Talent Supply Chain Management (TSCM) Principles
MRI focuses on defining, validating and communicating foundational competencies that can be demonstrated to be related to job performance.
We have turned our full attention to the solution architecture for a competency-based, demand-driven talent system that aligns employers, educators and individuals.
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Talent Supply Chain Management (TSCM)
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This diagram illustrates the three primary roles in a competency-based, demand-driven talent system. The development of common competency validation strategies and common language to describe, measure, and communicate competencies will enable employers, individuals, and educators to connect in a mutually beneficial talent supply ecosystem.
Employers fill a critical role that drives the effectiveness and enables the efficiency of the system. They must work together to define precisely the competencies related to job performance and clearly communicate those requirements in measurable terms.
Our Competency Model
Recognizing and building upon the contributions of numerous organizations and associations that have published competency models, we developed a simplified model that is comprehensive and incorporates key distinctions that are necessary to thoroughly define job requirements.
Competencies are measurable work capabilities and personal skills used to achieve work objectives. Competencies are sometimes expressed as knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). They are units of capability that enable an individual to do the work well. Competencies give us a modular approach to building human capability.
Occupational Competencies
- Occupational competencies comprise the knowledge, skills and abilities that are either specific to a particular job (welder, nurse, lawyer) or to a broader industry (safety requirements or regulatory requirements).
- Credentials are generally associated with occupational competencies, and the most thorough credentialing organizations engage industrial psychologists to perform a practice analysis and provide detailed occupational competency information. This information is then used as the basis for curriculum, accreditation, assessment, credentialing, and continuing education.
Foundational Competencies
- Foundational competencies describe the cognitive, character and physical skills and abilities required for a particular job or job family. Cognitive and character competencies are sometimes less clearly referred to as “soft skills” or “professional” skills.
- Employment tests are generally based on foundational competencies because they are very good predictors of job performance.
Linking Occupational and Foundational Competencies
Foundational competencies are linked to occupational competencies via job analysis. This linking defines and documents the degree to which each foundational competency is related to performance of the job.
Since employers reasonably expect credentials and employment tests to be predictive of job performance, validation is now and will become increasingly crucial to successful sourcing and hiring strategies.
Validation
Validity and validation are some of the most important, and most confusing, terms in workforce development and education.
Validity expresses a quantified relationship between what a test actually measures and what it is intended to measure or predict. This sense governs the Standards for Educational and Psychological testing.
Validity expresses a quantified relationship between what a test actually measures and what it is intended to measure or predict. This sense governs the Standards for Educational and Psychological testing.
Defining Validity
There are three very different uses of the terms - two technical uses, and a casual use:
- Educators want to measure mastery of content. The test score in this context must be validated to indicate the individual’s mastery of course or program content.
- Employers want to predict job performance. The test score in this context must be validated to predict job performance.
There are meaningful differences between the way educators and employers are using the term, but both of these uses are technically correct. And both have an underlying requirement of quantitative analysis.
3. Finally, validity is also used in a common or casual context. Casual use of the term is improper in relationto tests and credentials.
Additional Notes on Validity:
- Sometimes consensus alone is represented as a basis for validity. This is not supported by standards.
- Validate is also used to indicate that a credential confirms the competencies held by the credential holder.
- When people say, “the credential validates the competencies of the credential holder,” they mean that the credential is an attestation of the competencies of the holder. Accordingly, some publications use the term "attestation" in this context. Hence, this is a casual use of the term validate.
- Educators and workforce development professionals should reserve the terms valid, validity, validate, and validation to indicate validity in line with Educational and Psychological Testing Standards (Chart and Definition above).
Validity and Our Work
We use the terms in our Talent SCM Systems work as follows “employers need to define, validate, and communicate their competency requirements to talent suppliers and individuals.” In this context, we expect employers to use professional standards to validate that the competencies are predictive of job performance. Employers need to connect the two targets of competencies and job performance.
If you would like to learn more about validation, we’d recommend Alternative Validation Strategies: Developing and Leveraging Existing Validity Evidence, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), McPhail (Editor) 2007.
If you would like to learn more about validation, we’d recommend Alternative Validation Strategies: Developing and Leveraging Existing Validity Evidence, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), McPhail (Editor) 2007.
Predictors and Performance Targets
This diagram illustrates two targets that employers need to consider when hiring talent. Generally employers provide a list of competencies in job descriptions and job postings. Rarely are these competencies precisely defined. This lack of precision in describing the job qualifications results in two deficiencies:
1. The position may be over-specified and contain requirements that are not job related resulting in rejection of good candidates.2. The position may be under-specified and allow unqualified candidates to be hired.
1. The position may be over-specified and contain requirements that are not job related resulting in rejection of good candidates.2. The position may be under-specified and allow unqualified candidates to be hired.
Job descriptions and job postings need to include precisely defined job qualifications that have been validated as job-related via job analysis and validation studies. Validated competencies are the appropriate job qualifications that will ensure positions are not over-specified or under-specified.
Validated competencies are predictors that are measurably related to job performance, and so candidates that meet these precisely defined qualifications will perform well. Evidence-based job analysis is needed to align the predictor and job performance targets so that employers precisely and accurately define job requirements.
Validated competencies are predictors that are measurably related to job performance, and so candidates that meet these precisely defined qualifications will perform well. Evidence-based job analysis is needed to align the predictor and job performance targets so that employers precisely and accurately define job requirements.
Talent Supply Chain Management (TSCM)
This diagram illustrates a system map for a demand-driven talent supply chain. The need for such a system has been widely recognized, and our work is performed in the context of the on-going national conversation about Talent Supply Chain Management or Talent Pipelines. As the nation moves toward such a system under the recent WIOA legislation, employers need to be asked to define, validate, and communicate their requirements to talent suppliers (educators, workforce professionals) and individuals.
Career Pathways
Our competency work is generally embedded within career pathways. The career pathway approach “connects progressive levels of education, training, support services, and credentials for specific occupations in a way that optimizes the progress and success of individuals with varying levels of abilities and needs. This approach helps individuals earn marketable credentials, engage in further education and employment, and achieve economic success. Career pathways deeply engage employers and help meet their workforce needs; they also help states and communities strengthen their workforces and economies.”
The above diagram is from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) Alliance for Quality Career Pathways. In 2012, CLASP invited ten leading career pathway states—Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin— and their local/regional partners to join Phase I of the Alliance (2012-2014). CLASP and the Alliance partners jointly developed and provided consensus support for the Alliance for Quality Career Pathways Framework 1.0, which establishes a common understanding of quality career pathways and systems.
We have found the AQCP model to be very helpful.
We have found the AQCP model to be very helpful.
Implementing Career Pathways
This model integrates the education and training needed to earn stackable credentials into the career pathway approach. It translates best practices and policy to a personal level. This tool enables individuals to chart a course from an entry level job, to the next job, and finally to a family-sustaining-wage job.
With a demand-driven, evidence-based talent supply chain management system in place, individuals will be able to obtain the information they need to build their own career paths.
With a demand-driven, evidence-based talent supply chain management system in place, individuals will be able to obtain the information they need to build their own career paths.