Competence mapping (exercise /workshops)

Exercise: Competence mapping -

Workshops for employees and managers

The current competences of employees and future competences needed by the organization can be defined through competence mapping. That can be conducted through a process where employees, under the guidance of their supervisor, review the organization’s future objectives and the competences required to achieve these objectives. To organization, the process provides valuable knowledge of the current competences of each employee as well as knowledge of possible skills mismatch. As it's best, the results of the mapping serve as a valid basis for individual, team and organizational developmental plans.

Source: Oulu Adult Education Centre, Finland

Learning outcomes

At the end of the exercise participants will be able to:

Identify and map the competences which they, as well as other workers possess
Identify and map the future need for competences in the workplace / company
Describe the competences needed for future development
Work with the company on developing the identified needs for competence development coming up in the near future

About the exercise

This is an example of a procedure which focuses on competence management and mapping of competences. It is a tool for assisting companies in mapping of competences of their employees. The main goal is to identify the core competences of employees working in the company and to find out the views of the executives and managers of the company for the future. The procedure will invite each employee to participate in the creation of a competence map.

Competence management refers to all activities within an organization aimed at the development, renewal and acquisition of the competences required by the organization’s strategy. Competence management requires planning, defining, development and evaluation, in which the organization must be able to assess its present state and formulate its future goals.

The current and future competences needed by the organization may be defined through competence mapping. That can be conducted through a process where employees, under the guidance of their supervisor, review the organization’s future objectives and the competence required to achieve these objectives. Next, the current competence level of employees is compared to the organization’s future needs. With the help of knowledge gained from competence mapping, it is possible to structure and direct the competence development of individual employees and organizational units. In this case, competence development measures – such as training or job rotation – are not random, but based on identified needs, strengthening the functioning and competitiveness of the organization.

Organizations may carry out competence mapping independently or hire for the job an external party, such as a consultant or an adult education provider. In small organizations, competence mapping can be carried out fairly simply, using an Excel sheet, an online survey or a similar tool. Large organizations often use competence mapping tools integrated into other HR and competence management systems, such as Elbit HR in Finland or SUM in Denmark (Strategisk udvekling av medarbejdere).

In our experience, organizations in general are interested in making competence mapping a part of their competence development practices, but many of them still lack systematic competence management and development processes.

Instructions

Step 1
Start with the group of employees or a team, who work in the same job and have similar tasks. Empower and

encourage them to think and talk about their competences in general. Emphasize the fact that this workshop

is not about salary, nor is it about outplacement. Talk about competence mapping, what this is about and how

this is going to help participants in the future: they will reflect and recognize themselves all their competences

at work, their joint competences in the team as well as they will show all their hidden competences to the rest

of the organization, including the managers. The consequence for their career development will be obvious.

Ask people in the group to write down all their competences individually: One on each post-it paper. In the end,

each and every one will have a pile of post-it papers. Now ask everyone to stick the post-it papers on the wall.

As a group, they now start forming a competence map of all the post-it papers. Once the map is ready, ask

them to check it out once more:

Is this the definition of their competences at work?
Could there be a section of competencies they could / would use at work, if possibility arose?

You can then brainstorm about and write down the competence needed in the future - in many cases,

the specialist employees know these even better than the managers of the company!

As a facilitator, write down the competence map before you move the post-it papers from the wall.

Step 2
Organize a workshop for the managers and executives: The ones in charge of company strategy. With this

post-it paper technique, or through another strategy (future recollection, learning cafe, other participatory

techniques), find out their visions for the future (3-6 years from now). What kind of competence does

the company need in order to thrive? Write down the vision and the spesific competencies needed.

Step 3
Ask managers and executives to check the competence map formed by the group of employees. Is it valid? Is something missing? Combine the map / formed by employees with the map of future competencies needed / formed by managers. Are all the important competences listed?

Step 4
Define a scale of numbers (1-4, 1-5) for each competence area and individual skill, with the managers. Make a decision upon the technical tool (excel sheet, on-line survey or similar tool).

Step 5
Ask employees to fill in the questionnaire, competence mapping.

Step 6

Ask each supervisor to check out the competence map of each employee individually.

Step 7

Prepare the company for the use of results. Training planning and other competence development methods should be planned for the development of competences.

In Finland, Heljä Hätönen has worked for a long time with companies' processes of competence development. In this picture you can find her view of the elements of competence development and how competence mapping is the foundation for all developmental plans. Click the picture to enlarge it (PDF).