Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Next Generation Workforce and Workplace

We help individuals, organizations, and communities think innovatively about the next generation workforce and workplace. Read these forward-thinking stories and best practices from our work and lives.

The What and Why of Competencies as Seen through CDF Training and SHRM’s new move
The HR world has been all a buzz with SHRM’s announcement of a switch to a competency-based certification.

In an email to members, the SHRM CEO stated, “We believe a competency-based certification is the new standard for HR professionals around the globe. Our members have told us this; and we have listened.”

Regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree with SHRM’s move, competency models are prevalent. The career development world has been competency-based through its Career Development Facilitator Training for quite some time.

What is a competency?

Good ole Wikipedia provides us with this definition: “A competency is a set of defined behaviors that provide a structured guide enabling the identification, evaluation and development of the behaviors in individual employees.”

Why I like competencies

Competencies are behavioral-based. Whereas an assessment of knowledge is just that, knowledge that may or may not be acted upon or put in to practice, a competency begets action through behaviors.

If you have knowledge of something, you can tell me about it, but if you are competent in something, you can show me how to do it by demonstrating it. You apply your knowledge and demonstrate it through your behaviors. This aids others in learning through your behaviors.

What are the CDF Competencies?

CDF competencies emphasize the broad scope in which career development professionals practice. They are:
1. Helping Skills
2. Labor Market Information and Resources
3. Assessment
4. Diverse Populations
5. Ethical and Legal Issues
6. Career Development Models
7. Employability Skills
8. Training Clients and Peers
9. Program Management/Implementation
10. Promotion and Public Relations
11. Technology
12. Consultation
To read more about the competencies click here.

If you are tied to the career development world in any way, are these things that you think you need to be able to DO not just know as they relate to delivering services to whoever your “client” may be? If so, CDF training may be an option for you, as it provides a path that can lead to your Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) certification.

Among other reasons, the emphasis on GLOBAL may be why SHRM is driving towards a competency-based model. The National Career Development Association (NCDA) already sees competency-based training, education and certification as the best method for preparing practitioners to operate in a global environment. It also emphasizes the need for the same standards of practice for a profession around the world.

More to come in our next post about the CDF competencies as we sample what a couple of them look through the doing of them, not just the knowing of them.

What do you think? Is knowing something the same thing as being competent in it? Is it all really just six of one and half a dozen of the other?
June 17, 2014
Career Development Facilitator Competencies in Action- Tell, Show and DO

One of the reasons I love CDF training is because the competencies that the training emphasizes fit together so nicely. Not only that, but they also spur action through behaviors as any good competency model should do.

An example of 2 CDF competencies in action

Take these two competencies:

“Helping Skills – Be proficient in the basic career facilitating process while including productive interpersonal relationships.”

And

“Program Management/Implementation – Understand career development programs and their implementation, and work as a liaison in collaborative relationships.”

In the CDF training, you learn that helping skills includes being competent in helping others set goals and create action plans for themselves as it relates to their career. You act on this knowledge, by creating tools to help clients to set goals.

But the application of being competent in goal setting is taken to the next level through the competency of program management implementation. What good program manager doesn’t need to know how to set goals, track them, and meet them?

Participants in our CDF training take what they have learned about goal setting in the helping skills content and demonstrate that they can direct their behavior to apply goal setting by mapping out a new program or a redesign of an existing one complete with goals, timelines, deliverables and metrics.

Tell à Show à Do

We like to call our model for building the CDF competencies Tell à Show à Do, with an emphasis on the DOING. We focus on building the 12 competencies by designing assignments and deliverables in the course that help you kill two birds with one stone. They build your knowledge, but the assignments also produce tangible tools and plans that you can use on the job. Then you can easily show that you know how to apply knowledge by doing.

Your boss can’t see the knowledge in your head without you acting on it, so the doing helps advance your career just as much if not more than having the certification.

If are a career development professional and want to have some fun doing, you can register for our CDF course.

If you’re a part of school system, college career center, local or state workforce agency or career center, you may want to learn more about how this model of applying the CDF competencies can help your group create a strategic plan through the professional development opportunity. To do so, you can view our presentation on CDF Training and Strategic Planning (which will be presented this Saturday, June 21, from 8:30-9:30 am at NCDA’s Conference in Long Beach- join us if you are here!) There is also a case study you can read to see how this has been put into practice with a K-12 School System

How has doing helped advance your career more than knowing?

June 17, 2014
2 Reasons You Should Consider Dual Career Ladders

Being in a leadership role seems to be the ideal in most companies. Leading is what people strive for, and in most cases I think this is the norm because it is the only path by which advancement can take place. Want to move up and get paid more? Well then you have to lead and manage others.

Another way to help people grow

A client we’re working with is considering dual career ladders for the organization. With this organizational structure, there are advancement opportunities into the traditional route of leadership, but there is also a path by which people can grow by demonstrating technical expertise in their field.

Why you should consider dual career ladders

Dual career ladders may be a good route for your company because:

1. Not Everyone is suited for or has the desire to get work done through others. Quite frankly, some people would rather do the work themselves and may be best suited to do so. Getting work done through others can be extremely challenging, and for some, can be draining instead of stimulation. If people are in roles that are constantly proving to be draining instead of energizing, productivity will suffer. Which leads to the 2nd reason to consider dual career paths…

2. Dual Paths can help your company be more successful. By placing people in the roles where they contribute the most, the company gains success through talent.

Dual career paths may not be feasible for all companies due to size of the organization or the nature of the work, but the structure begs the question for any organization about how to provide opportunities for people to advance and grow in their careers.

The best place to start if you are considering how to determine who is best suited for an expert role or a leadership role is to assess your talent. There are a variety of instruments that are effective for this purpose (email us if you want some recommendations), but the most important way to assess people for advancement opportunities is to ask the hard but simple question, do you want to lead? It’s much easier for people to honestly answer “no” if there is an option to grow in their career through another path. I think we hear the answer “yes” to the question do you want to lead more than we should because it’s the only option.

June 9, 2014
4 Criteria for Creativity: Women Working or Drones?
What’s more creative: 1) drones delivering a Kindle to your door in 30 minutes or less or 2) women working?

According to Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, women in the workplace, in Saudi Arabia at least, is more creative. Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al-Saud topped the list of most creative people in business by inviting Saudi women to work.

Quoted as saying, “You cannot have half your population not working,” the princess emphasizes why an “innovation” with people is more important than technology that allows all kinds of things to be delivered to your door as quickly as a pizza. Not only more important, but also more of a challenge.

But is extending the invitation to work to half the population creative, or something entirely different? This example illustrates that in order for something to be truly creative, the following has to be present:
1. Conventional thinking has to be challenged. In a country where it is illegal for women to drive, women working challenges conventional thinking.
2. Risks have to be involved. Again, in a country where it is illegal for women to drive, risks are involved in inviting women to work.
3. Impact extends beyond the original intent. Might it be made legal for women to drive because women are working? It may necessitate a legislative change eventually.
4. Positive gains are made and results are achieved. As reported in the article, “The Riyadh department store-which opened in 2000 as Harvey Nichols’s first location outside the U.K. – weathered a 42% drop in profit last year, partly because of opposition to the female sales force and partly because of loyalty to the far-more-seasoned salesmen it replaced.” Time will tell if this creative intervention will lead to business results. But maybe, just maybe, this example goes to show that you get more points for creativity if societal results are achieved at the possible short-term detriment to business results. See #2 above. As the princess said, “The second a woman is responsible for her own finances, she’ll want to explore more of the world for herself and become less dependent.”
What’s the most creative people intervention or idea have you ever witnessed?

You may also like: What Employers Want: Creativity
June 2, 2014
I May Have Adult ADD But I Wouldn’t Trade It For Anything: Refusing to Choose Between Work and Life
At an HR conference this week with a focus on wellness, the topic of work-life balance is bound to come up. It is and continues to be a buzz phrase in the field. How do we as individuals balance work and “life” and how do companies and HR professionals help employees find and gain balance in order to promote wellness and avoid stress and burnout which ultimately hurts company performance?

As I sit here writing this at the conference, my eight week old is with me. So is my mom who is here to help and also hear some key sessions at the conference she is interested in. I am going to sessions, volunteering for the conference, checking email and responding to clients, eating dinner with friends and aunts I haven’t seen in a while, feeding my little girl and changing her, talking to her and enjoying her precious grins that have just begun to make an appearance across her sweet face.

I think I may have adult ADD (attention deficit disorder) with the constant change in focus, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Because I enjoy each component of these activities and roles, the lines between my “work” and my “play” or “life” are so blurred that I’m sometimes not sure which box I’m in, and in my opinion that is the way it should be.

You don’t have to choose between work and life.

The people I know who love their work don’t talk a lot about work/life balance. They do work, they do life and oftentimes they aren’t sure which one they are doing at the moment. It’s just all life.

So how do we get to the point of not needing to seek out work/life balance?
1. Choose work you love. Finding the unique balance between your talents, your passions and your values will enable you the opportunity to choose work you love and allow you to make it an integral part of your life. It also allows you to clear the clutter and say “no” to things that really do not need to be a part of your life and your work.
2. Surround yourself with people who support you in your work and life. I realize that this may be more of a challenge for some than others because to a certain extent it may be out of your control. I am fortunate that my mom was able to come with me to this conference because she too had a business needs to hear some of the speakers. My husband is at home with our other child manning that front, and he is glad to do it. But it goes beyond just having the support of family being close by or having the flexibility to help. It extends to doing business- working with and for- those who share the same mindset of work-life balance.
For example, I’m working with a marketing firm to develop a marketing plan and strategy to take the company to the next level. The timing of brainstorming sessions needed for this came about two weeks after I had the now eight week old. We didn’t postpone it. They came to my house to do it. Not one session, but two. They held the baby, I held the baby and, because my husband was still off on leave because of the birth, we were able to get his ideas too, which is highly valuable to me. In my opinion, we came up with, among other things, some pretty awesome tag lines for the three unique lines of services/products we will be offering soon. (If you want to turn on your creative side, go grab a baby while you brainstorm). Picture proof of this session here.
1. Refuse to think either/or: I could have postponed the brainstorming sessions and I could have skipped this conference and some people probably think I should have skipped both. Aren’t most maternity leaves 12 weeks? But I’d rather do both from a different perspective- having my child with me, who obviously needs me almost constantly as an infant and who will so soon not be giving me those sweet grins that I don’t want to miss out on, and doing work that I love and I hope meets needs for others too can be done together.
I don’t have to separate my work from my life or choose between the two and you don’t either.

What are your best methods for doing life instead of having to balance work and life?
May 16, 2014