Optimizing Practices
To achieve the Optimizing Level, Maturity Level 5, everyone in the organization is focused on
continuously improving their capability and the organization’s workforce practices. The
organization creates a culture of product and service excellence. At Maturity Level 5, the
organization continuously improves its capability and deploys rapid changes for managing its
workforce.
The process areas at Maturity Level 5 are Continuous Capability Improvement, Organizational
Performance Alignment, and Continuous Workforce Innovation. These three process areas are
briefly described in the following paragraphs. High-level relationships among these process areas
are depicted below.
Continuous Capability Improvement
The purpose of Continuous Capability Improvement is to provide a foundation for individuals
and workgroups to continuously improve their capability for performing competency-based
processes. Continuous Capability Improvement involves enterprise-wide support for individuals
and workgroups as they focus on improving their capability in the performance of competencybased
processes. Individuals focus on the capability of their personal methods for performing
competency-based processes. They engage in learning activities to improve their personal work
processes. Workgroups focus on improving the capability and performance of their operating
processes by continuously improving the integration of the personal work processes performed
by workgroup members.
Organizational Performance Alignment
The purpose of Organizational Performance Alignment is to enhance the alignment of
performance results across individuals, workgroups, and units with organizational performance
and business objectives. Organizational Performance Alignment builds on the analyses of
competency-based processes initiated in the Quantitative Performance Management and
Organizational Capability Management process areas. Where those analyses focused narrowly
on process performance, analyses of performance alignment expand this focus to evaluate how
the various components of performance fit together across workgroups, units, and the entire
organization. Practices within this process area knit together a complete picture of performance
within the organization and how the integration of its various business activities are affected by
workforce practices and activities. These analyses allow management to align performance
across the entire enterprise and to use workforce activities strategically to achieve organizational
business objectives.
Continuous Workforce Innovation
The purpose of Continuous Workforce Innovation is to identify and evaluate improved or
innovative workforce practices and technologies, and implement the most promising ones
throughout the organization. Responsible individuals are continually encouraged to make
improvements to their performance of workforce activities. A group is assigned responsibility for
coordinating continuous improvements to the organization’s workforce practices.
Recommendations for adopting innovative or improved workforce practices can come as lessons
learned while improving the performance of workforce activities, suggestions from the
workforce, or as analyses of best practices at other organizations. The most promising
innovations are evaluated in trial use and, if successful, are implemented across the organization.
The effectiveness of these improved practices is evaluated quantitatively and the results are
communicated to the workforce.