Job Benchmarking: Let the Job Speak
“If the job could speak what would it say are the competencies necessary for superior performance?”
This is the big question in benchmarking the job and performance management. The natural tendency to focus on the applicant in an interview situation or on the person currently doing the job is a major mistake. It puts the cart before the horse.Rarely do people shape the job.
Entrepreneurs are a good example of this, but even they have to learn professional management best practice as they move beyond the one-man-band stage of their development.
Defining the Job Competencies
- Defining and Benchmarking The Core Competencies Of The Job
- Measuring Your Personal & Professional Talents/Competencies
- Developing Competency Solutions To Help Deliver Consistently Excellent Performance
Two broad job areas can be assessed. The degree of performance excellence and the standard of behaviours/attitudes required for the job. We measure both areas against the job and the person. Identifying the match or fit between the right job and the right person is performance management in action.
How do you define the job benchmark? Every job is unique. Every team is unique. Every organisation is unique. Most unique of all is a system to identify, prioritise and calibrate high performance criteria for a job or position. Positions are difficult to analyse because different people see the job differently. There are three ways people view a position:
- How they would like to perform the job
- How the job is actually being performed
- How the job should be performed
The Leadership Competency Model can be adjusted to fit the job’s needs in the most appropriate way. We do, however, follow certain principles. Job competencies should be:
- Aligned with the strategic thinking and planning framework of the organisation
- Integrated with new research and other intelligence-gathering that has been undertaken
- Tested and validated in very practical ways
- Clearly focused for critical success outcomes and key accountabilities
- Revised and updated over time.