6 tips for effective and strategic competence development

What is competence development?

The right skills are essential for effective productivity and well-being in the workplace, whether it's in the office or from a home office, which has now become part of our new everyday life.

Effective, efficient and strategic competence development helps to clarify what skills your business has and needs to achieve set goals in both the short and long term.

Once you've identified the skills in your business, and any gaps, only then can you start thinking about what actions can be taken. It's important that planning takes place hand in hand with your employees. The skills of the individual employee must be balanced with the needs of the business at all times.

So, how do you facilitate this work? We give you 6 quick tips that should come in handy for you and your business.

1. Identify the company's competence needs

As a manager, the first thing you need to think about is what know-how your business needs. Create an overview of the skills that will be needed in your business in the future. Here you should analyze points such as:

• What does the company want to achieve in the coming years?
• What skills do you need to achieve this goal?
• Do you have existing expertise in the company?
• Are you planning to hire or contract new labor?

Remember that the skills of individual employees must always be balanced with the needs of the business. This is the only way to ensure a good strategy when it comes to competence development.

It's important that you involve managers and other professionals at this stage, as financial issues may arise.

2. Map the employee's competence

Once you've mapped out what your business wants to achieve over the next few years, and the relevant skills required to achieve those goals, you need to investigate whether the desired skills already exist within the business.

By analyzing the current available expertise, you will get an overview of what skills gaps exist and whether or not new external expertise should be found. As a result, your business can save money by not hiring or contracting new labor.

It is important that this stage is analyzed systematically with your employees and other department managers in the company. This makes it easier to document employees' skills and other relevant background. Examples of relevant background can be work experience, education, courses, certifications and other skills.

Think about what's important and relevant to your business, and feel free to document this information in a competence module, where all the information can be found in one place. Other ways of identifying employees' experiences can be through appraisals.

3. Define the employee's job role

Once you've analyzed your desired competencies against existing skills in each department and what the business needs, you need to broaden your search when it comes to job roles. Be aware that even if the skills already exist in the company, the relevant expertise doesn't necessarily have to be in the specific department you have envisioned.

Think about what the employee needs to know or need to fulfill their role. Is it the right role for the employee, or can other roles and positions be considered in the company? Perhaps another employee from a different department is better suited to the role for which you want better expertise?

Defining job roles can help you as a manager sift out various skills and get a better overview of which employees may be better suited to other roles in the company, thereby closing any skills gaps in the business.

Such a definition can also take place during a development conversation between manager, department manager and employees.

4. Create a competence development plan

Should the employee show deficiencies in their job role, there are several measures in the form of training you can take before you bring in new manpower from outside. Skills development can take place in different ways. Everything from formal forms of training such as courses and education, to more informal ways such as coaching and exchanges of experience among colleagues in the company.

Therefore, create a development plan for the employee. Examples of training can be:

• Coaching in the company
• Sharing experiences in the company
• Digital training in the form of courses and e-learning
• Interactive form of training in the form of a quiz
• External conferences with relevant topics
• Formal forms of training such as university education

5. Have frequent follow-up conversations

Once a competence development plan has been drawn up, it is important to follow it up continuously with your employees. New learning usually takes place in work situations, so plan frequent meetings in the form of one-to-one conversations or longer development discussions with your employees. Feel free to set up a performance review checklist when you plan the meeting.

6. Evaluation of competence development

After the development plan, the measures and several follow-up conversations, it is time for an evaluation of the competence development. The evaluation can be divided into three parts:

• Your feedback
• Testing
• The results

As a manager, it's important that you recognize your employees. Therefore, give your employees the opportunity to give you feedback. What do your employees think about the measures that have been taken? Has the employee acquired new learning and expertise? Is the employee now able to perform their role well and effectively?

You can also see if the measures have helped the employee from your point of view. A good way to do this is to test the employee with tasks and quizzes, and follow up on the employee via performance reviews. Feel free to compare job performance before and after the measures took place. Is there a difference?

Finally, it's important that you set up the measures against the company's goals. Have the employee's actions benefited the company? Can the company achieve the goals that were set before the evaluation took place? Here it is important that you look carefully for results. Has productivity increased after the measures were taken? What about turnover, has this increased to any extent after the skills gap was analyzed?

After this analysis, you will be left with stronger cards in your hand, where it will be easier to know whether to invest in existing skills in the company, or whether to start a new hiring process to achieve the goals that have been set.

Remember to work systematically and strategically, and don't make it too difficult for yourself. Feel free to take small steps at a time, this way you will see results faster and whether the measures that have been set are working or not.