The framework was inaugurated through a workshop held recently by FAHR in Dubai, in the presence of HE Aisha Al Suwaidi, Executive Director of Human Resources Policies, a number of departmental directors in the government, and nearly 60 representatives from ministries and federal bodies.

In her speech during the workshop, HE Aisha Al Suwaidi said that the Authority, by introducing the Professional Competency Framework, aims to help the line managers and employees of the federal government, to recognize the concept and implementation of the framework, which would assist them in acquiring and developing their the knowledge, skills and capabilities required to do their job in an efficient manner. She indicated that the competency framework specifications have been linked to the HR Management Information System in the federal government "BAYANATI."

She added that the framework constitutes a major source of knowledge and skills, which lead to outstanding performance and create key performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of investments in human capital. The competency-based framework “includes full explanation of professional competencies and lists the skills, knowledge and behaviours expected from the employees. It will help the federal government in ensuring that employees are hired, developed, evaluated, promoted and managed according to a defined set of competencies using indicators to help identify talent. The purpose is to identify the competency levels for all federal government employees in UAE, in order to achieve the strategic objectives for all ministries and federal agencies, and building a culture of work characterized by high productivity.

She pointed out that FAHR aims to identify standard competencies for all federal government employees, in order to achieve strategic objectives and build a culture of productivity, stressing that the use of competencies will support the federal bodies’ efforts in matters related to  human capital development and management such as training, attraction, recruitment, career progression and performance management.

“This competency-based framework has been prepared to help line managers and their direct reports in the Federal Government line managers and their direct reports to best understand the concept and implementation of the competency framework, thus assisting them to acquire and develop the knowledge, skills and abilities required to carry out their jobs” she said.

She added: "Career and succession planning is a strategy whereby an entity motivates its employees to develop professional growth, and ensure  business continuity through availability of the sufficient numbers of qualified, trained and experienced staff who are well prepared for   horizontal movement or take up upgrade leadership position at any time."

Aisha Al Suwaidi concluded that the competency framework in the federal government integrates with the rest of strategic initiatives launched by FAHR during the last period, such as Employee Performance Management, Training & Development, Job Evaluation and Behavioral Competencies Framework.

Moza Al Serkal, HR expert at HR policies Sector provided a detailed presentation on the Professional Competency Framework in the federal government, explaining that the framework includes the name of each competency, which is usually unique and easy to understand and publish, in addition to technical indicators, the meaning and additional details, the level of skill that describes varying levels of competencies based on technical indicators resulting in increasing complexity of competencies and/or scope of duties and responsibility as an employee moves from his /her current position to the next.

It also includes competency indicators that provide information and details about specific technical aspects of the competency and proficiency levels.  Each proficiency level is described in terms of behavioural indicators. The behaviours at each level of the scale are illustrative rather than definitive; that is other examples of behaviour can be included (knowledge, skills, capabilities).

On the most important applications of competency framework, HE Aisha Al Suwaidi noted that both the line managers and employee can benefit from the competency framework during the process of identifying training needs, or the knowledge, skills and / or abilities that require improvement, based on discussion between them, to agree on specific competencies an employee needs to focus on and develop to the required level.

She pointed out that the framework greatly helps human resource departments and line managers in the search for candidates with previous experience in competencies related to job vacancies at hand. They have to prepare questions based on behavioral and technical competencies for use during job interviews, to help in evaluating the candidate’s knowledge, skills  and / or abilities in order to select the best for the job.

She stressed that the line managers and employee need to discuss and agree upon, during performance planning stage, the objectives and competencies that must be achieved by the employee during the year, as this helps formulation of specific SMART goals  and competencies that are measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.

She also stressed the need for immediate feedback provided by supervisor to employees on an ongoing basis about their performance against the objectives and competencies planned during subsequent phases of performance appraisal, e.g. interim review and annual performance review

4 skill levels

Moza Al Serkal explained that each competency scale is cumulative, which means that, although behaviours from lower levels are not repeated at higher levels, they are applicable. She said that FAHR had identified four competency levels each with distinct skill set. First, Junior/Entry Level:  basic understanding or knowledge needed for the job, basic understanding and knowledge sufficient enough to handle routing tasks, requires some guidance or supervision when applying the competency. Second, Intermediate Level: moderate understanding of job duties, including responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the strategy, and limited cooperation with co-workers. Third, Advanced Level: greater understanding of the institutional environment, operational plans and current strategic orientation. Posses high capacity for analysis to choose options available for work, responsibility for supervising subordinates, as well as taking decisions with wider impact. Fourth, Expert:  The expert performer is able to see what needs to be achieved and how to achieve it. This level of performer is able to make more refined and subtle discriminations than a proficient performer, tailoring approach and method to each situation based on this level of skill.

It should be noted that FAHR had earlier held a series interactive workshops over the past period, targeting representatives of ministries and federal entities to identify lists of relevant competencies for creating a competency manual in the federal government, specifying its most important features, objectives and implementation mechanisms. The workshops were also aimed at identifying the participants’ perceptions and suggestions on how to achieve the maximum benefit from the manual.