Understanding Self-Service Competency Information
Competency management is a method of categorizing and tracking the qualifications that employees have that make them competent to perform their job duties. These qualifications, such as C programming skills, professional license, or fluency in French, are called competencies.
An organization uses competency management to track the competencies that their employees possess and to compare these competencies with those that are required for their job. Tracking competencies helps managers and human resources representatives determine the competencies that employees need in order to satisfy the requirements of their current job, as well as a job they might hope to obtain in the future. Competency management also helps employees and managers create clear career goals and performance objectives.
To simplify the process of maintaining competency information for employees, employees can use self service to enter and revise their own competency information.
Because employees typically know their own professional background more thoroughly than that of anyone else in your organization, they can enter their own competency information, and the system submits it to someone else, such as their manager or a member of the human resources department, for approval. For example, others might not be aware that an employee is working on an advanced degree or a professional certification that is not directly related to their current job. Self service enables the employee to update his or her competency information as each competency is acquired. Employees can also revise their existing competency information.
After the employee enters competency information, the appropriate person receives a Workflow message that indicates that competency information is waiting for approval. That person must then review the information and enter a level of proficiency for each competency.
After employees enter competency information, they can review it to verify that it is correct. If they find an error or omission, they can revise the information to correct it. After they revise competency information, the appropriate person, such as their manager or a member of the human resources department, receives a Workflow message that indicates that the information is waiting for approval.
The process that employees use to revise competency information is similar to the process that they use to enter this information, except that they must first search for the competency that they need to revise.