Job architectures and competency models are seldom connected to the people doing the work
Competency frameworks are typically used in performance or compensation conversations in rigid excel diagrams and lack transparency in how people can develop over time. This has a significant impact on employee experiences where lack of investment in the growth of employees causes churn from an organization.
Software that manages this information is rigid in data structures, unreflective of how professional development is fluid and dynamic
Current skill or competency management software operates in data structures that don’t reflect how skills work together. One of the ways Ibbaka Talent solved this is through a Bayesian Network called a skill graph which articulates skills that are complimentary (skills used together but through different people like UX/Front End Development), associated (skills used together by the same person like Scrum/Agile) or connecting (skill overlap between people, which is correlated to effective teams).
If we think about how a search is done for a particular skill, then it makes sense that the model will account for returning people with connected skills to the particular search keyword. But we learned that people often associated a search for people through their job titles as well, enter the idea of a competency modeling tool.
Competency models are unique to every organization
But they do have common building blocks through the skills that are usually found together in particular jobs and roles. If applied correctly, these models help people connect to potential career paths, and inform development plans. For organizations, these help establish hiring plans, formal learning plans and help drive alignment on role design.
Ibbaka Talent used a flexible hierarchical structure where competency designers can choose key components and generalize/specialize according to the unique needs of their organization. Typical components consist of jobs, roles, skills, stakeholders, responsibilities and credentials. Localization and specialization can also apply depending on the role and work as parent-child structures in the framework.
With this framework, individuals can connect to their roles, establishing a clear picture into whether they have the skills to succeed and offer areas of investment in areas of growth. Organizations are able to identify growing individuals, connecting them to the right opportunities.
skill assessment is inherently social
Once roles are connected to individuals, we incorporated concepts from social networks to compare individual skill proficiency to perceived skill proficiency by peers, managers and stakeholders.
Self-assessments work at the individual level while SkillRank leverages the Bayesian network of skills to compile the assessments of others. The value of SkillRank only shows after a sufficient number of people have contributed, weighing a rating more heavily if the rater has demonstrated sufficient application of that skill.
a better way to grow and develop individuals
Connecting individuals to clearly defined frameworks with ongoing assessments to their development enables them to self-define and self-manage career paths in an organization. With access to all the roles available, and identifying where an individual is aligned vs needing growth organizations are able to do better in developing their people, ultimately providing better employee experiences.