Reference no: EM133094615
CHAPTER 5 THE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF WORK
The Development of SHRM's Competency Model for HR Practice
HR systems are designed to give employers a competitive advantage by focusing on how to attract and hire the best talent, as well as how to develop, train, and retain employees. This includes aligning jobs with organizational goals and strategies.
So a key challenge for HR managers is to understand the tasks that need to be carried out by individual employees and how individual positions fit together to accomplish organizational goals. In addition, organizations must understand what knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) employees need to have to do their work most effectively. In short, a clear understanding of what employees do on their jobs and the skills employees need to do their jobs is the basis for building strong organizations.
This is true not only within organizations; it is true within specific professions as well. More and more, professions from health care to engineering are defining what skills and abilities are needed to carry out their work. This provides credibility for the profession as a whole, and it also helps define what is needed for licensure and certification of individuals to protect the public. For example, how would you feel if an unlicensed physician took care of you or a family member?
It is for these reasons that the HR profession, through the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM; see Chapter 1), systematically developed a competency model that defines the competencies required for success in the HR profession. SHRM developed its competency model to guide HR practitioners in achieving their professional goals and thus is developmental in nature. The model includes nine key competencies, which are listed below.
- HR expertise (HR knowledge)
- Global and cultural effectiveness
- Relationship management
- Communication
- Consultation
- Critical evaluation
- Business acumen
- Ethical practice
- Leadership and navigation
Note that only one of the nine competencies is focused on technical knowledge of human resources. The other eight are less knowledge focused and reflect broader behaviors needed for success in organizations, including HR jobs. This is important since, according to the researchers who developed the SHRM competency model, successful HR practice entails more than just HR knowledge; it also requires the right behaviors for implementing this knowledge in an actual work organization.
A key aspect of SHRM's model is that it provides substantial detail in defining each competency, including the identification of subcompetencies. It also defines behaviors that reflect how each competency is manifested on the job. Finally, the model describes proficiency standards for each competency at four different career stages: early, mid, senior, and executive levels. As such, it serves as a helpful guide for HR professionals seeking to develop themselves to move on to the next stage of their careers. It is also helpful to organizational decision makers who want to know how best to develop and structure their HR functions.
To develop its HR competency model, SHRM used established best practices for analyzing jobs and building competency models. Moreover, as described in Chapter 1, SHRM used a multistage process involving tens of thousands of participants, which included the following steps:
- An initial sample of more than 1,000 HR professionals in more than 100 focus groups in 29 cities worldwide, together with a survey of 640 HR leaders, was used to generate model content.
- Once the model was developed, SHRM surveyed tens of thousands of HR experts to confirm the importance of each competency.
- SHRM then studied more than 800 HR professionals and their supervisors with the goal of assessing the degree to which the competencies-both technical and behavioral-predict the job performance of HR professionals. This last step in the analysis shows "where the rubber meets the road" by demonstrating the robustness of the model through empirical validation.
The development of the SHRM competency model was an impressive feat that resulted in an enduring instrument that provides substantial guidance for the development of HR professionals. Going forward, a key goal for the model is to gain HR professionals a place at the table among organizational decision makers.
Case Discussion Questions
- Regardless of whether you plan to be an HR professional, how might you use this competency model for your professional development? Specifically, how would you go about gaining proficiency in each of these nine competencies? How might doing so help you succeed in your chosen occupation?
- How might the robust empirical process used to develop the model be used to promote the model's credibility among business leaders? How would you argue in favor of the model to leaders in a government organization? In a multinational, private corporation?
- What do you think about the relative value of each of the nine competencies at different career stages of HR practitioners? For example, how might an executive HR professional differ from an entry-level HR professional in their need for each of these competencies?
- How do you think business schools and HR programs could use the model for curriculum development for both HR professionals and students in other fields of business administration?
- How relevant do you think each of the nine competencies is for an employee's success in organizations, whether or not a person is associated with the HR function? Explain.