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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What's a competency
• Different types of competencies
• How to add a competency
• Adding a new competency individually
• Adding competencies in bulk
• Editing a competency
• Deleting a competency

What's a competency

Competencies are a set of skills or characteristics that help employees perform their roles in the organization at the highest level. Competencies help organizations in defining key characteristics that everyone in the organization requires. It can also be broken down into simple behaviors or skills. 

Organizations usually define the core competencies that are common across the organization. They also define the various levels of competencies and assign them to different levels in the organization. This means that the same competency can be displayed in various ways by the employees depending on their position in the organization. 

Different types of competencies

Competencies can generally fall into 3 categories. 

Technical competencies - This refers to the various technical skills that are important for the employees in the organization to perform their jobs at the required level. Technical competencies include aspects like coding skills, knowledge of financial markets, etc.

Behavioral competencies - Behavioral competencies mostly deal with the attitude and mindset part of the job. It includes skills like communication, collaboration, innovation, and more. 

Leadership competencies - As the name indicates, this relates to the essential skills or characteristics that are needed to be people and business leaders. 

This method of segregating the various competencies help organizations to focus on learning initiatives to improve the competency level of employees and also track and measure performance based on these competencies. 

In Keka, the competencies are segregated as follows. 

Core Competencies - These are key characteristics that are common for all employees across the organization. These skills or characteristics give the organization a strategic advantage in the market.

Common Success Competencies- These are competencies that are important for success in the workplace irrespective of the business or the industry. These are key skills that are necessary in all organizations at all levels. 

Job-Specific Competencies - Job-specific competencies are competencies that are essential for specific job functions. These competencies help employees in certain job functions perform their roles at the highest possible level. 

On Keka, you can define competencies for these various categories and also include these in reviews and performance management for your employees. Let us take a look at how you can add competencies on Keka and how you can edit and delete these competencies that you have defined. 

How to add a competency

To view the various competencies or to add a new competency, navigate to Performance from the left navigation pane and select Competencies & Core Values. Select the Competencies tab on this page to see the various types of competencies. 

You can navigate between the Core, Common Success, and Job Specific tabs to see the various competencies that have been defined here in the various tabs. 

You can add one competency at a time or you could also import competencies in bulk. 

Adding a new competency individually

To add a new competency, click on +Add Competency on the Competencies tab. 

On the Add Competency window, enter a Name for the competency, and also select a Competency Type from the drop-down. Also, add a Description/Definition for the competency to define how this needs to be displayed in the organizational setting. You can also add key behaviours that are associated with this competency which helps in further breaking down the competency into specific behaviours. To add a behaviour, click on +Add Behaviour.

In the fields that show up, enter the name of the behavior. You can also choose if this behaviour needs to be included in the reviews. If you select yes, this behaviour will be included in the review forms that you set up when you are running review cycles for the various review groups. 

You can edit behaviours you have added by clicking on the Edit icon next to it. You can also delete a behaviour you have added by clicking on the Delete icon under the Action column on the window. 

To add more behaviours, click on +Add Behaviour again. Once you have entered the details for a behaviour and selected if it is to be included in the reviews, click on Update to save this behaviour or cancel to skip adding this competency. Click Save once you are done to complete adding the competency. 

Adding competencies in bulk

You can also add competencies in bulk by importing these from an Excel file. To import competencies in bulk, click on the Import button on the Competencies page. This will open a drop-down. Select Import Competencies from this drop-down to proceed. 

On the Import Employee Competencies page, Click on Download the Excel Template to download the Excel template that you can use to import competencies in bulk. 

In the downloaded Excel file, you can add the new competencies you want to add along with details like the competency Description and Competency Type. Save the file once you have added the necessary details. 

Once done, on the Import Employee Competencies page, click on the Upload Excel File and select the file you have saved. 

This will take you to the Match Columns section of the page where you can ensure that the columns on the excel file are mapped to the different fields on Keka. Click Continue to move to the next page. In the Preview Data section, you will see if there are errors in the data you have entered on the file. If there are any errors, go back to the Excel template to correct these. Once all errors are rectified, click on Complete to finish uploading the competencies. 

Click Confirm in the confirmation window to finish importing the competencies. 

You can also import the various behaviours associated with the competencies in bulk. To do this, click on Import from the Competencies page and select Import Competency Behaviors from the drop-down. 

On the Import Employee Competency Behaviours page, click on Download the Excel Template to get the editable Excel template. 

In the downloaded template, enter the details of the behaviours you want to add including the Competency Name, Behaviour, and whether this competency should be used in ratings or not. The competencies currently configured in the system will be available in the drop-down in the Competency Name column. Enter the necessary details and save the file. 

On the Import Employee Competency Behaviours column, click on Upload Excel File and select the file you have saved in your system. 

In the Match Columns section of the page, ensure that the columns on Excel are mapped correctly to the fields on Keka. Once done, click Continue to reach the Preview Data section. Here you can preview the data you are uploading and also see if there are any errors in the file you are uploading. Once all errors are rectified, click Complete. On the confirmation window, click Complete to finish uploading the file and importing the competency behaviours.

This will add the competency behaviours to the corresponding competencies and will be included in the review cycles according to the choices you have made. 

Editing a competency

To edit a competency you have added to the portal, find the competency from the tabs on the portal and click on the three dots corresponding to it. Select Edit from the drop-down to edit the competency. 

On the Update Competency window, edit the details of the competency as you wish and then click Update to save the changes you've made. 

Deleting a competency

To delete a particular competency, click on the three dots corresponding to that competency, and from the drop-down that appears, select Delete. Click on Confirm on the confirmation window to delete that competency. 

That's how you view and manage the various competencies on Keka. More questions? Talk to our product experts today!

Related Links:

How to add competencies?

How to add/assign Competencies & Job Functions?