Laura Pratt - Elevations Credit Union: Unlocking the power of competency models

Steve

Hi, this is Steve Hunt with People Performance Radio. Today we spoke with Laura Pratt, who is the Manager of People for Elevations Credit Union, and Laura talked about how their use of competency models has really transformed the organization in terms of how people think about their careers and how managers think about talent, including succession management. I think it's an interesting discussion, how they really start out with competencies, just looking to integrate staffing with development with succession management, but as they got these competencies into the organization, it's really had an effect on changing how managers and employees think about their jobs and their careers themselves, so it's an interesting story about the use of competencies, and how competencies can really affect an organization's culture and internal talent management processes. So let's listen to Laura Pratt from Elevations Credit Union.

Hi, this is Steve Hunt with People Performance Radio. Today we're talking with Laura Pratt, who is with Elevations Credit Union, and she is a Manager of People there. Hi Laura, welcome to the show.

Laura

Hi Steve, thanks for having me.

Steve

So can you tell me a little bit about what Elevations Credit Union is as an organization, and what a Manager of People does?

Laura

Sure, Elevations Credit Union is a financial institution, similar to a bank, similar job titles, but that's where the similarity ends. As a credit union, our members are our owners, and our mission is service, so a little bit different. Elevations has been around for over 50 years, and we have about nine branches in the Boulder/Broomfield market.

Steve

OK, and what do you do there as the Manager of People?

Laura

Well, "people" is our word for human resources, that's our department, the People Department, and I am an HR Manager in the People Department focusing on talent acquisition and management.

Steve

So in Elevations Credit Union, what have been some of the big challenges that you've faced from a people perspective?

Laura

Well, one of the challenges that we had here at Elevations Credit Union is that we needed something to tie all of our systems in together, from a technology perspective, and from a goal/performance management/succession planning/recruiting, we wanted to tie all of those areas into one technology, and to one model, so that was our challenge is that we were recruiting and sourcing on a job description, after doing a job analysis, and then we would hire them, and then maybe their performance and development was something different than what maybe have hired on, and then the succession planning, we maybe have had gaps there of what would be next steps for them.

Steve

Wow, that sounds like a really classic problem I've heard from a lot of line employees, as one person said, "We're hired by one group of the organization, but their set of models and tools are then thrown over the fence to the group that trains us, then thrown over the fence to the group that does compensation, and they never seem to talk to each other", so it sounds like you're trying to take that bull by the horns and drive some integration. What's critical to creating that integration across those different areas of HR?

Laura

Well, it's critical to get all of your departments that touch that person, that role or responsibility, so that you are all on the same page of what that looks like, and so from a competency base, if I'm hiring somebody I need to understand what competencies are important, not just hiring them and getting them in for that role, but how will they grow and develop, and could they be in the succession part of Elevations Credit Union, and so to make sure that I'm hiring on the right competencies, so that we can put them in that full circle in our organization.

Steve

So did you have to create a new competency model? Or did you have existing competencies? What was the starting point when you starting saying, these people are all the same people, we should really be focusing on the same things, we're staffing and developing them, doing leadership development. What was your starting point there, and where did you get to now?

Laura

Right, great question. So part of our starting point was working with SHL in identifying some assessments to identify what core - we felt we had core competencies, but as we got into the core competencies and started a discussion around, is that important to this role and responsibility, the managers would say, "No, that's not so important", but from a job analysis I'd say, "Well, from a job analysis it says that it's important", so we had core competencies that were built from a people department, not from an organizational buy in, and so we had to really start from scratch, and we had a competency framework that SHL had introduced us to, and we felt like that framework also fitted in to our technology, which was SuccessFactors, SuccessFactors is where we had our performance management, our goals, our succession planning, our 360s, and it was a really nice alignment to take a framework that SHL had and put it into SuccessFactors, and try to build our leadership model based on that framework, so that we were all using consistent language, we were all identifying the strengths and gaps for our whole leadership model.

Steve

So it sounds like you had competencies which described the behaviors in such a way that you want employees to actually do, as sort of the lynchpin that allowed you to pull together the tools used for hiring, the tools you use for performance management, the tools you use for succession planning?

Laura

Correct, and it was a little bit of a painful process at first, trying to figure out what competencies went with each role, and so it was a big task.

Steve

Yeah, that was actually my next question - was that like getting an organization that hadn't really been using a single integrated model, what were some of the big challenges when you first started introducing this to managers, you said they had different opinions about which competencies were important, I imagine they didn't all just come to agreement immediately. How did you work through the process of getting the organization aligned around some key competencies?

Laura

It was a huge undertaking, and as we went through the process, experts recommend that you narrow your core competencies down, so that you're not working on, can you imagine, an employee and putting 20 competencies that have 112 behaviors identified with those competencies, and saying, "Here's what we'd like to see - here's our wish list", so we tried to pull one out, the managers would say, "Well, that's really important", and then we'd try to say, "Well, why is that so important? Would this person fail in this position if they didn't have this?" And it was really important to pull the person out of the job role, so you're associating Mary with a job role, but really it's not Mary that you're looking at, it's really the job role, so working with those managers, saying, "In this role, not Mary, but in this role, is it critical to have this competency to be successful?".

So that was part of our challenge, and we had a card sort by SHL, you can use a card sort to identify what competencies are critical, whether it's from an important sort, and as we went through that card sort, people were reluctant to give up some competencies that they thought were key, for example, working with people. So you take these eight core competencies for all roles, and you try to narrow them down, and then you take these behaviors and you try and narrow them down, and you had managers hesitant, saying, "No, working with people is a core competency; adhering to principles and values is a core competency; achieving personal workload and objectives", and you had some main core competencies that those managers thought were critical to that job role, and so what we did is, instead of them doing job role, we switched kind of mid-stream, so after we had aligned all of our job roles with competencies from a people department, and then tried to validate them, which was many many hours on the front end, when we went to our managers, they were like, "No, not going to work", and we had to kind of scrap that plan and start again.

So what we did is we took those same core competencies, but we broke them down into four areas, and so all employees have to have all of these core competencies, and then if you're a lead in our organization, you need to have these additional competencies, and then if you're going to be a manager, you need to have these additional competencies, and then, if you're going to be an AVP and above, you need to have these additional competencies, and so then we broke it down, instead of role competency based, really a leadership development model into four categories.

Steve

What do you call the categories?

Laura

We call them all employees, lead, manager and AVP and SLT. Our whole model is called our Elevations Leadership Development Model, and you have these four categories that have competencies in each category, as you move to the higher position of responsibility, you add additional core competencies into that category or level.

Steve

It sounds like the nice thing about that is, as you're moving in the organization, you can see how my job is similar and then different to the jobs above me?

Laura

Correct.

Steve

But how many competencies total are there? What's the maximum number of competencies someone could have now?

Laura

Well, the interesting thing is that there's eight core competencies that kind of align with 20 different dimensions, and then there's 100 behaviors associated, so for an example, if I say, "working with people" is a core competency, those behaviors could be: demonstrate an interest and an understanding of others; adapt to the team and build the team spirit; listen and to consult others; communicate proactively; support and care for others, and so if that's a core competency and I'm in my goal planning, my supervisor may say, "OK, you really recognize and reward the contributions of others, but I'd like to see you maybe adapt to the team and build team spirit", and then you say, "OK, so that's in my goal, maybe it's even in my performance plan", and then you can take it a step further and say, "OK, in SuccessFactors, we have identified classes and learning activities to help you with that competency".

Steve

So it really allows the managers, by sitting down with their employees, to more effectively articulate specifically what it is they want their employees to do more of or do less of, and then tie it in to some actual developmental resources?

Laura

Correct, and really, the leadership development model is to really focus on the strengths of an individual, to make sure that they're successful in the role that they're at, and that, as they move through that developmental model, and that there is some succession for them, and that they understand what it takes to move through that - what does it take for me to be a lead? What does it take for me to then to be a supervisor? Then, if I'm a supervisor, what does it take for me to be a manager? If I'm a manager, what core competencies do I need to work on to be an AVP in my organization?

Steve

Wow, so can you give an example really to illustrate that specifically? - like, what are some of the competencies, that I move from individual contributor to a lead? - what are some of the new competencies I have to take on?

Laura

Great question - so if I'm an individual contributor, as an employee, and I have some core competencies that I'm working on, if I'm interested in being a lead in Elevations, I may say that writing and reporting is a core competency that I'm going to need. I'm also going to need relating and networking, and I'm also going to need presenting and communicating information, so those are some additional competencies that, if you, in order to be a lead readiness, you could work on those core competencies while you're an individual contributor, so when an opening comes up for that, you've said to your manager, "I know these competencies - here's where we both feel like I have strengths in these areas, and here's some areas that I'm still developing", so that you can decide whether that individual is a ready, is in the readiness from a competency standpoint to go into a lead.

Steve

So it really gives the employees more of a sense of control over what should I be doing now to prepare myself for future opportunities?

Laura

Yes, SHL does a really nice job of identifying specific behaviors that relate to that core competency, so that we all can have a consistent language and we know what's important for identifying the gaps, so from one position to another, and I think Elevations as a team, we've done a really nice job of saying, "We're not going to just tell you what you need to work on - we're going to help you, we're going to tell you what classes we offer and what kind of learning activities you could be working on to have that competency to move from an individual contributor to a lead".

Steve

So how have employees and managers reacted to this new model?

Laura

Well, the managers are really excited, they're excited about a few things: one is that we have a model, and that they're specific, we're all on the same language; we are ensuring that the people in the organization are using their skills to the optimum effect, and that we're all being, if I'm an individual contributor, I'm being assessed on the same competencies. We're clear about what is needed, and I think it helps people with their performance and from the people right now, from a performance perspective, this is fairly new to them, so they've had just a little bit of a taste of what the leadership development model looks like, what's an expectation, how do you use it in SuccessFactors, what would be a learning activity, so it's fairly new to the organization, but managers have had a while to get a taste of it, because they've helped build it, and that's important.

Steve

So they feel a sense of ownership over it, because they were involved in creating it?

Laura

Correct, it's a huge buy in.

Steve

So if I'm another company, and I'm kind of going, wow, the competencies sound like they've added a lot of definition to the organization - what would be your advice for another organization that's looking at creating competency models and leveraging more - what would you suggest they should do or not do to be successful?

Laura

Well, I would suggest that you work with all the individuals that touch a person, meaning the managers, the senior leadership team, I mean we always say senior leaders have to support that competency framework, because it's a lot of hours, it's a huge undertaking from a task perspective, and identifying those competencies, and what's important to your culture, because if you're in a sales culture, and we are in a sales culture, however we're in a little bit of a different sales culture because we're a credit union and we're owned by our members, and service is our mission, I may have different behaviors that a bank down the street may have from an aggressive, what do I want to see in terms of an individual contributor salesperson, those competencies may look and sound a little bit different, and so it's really important that, when you're identifying the competencies, that it is not a one-size-fits-all, and that you decide, from a culture perspective, what is important.

So I think that's important, and what not to do maybe not to do each role, and maybe, which may work for some organizations, but maybe to take a look at a competency model in sections and levels in your organization, rather than each job role and responsibility.

Steve

Yeah, well I think part of that, my experience is, having built quite a few competency models in my own career as well, one of the great advantages of competencies is it allows people in two different jobs to compare the jobs, so they can see what's similar, and if every job has its own competency model, it loses the ability to compare people across jobs.

Laura

Right, and from a succession planning - it's really difficult to say, well, I'm like a collector one, two or three - are there different competencies, because they're different roles and different responsibilities, and so it gets a little gray, and you really want it very well defined, and you're moving these competencies back and forth with these roles and responsibilities, and it gets very frustrating for the managers to have to say, "I need all of those competencies", and you saying, "Well, we can't give them 20 competencies that this person has to have, or they're not going to be successful in this role", and so I think, to have a lot of time and dedication to put this, to build the competency model, and to be clear about what your output - what do you want to use it for?

Steve

Yeah, and I think that part of that is, it's like competencies are about priortizations, you can't have 100 priorities!

Laura

Right, and performance - if I'm being assessed on my performance, and I've got 20 competencies, can you imagine? - I'm like overwhelmed, trying to come up with either an example of how I excel in this competency, or whether there's a gap, and then if I need to work on something, am I excelling at 10, but do I need to have some goals and development around 10 competencies in order to get to the next level? So I think it's really important not to let those, to have those competencies overwhelm the performance and goal part of your system, whatever system that you're looking at.

Steve

That makes a lot of sense, I think that part of that is even to tell managers, "Hey, you're going to have to rate people on all these competencies" - they might just decide to have one!

Laura

Right, this is a core competency in this role! For Elevations, I think there really was a dual purpose in this too, Steve, is that Elevations Credit Union is undergoing a quality initiative, and so for us it really played hand in hand, we are going to go for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, and I don't know how familiar you or the audience is with that, but basically a quality initiative says: what are you doing? Can you show me what you're doing? Can you measure what you're doing, and why it's important to the organization, and how successful you are? And can you improve on where you are today, and where you're going? And part of having a competency model, and a leadership development model for the People Department was part of that quality initiative.

Steve

Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense, I am familiar with the Baldrige Award, and actually some other SuccessFactors' clients have won it, I believe, in healthcare, Healthcare Baldrige.

Laura

Aha - they did?

Steve

One of the big challenges that measurement is, how do you measure the performance of people, and that's what competencies are about, I think that's where a lot of companies fall short is they don't have good measures of people.

Laura

I agree, and people want to be measured - if one's saying, through that survey, we heard our workforce say is, we want to be measured, and we want to have specific numbers associated with our measurement, and we want to give you specific examples of how we feel like we are reaching those competencies, and we need feedback back from our managers on areas that we are strong in, and the gaps that we need to look at.

Steve

That's really interesting, so really the employees are saying, we want better feedback, and to have better feedback, we need better metrics. When you look like, I know you said you use it for succession - has the introduction of competencies actually changed how managers evaluate performance of potential?

Laura

Oh yes.

Steve

Do you think they're identifying people now that they wouldn't have identified before?

Laura

Yes, on both areas, so another area to be careful with - as you look at the competencies, you of course always want to look at someone's strengths and really always focus on developing your strengths, because we all know that's easier to do, and if you're trying to develop your weakness, it's just so much tougher, but I think we found that some of our managers, from a competency perspective, we really didn't do a good job as an organization, saying, yes - you really need to cope with pressures and setbacks, you really need to be strong at analyzing data, you need to be strong in adapting and responding and be a change agent, you need to be strong in initiating action, and identifying those competencies really helped us say, do we have the people in the right seats? And as well saying, if we have the people in the right seats, did we overlook Jack for the next AVP position, because as we look at these competencies, we thought - yeah, he's really strong, and he's even stronger in persuading and influencing, and he's our guy for formulating strategies and concepts, and we think he's ready to be our next AVP, and that might have not happened if we would have not taken a look at competencies and drilled down to Steve to say - hey, where are your strengths, and what competencies are important for succession planning in this role, and who has those competencies?

Steve

So really, by giving people better measures, they're able to see things they weren't able to see before?

Laura

Yes, I think from both sides, and if you're managing people and you're an individual, wanting career pathing, wanting growth opportunities, wanting challenges, wanting to know what's next for me, and do I have a place here, and if I do have a place, how do I get there? How am I going to be measured? How am I going to be held accountable for it? What support do I have in place? How is the organization going to support me? Can I self-invest, and what that looks like, and there's a complete model to say, well let's talk about it and here's how we can get there from A to Z, and how that all connects from the recruiting/sourcing all the way through training and development, performance, goals, and succession planning.

Steve

Wow, so it's interesting, you talked about this originally, this was designed to have a better integrated talent management processes and competencies, and then it sounds like, as you started to build this out, it really surfaced a whole bunch of things, it got the leadership in the organization to realize, wow, we really do need to determine what it is we actually want people to do, you had a lot of discussion that came out of that that I imagine was painful at times, but good conversation, and then once you've defined what it is you want people to do, people are really taking advantage of it, and saying, hey - now I can control my career on the employee side, and on the manager side, some of the people are going, this is making me re-think how I was assessing people's potential.

Laura

Correct, and I love the fact that through SHL's assessments, and learning and SuccessFactors, it being in one system, so it's an easy snapshot for people to manage themselves, it's easy for the managers to go in there and say, who is from a readiness perspective - what does their assessment tell me? What does their performance review tell me? What does their 360 tell me? I think all those components, from an SHL and a SuccessFactors and a technology, have one system that holds a complete framework, makes people feel that they can really trust in that system.

Steve

That they see it kind of being connected to things, and it's not standalone, and the data is tracked, and everything's more systematic and consistent?

Laura

Correct, and that it's measurable - I can see everything in one system, and we are all on the same technology, trying to get an observable set of behaviors that's instrumental into that position.

Steve

That's a really good point, and I think actually if you look at the research on fairness, what they say drives people's perceptions of fairness and being treated appropriately isn't so much what the decisions are that are made, but that they have clear transparency into how decisions are made, which the competency model - and then integrated with these clear technologies and processes, really communicates to employees, this is how we make decisions about people here.

Laura

Yeah, we're fair and consistent, we can measure it, and I love your word "transparent" - we always talk about Elevations as a transparent organization, we want to be transparent with our strategies, with our mission, our values, our vision and our competency model.

Steve

Wow, it sounds like you're making great strides in that way, and Laura, I just want to thank you for appearing on People Performance Radio and sharing the experiences that you had at Elevations Credit Union with developing competencies, both the pain at times, and of course the benefits that have come out on the other side, as my junior high PE teacher used to always say - "no pain, no gain".

Laura

That's right, we can attest to that!

Steve

So any last things you'd like to share with our audience about suggestions or advice for people that are saying, "Well, wow this competency stuff sounds great, but will it work for me?" - do you have any suggestions?

Laura

Yeah, I think it will work in an organization of ten to 10,000, I know it will work, I know with the right alignment of partners and resources, and to use SHL and SuccessFactors as a tool and resources, you don't have to do all the work yourself, they have amazing tools to help you, and that they're a great resource and a great partner and alignment for building a competency or a leadership model, and I think that everyone should have one.

Steve

Cool, well thank you very much for sharing your message and appearing on People Performance Radio, and I really appreciate having you on the show today.

Laura

Well thanks Steve, I appreciate your time and allowing me to come and talk about Elevations.

Steve

Great, thank you.

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