How to draw a portrait of a successful employee, visualize and “embody” it in reality? Why do you need to create a profile at all, what will it help, what three groups are best to divide competencies into, she told the portalPolina Akulova, HR Director of CorpusGroup Group of Companies.
- Polina, where to start drawing up a portrait of a successful employee?
First, it’s worth understanding what meaning we mean by the concept of “successful.” In our understanding, this is the employee who achieves success in fulfilling the goals and objectives set by the company for him personally and for his department. This is an effective employee who achieves results with the least energy and material costs.
Also, each person has personal characteristics and values that are laid down by upbringing or acquired in the process of life. Values are a component of a person’s worldview and rarely change throughout life. Therefore it is important that they aligned with the company's values. It will be difficult for an employee to carry out his responsibilities effectively if what he is assigned contradicts his beliefs. If the company has defined core values, then they should be reflected first in the portrait of a successful employee.
- What information should a profile of a successful employee contain?
The profile of a successful employee must contain approved competencies for each of the four blocks: corporate competencies, management competencies, professional competencies, values. Corporate competencies reflect the employee’s ability to correlate his interests with the interests of the organization, his performance; management competencies are the leadership potential of an employee; professional competencies are his knowledge, skills and abilities acquired during his studies and subsequent professional experience; values - life priorities, principles and moral principles.
The specific content of competencies depends on the position and department in which the employee works. The more complete and competent the profile is compiled, the more non-target candidates will be able to be identified at the initial stage.
- How to determine which qualities are paramount in selection and which are not?
To highlight the qualities that are paramount for an employee, it is necessary to determine what rules the company lives by now, how it will develop in the near future, and what its future plans will be. strategic plans. Analyze which competencies are most significant for successful work in each division, based on business processes and functionality, taking into account the prospects and development strategy of the company. The identified competencies must be ranked taking into account the corporate culture. In the job profile for candidates for our company, we divide competencies into 3 groups: “useful”, “important”, “necessary”. Based on them, we determine the ideal candidate profile that suits us. Of course, there are no ideal candidates, which is why we divide competencies according to importance. The “necessary” group includes core competencies without which the candidate will not be able to work in this position.
Next comes the “important” group, which includes skills that, if necessary, can be acquired or developed in the process of work. It is necessary to analyze the main characteristics of candidates in the market, taking into account that each industry in terms of applicants has its own characteristics, and compare the results with the needs of the company. Take, for example, the profile of a commercial director: we understand that knowledge of sales techniques is mandatory for this position. But the lack of skills in working with documents is a disadvantage for the candidate, but we can teach this in the company.
We also highlight the “useful” group, which includes competencies that are not mandatory, but add a bonus to the employee when hiring. For a seller, useful skills include participation in tenders; this is a specific skill that not everyone has.
- Is the profile of a successful candidate compiled based on an assessment of the company’s existing employees?
Of course, it is easier to create an ideal competency profile when you already have an example effective employee. If a position already exists, but there is no profile, we start by assessing the current employees. The first competency profiles that we developed and approved in 2011 were created like this: first, we assessed our employees, understood which competencies were most important to us, and based on them we created job profiles.
If a similar position has not existed before, we visualize your profile We fill this employee with the competencies that he should have: professional competencies are more important for specialists, and managerial qualities and leadership potential are more important for managers.
Our company has a practice of annual evaluation of employees holding key positions: directors, deputy directors, managers. The assessment is carried out in the assessment center format using competency indicators, in accordance with approved job profiles.
- Are you trying to make your profile more complete or more realistic?
We aim to make your profile more flexible and realistic. In addition to the competencies an employee needs for employment, the profile includes competencies that the employee must then acquire in the company. We conduct an assessment center based on these two blocks.
It is important to distinguish between a recruitment application and a competency profile; these are not identical documents. The selection application is based on the position profile, and in the competency profile we see an expanded list necessary qualities. For example, a competency profile includes a number of knowledge and skills: knowledge of sales techniques, participation in tenders, basic economics. They can be combined into one competency - professionalism. The more accurately the selection application matches the profile, the easier for a specialist in personnel selection to satisfy the wishes of the manager. The job profile is needed to make the list of requirements as objective as possible. Let me give you a very general example. For example, a selection application may indicate: “a girl of model appearance is required,” then we open the position profile, which says: “gender does not matter”, “age - from 27 years to 45 years”, “total work experience from 5 years old", appearance is not in the list of criteria...
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Closing specialist positions in unique expert vacancies involves working together recruiter and internal client.
The better you understand the internal request (for example, the head of the department where the vacancy is open), the more accurately you create a job profile and a portrait of the ideal candidate, the faster you will find a suitable employee.
Job profile
Internal document with requirements for professional and personal competencies of candidates. It will facilitate the selection of candidates, help compile a final list of applicants with relevant experience and competencies, select training programs, etc. Ideally, it helps to understand whether the candidate is suitable for the position and whether he will cope with the tasks.
If the company does not yet have an approved profile, we recommend starting from the recruitment application - for example: “The sales department requires a manager with experience.” Make a job profile template - this can be a plate in any form - and send it to the internal customer. If necessary, make appointments and discuss expectations and requirements for candidates. Gradually updating the sign until the final result suits everyone.
The profile template may contain the following fields:
- Job title.
- General information: division, immediate supervisor, head of the department, presence of subordinates of the future employee.
- Job description: functionality, tasks.
- Conditions of the vacancy: regime, business trips, motivation, level of remuneration.
- Requirements for the candidate: education and priority universities, work experience (recommendations from which companies are interesting, company people), personal qualities, additional diplomas, knowledge of a foreign language.
- 2-3 test questions that will help weed out irrelevant candidates (for example, language level, license, knowledge of 1C, etc.).
Additionally, we recommend that competencies be distributed according to the degree of importance for the business and set levels. For example: minimal, average, important, necessary. Or whatever is convenient for you. This will allow you to expand the circle of candidates, consider candidates of different levels, and possibly offer them different conditions, convenient companies, form a reserve.
A separate question is personal qualities
Education, experience, level of foreign language and similar points that are recorded in your profile are quite easy to check. Difficulty is caused by desires such as ambition, proactivity, leadership, entrepreneurial skills, etc. Often, managers themselves have no idea what qualities and competencies are truly important in their department.
To help understand this, conduct a mini-interview with an internal client:
- What difficulties will the candidate have to face in the job?
- What do you like and dislike about the employees in this department?
- What is the worst thing that can happen in a department and how should an employee act?
- What qualities and skills must a candidate have to work effectively?
This method is convenient to use to profile separately the macroenvironment, the immediate environment and the internal environment. Using the environmental profiling method, it is possible to assess the relative importance of individual environmental factors for the organization. The method for compiling an environmental profile is as follows. Individual environmental factors are listed in the environmental profile table (Table 1). Each factor is given an expert assessment:
− importance for the industry on a scale: 3 – large, 2 – moderate, 1 – weak;
− influence on the organization on a scale: 3 – strong, 2 – moderate, 1 – weak, 0 – no influence;
− direction of influence on a scale: 1 – positive, 2 – moderate, 3 – negative.
Table 5. Organizational environmental profile
Next, all three expert assessments are multiplied and an integral assessment is obtained, showing the degree of importance of the factor for the organization. From this assessment, management can conclude which environmental factors are relatively more important for their organization.
Strengths are especially important for a company's strategic perspective, since they are the cornerstones of strategy and the achievement of competitive advantages should be built on them. In the same time good strategy requires intervention in weak sides.
SWOT analysis helps answer the following questions:
1. Does the company use internal strengths or differentiating advantages in its strategy? If the company does not have distinctive advantages, which of its potential strengths could become them?
2. Are the company's weaknesses its competitive vulnerabilities and/or do they prevent it from taking advantage of certain favorable circumstances? What weaknesses require correction?
3. What favorable circumstances give a company a realistic chance of success using its skills and access to resources?
4. What threats should a manager be most concerned about and what strategic actions should he take to ensure a good defense?
Analysis of uncertainty in the organizational environment.
To remain profitable, organizations must cope with environmental uncertainty. Uncertainty means that decisions often have to be made without sufficient information about environmental factors, and decision makers find it difficult to predict external changes.
Uncertainty in the environment increases the likelihood of risks of failure of the organization's strategy and makes it difficult to calculate the costs associated with alternative strategic directions. The conditions in which organizations operate are not the same, so they correspond different levels uncertainties that can be classified based on the analysis of two characteristics:
− degree of simplicity or complexity of the situation;
− degree of stability or instability (dynamism) of events.
The uncertainty of the external environment increases with increasing dynamism or with the complication of its conditions. Degree of dynamism external environment determined by the rate and frequency of changes (Figure 1).
"simple-complex" relates to the number and dissimilarity of external elements associated with the organization’s activities: In a complex external environment, many different external elements interact and influence the organization.
Complexity can arise from differences in the environmental elements that an organization faces (e.g., an international organization operating in many countries) and can also result from the amount of knowledge required to cope with the impact of the environment (e.g., a requirement for an aerospace company) .
Figure 1 – Matrix for assessing the uncertainty of the external environment
Measuring environmental uncertainty according to the principle "stable-unstable". This characteristic relates to rate of change in the external environment. Organizations can operate where changes in one or many factors occur slowly or very quickly. For example, electronics companies operate in highly unstable or dynamic environments, while many municipal institutions (e.g. secondary schools or cleaning services) operate in a stable environment.
State " complex-stable external environment» represents a somewhat higher level of uncertainty. During an external audit, it is necessary to take into account a large number of factors, analyze and evaluate their impact on the efficiency of the organization (the activities of universities, electrical equipment manufacturing companies, and insurance companies are carried out precisely in such a complex, stable environment).
State "simple-unstable". In such an external environment, the level of uncertainty further increases. Although an organization may only have a few external factors impacts, their changes are difficult to predict and they unexpectedly react to the initiatives of the organization (manufacturers of fashionable clothing, personal computers, show business. Organizations operating in this sector are faced with constantly changing supply and demand).
State "complex-unstable". The highest level of uncertainty arises in a complex and unstable environment. The organization is affected by a large number of external factors, they often change and react sharply to the organization's initiatives. When several factors change simultaneously, the external environment becomes "seething" (turbulent). Such an environment is faced, for example, by electronics firms and airlines. So, in the case of airlines: within just a few recent years they had to contend with the rise of regional airlines, deregulation, price wars, soaring fuel prices, crowded airports, changing consumer demand, and so on. WITH similar situations Aerospace corporations, communications companies, pharmaceutical firms and many others are facing challenges.
Simple and stable environment– the easiest for the HR department to work with. Forecasting staffing needs is relatively easy because it can be based on past trends. The need to change methods of stimulating work and motivation is insignificant due to low levels competition. Sales proceeds and profit levels are likely to remain constant, so the fund wages does not change. Routine procedures are followed for personnel search and selection.
Complex and stable environment. From a human resources management perspective, this case also does not pose any serious problems. Forecasting the need for additional labor is relatively easy due to the high level of stability and fairly significant constancy of the labor market. Evaluating information is much more difficult due to the significant number of elements involved.
Simple and unstable environment. This case presents larger problems. Due to the high level of dynamism of the market situation, forecasting performance results is complicated. Valuation problems are less significant due to the fact that large quantity active elements.
Complex and unstable environment. This is the least favorable state of the external environment for the activities of the personnel service. It makes the workforce planning process extremely difficult. It is difficult to predict personnel changes due to high level complexity of problems, difficulties in collecting information and the inability to build on past trends. Personnel management and planning are extremely complicated due to cyclical changes in the need for personnel due to market instability. It is very difficult to evaluate the information due to the large number of variables involved. You will probably have to make greater use of the services of recruitment agencies.
To create a job profile, first conduct a job analysis of the position and collect other data that will allow you to take into account the characteristics of the company culture and work environment.
After this, determine the position of the position in the structure of the organization and describe the functionality of the position. When you understand the functionality, determine the requirements for experience and skills and criteria for assessing the performance of this position.
Make a list based on this information professional competencies, personal characteristics and formal requirements that are necessary for efficient work by position. Next, select tools for assessing these criteria.
On last stage collect and arrange, in any form, all the information into a single document - the job profile.
What is a job profile
Position profile – a document in which you write:
- name and place of position in the organizational structure of the organization;
- professional knowledge and skills necessary to perform the work of the position;
- position competencies;
- criteria for assessing performance;
- biographical information of the employee: age, gender, education, experience;
- personal qualities that are necessary to perform job duties;
- tools and a list of questions for assessment to further check the compliance of employees or applicants with the job profile.
Why a job profile is developed and used
The job profile is used for:
- selection and assessment of candidates;
- personnel assessments;
- defining goals and planning employee training;
- formation of a personnel reserve;
- employee career planning.
In each direction, information from the profile is used to understand the characteristics of the position and the requirements for an employee who can perform its functions as efficiently as possible.
Factors to consider when developing a job profile
When creating a job profile, consider:
- features of corporate culture, organization values and leadership style;
- features of the work and the environment in which it is performed;
- competencies required for this position.
What are the different approaches to profile development?
When profiling positions, two approaches are used:
- situational approach. The job profile is created as needed, in a limited time. For example, when urgently filling a new vacancy. The list of responsibilities and requirements is formed from general points as a template for creating a full-fledged profile;
- methodical approach. The job profile is created comprehensively and includes: Full description structure of the position, its features, functionality, areas of responsibility, competencies necessary for high-quality performance of work tasks, personal characteristics of the employee. This approach requires much more time and attention. But such a profile can already be used for the entire personnel management system, for example, not only for selection, but also for employee evaluation.
What are the different stages of creating a job profile?
To develop a job profile:
- analyze the situation and collect data;
- determine the position of the position in general structure organizations;
- determine the functionality of the position;
- define experience and skill requirements;
- make a list of professional competencies;
- describe personal characteristics;
- describe the formal requirements;
- define criteria for assessing performance;
- identify assessment tools;
- document and approve the job profile.
Please note that the number of stages of profile development may vary for each organization. This is influenced by the approach to profile development, the specifics of the position and the organization as a whole, the experience and knowledge of the specialists who form the profile.
How to Gather Information to Develop a Job Profile
To develop a profile, do an analysis:
- features of the position;
- business processes in which the employee whose profile is compiled is included;
- strategic goals and development plans of the organization;
- requirements of the professional standard for the position, if approved.
To analyze the situation:
- study regulations organizations that describe the employee’s role and functionality;
- conduct an interview or survey with the employee being assessed, the employee’s immediate supervisor and his colleagues, if any;
- Observe the employee while he is working;
- ask the employee to analyze his work, its results and prepare a written conclusion about the level of task completion;
- analyze the employee’s diary or work logs, if any.
Analyze the information received. The purpose of the analysis is to highlight specific standards of behavior that help the best employees receive maximum result work, and also develop requirements for the position to meet its goals and objectives of the organization.
How to determine the place of a position in the structure of an organization
To determine the position’s place in the organization’s structure, answer the following questions:
- to whom does the employee report?
- with whom the employee interacts at work, who are his internal and external clients;
- who reports to the employee?
Study the regulatory documents of the organization, which set out the structure of the organization and the location of a specific position: job descriptions, employment contracts, staffing table etc.
Do an analysis of the information, format the result in the form of a diagram or, for ordinary positions, immediately enter it into the position profile form. Compose the form in any form.
How to determine the functional responsibilities of an employee in order to create his profile
After analyzing the collected information, describe in detail the functionality of the position, which will allow you to clearly and unambiguously understand what responsibilities the employee performs within the framework of his position and existing business processes.
First, describe the six or seven essential duties of the position that the employee performs more than 50 percent of the time. Then in descending order - the remaining tasks. If a professional standard is approved for a position, use the wording from it.
How to Determine Experience and Skill Requirements
Knowing the functionality of the position, the requirements of the professional standard and the complexity of the employee’s tasks, determine what is more important in this position: to have certain experience, skills, qualities or behavior patterns. For example, for an employee for a leadership position, the first priority is the requirement for experience in managing a group of people, followed by qualities and behavior patterns, and for the vacancy of a specialist who serves clients, the most important qualities and behavior patterns are, while the applicant may have no work experience at all in this area.
Independently determine the importance and priority of experience over qualities and behavior patterns. At the same time, take into account the requirements of the professional standard for the experience and skills of this position. In the future, use these selection criteria during the interview.
How to develop job competencies
For one position, create from 7 to 15 competencies that employees must have to effectively perform assigned tasks. Select the five to seven most important competencies from them. To do this, list the most complex work tasks of the position and the competencies that will be required to perform each of these tasks, or rank the competencies by importance.
When the list of priority competencies is ready, develop behavioral indicators for each. Indicators describe employee behavior and make it possible to measure observable manifestations of competencies. Indicators are distinguished by the intensity and scale of manifestations. Based on these differences, develop a competency measurement scale. Determine the number of levels of the competency scale yourself.
How to develop a list of personal characteristics for job profiles
Add to list personal characteristics only those properties that can have an impact on the employee’s activities significant influence. Think about what qualities help an employee be effective in a given position. Ask the profiled employee's colleagues what they value most about him, what hinders him in his work. You can make a general list first personal qualities and further note in it the most important qualities for this position. Rank the highlighted ones.
The algorithm for determining personal characteristics for a profile is similar to the algorithm for drawing up an application for selection.
How to Determine Formal Job Requirements for a Profile
Formal requirements for employees include information about gender, age, education and required work experience. To obtain this information, do an analysis of the professional standard for the position, the data of successful employees in the position for which the profile is being made, and the requirements stated by the immediate supervisor of those being assessed, if there is one.
Consider the requirements labor legislation(Article 64 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) and do not refuse work on the basis of non-compliance with formal requirements.
How to determine criteria for evaluating an employee’s performance
At the last stage of working with the position profile, determine the criteria for assessing the employee’s performance in this position.
Evaluation criteria are divided according to for various reasons, among which the following groups are distinguished:
- general organizational criteria - applicable to all employees of the organization, for example: timeliness, completeness of duties, etc., and specialized criteria that correspond to a specific workplace or type of activity;
- quantitative criteria - assessment of work based on achieved results, and qualitative criteria - individual characteristics of the employee and the quality of his work;
- objective criteria - quality and performance standards, and subjective criteria - indicators that are assessed based on the opinions and assessments of experts;
- integral criteria - when one indicator takes into account or combines information obtained as a result of the assessment various characteristics work and work behavior, and simple criteria - when individual aspects of work or work behavior are assessed, for example the level of productivity or absence of lateness for work.
How to choose tools for assessing employee suitability for the job profile
When you have identified and described all the requirements for the position, and also developed criteria for assessing the result of work, make a list optimal methods and tools with which you can evaluate these requirements and performance criteria. Select a list of optimal assessment methods depending on the purposes of the assessment, the knowledge and skills of the person who will assess, the specifics of the organization’s activities, etc.
Divide assessment methods into two groups: for working personnel and for candidates.
When assessing an applicant for a vacant position based on the job profile, use, for example, resume analysis, interviews, professional testing, business and role-playing games, recommendations, practical task, etc.
To simplify the selection of a tool, determine what actions the employee performs, what knowledge and experience he must have to successfully perform these actions. Based on your knowledge and experience requirements, select a tool that will identify them. For example, a secretary must draw up documents quickly and competently. To assess this skill, use a trial task - give the candidate the task of drawing up a specific document in a limited time: a letter, an order, a memo, etc.
Assessment Tool Selection Table
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Selecting an Assessment Tool for the position: HR manager
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Along with methods for studying threats, opportunities, strengths and weaknesses of an organization, the method of profiling an organization can be used to analyze the environment. This method is convenient to use to profile separately the macroenvironment, the immediate environment and the internal environment. Using the environmental profiling method, it is possible to assess the relative importance of individual environmental factors for the organization.
The method for compiling an environmental profile is as follows. Individual environmental factors are listed in the environmental profile table (Fig. 5). Each factor is given an expert assessment:
Importance for the industry on a scale: 3 - large, 2 - moderate, 1 - weak;
Impact on the organization on a scale: 3 - strong, 2 - moderate, 1 - weak, 0 - no influence;
Directions of influence on the scale: +1 - positive, -1 - negative.
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Environmental factors |
Importance for the industry, |
Impact on the organization |
Focus |
Degree of importance, D =A B C |
Rice. 5. Environment Profile Table
Next, all three expert assessments are multiplied and an integral assessment is obtained, showing the degree of importance of the factor for the organization. From this assessment, management can conclude which environmental factors are relatively more important to their organization and therefore deserve the most serious attention, and which factors deserve less attention.
Environmental analysis is very important for developing an organization's strategy and is very difficult process, requiring careful
tracking processes occurring in the environment, assessing factors and establishing connections between factors and the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, as well as the opportunities and threats that exist in the external environment. It is obvious that without knowing the environment, the organization cannot exist. However, it does not float around like a boat without a rudder, oars or sail. An organization examines its environment to ensure its successful progress toward its goals. Therefore, in the structure of the strategic management process, environmental analysis is followed by the establishment of the organization's mission and goals. These issues will be discussed in the next chapter.
The wise man pursues what
that will relieve suffering,
and not for what is pleasant.
