Author: Mr. B. K. Dhup, Associate Consultant for Global Management Xperts, a division of Midas Consulting, Delaware, USA, Certified Leadership Assessor and Certified consultant- Performance Management System

Member: L&D Global, Delhi – NCR Chapter

“A competency is a set of skills, related knowledge and attributes that allow an individual to successfully perform a task or an activity within a specific function or job.”

Competency may take the following forms:

  • Knowledge
  • Attitude
  • Skill and 
  • Behaviour
  • Motives
  • Values
  • Traits and
  • Self-concept

Competency Mapping

It is a process of identification of the competencies required to perform successfully a given job or role or a set of tasks at a given point of time. It consists of breaking a given role or job into its constituent tasks or activities and identifying the competencies (technical, managerial, behavioral, conceptual knowledge and attitude and skills, etc.) needed to perform the same successfully.        

Steps in Competency Mapping

1) Decide the positions for which the competencies need to be mapped.

2) Identify the location of the positions in the organizational structure.

3) Identify the objectives of the function or the department or the unit or section where the position is located.  

4) Identify the objectives of the role. Why does the position exist? What are the main purposes of the role etc.

5) Collect the job descriptions of any of the position to make a list of all tasks and activities to be performed by that position holder.

6) Interview the position holder to list the Tasks and activities expected to be performed by the Individual.

7) Interview the position holder to list the actual knowledge, attitude, skills, and other competencies required for performing the task effectively.

8) Repeat the process with all the position set members.

9) Consolidate the list of competencies from all the position holders’ by each task.

10) Edit and finalize. Present it to the supervisors of the position holder and the position holder for approval and finalization.

Tools for Developing Competencies

There are several tools for developing Competencies like:

Literature Review, Focus Groups, Structured Interviews, Behavioral Event Interview(BEI), Leaderless Group Discussion, Case Study Presentation etc.

Author: Mr. B. K. Dhup, Associate Consultant for Global Management Xperts, a division of Midas Consulting, Delaware, USA, Certified Leadership Assessor and Certified consultant- Performance Management System

Member: L&D Global, Delhi – NCR Chapter