What is a Letter of Competency?

Have you ever noticed how important are competency and strong headedness for any job? It is not just the preliminary interview that requires you to answer competency based questions but even in your career you may be put through situations where you need to qualify as a competent candidate. Competency test or physician's statement of mental competency is a declaration of how competent and sound an individual is when it comes to performing a task of huge responsibility.

Letter of mental competency template would carry a statement from a reputable physician or an institute stating that the persona is able to perform all tasks with a sound mind and he or she qualifies to be a competent individual who has a high likelihood of delivering greats tasks.

Importance of Competency Letter:

This does sound a little perplexing at start but once you get a grasp of how it works, you are good to go. Competency letters are important because they are a way to make sure for an organization that employees they are hiring are actually productive for their company. This letter is designed and formulated by competent authorities so their word is the final verdict and hold utmost importance for an individual undergoing a test because it defines their path in future.

What is Competency?

Competency is an objective term which means a person having sufficient ability or sufficient prerequisite to engage in a business endeavor. It entails broad terms and duties such as the following,

• Ability to contract something
• Ability to perform a certain task,
• Able to stand a trial
• Able to lead a team
• Able to delegate
• To make major decisions for the company

Simply the word competency refers to your mental and cognitive abilities to make rational decisions. Any person declared incompetent by a competent authority or physician may see himself or herself in deep abyss because that puts his or her career at halt. It surely isn’t in the best interest of the employee having that remark in their career.

How Competency is Established or Ensured?

Most physicians perform following steps in order to see for the organization if a person is competent enough for a certain job. The initial stages of analysis involve constant monitoring and recording of significant events or incidents that have happened in an employee’s career and in their life. The other thing monitored is the individual’s behavior. It has to be seen whether the individual sees things through negative lens or a positive frame. The positivity and negativity of behavior is noted down. The significant events or incidents are further broken down in two categories. Behaviors executed as a result of those incidents and performance achieved eventually is noted as well.

Organizations Conduct Competency Tests:

Not just the physician’s declaration is important but a company’s method of finding it out on their own is also validated in this account. The Human Resources department can on their own device tests to measure a candidate’s competency. There are following ways in which you can see,

Annual Appraisal System:

It should mention an employee’s performance throughout the year and it shouldn’t come as a surprise as well.

360 Degree Feedback:

It should be tested through colleagues’ eyes. The coworkers should have a say and give their feedback on their fellows how they are to them. It entails honest interactions and experiences.

Analysis of Key Performance Indicators or KPIs:

Employees are required to take test that will check for their cognitive abilities and their practical mindedness. Their positive areas have to be monitored. The meeting needs to be under surveillance. If there is a weakness it too shall be highlighted.

An employee’s performance is largely dependent on his or her engagement or interactions on everyday basis with their coworkers, authorities and subordinates. Their relationship with the environment and the business they are conducting is important as well. Their role deliverance and role requirement is crucial. It has to be seen whether they understand it and act in accordance to that. Their morale at each stage accounts to their behavior and the human resources department must take that into notice.

A competency based assessment could also be conducted where the employee is given a set of questions which he or she will answer for themselves. The answers should be then analyzed by a competent authority or a psychologist or a physician. Only they are good at telling how competent is a certain guy or girl for a post they have been hired for and whether or not they require promotion or demotion.

Key Takeaways:

• Measuring competencies is essential and integral part of assessing an employee’s performance on different scales
• Role description or job specifications do identify the competencies but how you evaluate them is entirely objective and evidence based
• Competency is defined and seen through the behavior exhibited. These behaviors hold key strategic importance and they are thought in terms of KSAs which stands for knowledge, skills and attitudes
• KSA provides deeper insight into measurable components for assessment

This story originally appeared on the LegalNotes blog. |Photo.Credit