Section 6 — Behavioral Competencies

Based on my understanding, behavioral competencies relate specifically to the Situational Judgement questions of the SHRM-CP test, which make up about 50% of the exam. There really isn’t any new information covered. Behavioral Competencies focus more on mindsets instead of technical information. A lot of this section can be condensed down to “SHRM-Think”. Basically, pick the answer/business decision that best supports the organization’s strategy/vision, also any answer that paints HR as a strategic component in an organization. SHRM’s own vision is for HR to become more of a strategic part of a business as opposed to an administrative part, so pick the answers that support that vision.

Definitely approach this section last, after you have a good understanding of the technical competencies (People, Organization, Workplace). Technical competencies are kind of like cooking ingredients. Simply knowing the technical competencies is like knowing the characteristics of each ingredient, without knowing their limitations, or what they work well with. Behavioral competencies represent the cooking experience gained from actually using these ingredients. Instead of memorizing hundreds of recipes (how to respond to each specific scenario), try to understand which flavors work well together (More specifically, the flavors that SHRM thinks works well together, which is whatever best supports the organization’s strategy). I hope that makes sense.

The correct response to most of the situational judgement questions will depend heavily on the context, so a good understanding of SHRM-think will be your biggest asset.

Behavioral competencies are broken up into three clusters:

• Leadership Cluster

1. Leadership and Navigation
2. Ethical Practice

• Interpersonal Cluster

1. Relationship Management
2. Communication
3. Global and Cultural Effectiveness

• Business Cluster

1. Business Acumen
2. Consultation
3. Critical Evaluation

Overview:

These are things that HR people are expected to be able to say and do given any set of circumstances they may face. Proper responses depend on experience, careful thought, and knowledge. It isn’t enough to memorize facts.

What is important is how those facts can be blended with the situation to produce a proper response or employee treatment. That is called situational awareness. HR professionals must be capable of working with problems within their context. It isn’t enough to say, “You can’t use that written employment test.”

There needs to be an analysis of why the test was wanted by the hiring manager in the first place. Situationally, there may be some valid alternative approaches to the real problem of identifying the talent needed. Behavioral competencies are a critical part of an HR professional’s life.

Leadership Cluster

Behavioral Competency 1 — Leadership and Navigation:

“Leadership and Navigation is defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to navigate the organization and accomplish HR goals, to create a compelling vision and mission for HR that aligns with the strategic direction and culture of the organization, to lead and promote organizational change, to manage the implementation and execution of HR initiatives, and to promote the role of HR as a key business partner.”

“Leadership and Navigation” Contains 4 sub-competencies:

• Navigating the organization: Working within the parameters of the organization’s hierarchy, processes, systems, and policies
• Vision: Defining and supporting a coherent vision and long-term goals for HR that support the strategic direction of the organization
• Managing HR initiatives: Executing the implementation and management of HR projects or initiatives that support HR and organizational objectives
• Influence: Inspiring colleagues to understand and pursue the strategic vision and goals of HR and the organization

Key Concepts:

• Leadership theories (e.g., situational leadership, transformational leadership, participative leadership, inclusive leadership)
• People management techniques (e.g., directing, coaching, supporting, delegating)
• Motivation theories (e.g., goal-setting theory, expectancy theory, attribution theory, self-determination theory)
• Influence and persuasion techniques (e.g., personal appeal, forming coalitions, leading by examples, rational persuasion)
• Trust- and relationship-building techniques (e.g., emotional and social intelligence)

Summary:

Expertise in Leadership and Navigation enables HR professionals to keep their organizations focused on its strategies and goals to lead the workforce talent by creating collaboration and fostering a vision with influence, emotional intelligence, and motivation.

Behavioral Competency 2 — Ethical Practice

“Ethical Practice is defined as the ability to integrate core values, integrity, and accountability throughout all organizational and business practices.”

“Ethical Practice” Contains 3 sub-competencies:

• Personal integrity: Demonstrating high levels of integrity in personal relationships and behaviors
• Professional integrity: Demonstrating high levels of integrity in professional relationships and behaviors
• Ethical agent: Cultivating the organization’s ethical environment and ensuring that policies and practices reflect ethical values

Key Concepts:

• Ethical business principles and practices (e.g., transparency, confidentiality, conflicts of interest)

• Anonymity, confidentiality, and privacy principles and policies

• Codes of conduct

Summary:

This behavioral competency explores the ethical requirements for HR professionals. Ethics plays a part in each segment of HR duties and responsibilities. If HR managers don’t demonstrate personal and organizational integrity, employees are likely to also demonstrate absence of integrity. Transparency, honesty, and confidentiality are key components of an effective ethics program. For some people, ethics is simply doing the right thing in each circumstance. For others, ethics represents compliance with professional standards of conduct.

Every day, an HR professional is likely to encounter one or more ethics dilemmas. How you react to those problems will determine what your organizational culture really is, not what you claim it is. Decision-making is integral to ethics requirements. It starts with the most senior executive and then applies to each subordinate manager, supervisor, and employee.

Interpersonal Cluster

Behavioral Competency 3 — Relationship Management

“Relationship Management is defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to create and maintain a network of professional contacts within and outside of the organization, to build and maintain relationships, to work as an effective member of a team, and to manage conflict while supporting the organization”

“Relationship Management” Contains 5 sub-competencies:

• Networking Effectively: building a network of professional contacts both within and outside of the organization
• Relationship building: Effectively building and maintaining relationships both within and outside of the organization
• Teamwork: Participating as an effective team member that builds, promotes, and leads effective teams
• Conflict management: Managing and resolving conflicts by identifying areas of common interest among the parties in conflict
• Negotiation: Reaching mutually acceptable agreements with negotiating parties within and outside of the organization

Key Concepts:

• Types of conflict (e.g., relationship, task, inter- and intra-organizational)
• Conflict-resolution styles (e.g., avoidance, competition, cooperation, conciliation)
• Conflict-resolution techniques (e.g., accommodate, avoid, collaborate)
• Negotiation, tactics, strategies, and styles (e.g., perspective taking, principled bargainer, auction, interest-based bargaining)

Summary:

Establishing and maintaining relationships is critical to the HR mission and purpose in an organization. Supporting stakeholders in reaching the strategic goals of the organization can make those achievements less painful and more rewarding.

Behavioral Competency 4 — Communication

“Communication is defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to effectively craft and deliver concise and informative communications, to listen to and address the concerns of others, and to transfer and translate information from one level or unit of the organization to another.”

“Communication” Contains 3 sub-competencies:

• Delivering messages: Developing and delivering to a variety of audiences’ communications that are clear, persuasive, and appropriate to the topic and situation
• Exchanging organizational information: Effectively translating and communicating messages among organizational levels of units
• Listening: Understanding information provided by others

Key Concepts:

• Elements of communication (e.g., source, sender, receiver, message feedback)
• General communication techniques (e.g., planning communications, active listening)
• Communication techniques for specialized situations (e.g., giving feedback, facilitating focus groups, facilitating staff meetings)
• Communications media (e.g., phone, email, face-to-face, report, presentation, social media)

Summary:

This behavioral competency highlights the importance of and ability to effectively exchange and communicate information, both oral and written, with stakeholders. When HR information is communicated with clarity and effectiveness, the intended receivers better understand the value and purpose of what is being communicated, be it policies, practices, decisions, or changes. This in turn can have a positive effect with the audiences HR serves, both internal such as employee satisfaction and external such as candidate attraction.

Behavioral Competency 5 — Global and Cultural Effectiveness

Global and Cultural Effectiveness is defined “as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to value and consider the perspectives and backgrounds of all parties, to interact with others in a global context, and to promote a diverse and inclusive workplace.”

“In the context of today’s increasingly global workforce, HR professionals must be able to effectively and respectfully interact with colleagues, customers, and clients of varying backgrounds and cultures.”

“Global and Cultural Effectiveness” Contains 3 sub-competencies:

• Operating in a diverse workplace: Demonstrating openness and tolerance when working with people from different cultural traditions
• Operating in a global environment: Effectively managing globally influenced workplace requirements to achieve organizational goals
• Advocating for a diverse and inclusive workplace: Designing, implementing, and promoting organizational policies and practices to ensure diversity and inclusion in the workplace

Key Concepts:

• Cultural intelligence
• Cultural norms, values, and dimensions (e.g., Hall, Hofstede, Schein, Trompenaars models)
• Techniques for bridging individual differences and perceptions (e.g., barrier removal, assimilation)
• Best practices of managing globally diverse workforces
• Interactions and conflicts of professional and cultural values

Summary:

It is important to consider the impact of global and cultural needs to organizations operating in other countries. Differences in the speed of work and the way in which respect is shown and expected all play a part in how we help our groups develop the common culture we want to have moving into the future. Each culture has positive contributions to make, and through discussions, those contributions can be discovered and highlighted.

Business Cluster

Behavioral Competency 6 — Business Acumen

Business Acumen is defined “as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to understand the organization’s operations, functions, and external environment, and to apply business tools and analyses that inform HR initiatives and operations consistent with the overall strategic direction of the organization.”

“Business Acumen” Contains 3 sub-competencies:

• Business and competitive awareness: Understanding the organization’s operations, functions, products and services, and the competitive, economic, social, and political environments in which the organization operates
• Business analysis: Applying business metrics, principles, and technologies to inform and address business needs
• Strategic alignment: Aligning HR strategy, communications, initiatives, and operations with the organization’s strategic direction

Key Concepts:

• Business terms and concepts (e.g., return on investment [ROI])
• Analyzing and interpreting business documents (e.g., balance sheets, budgets, cash flow statements, profit and loss statements)
• Elements of a business case
• Business intelligence techniques and tools (e.g., online analytical processing, advanced analytics, business intelligence portals)
• Financial analysis and methods for assessing business health

Summary:

Assessing financial impacts of business proposals related to employee management is an important HR contribution to executive discussions and proposal considerations. All HR programs should be assessed periodically using business management tools, including profit and loss sheets and balance sheets. HR professionals cannot have credibility with other executives unless they have this ability to analyze programs using business considerations, business and competitive awareness, and an alignment of strategies in HR with corporate strategies.

Behavioral Competency 7 — Consultation

Consultation is defined “as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to work with organizational stakeholders in evaluating business challenges and identifying opportunities for the design, implementation, and evaluation of change initiatives and to build ongoing support for HR solutions that meet the changing needs of customers and the business.”

“Consultation” Contains 5 sub-competencies:

• Evaluating business challenges: Working with business partners and leaders to identify business challenges and opportunities for HR solutions
• Designing HR solutions: Working with business partners and leaders to design HR solutions and initiatives that meet the business needs
• Implementing and supporting HR solutions: Working with business partners and leaders to implement and support HR solutions and initiatives
• Managing change: Leading and supporting the maintenance of or changes in strategy, organization, and/or operations
• Interacting with customers: Providing high-quality customer service and contributing to a strong customer service culture

Key Concepts:

• Organizational change management theories, models and processes (e.g., leadership buy-in, building a case for change, engaging employees, communicating change, removing barriers)

• Consulting processes and models (e.g., discovery, analysis and solution, recommendation, implementation), including the contributions of consulting to organizational systems and processes

• Effective consulting techniques (e.g., understanding organizational culture, understanding areas and limits of one’s own expertise, setting reasonable expectations, avoiding overpromising)

• Key components of successful client interactions (e.g., listening, empathy, communication, follow-up)

Summary:

Collaborative interactions can be rewarding and satisfying when the impact is measured and found to contribute to company goals. Providing advice and counsel to your clients is one of the biggest roles and most important for HR professionals.

Behavioral Competency 8 — Critical Evaluation

HR professionals are now able to access vast amounts of data to help them in their decision-making. This area of behavioral competency looks at the extent to which that information is gathered, assessed, and used in the decision-making process.

“Critical Evaluation” Contains 4 sub-competencies:

• Data advocate: Understanding and promoting the importance and utility of data
• Data gathering: Understanding how to determine data utility and identifying and gathering data to assist and inform with organizational decisions
• Data analysis: Analyzing data to evaluate HR initiatives and business challenges
• Evidence-based decision-making: Using the results of data analysis to inform and decide the best course of action

Key Concepts:

• Survey and assessment tools (e.g., development, administration, validation of surveys and assessments)
• Sources of data (e.g., surveys, interviews, focus groups)
• Basic concepts in statistics (e.g., descriptive statistics, correlation) and measurement (e.g., reliability, validity)
• Using data to support a business case (e.g., interpretation, visualization, graphical representation)

Summary:

All HR professionals will find it necessary to incorporate critical evaluation into their jobs. Looking past the obvious to what is actually driving people to do what they do is essential. Gathering data, assessing that data, and using the information to make quality decisions is something all HR professionals should be able to do. There is no more “shooting from the hip.” Conscious exploration of alternatives and impact now drive the modern HR function.

Anyone working at the professional level in human resource management is expected to be able to access and interpret information the organization’s leaders need to make accurate decisions about the workforce.