How to choose the best manager?

HR sector — competencymodel

The challenge

To increase the objectivity in the evaluation of candidates for top HR managers.

Background

Since 2009, the company Wolters Kluwer has been organizing the prestigious Top HR Manager competition. For the first five editions, until 2014, candidates were rewarded on the basis of descriptions of projects carried out in their companies and interviews with the competition’s jury. However, as the competition’s significance grew, its organizer decided to improve the objectivity in the evaluation of candidates for the Top HR Manager competition.

Diagnosis of the problem

  • Competition participants were being evaluated on the basis of subjective assessments, as a result of which people with questionable HR competencies, whose role in the projects presented was unknown, sometimes won.
  • The competition jury did not have a tool for the objective evaluation of competition participants’ competencies, since no such tool existed then in Poland.
  • It was self-presentation skills that determined success in the competition, and not the actual performance in the role of HR Manager.

Solution

  • We constructed a competency model measuring 4 key HR competencies: Cooperation, Initiative, Communication, and Pro-business activities, in line with the requirements of the position of HR Manager
  • We build a Situational Judgment Test for an objective evaluation of HR competencies developed earlier.
  • We prepared a key for the evaluation of competencies, and an application for the online measurement of competencies.
  • We measured the competencies of the competition participants, prepared and discussed a report with the jury (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 editions).
  • We delivered individual reports to all competition participants and provided feedback for requesting participants

Results

  • Creation of the first HR competency model in Poland, tailored to the specifics of the competition and the HR sector.
  • The development of innovative tools enabling the measuring of key competencies of HR managers: a competency test together with key and online application.
  • Selection of the most competent winners in the Top HR Manager of the Year competition, which raised the standing and credibility of the event.
  • A distinct improvement in the standard of competencies among HR Managers taking part in the competition.
  • Over 800 HR managers have had the opportunity to discover the level of their HR competencies.

Case studies

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