Competency 1

Have You Got The Goods?

Maria Smirnoff

BUSI 6312 - Recruitment and Selection

Professor Jan Dicks

Thursday, November 22, 2007

 Competency 1

Everyone agrees that tomorrow’s business environment is unlikely to be same as today. In

order to remain viable and profitable, businesses globally must tackle the environmental changes

that are taking place at all levels of the organization: from organizational structure, to

management style, to technology. The Human Resources departments are not immune to these

transformations. At the recruiting level, for example, “evolution towards rapidly changing jobs

and organizations that demand flexibility of their workers, has led some HR practitioners to

search for alternatives to traditional job analysis techniques” (Catano, Hackett, Methot, &

Wiesner, 2005). One of these is competency profiling, used “relative to training and

development, recruitment, retention, and workforce planning efforts” (Sullivan, 2006).

Definition of what a ‘competence’ is varies from one HR practitioner to the next, but it generally

contains similar elements: “competencies are KSAOs that underlie effective or successful job

performance, that are observable and measurable, that distinguish top performers from those who

are merely capable of doing the job” (Catano, Hackett, Methot, & Wiesner, 2005). For the past

20 years, Dave Ulrich and his associates have been working to “identify the competencies that

enable HR professionals to respond to the ever-changing business conditions. When applied to

HR, competencies can be defined as the values, knowledge, and abilities of HR professionals”

(2007).

The difficulty with developing a set of competencies for the HR professional is that there

are drastic changes taking place within the profession. In fact, HR leaders are predicting that, in a

decade from now, eighty per cent of the role “will no longer exist” (Phillips, 2007). According to

Lisbeth Claus of Willamette University in United States, who has been tracking the HR

profession since 1975, “HR has undergone such a massive transformation […] from in-house
transactional services to outsourced shared services” (Phillips, 2007) that some of the functional

elements are no longer even taught at Willamette. With such outlook, it is necessary not only to

define what competencies are necessary for HR professionals to succeed now, but also those that

will enable them to succeed in the future. Of course, if the current pace of change keeps us, as it

is likely, these competencies will need to be reassessed at frequent intervals.

After extensive research, spanning over decades, HR researchers have declared what they

believe are competencies of an HR professional for the next few years. These have consistently

emerged as a set of six competencies. Ulrich has aptly named these are: Credible Activist,

Operational Executor, Business Ally, Talent Manager and Organizational Designer, Culture and

Change Steward, and Strategy Architect (Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, & Younger, 2007). In

addition, Rio Tinto – a global natural resources conglomerate – has also developed what it terms

core competencies for Human Resource professionals (Rio Tinto, 2005). As expected, these are

very similar to Ulrich’s, and are referenced within his framework.

Research shows that successful will be those that are not only well versed in HR practices,

and can also campaign for the importance of the HR role within an organization. Ulrich’s

research terms this competency: Credible Activist. Within an organization, the Credible Activist

is admired and listened to, and offers a point of view, take a position and challenges assumptions

by: delivering results with integrity, sharing information, building relationships of trust, doing

HR with an attitude (Grossman, 2007). Furthermore, Rachel Oliver, in an essay on the essential

skills for the HR practitioner of the future, adds that in future, HR professionals will need to

develop a strong sense of intuition: “they must have confidence in their abilities to be able to use

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and trust them. They must have the instinct to anticipate what the organization needs in the short

and longer term, not just react when things happen or when change is imminent” (“Best”, 2007).

In addition to being credible, a future HR professional will have to be a powerful Business

Ally. As a Business Ally, HR professionals should be able to contribute to the success of the

business by demonstrating a thorough knowledge of the business and the sector people are

working in. Recruitment experts are urging HR professionals of the future to demonstrate a

broad business understanding, alongside their sound knowledge of HR (Phillips, 2007). In fact,

Mike Haffenden, a search consultant at Strategic Dimensions, goes as far as saying that

currently, HR people are “jargon rich and knowledge light” (Phillips, 2007). Going forward, HR

employees will have to know how the business makes money, and have a good understanding of

how departments, from finance to research and development, can work together with HR to

organize a profitable business (Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, & Younger, 2007).

Of course, without a solid knowledge of the basic HR functions, one cannot hope to

succeed as an HR professional, neither now nor in the future. Despite the additional requirements

that are constantly being imposed on HR workers, as Operational Executors, they will need to

have both practical experience and formal training and be able to demonstrate these in

administering the day-to-day work of managing people inside an organization (Ulrich,

Brockbank, Johnson, & Younger, 2007). In a competency dictionary developed by Rio Tinto,

these skills are included under the “professional capability” competency (Rio Tinto, 2005).

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 It is also important for the HR professional in the future to act as Cultural and Change

Steward, points out Ulrich’s research. Likewise, Rio Tinto expects its HR workers to be skilled

at “managing change” (Rio Tinto, 2005). A person skilled in change management, “recognizes,

articulates and helps share a company’s culture by facilitating change, crafting culture, valuing

culture, […] helping employees find meaning in their work, managing work/life balance, and

encouraging innovation” (Grossman, 2007). Rio Tinto adds that HR personnel must be skilled at

initiating and implementing any change deemed necessary with commitment and drive (Rio

Tinto, 2005).

A fifth essential competency for HR employees is being effective Talent Managers and

Organizational Designers. These folks master “theory, research, and practice in both talent

management and organizational design by ensuring today’s and tomorrow’s talent, developing

talent, shaping the organization, fostering communication, designing reward systems”

(Grossman, 2007). In their internal “Core competencies for Human Recourses professionals”,

Rio Tinto calls this competency “relationship building” and says that those that possess this skill

lead by example when developing the organizational culture and building collaborative

relationships (Rio Tinto, 2005).

The sixth and final competency that completes the list of core competencies that are

required of future, successful HR personnel is Strategy Architect. Traditionally, HR members

have held a more passive role within the organization and were generally removed from any

strategic planning taking place in the boardroom. However, the “HR function is currently having

to respond to major changes in its environment: lowering costs, enhancing quality, ensuring that

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the organization is tapping into the full potential of its employees and creating stronger business

links, hence becoming a business partner” (Brewster, Farndale, & van Ommeren, 2000). HR

professionals are increasingly taking on the role of an “architect [who] is the long-term designer

and planner, co-coordinating the activities of other members of the department” (Brewster,

Farndale, & van Ommeren, 2000). This means that the HR specialist will need to master

KSAO’s needed to recognize “business trends and their impact on the business [and to

contribute] to the building of the overall strategy by linking the internal organization to external

customer expectations” (Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, & Younger, 2007). Rio Tinto’s

competency model adds that these future professionals will need to be able to “focus HR

systems, processes and resources on development of leadership and other core capabilities

required at all levels of the organization” (Rio Tinto, 2005).

As competency approach becomes more popular in the field of HR, the amount of research

on HR competencies is also increasing. At the 2007 Chartered Institute for Personnel

Development (CIPD) Annual Conference, the movers and shakers in the HR industry have made

some serious statements about the state of the profession and the skills that HR professionals

need to develop if they are to remain successful in their jobs. Julian Birkinshaw and Lynda

Gratton, professors at London Business School, state that “HR has a critical role in driving

innovation” and that “if senior executives behave in a dysfunctional way it is the responsibility

of the HR function to get them to change their dysfunctional behavior” (Phillips, 2007). The list

of competencies provided above is ever-changing and on-going research is closely tracking these

changes. But for now, this author asks, have you got what it takes to be a competent HR

professional?

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 Competency 1

References

Best of the six. (2007, April 10). Personnel Today, Retrieved November 5, 2007, from Business
Source Complete database.

Brewster, C., Farndale, E., van Ommeren, J. (2000, June). HR competencies and professional
standards. World Federation of Personnel Management Associations. Retrieved November
10, 2007 from http://www.wfpma.com/comp.pdf.

Catano, M. V., Hackett, R.D., Methot, L.L, & Wiesner, W. H. (2005). Recruitment and selection
in Canada – third edition. Toronto, ON: Nelson.

Gorssman, R.J. (2007, June). New competencies for HR. HR Magazine, 52 (6). Retrieved
November 10, 2007 from http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/
0607/0607/grossman.asp

Phillips, L. (2007, October 4). Though leaders predict what’s in store for HR. People
Management, 14-15.

Rio Tinto. (2005). Core competencies for human resources professionals. Retrieved November
10, 2007 from www.riotinto.com/documents/ReportsPublications/
corpPub_competencies_for_HR.pdf.

Sullivan, J. (2006, April 17). Recruiting using a competency-based approach. Retrieved

November 11, 2007, from http://www.ere.ent/articles/db/
A79B7AECE9404DC69948BAA07E59C4A1.asp

Ulrich, D., Brockbank, W., Johnson, D. & Younger, J. (2007, Fall). Human resource
competencies: Responding to increased expectations. Retrieved November 10, 2007, from
The RBL Group web site: http://www.rbl.net/resources/books-and-articles