Competencies are a measurable, agreed-upon set of knowledge, skills, abilities and aptitudes that set the performance expectations in a position. They define how a job is performed as opposed to the what, or technical skills (e.g., skill level in Excel). Competencies are used throughout the employment lifecycle: Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Learning and Development and Succession Planning.
Resources
Introduction Video on Competencies (8 minutes)
Competencies Playlist on LinkedIn Learning
Most Common Competencies Involved in Performance Management
Spotlight Competencies
These are two competencies that are the most fundamental within the College of Fine Arts in terms of success in positions.
Managerial Courage
Understanding of the rationale for and the ability to tactfully dispense direct, actionable feedback and deal head-on with people problems and challenging situations.
Knowledge of Organization
Knowledge of the organization's vision, structure, culture, philosophy, operating principles, values, and code of ethics; ability to apply this understanding appropriately to varied situations.
Examples of Competency Definitions
Initiative
- Degree of delegation versus direction
- Where are you expecting the employee to take ownership and be accountable for the quality of product?
- Where do you need to review and approve no matter what?
- How long do you expect the employee to get stuck before reaching out to you for help?
- How often do you need updates on various responsibilities?
- Meets/Exceeds: Identifying knowns and unknowns of a project and using best judgement/courage to explore the unknowns while checking in with supervisor when appropriate (e.g., a decision that influences a larger number of customers or sets precedent).
- Does Not Meet: Consistently getting stuck and avoiding task rather than reaching out to manager. Not identifying where gaps of information exist and bringing this to manager’s attention. Not identifying questions that could help deepen knowledge of subject matter.
Effective Communication
- Includes your expectations how to communicate with colleagues and “customers” (e.g., students) via email, phone, in-person. Discuss your expectations on the following: When an email should be a phone call; when an email should be a meeting; when a meeting should be an email.
- Meets/Exceeds Expectations: Situationally adjusted emails that understand the audience and provide appropriate amounts of information.
- Does Not Meet Expectations: One sentence email follow ups that don’t help the reader; three-page-long emails that bury the information.
Service Excellence
- Expectations about what “service excellence” looks like for you: Be sure to talk about boundaries with service excellence: What is doing too little and what is doing too much? Examples could include: Helping a lost student find their way to a building; anticipating a request from a supervisor and providing additional information they may not have considered.
- Meets/Exceeds: Identifying opportunities to provide an appropriate amount of information to a client that will help them be successful in the task at hand in a way that resonates/amplifies the existing responsibilities of your position and does not disproportionately take you away from your own work.
- Does Not Meet Expectations: Consistently not providing enough information on requests or asking enough questions to understand the greater context of the original ask from the client. Going out of the way to provide too much help to a project that is not in scope for your professional responsibilities.
Teamwork
- Share how you define “Teamwork” in the workspace, both within your own team as well as with colleagues around the University.
- Does not meet expectations: Not identifying what your colleague may need next or providing more context to your answer for them. “You’ll have to ask central.” Rather than provide a specific contact for a handoff to another colleague.
- Meets/Exceeds: Identifying that a colleague’s team is short-staffed and pitching in to help on the set up for an event, last-minute. Providing additional context to a new colleague on how to complete an OOEF.
Accuracy and Attention to Detail
- Share what you define as “accuracy and attention to detail”. What are your expectations with the employee checking their work (including documents and emails) and reviewing them with you or other stakeholders.
- Meets/Exceeds: Mistakes happen, but they are at a minimum and the employee has taken appropriate steps to mitigate issues. They review, edit, are thorough with what they’ve created or edited and have anticipated what the audience will need.
- Does Not Meet: Mistakes are too frequent and are preventable. Consistent formatting, grammar or data mistakes. Manager has pointed out the issues and they are not resolving.