How to Build Competency Based

Job Descriptions Correctly

The world of work has sure changed a lot over the past few decades, but for many companies, job
descriptions have remained pretty much the same.

At the same time, there’s an increasing recognition that they’re an important talent record and, done
correctly, have the potential to serve as a central part of any talent management and HR programs.

That’s why many organizations these days are making use of competency based job descriptions.
Competency based job descriptions add a layer of consistency and standardization to your traditional
job description.

Most importantly, the competencies allow the job description to plug into almost every facet of your
employees’ lifecycle — from the hiring process, to assessment programs, development plans, and
beyond. So that old single-use document that gets stashed in a filing cabinet actually becomes a
dynamic, key part of your HR programs and talent management strategy.

But before we get there, let’s start with the basics.

Job Descriptions

Hiring Assessment Development

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Table of Contents

What Are Competencies in a Job Description? 4

List of Competencies for Job Descriptions 5
Competency Based Job Descriptions and Examples 6
How to Build Competency Based Job Descriptions 9
How Can They Be Used Throughout the Employee Lifecycle? 11
Using Software to Build Competency Based Job Descriptions 12

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What Are Competencies in a Job Description?

Competencies in a job description identify the desired, required skills and behaviors needed to
perform a job successfully.

Competencies can identify required soft skills — for example, “attention to detail” or “fostering
communication”. At HRSG, we call these behavioral competencies. But they often go beyond soft
skills into technical skills needed for success in specialized roles, like sales, marketing or IT, for
example. These more specific skills are generally referred to as technical competencies.

Why Do People Use Competencies in Job Descriptions?

As mentioned, one reason that people use competencies on their job descriptions is that it unifies
all descriptions and positions across the organization under a common framework. This provides
structure to the organization’s HR programs, and allows HR personnel to get a much better grasp on
the roles, levels, and dependencies between jobs in their organization.

Beyond that, adding competencies to your job descriptions opens up a new world of talent
management possibilities.

With competencies on your descriptions, you can hire based on those competencies with specific
behavioral interview questions; assess employees based on those competencies; build development
plans; and use them to feed into career pathing tools that give employees a visual roadmap for
advancement in your organization, heavily based on the competencies associated with each and
every role in your company.

Job: Accountant

Summary
Competencies

Accounting and Reporting Level 3

Reconciliation and Analysis Level 2

Competencies

Responsibilities Attention to Detail Level 3

Knowledge Areas Fostering Communication Level 3

Education Auditing Level 2

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List of Competencies for Job Descriptions

Here are the competencies currently offered by HRSG. Click to view them:

Behavioral Competencies (examples: Achievement Orientation, Client Focus,

Problem Solving)

Technical Competencies

• Corporate Technical Competencies

• Accounting & Finance Competencies

• Business Operations Competencies
• HR Competencies
• IT Competencies
• Marketing Competencies
• Sales Competencies

• Industry Technical Competencies

• Accounting & Finance Industry Competencies

• Agile Development Competencies
• Central Banking Competencies
• Cyber Security Competencies
• Data Analytics Competencies
• Digital Marketing Competencies
• Legal Competencies
• Network Competencies
• Policing Competencies
• Supply Chain Management Competencies

© HRSG | All rights reserved. —5—

Competency Based Job Description Examples (Samples & Templates)
Looking for some sample competency-based job descriptions? You’ve come to the right place.
Check out this example of a Project Manager competency-based job description.

Job Description: Project Manager

Job Summary
The Project Manager executes projects according to the project plan by working with
stakeholders to understand requirements, developing project management plans, and
maintaining project documentation.

Job level: Manager

Responsibilities

Product & Project Management

• Execute the project according to the project plan

• Develop project proposals, project charters, and project management plans
• Work with project stakeholders to understand project requirements, and ensure that deliverables
satisfy these requirements
• Clarify and communicate the project scope and ongoing progress to project team members
• Engage project stakeholders and communicate project updates to ensure buy-in and project success
• Monitor and track project execution against project plan and budget
• Control and manage project execution to mitigate project risks
• Ensure that all project estimates are prepared in accordance with the requirements of the project
• Develop post-project support to ensure measurement of project objectives
• Ensure that project decisions are formally documented and that project deliverables are stored in
the official project repository

Competencies

Project Management (Level 4)

Planning, implementing, monitoring and completing projects, ensuring effective management of
scope, resources, time, cost, quality, risk and communications.

Attention to Detail (Level 3)

Working in a conscientious, consistent and thorough manner.

© HRSG | All rights reserved. —6—

 Competencies — Continued

Collaborating with Others (Level 3)

Working together with others in a cooperative and supportive manner to achieve shared goals.

Managing Project Communications (Level 3)

Managing, controlling and monitoring the nature of project information and communication
directives to ensure that information needs are met.

Project Risk Management (Level 3)

Identifying, assessing, prioritizing, documenting and managing risk and its impact.

Knowledge Areas

• Agile Methodology (Intermediate)

• Change Management (Intermediate)
• Lean Project Management Principles (Intermediate)
• Microsoft Office Suite (Intermediate)
• Microsoft Project (Intermediate)
• Microsoft SharePoint (Intermediate)
• Microsoft Visio (Intermediate)
• Project Management Software (Intermediate)
• SAP (Intermediate)
• Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) (Intermediate)

Education

• Business and Commerce (College diploma) or

• Business Administration (College diploma)

Certification

• Lean Six Sigma-Black Belt

• Project Management Professional (PMP)

© HRSG | All rights reserved. —7—

Looking for more?

Check out some of our other examples. We’ve put together hiring guides for 8 key positions that contain
real-world competency-based job descriptions, as well as interview questions based on those specific
competencies that are embedded within the job description. We have hiring guides for:

Project Manager Business Development Representative (BDR)

Category: Project & Product Management Category: Sales

Marketing Manager Administrator

Category: Marketing Category: Administration

Graphic Designer Business Data Analyst

Category: Marketing Category: Business Intelligence

Account Executive Finance Manager

Category: Sales Category: Accounting & Finance

Just looking for a template to play around with? Download our

blank competency based job description template instead.

© HRSG | All rights reserved. —8—

 How to Build Competency Based Job Descriptions
There are two main ways to build competency based job descriptions. Let’s start with the traditional
way, and then we’ll look at how companies are utilizing technology to speed up the process substantially.

The Traditional Way:

The traditional way of incorporating competencies and job descriptions involves a lot of back-
and-forth between your HR team and other stakeholders (i.e. other people in the company). It
starts with a competency library, which is usually purchased from a competency provider (like
HRSG) or developed internally (which can be quite a time and resource-intensive process.)

With the competencies ready, it’s now time to decide which ones belong with which jobs. These may
consist of core competencies that apply across the whole organization; departmental competencies,
and specific technical competencies that apply to each role.

Usually you’ll end up with 3 to 10 competencies on a job description and these will consist of a
mix of those technical (skill-based) competencies, and softer behavioral skills. Every competency
consists of five levels to illustrate the proficiency needed when they’re applied to a specific job.

To illustrate this, let’s look at the example of a project manager vs. project assistant. They’ll share many
of the same general, behavioral competencies; but if we look at the levels required for success, and the
more job-specific competencies, we
see the differences between the two
roles emerge.

Identifying these competencies, and

the appropriate levels for individual
roles, can be a pretty time-consuming
process. Often, you’ll need many
PROJECT MANAGER Level PROJECT ASSISTANT Level people involved in the process from
Project Risk Management 03 Quality Focus 02 start-to-finish: this may include
SPECIFIC

any or all of subject matter experts,

Resource Management 03 Teamwork 02
managers, c-level executives
Analytical Thinking 03 Analytical Thinking 01 who want a say in the process,
JOB FAMILY

the employee themselves, and

Communications Management 03 Communications Management 02
potentially others.
Project Planning 03 Project Planning 01
In other words, while the benefits of
Achievement Orientation 03 Achievement Orientation 01
competency-based job descriptions
are substantial, the traditional
CORE

Adaptabilty 04 Adaptabilty 02
process of putting them together
Client Focus 04 Client Focus 02
can be fairly painful.

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The Modern Way:

So let’s look at the modern way that companies are mapping competencies to their job descriptions.
The modern method essentially uses all the same tactics, but streamlines the process incredibly
through the use of purpose-built software technology.

Click the image below to check out the Smart Job Descriptions video to get a sense of how,
using HRSG’s software, you can create competency-based “Smart Job Descriptions” in minutes
for your organization.

Technology has enabled a much more accessible process, so that a wider array of organizations can
take advantage of the benefits of competency based job descriptions. Here’s a table to sum up the
main differences in the process of mapping competencies:

The old way to build competency based The modern way to build competency
job descriptions: based job descriptions, using software:
Build competencies from scratch, consulting Purchase banks of competencies, get them
engagement to develop custom ones, or buy delivered within cloud software.
pre-built paper dictionaries.

Engage in exhaustive manual consultation Dispatch a competency profiling survey to

with multiple stakeholders to define core, identify competencies.
departmental and job-specific competencies.

Meticulously map competencies to all jobs in Map competencies using AI to find the most
your organization. relevant suggested competencies for a role.

© HRSG | All rights reserved. — 10 —

How Can Competency Based Job Descriptions Be Used
Throughout the Employee Lifecycle?

So, once you’ve got competency based job descriptions in place, how do you use them to elevate
your process and empower your employees?

Let’s explore this idea, captured in this post at TalentCulture.com:

Hiring & Selection: This comes down to being able to carry out structured, behavioral
interviews, with questions based directly on the required skills and behaviors. That way,
interviews are carried out in a structured, consistent manner… and your company’s hiring
decisions are made based on consistent criteria.

Assessment & Development: Again, the competencies on the “smart” job descriptions allow
the actual job description to play a central role in your assessment programs. This may take
the form of self-assessment, supervisor assessment, or the ever-popular 360 assessment,
often used in leadership roles. If gaps are identified, the organization can provide employees
with learning resources pre-mapped to competencies to develop and strengthen those gaps.

Engagement & Retention: One of the most powerful motivators to keep top employees
engaged is opportunities for growth. With your competencies mapped to every job, there’s
total transparency on exactly what skills and behaviors, at what levels, your people need to
demonstrate in order to take their next step (or even reach their dream job).

© HRSG | All rights reserved. — 11 — Cover Photo by Shridhar Gupta on Unsplash

Using Software to Build Competency Based Job Descriptions

Hands down, the easiest way to build competency based job descriptions at scale is
by using purpose-built job description software.
HRSG’s CompetencyCore platform allows you to map competencies to your jobs with
the click of a mouse, using advanced AI technology.

Get your demo today to see it in action for yourself.

About HRSG
For three decades, HRSG has delivered products and services to define talent needs, address skill deficiencies
and improve individual and organizational performance.

Our Products division has distilled that 30 years of expertise into a competency, job description and career
management software solution. Leveraging the power of AI, CompetencyCore™ is unlike any other product on the
market, bringing together the power of competencies and the utility of job descriptions.

Our Talent Management Solutions division delivers best practice professional services in competency-based
management, testing and assessment. In addition, we train HR professionals worldwide in our competency-
based management methodologies.

To learn more about how HRSG’s software makes HR professionals proactive and in-control, visit us at

www.hrsg.ca or call 1-866-574-7041 x600.

© Human Resource Systems Group. All rights reserved.

Tel: 1-866-574-7041 www.hrsg.ca [email protected]