17. Competency Assessment and Development

How do organizations actually use the individual competencies that were discussed in Chaps. 11 and 12? The most common way they are used is through the processes of competency assessment and competency development. In many organizations, competency assessment and development have become part of the broader topic of talent management, a topic that many human resource development professionals have become more involved in. Talent management is considered the entire process of selecting, recruiting, developing, and retaining the best individuals in organizations. Discussions about talent management often include revising the organization’s mission statement and considering whether an alternate perspective might be appropriate for understanding the organization. Competency assessment refers to the process of identifying to what extent individual employees, and possibly their supervisors, rate on the extent that the employee possesses the individual competencies of a job role. The primary purpose of a competency assessment is typically for developing employees, not for reviewing or evaluating employees. In this sense, competency assessment is a diagnostic activity. Competency development is the process of imparting the desired individual competencies to certain employees. A competency planning matrix is introduced in the chapter.