Many organizations count their people's competencies among their most prized "possessions" and valuable assets - if they don't, perhaps they should.  While true across the board for the service industries, even the non-service industries would be unable to produce and deliver their products without people and their competencies.  These precious assets walk out the door every night and are effectively rented again the next day.

Organizations don't rent these competencies for the "heck" of it - they expect a return on their investment - and in many cases, have directly helped their people develop their capabilities and skills.  It would stand to reason that organizations aspire to do everything possible to make the most of their people's competencies and to care for them as if literally "their own."

While competencies can't be locked up in the vault each night, there are seven steps organizations can take to safeguard and maximize the return on these valuable assets so critical to their very survival and success.

Step 1 - Identify the competencies you need to:

• Execute your organization's strategies and achieve your objectives - for example, to:
  
  • Produce the products you want to market
    
  • Deliver the services you want to provide
    
  • Develop and maintain the effective and efficient infrastructure you need
    
• Attract, satisfy, and retain both clients/customers and talent
  

     (note: these are also helpful screens through which to test existing competency models that may require update/culling - see Step 7)

Step 2 - Define these competencies in terms that:

• Are understandable and clear to everyone - for example:
  
  • Unambiguous in describing specific capabilities and skills
    
  • Universal as practical - e.g. using acronyms judiciously and avoiding obscure references
    
• Are succinct and manageable
  
• Are client/customer-centric
  
• Resonate in producing tangible results - for example, do these definitions reflect competencies that can be:
  
  • Acquired and developed?
    
  • Objectively assessed?
    
  • Supported by behavioral descriptors/anchors?
    
  • Used to define meaningful and measurable goals and expectations?
    
• Are not confused with traits or policies/procedures
  
• Inspire and motivate
  
• Can communicate clear expectations and desired behaviors - for example in supporting:
  
  • Ethics policies and codes of conduct
    
  • Quality objectives and standards
    
  • Corporate responsibility initiatives and programs
    
• "Paint the picture" for career progression and opportunity
  
• Are relevant to day-to-day work - vs. merely a year-end checklist
  
• Are appealing and engaging - serving to both attract and retain talent
  

Step 3 - Validate these competencies thoroughly with those who will/can:

• Perform the competencies
  
• Manage and supervise the competencies
  
• Provide expertise in ensuring the competencies as defined are accurate and comprehensive from a technical perspective as appropriate/required
  
  

Step 4 - Organize these competencies into meaningful and easy-to-access:

• Hierarchies and architectures - e.g. levels, groups, and clusters as optimal for your organizational structure and size
  
• Configurations that make sense defining specific:
  
  • Business units/departments
    
  • Individual jobs - where the "rubber meets the road" and competencies are ultimately deployed (beware existing jobs/positions that define competency models - generally, it should be the other way around)
    
  • Prioritized subsets that are manageable (beware competency overload that dilutes your objectives - no single position can "do everything")
    

Step 5 - Integrate these competencies into:

• Talent acquisition/recruiting processes (e.g. your behavioral interviewing questions) and job descriptions
  
• Professional development processes and learning curriculum
  
  • Continuously develop priority skills
    
  • Identify skill gaps and focus investments accordingly
    
• Performance management cycles and processes, including:
  
  • Career planning
    
  • Goal setting and expectations definition
    
  • Assessment - developmental and evaluative
    
  • Feedback - formal and informal
    
• 360/upward feedback processes
  
• Coaching, counseling, and mentoring initiatives and materials
  
• Promotion and redeployment processes
  
• Succession planning processes and efforts
  
• Marketing and client-facing materials - believe it or not, some clients/customers really want to know what you do!
  
  

Step 6 - Communicate these competencies with a strategy that is:

• Interesting and engaging
  
• Easy-to-access - "in your face without being in your face"
  
• Supported by visible leadership
  
  

Step 7 - Update and refresh these competencies as needed - they get dusty in a rapidly changing world!

• Cull redundancy and competencies that become obsolete.
  
• Continuously anticipate the competencies your organization will need in the future - define and integrate them now! - they won't magically materialize overnight.
  
• When you experience an organizational change (e.g. reorganization, merger, acquisition); take the time to realign competency models as necessary - it will spare you a tremendous amount of grief and inefficiency in the long-run.