Developing Competencies

Question 1

*What are the 5 manager roles in competency development?

Answer 1

1- Reflect (department’s operations / employee’s professional growth / where unit is going)
2- Determine competencies to develop (“training budget”)
3- Choose learning strategies
4- Support transfer of learning, enforce (make sure it is applied in the workplace after training)
5- Evaluate development activities (follow-up)

Question 2

*What are the 3 different learning strategies?

Answer 2

1- Outside work:
courses, seminars, webinars / simulations / self-training / college, university studies
2- At work:
tutoring, mentoring /behavior modeling
3- During work:
hands-on training / job rotation / increased responsibilities / e-learning

Question 3

*What are the 3 steps to improve learning transfer? Give examples.

Answer 3

1- Before the activity:
proper motivation, plan the activity, help your employee, prepare the environment
2- During the activity:
stay close, be available
3- After the activity:
help create an enabling climate

Question 4

*How do you evaluate the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of the development activities? (4)

Answer 4

Kirkpatrick model
1- % of satisfaction with respect to the organization and content of activity (document learner’s immediate reaction)
2- Learning assessment (use feedback devices or pre/post-tests to measure what they have actually learned
3- Expected impact of activity on work performance (make sure learners apply new skills and knowledge
4- Overall assessment of cost-benefit ratio (use objective measures, determine if training was a good investment in time, money, effort, company)

Question 5

What are the 4 goals of competency development activities?

Answer 5

1- Ensure integration of new employees (orientation starts before employees arrive - know the competencies they need)
2- Consolidate your present operational positions
3- Support organizational change (current or future)
4- Support career path of employees

Question 6

What is the life cycle of a competency?

Answer 6

1- Aquisition: employees obtain new knowledge, develop new skills or adopt new attitudes towards their job
2- Optimization: employees are fully operational and apply competencies on a daily basis (employers recover their investment here)
3- Obsolensce: competency loses its relevance more or less rapidly - needs to be updated or replaced

Question 7

Explain the crocodile syndrome.

Answer 7

What you have VS what you need
The further the job requirements (required) get from the competency capital value (acquired), the more the non-competency zone gets larger, creating an individual and organizational vulnerability

Question 8

What are the 3 essential elements that improve the quality of the learning transfer?

Answer 8

1- Employees: their experience, capable of learning, willingness to acquire and implement new competencies
2- Development activity itself: when/how it is offered, level of difficulty, content, teaching support provided
3- Work environment: workload, availability/resources, support from coworkers, climate, possibility of recognition/promotion

Question 9

*What are the HR indicators?

Answer 9

Effectiveness:
1- Knowledge transfer
2- Knowledge acquired
3- Satisfaction with training session
Efficiency:
1- Time of training/employee/year
2- Training budget
3- ROI of training