Competencies in Action: Preparing Employees for the Workforce of Tomorrow

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

As today’s work environment becomes more complex and unpredictable, he skills employees need to be successful change every day. More is being expected of employees, causing difficulties in the workplace. With their new "Competencies in Action: Preparing Employees for the Workforce of Tomorrow" program, Henrico county identified a set of core competencies that represented the new skills and behaviors required of all employees. This initiative consisted of five different phases during a three‐year time period. The phases included: 1) Research and Analysis; 2) Development of Competencies; 3) Integration with all HR Services; 4) Integration of Human Resources Management System; and 5) Integration into Classification and Learning Management System. Employees were educated on these new competencies and reacted positively towards education in the workplace. Based on feedback from supervisors, the county estimated that each appraisal using the competencies saved one hour of time, resulting in a savings of over 4,000 hours of managers’ time. Calculating an average hourly salary rate of $23.51, this equals a time/cost savings of over $95,000, indicating that this program is very successful.