When seeking new resources to meet the evolving needs of their organization, managers tend to prefer people who already possess the necessary skills without the need to make further investments.
After all, no one would want to buy a new machine only to have to modify it in order to make it suitable for use, right? For people, however, the discussion is a little different because, sometimes, they may also be hired based on their potential, because someone intuits that they can grow, develop, and successfully qualify within the company to meet the needs of the organization.
Until the 2000 version, ISO 9001 did not address the topic of competence. Although it specified that personnel had to be qualified based on adequate education and appropriate training, the organization was only required to identify the needs related to these training paths. Competence, on the other hand, is a much broader concept and is associated with what people can actually do and not just the courses they have taken.
In this article, we will examine the five requirements of section 7.2 of ISO 9001:2015, namely:
- Determining the required competence (7.2a)
- Assessing competence (7.2b)
- Developing competence (7.2c)
- Evaluating the effectiveness of the actions taken to acquire the necessary competence (7.2c)
- Retaining documented information of acquired competence (7.2d)
DETERMINING THE REQUIRED COMPETENCE
This first requirement makes competence a prerequisite for personnel whose work affects the performance and effectiveness of the Quality System. Competence, therefore, applies to any work that directly or indirectly affects the organization's ability to consistently provide products and services that meet applicable legal and regulatory requirements and that improve customer satisfaction. This range certainly includes those who meet customers (potential or otherwise), the people who work in the back office and who are involved in defining the supply of products and services.
Also in this case, organizations that begin to work on this point are expected to start from an approach managed based on risks, determining the potential impact on the conformity of products and services and on the improvement of customer satisfaction of a failure to apply the requirement relating to competence in certain cases.
Competence, according to the definition given by ISO 9000:2015, is the ability to apply knowledge and skills to achieve the expected results.
Competence, therefore, does not represent a probability of success in performing one's work but is a real and demonstrable ability. A person may declare that they have a certain ability, but proof of their competence is only demonstrated if, thanks to it, the desired results are obtained.
The requirement relating to competence as we find it in the 2015 version of the standard is not different, in principle, from that of the 2008 version, but its applicability has been extended.
In the 2008 version, competence was only required of personnel performing work that affected conformity to product requirements, while now it has been extended to all people who perform work capable of influencing the performance and effectiveness of the quality management system.
The definition of competence has also changed. A person is no longer considered competent only on the basis of adequate education, training, and skills, but on the basis of what they have managed to achieve.
Determining the necessary competence means establishing the required results or outcomes of a job, from a position, from a task or from a role, the criteria or performance standards to be achieved, the evidence required, and the method for obtaining them. Pay attention to the difference between competence and qualification! The term "qualification" is used to indicate the completion of a course or training program that confers on a person the status of a recognized professional in order to carry out a profession or a certain activity; therefore, if a person has the appropriate education, training, and skills to perform a job, they can be considered qualified.
The competent person may not possess the qualifications of a qualified person, and the qualified person may not possess the attributes necessary to be considered competent. A "competent" person is a person aware of the possible consequences of their actions, real or potential. Education deals with the acquisition of knowledge, training concerns the acquisition of skills to perform a task.
Bringing these two factors together in real situations instead of in class produces experience. If a person demonstrates the ability to achieve the desired results and to put into practice appropriate behaviors, they can be considered competent. In any organization, there are positions that people occupy, jobs to be done, and roles to be filled. For each of these, certain results are required. The starting point is therefore to define the results expected from a job in order to then define what makes those who perform it successful people and to establish the basis for the evaluation and development of skills.
The level of training provided should be consistent with the possibility for the person concerned to achieve the agreed standards. The direct outputs of this process are translated into new behaviors and ways of addressing the different work situations and depend, in addition to the actual training provided, also on the conditions or context in which the person then has to work. For this reason, there is no standard set of skills that applies to a certain professional position in any work context.
It is important to remember, therefore, that the influence of the system in which a person finds themselves having to work cannot be ignored. The constraints imposed by culture, management style, policies, and resources made available can affect people's ability to achieve the expected results. Why is it necessary to apply this requirement of the standard in the best way? Because the jobs that people do must be linked to the objectives of the organization and, therefore, to the individual processes necessary to obtain them. The work of an individual must contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the processes. If we try to decompose a system down to its processes and sub-processes, we arrive at a level where the results are produced by a single person or by a group of people performing a certain job. And it is from these results that the success of an organization depends.
Mistakes made at this level can affect performance at all levels of the system, up to the business objectives.
Establishing the skills necessary for all company roles helps to focus the minds of managers and employees on what are the important criteria for obtaining certain performances within a particular role. This helps significantly during the process of hiring and growing human resources. In assigning certain responsibilities to people, we often expect them to determine what is necessary to produce a good result and to perform the job well, but we are often disappointed. Sometimes it is our fault because we have not adequately explained what we wanted, but, more likely, we have not been able to select a competent person to do the job. We, of course, often take it for granted that, since the person had a certain degree, had been trained in that particular job, and had spent the last two years doing it with satisfaction, they would be competent.
But we would be wrong, mainly because we had not determined the competence necessary to perform the job within our reality and assessed whether the person had reached a sufficient level of competence. When is it necessary to determine the skills to perform a certain job? In several situations such as:
- The first time a new job position is implemented within the organization;
- When there are new job specifications;
- When new process specifications, maintenance specifications, new operating instructions, etc. are made mandatory;
- When studying development plans for the introduction of new technologies;
- When carrying out project plans for the introduction of new equipment, services, etc.;
- When making marketing plans for launching into new markets, new countries, or new products or services;
- When signing contracts in which the customer will only allow trained personnel to use equipment they own;
- When new directives are approved for carrying out certain tasks that involve a renewal of basic skills;
- When an analysis of non-conformities, customer complaints, and other problems requires the search for new skills to improve the situation;
- When it is necessary to develop new design, problem-solving, risk management skills, etc.;
- When improvement is needed to be obtained through gradual change or a real transformation