What is Competency Mapping?

Employees are always considered to be an organization's most valued assets. Competency mapping is a technique that is used by the human resource team in order to determine the qualities of an employee that can be put to use for the betterment of the employee's career as well as the company's projection.

 

The term competency is quite generic, and related to human behavior and psychology. Competency is often defined as a quality of being adequately qualified, intellectually able, and emotionally stable. The concept of competency is basically used to define the capability of being able. It can be mapped or measured by a psychological test, that helps the human resource management department to test the competence or competency of an employee or a potential employee. It must be noted that competency is measured in the employee's quality(es) and not quantity (measurement of performance). For instance, while mapping a person's competency, the question 'when and where' comes into the picture, and not 'how much'. Thus, an employee's ability to perform in a particular field is measured instead of measuring 'how much will he perform'. Most companies use simple multiple choice question tests for this purpose.

Arya Chanakya, a well-known royal adviser and prime minister from Vedic India, penned a famous book known as the Arthashastra, which is probably the first book that contains models for mapping competency, the thesis and theories of human aptitude, intelligence quotient, emotional quotient, and in general, everything that is related to human behavior regarding work, logic, and emotions. This book is an excellent leadership and management book, and is more than 3,000 years old.

It is a process with the help of which the employer, or the human resource team, decides where a particular person would work best as per his aptitude and temperament. There are several factors that are considered during a mapping process. There are also some simple processes that have been made by experts in the field of clinical psychology.

Constitution: Everyone's personality is based upon a definite constitution. Some aspects about work such as a person's ability to work as a team member or a team leader, or even his temperament to work individually are affected by this constitution.
Traits: Traits can be physical and also behavioral. Traits are usually related to the constitution. Knowing the traits of a person is absolutely important, as the management's behavior with every person differs.
Self Concept: Every person has an interpretation about himself and some self ideals. The management bears in mind these simple ideals, even during day-to-day work, due to the fact that, when these ideals are respected the employee tends to remain happy and productive.
Skill and Knowledge: Every employee has different skills and knowledge. Mapping helps the company know more about the person's skills and knowledge. It must be noted that even a simple virtue of being patient is treated as a skill by recruiters.

Several companies have started using mapping tools in order to know more about their prospective employees, or even current employees. On an average, a competency test on an employee would depict skills and knowledge of the person, his ability to work with other people, his constitution, his dedication, and finally, his willingness to work.

The total process of competency management ultimately helps the company in better personnel management and good workplace communication. It is thus considered to be an indispensable management tool.

Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/competency-mapping.html

What is the Bradford Factor ?

What is the Bradford Factor ?
The Bradford Factor is a systems used to calculate a score for each employee's absence is a year. The higher the score, the more disruption the employees absence is causing your company.


Bradford scores are a way of identifying individuals with serious absence and patterns of absence worthy of further investigation. It helps highlight causes for concern and often is one of the starting points in an attendance procedure.
Using the Bradford Factor helps to discourage excess absenteeism and allows managers to compare employee attendance between different departments, as well as across the company as a whole.
How it works ?
S x S x D = Bradford points score

S = the number of occasions of absence in the last 52 weeks

D = the total number of days’ absence in the last 52 week

Examples
Employee A
Has 9 sickdays in a year, 4 are single day absences and 5 are in a block.

S = 1(1) + 1(1) + 1(1) + 1(1) + 1(5) = 5

D = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 5 = 9

score = 5 x 5 x 9 = 225

Employee B
Has 15 sickdays in a year, 3 blocks of five days.

S = 1(5) + 1(5) + 1(5) = 3

D = 5 + 5 + 5 = 15

score = 3 x 3 x 15 = 135

The examples show that B has more sickdays than A, yet B's Bradford Score is lower than A's.
This is because multiple single day absences are considered more disruptive to a company, than fewer longer periods of absence.

97% of Trade Experts Believe That Dubai's Logistics is Capable of Making It a Market Leader in e-Commerce

If logistics companies in Dubai were able to fully utilize the logistics capabilities and infrastructure available in the region, then nothing would stop Dubai from becoming a market leader in e-Commerce. This is not the result of a speculation or intent driven estimation. The claim is being made by over 97% of attendees Jafza Associates Forum 2013, where they affirmed that Dubai is already equipped with such infrastructure that can make the city an e-commerce hub of the Middle east

Key Challenges

You must be wondering that if Dubai is so capable of becoming an e-commerce hub, then why it hasn't already achieved this status. The problem lies in regulations, standards and Internet penetration. All of this needs to be improved from their current levels for making an impact. Now, the improvements not only need to be reflected in Dubai itself, but across the GCC. Without a widespread improvement and strategic implementation, there is limited scope of the city becoming a leader in e-commerce logistics services.
Banks and other financial institutions are also important components of the entire framework where they need to improve upon turnaround times, process quality, and cost effective solutions. These factors are crucial for attracting businesses to set up merchant accounts that are required for maintaining an e-commerce network. Without a merchant account, a retail business does not qualify for selling its wares online. In order to enhance the e-commerce capabilities, it is important for banks to improve the quality of their services for increasing the number of businesses opening merchant accounts in their facility.

Current Modes of Payment

Cash and cheque are the most commonly used modes of payment in Dubai, even though more than 47% of the population is in possession of payment cards. Of all the consumers who use online shopping services, around 80% of them prefer cash on delivery. The reason behind using cash on delivery is the lack of faith in online payment options. People are not convinced about the security of the transactions conducted using online payment gateways. This is also the reason behind businesses not opting for merchant accounts as the majority of their sales revenue comes from cash on delivery payment mode.

The Road to Success

Success can only truly be achieved if the appropriate corrective measures were applied in time and in the right manner. For example, if banks improved their service quality and encouraged businesses to create merchant accounts, then they also need to communicate the safety of the transactions in order to make customers use online payment services along with cash on delivery mode. Dubai already has the infrastructure and the internet framework to allow the establishment of a highly effective e-commerce network. Minor improvements to the regulations, standards and financial institutions would bring about a lot of difference in the potential of Dubai's ecommerce logistics capabilities.