The term "core competency" first became popular through an article on the subject which appeared in Harvard Business Review in June 1990, entitled The Core Competency of the Corporation, by Pralahad and Hamel. It defined core competencies as "the collective learnings in the organization, especially how to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technologies." When we discuss this in terms of functions in a company, it centers on the question of how does a function link its know-how to support the company's core competencies to improve operating results. For Human Resources it comes down to identification and "bundling" of key skill areas for deployment into business units, and creating the mechanism to keep these fresh and relevant to individuals and the organization. Human Resources professionals must develop deep skills and expertise in some areas to ensure that value is added. Value is defined as increasing capability, eliminating barriers to speed.
The areas of core competencies are:
Ø Understanding of Our Business
Ø Driving Change and Managing Transformation
Ø The Ability to Create and Manage Culture
Ø Management of HR Practices/Deliver HR
Ø Leadership,Personal Credibility and Influence
Ø Advisory and Counselling
Detail on the Competencies
The vision for the Professional Standards and for the competencies
and possess a mixture of the following ten competencies:
1. Personal drive and effectiveness: the existence of a positive, 'can-do' mentality, anxious to find ways round obstacles and willing to exploit all of the available resources in order to accomplish objectives.
2. People management and leadership: the motivation of others (whether subordinates, colleagues, seniors or project team members) towards the achievement of shared goals not only through the application of formal authority but also by personal role-modelling a collaborative approach, the establishment of professional credibility, and the creation of reciprocal trust.
3. Business understanding: adoption of a corporate (not merely functional) perspective, including awareness of financial issues and accountabilities of business processes and operations, of 'customer' priorities, and of the necessity for cost/benefit calculations when contemplating continuous improvement or transformational change.
4. Professional and ethical behaviour: possession of the professional skills and technical capabilities, specialist subject (especially legal) knowledge, and the integrity in decision-making and operational activity that are required for effective achievement in the personnel and development arena.
5. Added-value result achievement: a desire not to concentrate solely on tasks, but rather to select meaningful accountabilities - to achieve goals that deliver added-value outcomes for the organisation, but simultaneously to comply with relevant legal and ethical obligations.
6. Continuing learning: commitment to continuing improvement and change by the application of self-managed learning techniques, supplemented where appropriate by deliberate, planned exposure to external learning sources (mentoring, coaching, etc).
7. Analytical and intuitive/creative thinking: application of a systematic approach to situational analysis, development of convincing, businessfocused action plans, and (where appropriate) the deployment of intuitive/creative thinking in order to generate innovative solutions and proactively seize opportunities.
8. 'Customer' focus: concern for the perceptions of personnel and development's customers, including (principally) the central directorate of the organisation; a willingness to solicit and act upon 'customer' feedback as one of the foundations for performance improvement.
9. Strategic thinking: the capacity to create an achievable vision for the future, to foresee longer-term developments, to envisage options (and their probable consequences), to select sound courses of action, to rise above the day-today detail, to challenge the status quo.
10. Communication, persuasion and interpersonal skills: the ability to transmit information to others, especially in written (report) form, both persuasively and cogently, display listening, comprehension and understanding skills, plus sensitivity to the emotional, attitudinal and political aspects of corporate life.