Getting Started with Competencies

Introduction

Competency Management allows you to define the skills and behaviors your organization expects employees to demonstrate, set progression levels for each one, and connect those expectations to the roles employees hold. Once set up, employees and managers can see how they measure up against expectations, and admins can track skill gaps and development needs across the company.

Before you can start tracking and measuring competencies within PerformYard, you must complete the following steps: 

1. Create the competencies for your organization
2. Set up roles that group employees by job function
3. Assign the competencies and competency levels expected of each role
4. Assign employees to their role

Creating Competencies

Admins can set up their competencies manually or use AskPerformYard to create or upload competencies for their organization. To get started, navigate to Administration Settings > Competencies page. 

Manual Creation

To create a new competency, click the Create Competency button in the top right corner of the page. 

On the competency creation page, the following fields are available:

• Competency Name - Required field. Must be unique from other competencies
• Description - Optional field. 
• Company Wide Checkbox - Optional checkbox. Checking this box means the competency will be automatically assigned to all existing and future employees in the organization regardless of role.
• Competency Levels - Must have at least one level. Name field is required. Description field optional. Can create up to 5 levels.

Adding Levels

Levels describe what progression looks like for a competency, from an entry-level expectation up to the highest level of mastery. While PerformYard only requires a competency to have one level, defining more than one level is strongly recommended. To continue building out a competency's defined levels, click the Add Level button. 

After you've defined the competency levels, click the Create Competency button at the bottom of your screen. A green confirmation message will display upon creation and your newly created competency will be reflected in the Competencies Management table.

Using AskPerformYard to Create or Import Competencies

Admins can also use Ask PerformYard to help set up their competencies. To enable this functionality within competencies, navigate to the Ask PerformYard page in the Administration Settings and toggle on the switch for Interviewer. 

Then, navigate back to the Competencies admin page and click the "Set up competencies" hyperlink located near the bottom right corner of the page (above the Ask PerformYard button). 

If your company does not have an existing competency framework, the Ask PerformYard agent can suggest and create competencies tailored to the specific needs of your business. The agent will first conduct a conversational style interview to gather additional context about your organization and its operations. It then generates a proposed set of competencies based on the answers you provided - each with a name, description, and defined levels. From here, you can review the list of proposed competencies, make edits, remove unwanted suggestions, and provide final approval before it creates any competencies for your organization.

If your company already has an existing competency framework, you can upload it directly into the chat window. AskPerformYard will read the file, flag anything that conflicts with PerformYard's competency requirements, and generate a proposed set of competencies based on the uploaded file data. From here, you have the same oversight as those who used the agent to build competencies from scratch - you can review the list, make edits, remove suggestions, and provide final approval before it creates any competencies for your organization. 

Please note the Ask PerformYard importer only accepts the following input at this time:

• PDF file type
• 10 MB max
• 30 pages max

If a competency in the uploaded file had more than 5 levels, the agent will check with you on whether to import the first 5 levels or combine the total levels down to 5. If you already have competency records created in PerformYard when using the importer, the agent checks its proposed set of competencies against your existing records to prevent accidental duplicates from being created. If an uploaded competency matches an existing record, it will either skip the match entirely or rename it and then inform you of this adjustment. For a more detailed list of potential importer scenarios, see the table below. 

Managing Competencies

The Competencies administration page shows you a list of every competency created for your organization. The table displays active competencies by default, but you can adjust this by opening the filter panel and updating the applied filters. 

To edit a competency, click the ellipses icon on the far right of the competency row and select Edit. Here, you'll see the same interface as when you create a competency manually, but the data fields will be populated with the competency's current details. After making the desired edits, save your changes.

To archive a competency, click the ellipses icon in the competency row and select Archive. In the confirmation modal, select the "Yes, Archive Competency" button to officially archive the competency. Archived competencies can be reopened at any time by clicking the ellipsis icon and selecting Reopen