involved in being a CSR for Level 1 calls. Part of the solution was to provide job candidates with realistic video tapes (as recommended in Richard Finnegan’s Rethinking Retention In Good Times and Bad) of the daily life of a Level 1 CSR. These “Realistic Job Previews demonstrated the training and work environment, including details on the number of inbound calls per hour, performance expectations for daily attendance and answering calls, break times, and promotional opportunities. While these and other actions helped many candidates de-select themselves and thus helped to “narrow the front door”, it was only a partial solution to the demands of a roaring economy and a changing workforce demographic.

 

Anntoinette Lucia and Richard Lepsinger, co-authors of The Art and Science of Competency Models, point out that to be effective, competency modeling must integrate into an organization’s human resource and talent management systems. While it is possible to apply competency modeling to individual business units and even individual jobs, the focus is on improving the cycle of selection, training, evaluation, and succession planning. The act of integrating competency modeling into the organization removes the antidotal notion of many current decision-making schemes and replaces it with a factual based process directed at the success of both the organization and the individual.

 

As such, competency modeling provides for selecting those candidates most likely to succeed, thus priming the organizational pump with a flow of individuals who in turn hire and promote the most appropriate candidates. This process feeds back on itself with each hire-promotion cycle, providing the organization with a stream of talent with high performance individuals. Therefore, organizational managers should consider each hire or promotion opportunity as a means to increase the quality of the talent pool. Working in an integrated fashion, competency modeling and retention management construct the potential for staffing the organization with long-term high performing candidates.