• Identifying key competencies that reinforce your organization's goals and culture
• Distinguishing the critical HR applications that support competency development
• Creating integrated competency-based approaches for all HR applications, including:
  • Assessment
  • Selection
  • Development Planning
  • Performance Management
  • Succession Planning
  • Learning and Development
  • Career Development
  • Pay for Performance

• Discrete studies with more than 100 organizations resulting in more than 500 competency models, skills profiles, and best practices frameworks
• More than 5,000 behavioral event or other in-depth interviews (e.g. executives, benchmarking, etc.)
• More than 600 group interviews, focus groups, and stakeholder meetings for model testing and refinement
• More than 8,000 feedback surveys for model testing and refinement

We generally propose a "building-block" approach to creating competency profiles, frequently starting from our extensive database of validated models encompassing core values, levels of leadership, and virtually all functions and industries. This often entails creating competency clusters such as "core" (required for all employees), leadership by level (e.g., executive, mid-level manager, first-level supervisor) and functional/technical. This approach offers an excellent balance between simplicity and specificity since models for all employees can be "assembled" by adding building blocks from the three categories of competencies.

Our approach for developing competencies generally includes:

• Creation of approved interview and focus group protocols and model-building process
• Selected executive interviews
• Creating initial "strawman" models from preliminary data and use of our extensive database
• Focus groups for all targeted functions (including representatives from across management levels)
• Validation of the models through an online survey
• Refinement and signoff on the models by project change team and other key stakeholders