Hiring is one of the most important and challenging steps in the IT market. In addition to the growing demand for technology professionals, there is also the challenge of hiring the right professional for the team.

In this sense, some technical and personal values are non-negotiable, as we want the best collaborator for the role. And for the standards to be very clear and established, it is essential to define the technical and behavioral skills of the team.

But if this topic is new to you, don’t worry. We have prepared a guide to teach you what the ideal competence mapping is, what its purpose is and, mainly, how to bring this tool to your reality with 5 simple and effective techniques. Good reading!

What is competency mapping?

Competency mapping is a very efficient tool in defining the technical and behavioral attributes for a position within a company. Thus, it is possible to align employees’ expectations in relation to the requirements necessary to occupy a role in the company.

Overall, the ideal competency mapping serves as a guide for the team. Even if an employee does not meet all the requirements, he will continue to contribute with their skills in the organization, but with an awareness of where they need to specialize in order to evolve.

Read: Tips for Programmers: 10 Essential Practices for Professional Success

What is the purpose of this technique?

The main purpose of the mapping is to provide the team’s skills development to define technical and behavioral standards. The standards will allow for a leveling of the quality of employees and, in the same way, define a “minimum bar” of requirements.

With this, the team can work in a more predictable way — since all employees are aware of what they need to deliver —, in the same way that everyone knows what is necessary to evolve to win a promotion in their career.

So, in general, the ideal competency mapping brings more organization to the company as a whole, especially for department leaders and managers, who can hire new people based on well-established requirements, and also develop current employees based on in the core competency matrix.

How to do a 5-step competency mapping

Defining the ideal competency mapping shouldn’t be a big problem in your daily life. It is true that there are some nuances and characteristics of your business routine, but in general there are only 5 steps to use this tool. Let’s see them below:

1. Choose which items are relevant

The first step to start developing team competencies is to know what items are desired in each role. Here, it is important to list all the items that involve technical and behavioral skills.

In the first case, we want to know what are the hard skills that a collaborator will need to have. And by hard skills, we are talking about technical knowledge that is generally learned in courses, workshops or on our own and that can be easily measured.

For example: knowledge of front-end frameworks, data structure, programming logic etc.

Behavioral skills, known as soft skills, are cognitive skills that are normally not learned through external resources. Soft skills need to be practiced on a daily basis to be fully developed.

For example: empathy, emotional intelligence, leadership, public speaking, etc.

In any case, it is important to have both skill categories well defined to facilitate the overall mapping and development process.

2. Describe the expectations of each competency

Once the competencies have been defined, it’s time to write down in detail what the company expects from each of them. And here is the tip to describe the item qualitatively, so that the employee knows what is expected of him.

For example, when talking about a certain programming language, it is important to emphasize the main functions that the developer, in this case, needs to master. It’s no use asking for advanced skills from a junior-level professional.

Therefore, divide each position by level and detail what the company expects within the group of competencies based on experience. For this, ask for help from more experienced professionals and also look at other companies in the market.

Read: Squad methodology: what it is, how it works and what are the main benefits for technology companies

3. Define the measurement scale of attributes

Now that your mapping is clearer, it’s time to define how technical and behavioral skills will be measured. In the first case, some practical tests will resolve the situation, while soft skills will be discovered in interviews about the company’s culture and situations experienced by the employee.

Even if it is not perfect in the first applications, it is important to pay attention to this item in order to create adequate scales for the professionals’ levels.

4. Establish minimum acceptable values

Penultimately, in your ideal competency mapping plan, it’s time to establish what’s acceptable as the minimum yardstick for hiring a professional. We know that the IT market is competitive, but it is not always possible to accept values that are out of step with the organization.

So, keep in mind what the minimum score is for hiring an employee into the company, knowing that an error at this stage could allow unwanted employees to be hired. Take competency mapping seriously.

5. Validate with company managers and leaders

Finally, once your team competency development plan is ready, it’s time to seek feedback from other company managers and leaders. This exchange of views will be important to organize the mapping process and establish appropriate standards.

The third-party validated map may still be far from perfect, but it’s already an excellent start to setting important standards for hired professionals. And once this mapping evolves, hiring will get better and better, as well as teams and, consequently, business results.