Once a foundation of basic workforce practices has been established in the units, the next step is for the organization to develop an organization-wide infrastructure atop these practices that ties the capability of the workforce to strategic business objectives. The primary objective of the Defined Level is to help an organization gain a competitive advantage from developing the various competencies that must be combined in its workforce to accomplish its business activities. These workforce competencies represent critical pillars supporting the strategic business plan, since their absence poses a severe risk to strategic business objectives. In tying workforce competencies to current and future business objectives, the improved workforce practices implemented at Maturity Level 3 become critical enablers of business strategy.
The concept of workforce competencies implemented in the People CMM differs from the concept of “core competency” popularized by Prahalad and Hamel [Prahalad 90]. Core competency refers to an organization’s combination of technology and production skills that create its products and services and provide its competitive advantage in the marketplace. In the People CMM, workforce competencies reside one level of abstraction below an organization’s core competency, as shown in Figure 2.2. Each workforce competency represents a distinct integration of the knowledge, skills, and process abilities required to perform some of the business activities contributing to an organization’s core competency. The range of workforce competencies an organization must integrate depends on the breadth and type of business activities composing its core competency. Therefore, these workforce competencies are a strategic underpinning of the organization’s core competency.
By defining process abilities as a component of a workforce competency, the People CMM becomes linked with the process frameworks established in other CMMs and with other processbased methods, such as business process reengineering. A process ability is demonstrated by performing the competency-based processes appropriate for someone at an individual’s level of development in the workforce competency. To define the process abilities incorporated in each workforce competency, the organization defines the competency-based processes that an individual in each workforce competency would be expected to perform in accomplishing their committed work. Within a workforce competency, a competency-based process defines how individuals apply their knowledge, perform their skills, and apply their process abilities within the context of the organization’s defined work processes.
At Maturity Level 3, the organization builds an organization-wide framework of workforce competencies that establishes the architecture of the organization’s workforce. Each workforce competency is an element of the workforce architecture, and dependencies among competencybased processes describe how these architectural elements interact. Thus, the architecture of the workforce must become an element of the strategic business plan. Workforce practices become mechanisms through which this architecture is continually realigned with changes in business objectives. The architecture of the organization’s workforce must evolve as business conditions and technologies change.
Since workforce competencies are strategic, the organization must develop strategic workforce plans for ensuring the required capability in each of its current or anticipated workforce competencies. These plans identify the actions to be taken in acquiring and developing the level of talent needed in each workforce competency. The People CMM makes no assumption about whether the organization sustains these workforce competencies internally or acquires them through partnerships, alliances, independent contracting, or outsourcing.
The aggregated level of knowledge, skills, and process abilities available within a competency community determines an organization’s capability in that workforce competency. The members of the organization’s workforce who share common knowledge, skills, and process abilities of a particular workforce competency constitute a competency community. The capability of an organization’s business processes is, in part, determined by the extent to which competency communities can translate their collective knowledge, skills, and process abilities into work performance. Maturity Level 3 establishes the infrastructure for defining measures of capability, in preparation for capability being quantitatively managed at Maturity Level 4.
At the Defined Level, the organization adapts its workforce practices to its business needs by focusing them on motivating and enabling development in its workforce competencies. Once workforce competencies are defined, training and development practices can be more systematically focused on developing the knowledge, skills, and process abilities that compose them. Further, the existing experience in the workforce can be organized to accelerate the development of workforce competencies in those with less skill and experience. Graduated career opportunities are defined around increasing levels of capability in workforce competencies. The graduated career opportunities motivate and guide individual development. The organization’s staffing, performance management, compensation, and other workforce practices are adapted to motivate and support development in workforce competencies.
When the processes to be performed by each workforce competency are defined, the organization has a new foundation for developing workgroups. Competency-based processes form a basis for defining workgroup roles and operating processes. Rather than just relying on the interpersonal coordination skills developed at Maturity Level 2, workgroups can now organize themselves by tailoring and applying standard competency-based processes. The ability to use defined processes simplifies coordination within the workgroup, since it no longer rests solely on the interpersonal skills of group members to figure out how to manage their mutual dependencies.
Competent professionals demand a level of autonomy in performing their work. To best utilize competent professionals, the organization must create an environment that involves people in decisions about their business activities. Decision-making processes are adjusted to maximize the level of competency applied to decisions, while shortening the time required to make them. Individuals and workgroups should be provided with the business and performance information needed to make competent decisions. A participatory culture enables an organization to gain maximum benefit from the capability of its workforce competencies while establishing the environment necessary for empowering workgroups.
A common organizational culture typically develops as the organization achieves the Defined Level. This culture is best described as one of professionalism, since it is built from common understanding of the knowledge and skills that need to be developed to achieve superior levels of performance and a definition of the competency-based processes that such individuals perform. Since these workforce competencies are strategic to the business, the organization reinforces their importance by developing and rewarding them. As a result, the entire workforce begins sharing responsibility for developing increasing levels of capability in the organization’s workforce competencies. The workforce practices implemented at Maturity Level 2 are now standardized and adapted to encourage and reward growth in the organization’s workforce competencies.