Configuring the Competency Sections

The competency section (or attribute section if the instance is migrated to Talent Intelligence Hub), is one of the main working sections of a performance management form. It lists all attributes (competencies and skills) to be evaluated during a review.

A form can have one or more attributes sections, but each attribute ID can only appear once in a form. If there is an overlap, the attribute only appears in the first (topmost) section of the performance form.

Attribute sections can begin in one of the following ways:

• Blank, in which case the user manually adds the attributes to be reviewed.
• With relevant attributes already identified and listed in the form.

Attributes can automatically be populated into a performance form or added manually by the user. Depending on the way an attribute is populated in a section of the performance form, there are four different attribute types:

Job Specific Attributes

Attributes that are mapped to the role or job code of the employee can be automatically populated in an attribute section. When the form is launched, the relevant attributes will default based on the employee’s role. 

If a user’s job code changes and new attributes should appear in the form, a new form must be created. These attributes can be further filtered by the group in which they reside, giving the option to pull only the job specific competencies within specific groups.

Core Attributes

Competencies that are marked as core in the competency library can be automatically populated in a competency section. When the form is launched, the core competencies will default on all employees’ forms. 

Custom Attributes

Attributes can be hard-coded into a performance form template as Custom Attributes, so they always appear for all employees. 

Ad Hoc Attributes

You can allow the addition of attributes on an ad hoc basis. When this has been set, users see the Add Attributes button in that section and can add attributes from the Talent Intelligence Hub.  

If you enable ad hoc attributes together with hard-coded or job-specific attributes, end users can add attributes in addition to the ones that populated based on the configuration.  

The ID is a unique identifier for a competency; when hard coding competencies, the ID is used to define the competencies to be populated. Even though a form can have more than one competency section, each ID can only appear once in a form. The GUID (Global Unified Identifier) also identifies competencies. If a company has multiple locales, this unique number is what ties the same competency in different languages together and identifies them as being identical.

Before competencies and skills can be populated by job code, you must ensure the following three prerequisites are met: 

• The employee data file must have job codes for each employee. 
• Job roles must be set up with the exact job codes as appear in the data file. 
• Competencies and skills must be mapped to those roles.  

If the prerequisites are met, configure the competencies to be populated based on job code either in Manage Templates or in XML.

Configure Competencies Based on Job Code using Manage Templates

Watch this video to learn how to configure the job specific competency section in Manage Templates. 

Configuring a Job Specific Competency Section

In the Attribute section, the Job Specific checkbox needs to be selected in the Section Type as illustrated in the figure Populate Job Specific Competencies. In the Attribute Type dropdown, select Competency or Skill depending on whether the section should populate with competencies or skills.

Configure Competencies Based on Job Code using XML

In the <competency-sect> attribute list, add the following code: use-jobcode="true". This populates all the subject’s job-specific competencies.

Competencies can be further filtered by categories. To add only the job-specific competencies from certain categories, set thecategory-filter-opt into "specified-category" and add the <comp-category> sub-element under </fm-sect-scale>. Remember that the category name is case and space sensitive and can be retrieved from the competency library. 

Note

Specifying that job specific competencies should be pulled only from specific categories is not yet supported within the instance.

Before core competencies or skills can be populated on a performance form they must be flagged as Core within the competency library or tagged as Core in the TIH.  

Configuration of Core Competency Section using Manage Templates

Watch this video to learn how to configure the core competency section in Manage Templates.

In the Attribute section, the Core checkbox needs to be selected in the Section Type as illustrated in figure Populate Core Competencies. In the Attribute Type dropdown, select Competency or Skill depending on whether the section should populate with competencies or skills.

Custom competencies can be hard coded in a competency section of the form template. This can be configured in either Manage Templates or in XML. 

Configure Custom Competency Sections using Manage Templates

Watch this video to learn how to configure the custom competency section in Manage Templates.

In the competency section, the Custom checkbox needs to be selected in the Section Type as illustrated in figure titled Competency Hard Coding in Manage Templates.

At the bottom of the Show advanced options section, select 0 Custom Competency defined. Select To modify. 

Select your competencies from the categories available, and additionally, you can specify the weight and whether the competency will be removable or not.

Hard-coded competencies will now appear below the section type in Manage Templates.

Configure Custom Competency Sections using XML

When hard coding competencies, add sub-element <fm-competency> to the <competency- sect> element, below </fm-sect-scale>, as shown in the figure Hard Coding Competencies in XML.

Elements and Attributes:

The table titled Hard Coding in XML: Elements and Attributes shows the XML elements and attributes of most relevance to hard coding.

Hard Coding in XML: Elements and Attributes

Element or Attribute	Description
Index	Index refers to the location of the section in the template; in this case, a competency with index="0" appears first in the list of competencies within that competency section.
Removable	When the removable attribute is set to "true", any permissioned user is able to remove the competency from the form using the Remove Competency button on the form. When the attribute is set to "false", no user can remove that competency.
<fm-comp-id>	This is the ID or GUID of the competency to be hard coded.
<fm-comp-name>	The name of the competency as it appears in the competency library is populated to the form. This field can be used to add more details, but does not display in the instance.
<fm-comp-desc>	Similar to <fm-comp-name>, this element allows for additional details about the competency that do not display in the instance.

Note

Weights can also be added to each <fm-competency> sub-element, but this is not recommended practice as weighting individual competencies causes the overall calculated rating to be too granular. 

Competencies can be manually added on a form. The Add Competency button needs to be enabled for the end user. This can be configured in both Manage Templates and in XML. 

Watch this video to learn how to enable users to add competencies in a competency section using Manage Templates. 

To populate ad hoc competencies in Manage Templates, navigate to the form to be updated, select the Competency section and under the Show advanced options link, select the Allow users to add competencies checkbox as illustrated in the figure titled Populate Ad-Hoc Competencies.

In Manage Templates, the following configuration options can be set for the competency section:

• Section Name

  The name of the section as it appears on the performance form.

• Description

  You can use this field to provide a section introduction. It appears at the top of the section in the performance form.

• Section Type

  If you choose job specific for this option, competencies that are mapped to the subject’s job code are pulled into the form upon launch.

• Unable to Rate

  Enter text into this field to be used if an employee cannot be rated for some reason, such as being new to the company.

No Ratings in a Section

You can also configure the competency section so that, if there are no ratings in a section, it will be ignored. To do so, set the if-no-ratings-then-ignore-section tag to "true", as in the figure, If No Ratings Then Ignore Section.

You can make advanced settings to a competency section using the following options in Manage Templates:

• Allow users to add competencies

  Select this to allow users to add competencies to the review being rated.

• Show behaviors

  Select this option to allow users to display the behaviors associated with a competency on the form. This is only valid if there are behaviors in the competency library.

• Include the ability to rate

  Select this option to allow employees to be rated by their managers using the rating scale picked in General Settings. Depending on the setting you make here, the following settings may also become relevant:

  • Everyone has their own rating box for each item: Everyone has a rating box and sees their own box next to the employee’s self-assessment. The final score is the manager’s rating. You can grant the final score to any role by permission.

  • Everyone shares one rating box for each item: The form has only one rating box for each item. Permissions are set for the role which performs ratings. Additionally, you can enable a private self-assessment rating box for the employee.

• Include a comment for each item

  Select this to allow users to comment on each item in the section. If you do not select this option, there is no item level comment box for users to fill in.

• Include an Overall Comment

  Select this to allow users to make a comment at the bottom of the section.

The attributes described in the table are available for general settings (XML).

You can use the elements described in the table to change labels or phrasing in a competency section.

Expected ratings provide insight into how the employee should be performing based on a defined job role or job profile. It is used to help calculate the gap between expected and actual performance. Expected ratings were previously available only in the Summary section.

You configure expected ratings in the Performance Management form XML template, using the following tags:

<show-comp-expected-rating="true" show-behavior-expected-rating="true">

As mentioned previously, it is not recommended to assign item weights within competency sections because it makes the overall rating too granular. However, if a customer requests that items within the section are weighted, you can accommodate this request.

The following two <competency-sect> attributes control weight configuration in a competency section: 

• no-weight
  • If no-weight="true", all items are weighted equally in the section. 
  • If no-weight="false", items are weighted according to the weights that you enter for each item. 
• lock-item-weights
  • If lock-item-weights="true", you cannot edit the weights. 
  • If lock-item-weights="false", you can edit the weights. 

You can set item weights to have a minimum ("floor") and maximum ("ceiling") acceptable value within a section. You can configure these limits by adding the sub-element <item- weights> to the <fm-sect-config> element.