A technical competency model provides a framework for defining and developing the specific skills your organization needs for success. It builds upon foundational competencies with tiers of industry-specific and role-specific technical skills.
What is a Technical Competency Model?
A technical competency model is a structured framework that outlines the skills and knowledge required for success in specific roles within an industry. Often visualized as a pyramid, the model is divided into tiers:
- Foundational Competencies: At the base are personal effectiveness, academic, and workplace competencies.
- Industry-Wide & Sector Competencies: The middle tiers include skills common across an industry or sector, such as the energy sector cited in research from CareerOneStop (a division of the U.S. Department of Labor).
- Occupation-Specific Competencies: The top tiers are what define it as a technical competency model. These tiers detail the specific technical skills and knowledge required for a particular occupation or role.
Best Practices for Implementing a Technical Competency Model
Leading organizations have successfully adopted technical competency models by following several key best practices.
1. Combine Top-Down Leadership with Employee Input
While a traditional job analysis often works from the bottom up, a competency model implementation benefits from top-down leadership to ensure executive buy-in. However, the most effective approach is a hybrid one. Microsoft, for instance, engaged senior leaders but also interviewed and surveyed job incumbents. The European Space Agency (ESA) developed its model through interviews and focus groups with over 120 staff members, ensuring both breadth and depth of analysis.
2. Conduct Future Scenario Analysis
To prevent models from becoming outdated, organizations can enrich their analysis with future scenarios. This approach, used by multiple U.S. federal agencies under "Project Horizon," involves developing several detailed potential futures. By having subject matter experts brainstorm competencies needed for each scenario (e.g., a world with different economic drivers or security threats), the model becomes more robust and forward-looking.
3. Perform a Feasibility Study
Before a full-scale launch, a feasibility study is crucial. When the ESA developed its model, it took several steps:
- Defined a methodology for describing technical competencies.
- Assessed the reusability of existing competency dictionaries.
- Verified that its HR software could support the data model.
- Validated the approach with a prototype for a small number of positions.
This process ensures the chosen methodology is sound and the technical infrastructure is ready.
4. Use Behavioral Event Interviews (BEI)
The Behavioral Event Interview is a technique used to identify the competencies that drive success. Organizations like Microsoft use this method—a re-application of the standard behavioral interview used in hiring—to collect detailed information on past job situations. By analyzing the behaviors that led to success or failure, organizations can build a model based on proven performance drivers.
5. Distinguish High from Average Performance
A key function of a robust competency model is its ability to differentiate between high-performing and average employees. Microsoft, for example, invested considerable time in identifying criteria for outstanding performance when building its model. This not only created clear development targets but also served as an incentive. The effort proved successful, as leadership performance improved significantly within three years, requiring the bar for "outstanding" to be raised.
6. Integrate the Model into HR Processes
Once developed, a competency model should be actively used across the talent management lifecycle.
- The Boeing Company incorporates its models into structured interviews, training, and even workforce reductions.
- Microsoft uses competency models in its mid-year career discussions.
- Indiana Precision Technology, a Honda subsidiary, used its model to create a "pay-for-skills" program linking training, appraisal, promotion, and compensation.
- CERN uses its model as a common framework for performance discussions, recruitment selection, and promotion criteria, focusing on how work is done in addition to what is achieved.