Knowledge, skills of people are the most demanded resources in our time. Professionals need decades to fully possess these elements. A large number of industries use interdisciplinary approaches, while performing not one but several tasks at once. Companies gain experience that can be stored in the center of competence. This is a special department of the enterprise. About it will be described in detail in our material.
Competence Center - what is it?
In the modern economic system, the most valuable product is information. Its production requires knowledge - a special resource that must be accumulated. Optimization and use of people's mental activity are the most important processes in the field of organizational management.
There are several problems with information, like with any other resource. Information and knowledge may be lost. For enterprises, this is always a failure: the team disbands, employees quit or change plans. Often the loss of information is fraught with the loss of money, time, and, worst of all, goals.
The solution to this problem is associated with the creation of centers of competence. This authority systematically collects the most important knowledge, documented skills or abilities. Available information is distributed among specialists. This ensures the optimal use of human resources within a single organization.
The center of competence is a special type of structural element in an enterprise. It controls one or more important areas of activity. Thanks to the competent authority, relevant knowledge is accumulated, and a search for ways to solve problems is also being carried out.
The idea of competency management centers is not new. To one degree or another, it is implemented by scientific and technical information departments, as well as archives, quality and standardization groups, etc. Further, however, we will talk about the authority, whose activity is the integration of knowledge, expert work, modernization processes, etc. Of particular importance here is not even information, but the totality of social ties that form knowledge.
The structure of professional competence centers
The functional and structure of the competent authorities depend on the determining task that the organization is called upon to solve. Thus, four types of centers are best known. They can act both separately and as part of a single system.
The first center of competence is a body to collect and store best practices. The main tasks of this authority are the accumulation, formalization and dissemination of best practices at enterprises. The specialists of the center find and analyze the main processes, make recommendations of a technical nature and form standards for their use. Programs are also being developed to manage integration processes and make certain changes to them.
The accumulation of best practices can be associated with sales methods, the provision of consulting services, working with clients, product development, project management, etc. Specialized centers of competence associated with the accumulation of best practices are the simplest to develop and apply in the management system.
The second type of competent authority is associated with the formation of technological standards. Centers of this kind are gaining certain knowledge, but emphasis is placed on their technical component - software development and the selection of appropriate equipment. Specialists standardize and generalize processes on a single technological platform.
Distributed service is the third type of professional competency center . The task of such a unit is to use the resources of the teams that participated in the project. Staff is committed to supporting numerous knowledge management initiatives, including product training, software assessment, etc. Distributed service is one of the most used models in the West.
Finally, the last structural element of the authority is the centralized service unit. It has its own budget and a set of cost recovery methods. Such a center accompanies a considerable number of projects, develops requirements and standards for information and technical subsystems, and also facilitates the exchange of knowledge in the enterprise. When choosing such a model, it is recommended to conduct a thorough diagnosis of the organizational culture of the enterprise, evaluate the current policy and ongoing procedures.
Creation of competence centers
How to create the optimal type of competent authority in the enterprise? To begin with, one should realize that each of the organizational forms listed above has its own shortcomings and advantages. Before starting the creation of the body, it is necessary to correctly formulate goals and expectations regarding the work of the existing unit. Only then should a specific strategy be developed.
Sometimes centers of competence development can arise spontaneously. This happens on the basis of the previous professional activities of practitioners, their associations, interest groups and other formal and informal structures in the entire process of their formation.
The most relevant approach to creating a competence center is a top-down strategy. The prevailing role here will go to the executive manager - the person who will begin to advance the project towards the goal. There will always be a multitude of people, processes, and technologies at the center of an integration strategy, even despite a large number of dimensions. An integration strategy will have to be regularly provided for its comparison with organizational entrepreneurship, outsourcing (transferring authority to another company), partner support, financial policy, choice of standards, etc.
Organ formation problems
The organization of the center of competence in most cases is associated with a considerable number of problems. What difficulties may arise in the formation of competent authorities? The most common problems should be mentioned.
The first of these is a lack of resources and time. Resource gathering in many enterprises can act as an optional rather than a main activity. In this regard, many experts simply do not have time to engage in a set of knowledge or their exchange. There is a converse problem when there is time to collect material, but the material itself is not enough. To conduct trainings, participate in conferences or introduce IT, a certain amount of resources is required, which may be insufficient for enterprises.
The next problem is the lack of proper managerial attention. Managers are most often concerned only with the process of achieving their own operational goals. They do not have the proper amount of knowledge about the state of affairs in the center of competence. Labor productivity, as well as the accumulation of experience, under such conditions will be impossible.
Another difficulty in forming competent authorities is related to internal competition. Within the same organization, barriers may arise in the exchange of knowledge between experts from different departments. The solution to the problem will be the organization of the work of practical communities in which enthusiasts introduce third parties to the knowledge.
Aging the workforce is one of the most common obstacles to building a competency body. If an expert takes a well-deserved rest in a year or two, then he is unlikely to engage in the accumulation of information. Another difficulty is seen in the lack of enthusiasm and new prospects. The emergence of new ideas and relevant concepts will be extremely unlikely.
Finally, the last major problem is the totality of aging knowledge. An organization is degrading if it does not think innovatively and invent something new.
Competence Center Advantages
What is the role and importance of the competent authorities? Is there a definite benefit to them? Representatives of various organizational structures are increasingly asking these questions. The advantages of the centers for the development of professional competencies really exist, and significant. Units of this kind collect key knowledge, group and systematize it.
Centers of competence monitor competent and regular production of expertise, do not allow people and project teams to disperse. The work of the authorities in question will achieve significant financial savings, as well as eliminating duplication of functions and processes. The reapplication of knowledge will be ensured, and as a result, the optimization of project implementation, the competent use of resources and their management. This frees up the time for experts to consult, and the company will be able to provide services to a larger number of applicants.
In the West, centers of competence have long been integrated into the management system, they have become its integral part. For a lot of money, third-party consultants are hired, the number of consulting firms is growing. All of them cooperate with different enterprises, or are included in their structure.
In Russia, many companies are missing out on significant benefits, because they themselves could sell their knowledge to others. That is why domestic specialists should think about accumulating better experience - one of the steps towards the implementation of larger-scale knowledge management programs. Often, the concept of best practice is defined as the most effective way of doing a specific job or achieving useful information. Such knowledge is concentrated not in documents, but in the consciousness of people themselves.
The centers of competence aim at sharing knowledge, analyzing the organizational culture of an enterprise and increasing employee motivation. The successes and difficulties of the ongoing project are largely determined by the form of organizational culture and the established practice of group work.
Competence Center Functions
The authorities in question perform tasks related to the accumulation of knowledge and their exchange in a particular area of entrepreneurship. So, a simple regional center of competence is capable of fulfilling the following powers:
- Reflection of the current state of organizational knowledge management. This is the formation of knowledge cards, corporate expert sheets (the so-called yellow pages), processing internal and external requests, and much more.
- Convert hidden and individual expertise to formal documentation that can be accessed by most employees.
- Constant improvement of the quality of expert work and maintaining a leading position in a specific area of the market.
- Checking for changes in global trends and technologies.
- Providing descriptions of knowledge on project results, converting them into the most suitable formal document (success stories, primary experience, database, etc.).
- Dissemination of knowledge that was collected by the center in other divisions of the company.
- Management of enterprise knowledge bases, their indexing and cataloging.
- Ensuring high-quality and effective communication links between specialists and experts.
- Creation, use and protection of the intellectual property of the enterprise.
- Caring for a change in professional generations, regular training of young employees, transferring experience to beginners from expert persons.
It should be borne in mind that each company has its own interests and priorities. Despite the differences in experience, goals and areas of activity, companies are gradually becoming aware of the value of intellectual assets. Specialized centers of competence are being created to help achieve their goals through the accumulation of valuable experience.
Types of Competencies
Having dealt with the formation and principles of organization of competence centers, you should go to the competencies themselves. This is what they call a certain circle of someone’s authority or questions in which a person may be well aware. There are four types of competencies.
Corporate competencies are accepted in companies. They are the same for any position and help, for example, work effectively in a team. A set of powers or issues of this kind are characteristic of small regional centers of competencies.
The next group of elements is called managerial. It includes competencies, the presence of which helps company managers to successfully achieve their goals. Here, one should highlight the ability to effectively solve their problems, the ability to competently plan their work, control the work process, make decisions independently, generate new ideas, respond to changes in the situation, etc. The management group is characteristic of large organizations and extensive, federal centers of competence.
The third group of competencies is called professional. This includes elements that may apply to certain job groups. For example, these are sales skills, product knowledge, availability of ideas about the retail business as a market segment, etc.
The last group of competencies is called personal. This includes various aspects that include individual accomplishments and value judgments. For example, this is activity, discipline, leadership, a high level of self-organization, increased adaptability, the ability to work with voluminous information, analytical abilities, initiative, controllability, and much more.
Any center of information competencies incorporates several elements from each represented group.
Collection and systematization
In the centers of competence technology, there are three types of knowledge and skills, systematized depending on the degree of occurrence. The first group of elements is called natural. These are the basic ones given to man from the birth of quality. Here you can highlight openness, sociability, charisma and much more.
The second group of competencies is called acquired. This includes skills, abilities and knowledge that a person was able to acquire based on previous experience. In particular, this is the ability to plan.
Finally, the third group of competencies is called adaptive. This includes qualities that allow a new employee to quickly achieve the indicated tasks in a new professional environment. Here it is necessary to highlight the emotional qualities of the personality that cannot be possessed from birth. They are produced over time, that is, phenotypically.
In different centers of competence, the provisions on knowledge and skills are also different, and therefore, the following classification should be described. In this case, skills, abilities and knowledge vary in degree of difficulty. They are divided into simple, threshold, differentiating and detailed.
A simple group includes a single list of knowledge, skills or abilities that are observed in human actions. The threshold group includes information that is necessary to obtain permission to perform work. A detailed group consists of several information levels, the number of which is determined by the goals of using one or another organizational model. So, the federal centers of competence include from five to several dozen levels, and regional - no more than five. Finally, the last, differentiating group is aimed at identifying behavioral characteristics that distinguish the best employees from outsiders.
Any assessment of knowledge and skills should be carried out provided that the results of the test are not saved for a long time. The new procedure will have to be implemented in a year, at most two. To this end, several interregional centers of competence operate in Russia, which allow the regular verification and systematization of information about employees.
Competency Models
The employer or his representatives make up the profile of each employee, which is reduced to a single system of criteria. Private or public centers of competence form a package of information about each person. To do this, they take into account the following factors:
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In practice, many HR managers confuse concepts such as competency and competency. In the first case, we are talking about an ability that reflects given behavioral standards that can lead to productivity in the work. Achieving a certain level of work results is interpreted as competence.
It should also be mentioned that today there are many definitions of the term “competency”. Specialists have identified two approaches:
- European, which is a description of the expected work results and tasks;
- American, where competency is a description of employee behavior. The employee must show the correct behavior, and as a result - achieve high and effective results in the course of his work.
In the CIS, the definition is used as the base, according to which competencies are personal abilities and qualities, professional skills that are given to an employee for the successful implementation of their duties. Here it is necessary to highlight such elements as leadership, competent planning, orientation to goals and results, communication skills, adaptability to changes, personal development, the ability to set clear goals and objectives, the generation and accumulation of certain ideas and much more.
Thus, competence is an integral part of the human person. Special competence centers help to effectively reveal the capabilities of employees.