TA P
ResourceDevelopmentGroup, Inc.

Creating Effective Organizations Through People

USING COMPETENCY MODELING TO CREATE ASUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATION
1. Wide Range of Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities
Necessary

By Richard L. Gerstberger
TAP Resource Development Group, Inc.
Denver, CO•On average, water workers use 63 different tools
and technologies each, compared to the 6 tools
and technologies typically used by workers in all
occupations nationally. “Infrastructure Skills:
Knowledge, Tools, and Training to Increase Opportunity” (Brookings, 2016)•Through a series of worker questionnaires, theOccupational Information Network (O*NET)
database ranks the extent to which occupations
require knowledge across 33 different categories
on a scale from 0 (minimum) to 7 (maximum).
Relative to all occupations nationally, infrastructure occupations score above average in 11 ofthese knowledge categories. (Brookings analysisof O*NET data, June 2018)•In addition, the changing nature of work in thesector, including new types of field work, newdesign guidelines, and increased automation, only add to the breadth of skills needed.
“Automation: Redefining the Modern Water
Utility” (Brad Williams, WaterWorld, April 1,2016)

W

ater is the lifeblood of our society and a
key economic engine that employed nearly 1.7
million workers directly involved in designing
constructing, operating, and governing U.S. water
infrastructure in 2016. “Renewing the Water Workforce: Improving Water Infrastructure and Creating a Pipeline to Opportunity” (Brookings, June2018)
Water utilities represent significant employers forwater workers at both a national and metro level. In
particular they control some of the most critical public infrastructure assets in need of long-term operation and maintenance and in many ways are anchor
institutions for their communities. And as the U.S.
economy continues to grow and change, it is impossible to remain innovative yet sustainable with theworkforce and solutions that worked in the past.
You’ve no doubt heard the warnings about the“Silver Tsunami” of Boomers leaving their jobs.
One of our clients found in 2017 that 30% of theirworkforce was eligible for retirement that very sameyear. Retirements are drastically cutting into thepool of skilled, qualified workers in many utilities
and resulting in staffing vacancies of 30-50% by
2020. “NRWA to Announce Creation of Workforce
Advancement Center” (The National Rural Water
Association, November 10, 2016)

2. Employment Growth & Separations

While the water industry is not alone in facing theconsequences of an aging workforce, there are someother factors that make succession planning andworkforce development a more imminent and direthreat to each organization’s success and sustainability. Some additional challenges that affect the watersector specifically include:

1•

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects
water occupations to see faster overall employment growth (9.9 percent) compared to all occupations nationally (7.4 percent) between 2016
and 2026. (Brookings analysis of BLS Employment Projections data, June 2018)•The combination of separations and future
growth in the water sector, is projected to lead toabout 220,000 occupational openings—on average each year—from 2016 to 2026. (Brookings
analysis of BLS Employment Projections data,June 2018)

In short, many of the biggest water occupations areprojected to have thousands of open positions overthe next decade in need of skilled talent. At TAP
Resource Development Group, we have worked onleadership development, succession planning andworkforce development with a number of clients inorder to take a proactive stance in managing today’schanging workplace. Quite simply, the leaders inthese organizations understand that in order to continue to meet or exceed the regulatory, financial,operational, and customer goals of their city, utilityor public works agency, they need to have organizational continuity.

We’ll go into some detail as to how we do this andwhy it’s important in the following pages. We hope
this gives some insight as to how to start this conversation at your organization. Or just give us a call, andwe’ll facilitate the whole thing.

Understand the Organization
The successful creation of a sustainable organization
dependents on having a firm understanding of the organization and its purpose, culture, processes and degree of alignment. For this reason, an organizational
assessment is critical. This type of assessment includes an in-depth understanding of how the organization provides value to its customers (is there a strategic plan?), the organization’s culture (how dothings get done or implemented?), and does leadership support the culture, processes, and strategic planof the organization? The type of analysis will accomplish the following:

As stated by the comprehensive Brookings report,“Renewing the Water Workforce: Improving Water
Infrastructure and Creating a Pipeline to Opportunity” (Brookings, June 2018),“Many utilities face pressure to keep rates down, fail tomake adequate investments in their workforce, and do
not develop proficiencies in competency analysis, which
result in poor training for their current staff and inefficientknowledge management. Without actively investing in thecurrent workforce or qualified candidates, the water sector will likely continue to struggle retaining and upskilling
workers.”• Involve a major portion of the organization inunderstanding the organization and its current
situation.
• Enable the leadership team to get below
symptoms and identify core issues.
• Encourage clarity of strategic focus throughout theorganization.

Comprehensive workforce development involvesaligning leadership, management and operations
with the organization’s strategic purpose. Leadership and management positions need to be filled
based on talent, fit with the needs of the position
and with how the organization provides for theneeds of its customers. For that reason, we follow aseven-step process for effective workforce development:

Through the assessment process, the leadership teamwill gain an understanding of the organization’s focus, culture, leadership, processes, the alignment ofculture and leadership with purpose, and the level ofintegration among these elements.

Risk Analysis and Needs Identification
The risk analysis builds on the organization assessment to make sure that the jobs that are critical to
how the organization provides value to its customers,
bringing the right skills and behaviors to meet theorganization’s needs. The risk analysis should address:

1. Understand the organization.
2. Analyze risk with a focus on mission criticalpositions.
3. Develop competency models for the affectedpositions.
4. Create an integrated and individualized
leadership supervisory development program.
5. Identify and train to operational competencies.
6. Identify and remove barriers to succession
planning.
7. Implement a management process to ensure
success of the succession and workforce
development planning process.
2•Areas where critical skills and knowledge areconcentrated. Are there areas where there are alimited number of employees filling a position?

•Risk of retirement. The plan should identify thenumber of employees in each demographic range
for each position or at least each critical position.
It should also identify which current employees
are eligible to retire now or planning to retire in
the next 1 to 5 years.

•Risk of attrition. With the high demand fortrained and experienced utility employees; arethere current employees that are at risk of leaving the organization? Are any of these positions
critical to the organization’s mission?

•Availability of candidates. Are candidates
available now, internal and/or external to replace someone that leaves?

A comprehensive competency model shows thecompetencies needed for each position divided into
tiers and serves as a guide to connect the position
with the organization’s strategy and purpose. It provides the organization’s staff with direction and focus for their development efforts (See Figure 1).
And it allows the organization to assess and develop
its talent using a specific set of development tools.

Keep in mind the future needs of the organization
throughout the risk analysis. What new or different
skills will be needed to meet future service needs
and expectations? A Knowledge Management Planshould also be implemented with a strong focus on
critical positions.

Develop Competency Models
Effective succession planning requires a clear understanding of the behaviors or competencies required for success in positions within the organization. This is how we get the leaders, managers andoperations staff that will bring talent to the position
and fit with the needs of the organization and its
purpose. A competency is the capability to apply
related knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform functions or tasks in a job setting. And acompetency model is just a collection of all the
many competencies that together define successful
performance in a particular position. A competencymodel itself is a framework and resource, not theend product.

Figure 1 https://www.careeronestop.org/

The process of competency modeling involves:

According to the recommendations in the afore referenced June 2018 Brookings report on renewing
the water workforce, it’s clear that competencymodels are a key component to turning the watersector challenges into opportunities:“Employers must continue investing in their(employees’) skills development and valuing
their role in the organization. One way to do so
is for utilities and other water employers to develop competency models—or customize existing models—to promote continued learningand skills development among staff. Specifically defining and measuring the types ofknowledge, skills, and abilities needed amongwater workers can better target future training
efforts; competency models help organizations
do so in light of individual worker needs andcareer trajectories, in addition to the actual positions of greatest need.”•Gaining a thorough understanding of each position and the competencies required to successfully accomplish its purpose or job description andthe organization’s strategic plan. For leadershipand management positions we recommend describing the position using desired ranges within
a set of 22 specific attributes or behaviors (seeFigure 2).

•

Creating a team of knowledgeable staff to review
and finalize the model. We recommend a process
called Strategic Direction Setting that takes afocus group approach to survey results.

•The result is a list of primary and secondary attributes for the position. It’s important to keep
the list of leadership attributes for each position
as short as possible, including only the sets thatwould be the key behavioral components of theposition or address specific risks.

A well-thought out identification of the behaviors orcompetencies required for a give position can bevery helpful to an organization. Modeling competencies helps the organization identify and understand3the specific leadership and management
behaviors required for particular positions or typesof positions such as Supervisor, Superintendent,Division Manager, Treatment Plant Operator, etc. Itthen allows the organization to assess and develop
its talent using an appropriate set of development
tools. Figure 1 presents a picture of the seven tiersof competencies for the water industry as identified
by the U.S. Department of Labor and published
online by CareerOneStop and last updated January
2018. A breakdown of the specific definitions,associated critical work functions, and technicalcontent areas for each competency of Tiers 1-5 canbe found CareerOneStop’s web page: Water &Wastewater Competency Model.

Leadership, Supervisory & ManagementCompetencies
Focusing on Tier 7, Management Competencies, theCompetency Model selection process defines theleadership and management behaviors that arenecessary to achieve the business outcomes
identified for the position utilizing the resources
available and working within the appropriate organizational culture. This selection process involves thefollowing steps:

Figure 21. Based on the position’s Job Description, theorganization’s leadership team — or otherrelated groups determined by management —completes an instrument that asks what leadership and management behaviors are mostimportant for success in the specific position.
2. A workshop is conducted for the leadershipteam to discuss the results from the above
instrument, the position’s job description, andany other data that may be available related tothe position. Based on the discussion, a Leadership Competency Model is prepared that is
specifically related to the position being filled.
Figure 2 presents a sample competency model
for a hypothetical upper management position.
The competencies are ranked by primary (P)and secondary (S) importance.

•Leader Assessment. TAP Resource uses anassessment system that provides comprehensive
information to individual managers about theirleadership attributes. It is a non-judgmental assessment process involving individual managers, peers,
direct reports, and supervisors. By combining thisinformation with the culture and strategy data
already obtained from the Organizational Assessment, we establish the foundation for the creationof individualized leadership development plans.

•Creation of Individual Leadership DevelopmentPlans. Each leader participating in the leadershipdevelopment planning process designs a preliminary plan for his or her individual development.
The plan should include specific goals along withmetrics tied to goal accomplishment. Plan development should be accomplished by the leader and his/her supervisor. Plans should also be integrated
within the development needs of the particularworkgroups.

A comprehensive supervisory training program should
be developed for the specific organization. Supervisory
training should be required of all employees, team andcrew leaders, and supervisors at all levels. A primary
goal of supervisory training is to assist employees inunderstanding the difference between being an employee and being a supervisor.

The development process needs to begin with leadership and management and move down to thelowest levels of the organization and with every
new employee. Due to the very nature of leadership,
effective development is an individualized training
process that consists of the following activities:

Operational & Occupational Competencies
As we’ve indicated earlier in this article a truly sustain4

Implement a Management Process

able organization should integrate the use of competency modeling at all levels of the organization.
This includes operations and other nonmanagement positions. The goal of Operational
Competencies is to develop a competency-based
program for key operational tasks. It will identify
competencies needed, training required, and measurement methodologies needed to accomplish theorganization’s goals.

A successful workforce development program must
be a living document; not one that is created andthen sets on a self in someone’s office. Activities
within the plan should have specific, measurable
timeframes and be monitored on a periodic (oftenmonthly) basis. The overall plan should be reviewed
annually and updated as necessary. An effective way
to accomplish this is to include workforce development within an overall Organizational Performance
Management System of measurable goal setting andplanned follow-up.

See the example below to get a better idea of what aprogram might look like for your organization
based on your goals, the purpose of those goals, andthe subsequent program tasks:

The balance between innovation and sustainability is
an ongoing challenge. Once again, the June 2018
Brookings report sums it up well:

EXAMPLE GOALS•••••To Hire, develop, and retain the best quality
operational staff
Operate and maintain state-of-the art plants andprocesses
Address skills needed for rapidly changing
technology
Mitigate lost knowledge and skill due toretirement and/or attrition
Reduces liability“Whether investing in continued training, defining new competency models, or empowering
workers in other ways, many employers arestriving to develop and hold onto skilled water
workers. Doing so, though, often hinges on progressive leadership in these organizations, anability to balance long-term budgets with staffing needs, and an appetite for experimentation—which can be rare in a sector known more
for its cautious, conservative approach to managing change.”

EXAMPLE PURPOSE STATEMENTS
•
•••
•
••
•
•

Career Development
Improve employee skill sets
Operational Flexibility
Allow organization to take advantage of staff
skills where & when needed
Strengthen employee knowledge and autonomy
Improve job performance and decision-making
Improve accountability
Employee Retention
Focus on employee satisfaction and loyalty

Call us at (303) 561-3788
email us at info@tapresource.com orvisit us online at www.TAPResource.com
to make your organization more effective.

EXAMPLE PROGRAM TASKS
1. Identify and Define Critical Tasks and Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs)
2. Identify Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities (KSAs)
and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
3. Develop Training Program and Aligned Measurements
4. Succession Planning and Implementation
5