With growing emphasis on technology, productivity and quality standards, organisations need more competent and self-directed teams to suit changing work needs, says Kamal Karanth
The current Indian economic scenario is stable with the GDP at 5.9 per cent, many large companies are still waiting for the results of the General Elections, although the growth of investment by global companies still continue to be strong. Having said that, there is visible increase in demand of skilled workforce in India. Often it has been seen that in order to fill in the vacancy of a skilled employee the number of applicants are large but only a very few have the required skills to do the job.
Due to stringent labour laws many global firms are still skeptic to invest in India and have been looking at other Central Asian countries like Vietnam and Philippines to invest as the cost of labour is less than India. In the coming months improved global growth prospects and competitiveness gains from currency depreciation will bolster external demand. India’s policy challenge is to create significantly more productive and well-paying jobs which are vital to sustain high growth and ensure it is inclusive.
It has been observed that out of every 10 applicants only 1 has the required skills that fit the job description. An important point to be noted is that the requisite educational qualification is present but the candidate often lacks the skills required to do the job. Due to the shortage of skills, the company employee’s workforce from abroad this leads to increase in the cost of labour. This has led to a rise in the attrition level across various sectors and also the recruitment for fresher employees is low.
low level of competence leads to inconsistency of performance;therefore many organisations desire a certain level of required skill and competence in its employees for specific job posts. An organisation’s best source of competitive advantage lies with its employees and it has been seen time and again that the demand for effective and competent employees is continuously increasing in both public and private organisations.
Competency mapping is a strategic HR framework for monitoring the performance and development of human assets in organisations. Competency based talent management can improve both productivity and performance by identifying key characteristics of top performers and how those traits differ from average employees. These characteristics in turn can filter in a set of core competency profile that consistently lead to successful workforce.
With growing emphasis on technology, productivity and quality standards, organisations need more competent and self-directed teams to suit changing work needs. This requires employees to learn new skills and competencies, adhered to values, behave professionally and enhance risk taking capabilities, all of which represent a set of competencies that can be cultivated through training and development.
Effectively mapped competencies translate the strategic vision and goal of the organisation into behavioural actions that employees must display. Competency based talent management concentrates first on the person and then his or her outputs or results.
With the constant change in the Indian business environment, it is vital for a company to regularly identify the need of these skills and inculcate various training modules to update their employee abilities and reduce attrition rate.
In order to initiate these training modules companies need to first analyse the shortfall that employees or team members are facing and this can be done by monitoring the impact of previous training activities and constant awareness of business activities. Therefore, the success of a training programme depends primarily on the need assessment.
If training is integrated into the normal business activities of an organisation it must be both strategic and collective. At the same time while recruiting new employees, the company should be able to identify the skill the candidate possess and the areas where skill development is required and accordingly align them with the company needs to make him/ her more productive and efficient. Additionally, when an employee is exiting a company, they should be able to recognise the reasons for the exit along with the key learning from the organisation.
Identifying training need and providing adequate training to employees leads to performance which ensures increased productivity. Competence mapping on the other hand focuses on the need of the company which further helps in strengthening the employee base, longevity of the employee in the company and reduces attrition.
The success of a company depends on how well the employees are able to contribute in terms of both knowledge and skill. With this in mind, companies must continually review their training strategies so that they can quickly adapt to constant change.
Company should be aware of the current skill and knowledge level of employees in detail. This is the basic prerequisite to facing new challenges in a target-oriented way, and to seeing through changes in a timely manner. Therefore, with constant need analysis and competency mapping a company will be able to employee efficient candidates and also inculcate the right training modules that are required for skill development on the basis of requirement for a particular job profile. Overall, these strategies further help in strengthening the company core competency and increase profitability.
The writer is MD of Kelly Services India.