6 Key Advantages to Using Proficiency Scales

The success of any business relies on having the workforce skills in place to stay competitive today and in the future. These demands are not always met through traditional recruiting that relies on educational credentials and networking. More employers are examining the specific skills employees possess, so being able to regularly measure skill acquisition is crucial. A tracking system utilizing proficiency scales can provide an accurate record of these skills.

The assessment of professional competencies is the process of collecting the information necessary to demonstrate the requirements of the organization’s standards. Measuring the results of competency-based learning programs requires the assessment of performance at the time the project is started, followed by multiple assessments after the training is finished. The ability to apply, transfer, and combine knowledge and skills in different situations and work environments to carry out the work in the organization is measured. 

Organizations can maximize career potential for their employees while ensuring they have the correct resources to meet the demands of the job. This requires a system in place to identify, validate, and track skills. Employee competency assessment models can clearly understand different roles and their preferred competencies. This article will examine the advantages to using proficiency scales in a competency management system in order to measure the success of a business and its employees. 

How have technology and data analytics revolutionized competency frameworks?

Modern advances in technology and data analytics have revolutionized the way organizations manage change and improve performance. Competency definitions and frameworks are no exception to this trend, as they can be used as a powerful tool to guide organizations through the challenges of change management and performance improvement.

With the help of technology and data analytics, organizations can now create detailed competency frameworks that capture the skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for employees to perform their job roles effectively. These frameworks can be used to guide the development of training and development programs, performance evaluations, and succession planning. They can also be used to identify skill gaps and training needs, ensuring that employees have the skills and knowledge required to meet the needs of the organization.

Data analytics can be used to track and analyze employee performance against competency frameworks, providing valuable insights into areas where employees are excelling and areas where they may require additional training or support. This can inform performance improvement initiatives and help to drive better business outcomes.

Competency frameworks can also be used to guide change management initiatives, ensuring that employees are equipped with the skills and knowledge required to adapt to new processes and technologies. This can help to minimize the impact of change on employee productivity and engagement, ensuring that the organization can continue to operate effectively in the face of change.

What are the key advantages to competency analysis using proficiency scales?

1. Create space for improvement. Organizations that consistently strive to improve will be able to grow and sustain in today’s job market. Employees are in constant need of re-skilling their competencies. Rapidly developing technology makes an evolving set of skills necessary for success in any organization. A detailed analysis of competencies will determine where up-skilling or re-skilling are needed. This can have a positive impact on career progression and job satisfaction. 
2. Easier to demonstrate ROI. Competency-based training, like all other learning models, must prove its worth. In order to realize a Return On Investment (ROI), organizations need to know how to measure competency and how an employee’s competencies affect the bottom line. By building measurements into the project from the start, the program can be designed to facilitate the collection of performance data, and it can be easier to demonstrate ROI.
3. Skills become more meaningful. When the level of ability for each skill is quantified by proficiency levels, more information can be gained. Breaking skill levels into beginner, intermediate, and advanced for each skill immediately gives us more information. Confusion is cleared up and skills become more meaningful when there is an understanding of the abilities. The bigger picture is seen when experience can tie into skills and proficiency levels. Experiences help show a more complete view into how an individual acquired their skill and help us better see their proficiency level in action.
4. Standardized evaluation is possible. Proficiency scales provide a standardized way of evaluating employee competencies, ensuring that all employees are evaluated on the same criteria. This makes accurate comparisons between employees possible and enables businesses to identify skill gaps and training needs more effectively. 
5. Strategic alignment with business objectives. Proficiency scales can be aligned with the strategic objectives of the business, ensuring that employee competencies are aligned with the needs of the organization. This allows the workforce to be equipped with the skills and knowledge required to meet the organization’s goals and objectives. 
6. Objective measurement of employee competencies. Competency analysis with proficiency scales provides an objective way to measure employee competencies without the risk of bias in performance evaluations. With accuracy and fairness of evaluations increased, there is a positive impact on employee motivation and engagement. 

How can a skills matrix help monitor competencies?

The skills matrix has become a vital tool in any organization’s Competency Management Program for tracking skills, training, certification, and qualifications for employees. It is a visual tool that identifies key skills in specific roles and recognizes the competency level for each skill for individuals. An effective matrix can boost the skill and efficiency levels within a company. This management tool can be used in small and large organizations to measure and understand the skills within the workforce. Both individuals and businesses must be aware of their overall skill level, as well as have knowledge of desired areas of growth.

An automated skill matrix as part of a competency-based training program can be used to track, measure, and visualize data in real-time. It allows organizations to gather a balanced and successful team in which everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Finding people with complementary competencies will improve employee engagement and job performance.

How can CABEM’s Competency Manager help?

CABEM’s Competency Manager provides organizations multiple options for assessing and scoring competency levels.  Create any number of custom proficiency scale systems with the option to set one system as the default.  For example, an organization may choose to employ a 5-point scale when assessing the competency of an individual for a specific role or skill set, in addition to a 3-point default scale when assessing leadership soft skills.

CABEM’s Competency Manager includes powerful reporting capabilities out of the box. Their skills matrix, called the interactive Activity Grid, is a skills inventory that makes it easy to zero in on user progress toward completion. The Activity Grid allows Managers, Mentors, and System Administrators to view the details of a user’s progress for all assignments, as well as the ability to act through approval signoffs, assessments, and multiple other actions right from within the same screen. Discriminating filters provide the most efficient way of accessing important business intelligence in real-time.

The CABEM Competency Manager is a workforce development system that provides an at-a-glance view of an organization’s competency framework for every location, department, role, and individual across the enterprise. CABEM recognizes that competency is attained by methods not typically embraced by the functionality available within an LMS such as online training and tests. People become competent through not only formal but experiential learning.

The Competency Management platform provides a method of aggregating multiple completion methods for learning and development such as witnessing, approvals, and traditional LMS techniques. It eliminates the need for spreadsheets and filing cabinets with document libraries, to retain user records and information for current and past years. The platform identifies learning/development pathways, to help organizations stay compliant to quality management standards with document tracking, archived training materials, version control, and more, allowing organizations to pass audits with ease. It provides the ability to manage risk, automate certifications, and publish reports on actionable data, improving efficiency overall across the enterprise.

If training and quality assurance are top priorities for your organization, but your competency management doesn’t feel credible, isn’t repeatable, CABEM can help. If you are ready to add the benefits of competency management to your business, Click here to learn about our product or contact us.