How To Achieve Business Growth With Competency-Based Learning
We explored what competency-based learning is in our previous article, The Importance Of Competency-Based Learning In Employee Skills Development. To recap, it is a structured approach to learning and an assessment that is targeted at achieving specific outcomes aligned with the organization’s success.
Organizations first develop a competency map, lists of competencies—based on the behavior of top performers—that define what is required for the organization to be successful.
1. Creating Competencies In The First Place Is A Step In The Right Direction
Imagine you are building a house. Your first step is to create a blueprint indicating all the features you want in your home. In and of itself, this is a very useful and powerful process. You clearly identify your needs and wants, you get it written down and arranged in a way that will meet your requirements. Yes, it takes some time, but the payoff is obvious. It is much easier to build the house you want with a blueprint than without one.
Creating the competency map is a powerful exercise in defining what is required for the organization to be successful by documenting the behaviors, abilities, and even attitudes of those most successful performers. The time and effort required to complete the exercise demonstrate the organization’s commitment to Learning and Development, and now your employees and your HR team have a blueprint to follow!
2. Competencies Should Be Mapped To Business Goals
The map is not just an arbitrary list of skills and abilities. They are mapped to the current and future goals of the business. That means people who have those competencies are more productive, efficient, successful and therefore likely more satisfied with their jobs. Learning and Development based on those competencies can help newer or less effective personnel bridge the performance gap, now that it is clearly defined. Which brings us to the third way we can accelerate business growth.
3. Competency Maps Provide Coherent Goals For Your HR Team
An accurate competency map is especially helpful for your HR team. It gives the team a go-by for who to recruit and onboard, what competencies to train and develop, how to reward high performers, and even supports promotion and retention planning. One of the biggest costs in most organizations is the HR function. A competency map and subsequent competency-based learning make your HR organization efficient and effective.
4. CBL Reduces Liabilities And Errors, Increases Fairness
A more subtle way that competency-based learning can accelerate business growth is by reducing liability that the company might face as a result of unfair HR practices or mistakes or errors made by employees. A competency-based learning model sets clear, unbiased performance expectations that reduce employee dissatisfaction and the risk of subjective performance evaluations. This increases fairness in hiring, evaluation, compensation, and development.
This type of development closes the gap between the lower and the top performers, increasing accuracy and efficiency, reducing errors and therefore increasing customer satisfaction.
5. CBL Supports Promotion And Personnel Development
Competency-based learning is supported by a clear curriculum for employee development. Most models support a progression of competency development from awareness to application to mastery. Having clear performance expectations that are transparently tied to business objectives help employees feel valued and be proactive in terms of their own development. Training and development can be customized to individual needs. This increases employee satisfaction, thereby reducing training costs and turnover. Any organization can tell you how much more cost-effective it is to retain happy, high-performing employees than to continuously need to hire and train new recruits.
To summarize, how can competency-based learning really help boost your business results?
- Creating the competency map is by itself a valuable, clarifying exercise.
- Competencies are aligned with specific business goals.
- Allows all to identify specific training gaps and create targeted, individual training plans.
- Supports efficient and effective hiring, training, and career planning.
- Makes hiring, transfer, and promotion decisions easier and more equitable.
- Clear development plans and career paths help your organization better prepare for future needs.
Like following a blueprint when you build your dream home, competency-based learning helps your organization begin with the end in mind—to be clear about what behaviors and performance levels will make your organization successful and able to grow. Though it can be a challenging process, the payoff is tremendous. Download the eBook Competency-Based Learning: Increase Employee Skills Development Through Competency-Based Learning to discover more about this highly strategic approach to employee skills development.
