Elements Of Performance

In our work with capability at CompFrame we have found that different people use different terms for common attributes of human resources. We define four key elements: Professional Skills, Behavioural Competencies, Knowledge and Experience. The PMF addresses the first two of these, and can be easily extended to capture other information as required pertaining to knowledge, experience, qualifications, certification and other information which may be time-sensitive. An example of this would be a certification for moving and handling patients in the health sector, which needs to be renewed regularly.

Determining what is relevant in terms of ability to perform, or to deliver, is another matter. In our experience this is often client specific which is why we do not prescribe it. A degree in Biology for example, can imply a level of maturity or the ability to learn, however it does not make the holder as competent a project manager as someone who has five years on-site experience but no degree. A qualification such as PMP implies a level of knowledge and experience and so is a valid measure of capability. However, just like the role title, Senior Project Manager, it is implicit in nature, and does not actually inform you as to overall capability.

Consider this. If an organisation “right-sizes” based on the performance review conducted last year, then some people will exit the organisation based on that fact alone. What skills did they have however, what specific intellectual property just walked out of the door? This is one reason why understanding your actual capability is so important. Skills and competencies assessed and validated against the CompFrame PMF give the best indication of capability and the intelligence needed to know how to develop it further that you can get. Progress through the PMF using the Learning Framework can be used as another input to your annual performance review: is this resource committing to development and increasing their value to the organisation? The PMF can be used to track this sort of performance and we have worked with clients to develop processes to do just that.

Role Definitions, Job Descriptions, Recruitment

ADD SOME PMF VALUE

As a part of implementing PMF in client organisations we commit to work with you to review the architecture of your job descriptions. This is because we have found that most clients do not define actual professional skills or competencies as requirements for the job holder, and yet in day to day execution of their duties these are what they will be using most. We have found that 3-7 behavioural competencies (depending on job level) along with 5-8 professional skills works best.

Why so few? In practice listing all of the skills needed will eliminate almost anyone from holding the job! On the contrary, to hold some skills it is almost certain that others have been covered off, so they will not need listing individually every time. Consider also that some roles are team roles. For example, does your most senior manager need all of the skills of the people in the team that they are responsible for? Most certainly not, what matters is that the functional area has sufficient skills. The corollary to this is that sometimes a single person holds more than one role. These are the typical factors that encourage restraint when deciding which skills are required for a particular job.

Apart from better conversations with your recruitment partners, you can use the consistent language of a framework to help probe deeper when engaging contractors or consultants, ensuring that you get a closer match to the skills that you need in your organisation, and not just what is generically understood by the skill title.

THE PMF Proposition

In adopting PMF from CompFrame you will benefit from:

• Real, in-depth experience of competency frameworks
• A high level implementation plan
• A robust project management framework tailored to your needs
  •         12+ Professional skill areas
  •         5+ Levels per skill
  •         4 Co-competencies back-up each skill
• A coordinated Learning Framework
  •         3 learning interventions per skill per level (180 in total)
• Advice and guidance on implementation
• A robust assessment and validation methodology
• All definitions loaded into a Microsoft Excel based tool for easy reference and validation or via your own CompFrame site
• Consultancy on integration with job definitions
• The final framework and interventions will be your intellectual property, CompFrame retains only the IP in the base PMF framework prior to customisation for your purposes
• Support for loading PMF to an online assessment/validation tool if required
• Ongoing support is available on a chargeable basis if required.