Create clarity with the competence navigator

Frau Professor Kauffeld, what is new about the competence diagnosis you have developed and the associated competence navigator?

Simone Kauffeld: The strict focus on the needs of SMEs. Only very large companies can afford competence management. Today, however, medium-sized and smaller companies also need an overview of their competence status and the opportunity to develop their existing competences in line with requirements. We take this into account with our Competence Navi, which we have developed in collaboration with practitioners. It enables SMEs to introduce competence management, as many associated administrative processes, such as the evaluation of a competence diagnosis, can be designed efficiently and economically with the Competence-Navi. Our Competence-Navi helps SMEs to combine a good standard for a quick start with the Competence-Navi with the flexibility to adapt to operational specifics.

In detail, what opportunities does this open up for SMEs?

Simone Kauffeld: Perhaps most importantly, it gives them a realistic, often even a first overview of the competence landscape in the company. They can graphically display the existing competences in a clear manner and thus quickly discover existing competence gaps. This sets the starting point for targeted competence development that takes account of emerging future developments and the company's response options to them. Last but not least, this knowledge also puts a company in a position to show its employees new perspectives and thus bind them to the company. The Competence-Navi thus provides answers to questions that are necessary for the company:

"How fit is my business for the future?"

How fit is my company for the future? Which competencies are missing in my company? How do I retain good people in the company? Which competence potentials have I perhaps not yet discovered that could be better used?

Surely all this also affects sensible succession planning?

Simone Kauffeld: No question about it, and to a great extent. The competence navigator absolutely helps companies to prepare for the departure of competent employees and to build suitable successors with the appropriate competence development measures. Or that they can use the Competence-Navi to select an employee on the basis of his or her competence profile as a fundamentally suitable successor and train him or her accordingly in the event of possible competence gaps. For this purpose, a tandem measure is often appropriate, in which the successor takes on the corresponding tasks together with the employee who will soon be leaving.

Professor Kauffeld, according to all this, with the Competence Navi you are aiming to systematise competence management in SMEs as well, with a view to their future stability?

Simone Kauffeld: That is our objective. Competence development actually happens in all companies, but often randomly, not strategically, not consistently. This bears the risk that companies react too late to emerging developments or that employees are simply forgotten when it comes to competence development. With the competence navi, the company gets an overview of the "competence offer" of its staff and thus how the entire company is positioned "competence-wise". Through its graphic illustration, strengths and weaknesses can be identified on an individual as well as on a company-wide level. If, for example, it becomes apparent that there are particularly unused, particularly high levels of competence, this could open up the opportunity to think about new business areas or a new business model. On the other hand, competence development, i.e. further training planning, can be approached in a much more systematic and individualized way on the basis of identified competence gaps. And what is also not to be sneezed at in view of today's speed of technological development and the resulting requirements, working with the competence navigator also ensures that the company's competence status is always kept up to date and the company is thus protected from unpleasant surprises.

So how does all this work in practice?

Simone Kauffeld: At the heart of this is a competence model. This describes current and future requirements. As we have opted for a web-based solution for the software, the competence diagnosis is carried out on a PC or a mobile end device, e.g. a tablet. The advantage of this is that the software does not require local installation and can therefore be easily used by companies with multiple locations. Managers or personnel developers can now carry out competence analysis projects. The competence navigator allows a lot of freedom. For example, competencies can be assessed in one self-assessment and several third-party assessments. The invitation to a competence diagnosis is sent by e-mail by a manager. In the case of a self-assessment, the employee receives an e-mail with a link to a competence questionnaire. As soon as the questionnaire is completed, the manager receives a notification and the employee is invited to complete the questionnaire.

"Not keeping an eye on trends undermines operational strength."

can directly view the results, for example in the form of a competence profile. The results are automatically prepared graphically so that they are intuitively understandable. In the skilled trades, we have strong partners in the form of the local chambers of skilled trades, which bring the topic closer to companies. There are also trial phases for the Competence-Navi with interested companies. Otherwise, we are also happy to accompany pilot projects.

Do you see the tools you have developed as competition to the usual training measures?

Simone Kauffeld: No. The competence navigator first gives an overview of existing competences and competence gaps. How the necessary or sensible development steps revealed by this are then taken is another question. However, work-integrated competence development is in many cases a good alternative to classical formal further training measures. Especially when company-specific competences are to be built up. Otherwise, however, the two approaches are not in competition with each other. Classical further training can be linked with learning in the process of work. And in order to transfer what has been learned in these further training measures, work-integrated transfer projects, for example, lend themselves to this. Conversely, competences acquired in the workplace can provide access to continuing education that was otherwise rather linked to formal prerequisites.

Professor Kauffeld, experience shows that overall company competence is more than the sum of all individual competences. What makes a truly competent, strong SME?

Simone Kauffeld: Well, there is no difference between people and companies: openness towards the future; awareness of one's own strengths and weaknesses; clarity about one's own intentions; willingness not to let what is familiar, what has become dear, what has become ingrained in one's actions as well as in one's letting become dark glasses in front of one's eyes and a millstone on one's leg. Future strength is often equated with trend orientation. There is no question that not keeping an eye on trends undermines operational strength. Nevertheless, this monitoring, this sharp observation of what is developing and emerging is merely a necessary, but not yet a sufficient prerequisite for holding one's own and proving oneself in tomorrow's market, which is subject to ever faster changes. Sufficient strength for the future only grows decisively from the operational ability to be able to take account of the future from the operational competence reservoir, i.e. from an operational competence consciousness and an operational competence care, which protects against competence gaps and - no less dangerously - also against experience gaps by retiring members of staff. In fast-moving markets, such deficits can trigger a highly dangerous avalanche effect in no time at all. Especially in the current labour market situation, where qualified personnel have become so scarce. Clear knowledge of the company's skills situation is a basic prerequisite for company responsiveness and crisis stability, in short, for company strength for the future.