Client:
Insurance Provider – Competency Framework Design
Service Provided:
After a period of rapid international expansion and a recent history of decreasing levels of success in retaining top leadership talent, our consultants where asked to support in the identification of the characteristics that where key to and predictive of success within the business. Our priorities in the competency framework design exercise were to create an accessible and evidence based information source for use by senior managers when recruiting, developing and performance managing their staff. To support the long term utility and embedding of the framework we recommend that the information collection process was broad. The team collected data on top and marginal performances in order to allow identification of what differentiated these groups. The data was future focused and considered what characteristics, not currently prioritised within the business, may be needed to support and sustain their expansion. As such we started the competences framework design process by conducting a very broad data collection exercise that included:
- Structured interviews with selected top performers and their managers (if appropriate) to investigate their perceptions around their own values, motivations and behaviours within the workplace.
- Quantitative gap and trend analysis in relation to ‘successful’ behaviours identified by conducting online questionnaires with a maximum of 20 leadership level incumbent across the business. These people were nominated to provide a pool which represented a management group with breadth of competence in post.
- A small number of management level focus groups designed to explore and prioritise around any conflicts in trends identified from the other information collected.
Once initial data collection was completed, the competency framework design was completed and then evaluated by the executive team and then by data comparison conducted by comparing the manager ratings of the top 100 leaders in the business in each of the competency areas to an overall line manager success rating collected.
This process meant we were able to deliver successfully in relation to the two core priorities of the competency framework design project
- The development a robust set of behavioural criteria that has proven links to success within the business.
- The creation of a framework which is a credible and useful tool that supports effective selection decision making by the managers ultimately responsible for the identification and management of talent (externally and internally).