Competency: Introduction and Types

 Competency is a person's capacity that leads to the behaviour that merges with the job requirement, which is in behaviour that merges with the job requirement, which is in tandem with the organisation's parameters and gives desired results. Competency is that something you need to be able to do well in a specific job role. Competence in the area of work that the employees perform effectively.

Competencies refer to the characteristics required to perform the given job role, activity or task. The competency of an individual is identified with knowledge, skills and abilities and attitudes (KSA). It is also inclusive of operational excellence aptitude, strategic thinking and personal sustainability.

According to Mansfield (1997), "undertaking characteristics of a person results in effective a superior performance."

According to Rankin, "competencies are the definition of skills and behaviours that organisations expect their staff to practice in work."

Types of Competencies:

Competencies are an amalgamation of both functional along behavioural aspects of an individual. They both are together essential in competency mapping. These are explained below.

Behaviour Competency:

It is used to enhance the competency of employees at all positions in the business. It comprises of characters that a person has or should have to be effective. These comprise the soft skills that deal with the ability to do a task and how the work is performed by the individual. They depict the way of performing the work regarding the behaviour of an employee or how it handles other employees. People must have healthy relations with folks across different departments.

The various forms of behavioural competencies are presented below:

Interpersonal Competencies: They involve handling problems, persuasiveness, teamwork and high energy levels, communication skills.

Motivational Competencies: They comprise attributes, e.g. leading by example, motivating others, taking initiatives, including other members in taking additional initiatives and being a motivator.

Analytical Competencies: The key attributes here comprise expertise in technical know-how, working with numbers, dealing with data analytics, and solving problems with data set.

Managerial Competencies: They comprise those abilities that individuals should possess, especially those working at managerial levels. Some of these utilities are strategic planning, analytical skills, quick decision-making, managing team and handling conflicts, communication skills, and leadership skills.

Individual Competencies: Here, the personal qualities and traits of the individual have importance. These include traits such as self-motivational skills, optimism, technical know-how, confidence, amiability and the ability to work with teams.

Functional competency:

Functional competency refers to the technical or functional handling abilities of the employee. They are with regard to the specific job or the functions which are to be performed by the individual. Thus, they are restricted to the functional area of the person.

Hence, they comprise the skills, abilities and knowledge required to perform a specific task. These competencies differ from job to job. An employee working in the finance department must have abilities to deal with numbers, analytics and forecasting.

Employees in human resources and marketing must have good observational skills to learn about their clients and employees. Thus, functional competencies differ with the nature of the job. However, both functional and behavioural comeptencies are required in order to be effective.