Glossary of Competency Management Terms

The following terms are used in IHRDC’s Competency Management System.

Administrator: A user role in CMS Online.  Administrators can manage user accounts, edit users' information, add and delete users, assign and manage assessments, assign supervisors, set system-wide settings, work with competency models and a variety of other tasks related to the setup and management of CMS Online.

Assessment: A process to determine gaps between an individual’s current skills and those required of a particular position. It begins with a Self-Assessment and Supervisor Assessment and ends with an Assessor Assessment of the results by an independent third party, after which a Competency Development Plan can be built.

Assessor: A person (usually a supervisor) who assesses an employee’s performance and/or related knowledge in a range of tasks to determine if the competence demonstrated meets the requirements of the specified standards.

Assessor Assessment (AA):  An objective Assessment by a third-party SME to resolve differences between employee and supervisor ratings by providing an opportunity for the employee to demonstrate or document skill. The process ensures the system remains objective and fair across the organization.  Also called Verification.

Behavioral and Soft Skills: Competencies that identify individual characteristics expected of individuals to function competently in the specific position, including interpersonal and people-oriented skills, team skills, leadership skills and essential internal attributes.

Best practices: Processes and activities that have been shown in practice to be the most effective.

Candidate: A member of the workforce (employee) whose performance in the workplace is to be assessed.

CM Developer: A user role in CMS Online.  CM Developer (Read) can view all competency models, libraries and training matchups in CMS Online.  CM Developer (Read/Write) can add, edit and manage competency models, libraries, training matchups and job descriptions in CMS Online.

CMS Online: IHRDC’s proprietary competency management software.

Coach: A person (usually a lead technician) who checks on progress and provides support to an Assessment candidate as appropriate.

Coaching: As part of their daily routine, supervisors observe workers and give pointers to improve performance or correct minor flaws. See also, Mentoring

Competence: The ability to perform activities to required standards.

Competency: The combination of awareness, knowledge, skills and experience that enables performance to the required standard in the job, that is, what workers should know and do to perform their jobs safely and effectively.

Competency Building: Providing development plans and opportunities so employees can progress in their jobs and careers.

Competency Development Plan (fka Learning Plan): Identifies the training needed to fill prioritized gaps between the employee’s current skills and those required of the position, including the training type and expected time required to fill the requirement.

Competency Library: A collection of Competency Units covering a specific topic, subdivided into a number of Sublibraries. See also, Phoenix Libraries

Competency Management System (CMS): A process that assesses an employee’s skills against those required in the job, and then develops a Learning Plan to prioritize and close any skill gaps identified.

Competency Model (CM) or Job Competency Model (JCM): The set of tasks and responsibilities that a jobholder is required to know and have the skills to perform in order to be considered competent in the job. It is a collection of individual Competency Units (CU), each covering a specific topic.

Competency Role: A set of tasks and responsibilities related to one aspect of a jobholder’s job that the jobholder is required to know and have the skills to perform.  One or more competency role may be linked to a job title for the assessment process.

Competency Specialist: An individual responsible for completing job analysis, building Job Competency Models and supporting the client Competency Assessment process and development of Learning Plans. See also, Subject matter expert (SME)

Competency Unit (CU): A combination of a general statement and a series of specific statements covering four levels of performance or proficiency. These statements contain the specific responsibilities, tasks and skills identified for each competency.

Compliance: The proof of knowledge and/or skill required by a company policy, legal requirement or safety regulation.  See also, Mandatory Training

Compliance Role: A means of assigning one or more training requirements to satisfy a single compliance requirement.  In CMS Online 4.x, this is accomplished in the Mandatory Training functionality.

Core Competencies: Competencies that typically apply across an organization at different organizational levels or in different environments. Examples could be Presentation Skills, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System, Safe Working Practices, Environmental Awareness, etc.

Document Repository: The area in CMS Online where users can access procedure-related as well as other useful documents. Depending on the access privileges, users may be able to view all documents across the organization and upload new ones. Under the Resources dropdown on the main Dashboard, select Documentation to view the repository.

e-Learning: A network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge.

Employee Assessment (EA): See, Self-Assessment

Employee Statement: Verification method ­– As part of knowledge evidence, an employee may provide a personal statement how he/she would respond to a situation that might arise, describing the process, procedure and/or response to a situation; the Assessor would confirm the content of the statement by questioning the employee further.

Final Assessment Results (FAR): The Assessment scores after completion of the full assessment process.

Functional Specific Competencies: Competencies that identify the daily activities that the individual is expected to undertake in his/her normal daily work activities and the knowledge and skills required to perform the job duties in a competent manner. (Competencies core to a disciple or function, such as, Finance, Operations, Maintenance, HR, Exploration, etc.).

Gap or Skill Gap: The difference between an employee’s current performance and the performance required of the specific job title.

Installer: A user role in CMS Online.  Installers set up hierarchy, lists, and general customization of CMS Online.  This role is often not used by clients, and instead managed upon initial system implementation by an experienced IHRDC implementation consultant.

Interim Assessment Results (IAR): The lowest (pre-verification) Assessment score without differentiating between the Self-Assessment and the Supervisor Assessment.

Job Competency Model (JCM): See Competency Model (CM)

Job Description: A written statement that describe the duties, responsibilities, and outcomes needed from a position, along with required qualifications, reporting relationships and other relevant factors.

Job Level Requirement or Job Level Required (JLR): An indication of the expected level of performance of an employee in carrying out a specified task: Awareness (Level 1), Basic Application (Level 2), Skilled Application (Level 3) and Mastery (Level 4).

Location Specific Competencies: Competencies that are related to country or site specific requirements.

Mentor: An experienced individual or subject matter expert outside of an employee’s supervisory chain, who provides guidance to enhance the personal or professional growth of the employee.

Mentoring: Matches a trainee with an experienced individual from outside the employee’s supervisory chain to provide guidance to enhance the personal and professional growth of the employee. See also, Coaching

Metric: A standard against which results can be measured.

Observation: Verification method ­– Candidates (employees) are directly observed doing their jobs.

On-the-job training (OJT): Formal training for learning the skills and knowledge to perform a job that takes place in the actual work environment.

OPITO: An industry-owned skills body for the energy industry, offering a range of services and products to meet international skills needs and support workforce development.  

Organizational Core Competencies: Competencies that typically apply across an organization at different organizational levels or in different environments. Examples could be Presentation Skills, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System, Safe Working Practices, Environmental Awareness, etc.

Performance Observation: See, Observation

Phoenix Libraries: IHRDC’s proprietary database of more than 1,600 generic Competency Units. See also, Competency Library

Prior learning: Verification method ­– Evidence such as educational or training certificates, Assessments and any other formal documentation. (The Assessor must be satisfied that this evidence is still current.)

Products of work: Verification method ­– Evaluation of work products used in conjunction with observation.

Quality assurance (QA): All actions taken to ensure that standards and procedures are adhered to and that project deliverables meet requirements.

Question and Answer or Questioning: Verification method ­– Used to verify whether employees understand why they are doing something, as well being able to do it, including how to perform in unusual or unexpected situations.

Self-Assessment or Employee Assessment (ES): An employee uses CMS Online software to indicate his competency level for each Competency Unit by checking the box next to the skills that he can perform.

Simulation: Verification method ­– The employee performs a task in a simulated or training environment.

Standard Competency Models: A collection of generic competency models housed in the Phoenix Libraries database, used as a starting point to build customized models for a client. See also, Competency Models.

Subject matter expert (SME): A person with direct knowledge of what is done in a job and the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics that are required. See also, Competency Specialist

Super Administrator:  A CMS Online user role.  A Super Administrator has access to Advanced Settings in CMS Online, where he/she may edit general setting and assessment settings, providing clients greater ability to manage their system.  This role is generally held by no more than one individual.

Supervisor Assessment (SA): A supervisor completes an online Assessment of each of his personnel based on long-term observation of job performance using CMS Online software.

Supervisor: The person assigned to complete a Supervisor Assessment.  This may be the employee’s actual supervisor or manager, a team leader, a senior position holder, a third-party from a different business unit or another competent person. 

Support Competencies: Competencies that identify the underlying basic knowledge, skills and experiences that an individual must have to undertake the Core Competencies to the required level. Included are those secondary and nonroutine competencies expected in defined job duties. (Competencies necessary to function effectively in a position, but the CUs would not be to the depth and detail of a Functional Core CU).

Verification:   an objective Assessment by a third-party SME.  In CMS Online 4.x, this step has been renamed Assessor Assessment to align with OPITO terminology.  See, Assessor Assessment.

Verifier: An independent third party who ensures that the Assessment process is objective, fair and consistent with established standards across the organization.  In CMS Online 4.x, this role has been renamed Assessor to align with OPITO terminology.

Witness testimony: Verification method ­– A statement about the employee’s ability to perform a task can be obtained from someone who has worked closely with the employee, e.g., a line manager or supervisor. This may be useful where the Assessor is not in a position to observe an employee’s performance directly. It can also be used for assessing competencies that have to be demonstrated over a period of time, such as working safely and working as part of a team.