Competency and competency frameworks
Performance management
• General
• Appraisal and feedback
• Appraisal training
• Business performance
• Competencies
• Performance related pay
• Training and learning needs
Revised May 2008
This factsheet gives introductory guidance. It:
• defines the term 'competency' and its evolving use in HR
• looks at developing a 'competency framework'
• considers the application of competency frameworks.
Background
Competencies emerged in the 1980s as a response to organisational changes and to wider changes in society. In 1982 the US academic, Richard Boyatzis wrote The competent manager: a model for effective performance1. This book proved to have considerable influence on the profession and, over the following two decades, competency frameworks became an increasingly accepted part of modern HR practice.
The use of competencies was featured as a special area of investigation in our 2007 Learning and development survey.
• See the full survey results
The survey results revealed that 60% of the respondents had a competency framework in place for their organisation and of those who didn’t almost half (48%) intended to introduce one. That still leaves some fifth of respondents planning to move forward without a competency framework. However 40% of those are organisations employing 250 or less, and are mainly concentrated in the private sector. So, with the exception of a proportion of small private sector firms, competencies seem to be an accepted feature of a modern organisation.
Those organisations that had a competency framework in place were asked what proportion of employees were covered. The results showed that on average almost ...