Choosing a candidate for a management board member or president position is extremely important for the companies business. But is it often difficult to compare candidates for these positions because they all have a plethora of various experiences and skills. This article will present a competency model which helps us determine the meaning of information we have gathered in a CV and during a selection interview and then helps us rank the candidates according to the current needs of our company.

Competency model is confirmed by the supervisory board

The selection of a candidate for a management position is influenced by the company's field of business, what stage of development is the company in, any special circumstances the company is in at the time and by the company's culture. 

The supervisory board defines or, at the suggestion of the human resources commission, confirms in what way the company will look for candidates and how it will select the right one. In doing so the supervisory board must also acknowledge any general or legislative conditions which apply to managerial positions. In Slovenia general legislative conditions are defined in article 255 of the Companies Act (ZGD-1) while the specific legislative conditions for certain fields of business are defined in the Public Procurement Act (Zakon o javnem naročanju), Banking Act (Zakon o bančništvu), Insurance Industry Act (Zakon o zavarovalništvu), Aviation Act (Zakon o letalstvu) etc. Supervisory board must also confirm the use of competency model. 

What is a competency model?

Competency model is a collection of traits and behaviors of individuals, which enable an organization to be successful. These include:

1. knowledge
2. experience
3. competences 
4. skills
5. personal traits
6. motivational elements
7. values
8. other filed specific categories of competences.

Example of competence groups and values 

COMPETENCES	VALUE	COMPETENCE NAME
SUM	100 %
A	10 %	Formal measures
B	20 %	Professional competences
C	20 %	Strategic competences
D	10 %	Operational and leadership competences
E	10 %	Personality competences
F	10 %	Organizational competences
G	20 %	Specific competences – knowledge of industry, vision of development

Mathematical calculation

How important an individual group of competences is, depends on the company, the field it is in and on other special circumstances. That is why we define competency model's measures for candidates' evaluation for each individual case. That is why there can not be a unified competency model one could use in all selection processes. 

Every candidate is evaluated on the basis of the competences we have chosen and attributed importance values to. We do that based on specific and current conditions in the company, the industry field and in broader society. This makes candidate ranking a lot easier, however this mathematical calculation of competences can only be an additional tool as the selection has to be performed according to the human resources professional recommendations.  

We prepare questions for each one of the chosen competences and every candidate answers the same questions in a structured interview. The interviewers follow the answers closely and each interviewer evaluates each competence according to a preset scale. When all interviews are completed, interviewers harmonize these evaluations and the results are then ready for a final evaluation. 

An example of competency model in use

In this case we participated in the process of selecting the best candidate for a management board president.

Company

Field: metalworking industry manufacturing company 
Size: 250 employees
Status: stagnation due to economy crisis, sales drop and bankruptcy of two key buyers
Annual income: 25 million EUR

Candidates

Candidate A: 55 years, B.Sc in engineering, has been with the company for 20 years as Head of development, manages a team of 30 expert professionals.

1. Candidate B: 45 years, B.Sc in Economics, MBA, coming form a competitive company where she has worked as a Financial Executive Director and procurator for the past 5 years. Before that she led a successful restructuring of a smaller company from a similar field as its Crisis Manager. 
2. Candidate C: 38 years, M.Sc. in electrical engineering, working as a sales manager in an international energy company and leading a team of 15, generating 40 million EUR per year in sales. 

These three candidates were selected on the basis of selection interview. We prepared a competency model for this particular company and used it to evaluate each candidate's competences with values for chosen competences and sub-competences within each category. 

Competence and sub-competence evaluation example

	Competences – board president	EVALUATION (from 1 to 5)*
Competence	Competence description	Value
A	Formal measures (10 %)	100 %
A 1	Formal education	50 %
A 2	Informal training	50 %
B	Professional competences (20 %)	100 %
B 1	At least 10 years of appropriate work experience	40 %
B 2	References in the field of expertise	60 %
C	Strategic competences (20 %)	100 %
C 1	References for results orientation and goal achievement	50 %
C 2	References for strategic orientation, decision-making capabilities, decision making process and efficiency	50 %
D	Operational and leadership competences (10 %)	100 %
D 1	Style of leadership, processes management, people management	50 %
D 2	Communication skills, team work – as a leader and/or as a team member, positive atmosphere creation	50 %
E	Personality competences (10 %)	100 %
E 1	Personality competences – charisma, empathy, openness	50 %
E 2	Work/life balance, ethics	50 %
F	Organizational competences (10 %)	100%
F 1	Organizational competences – self-organization, working style	50 %
F 2	Delegation and control over delegated assignments	50 %
G	Specific competences - vision of development, knowledge of industry (20 %)	100%
G 1	Broad business insight, integration in business circles	15 %
G 2	Broad knowledge about the industry and general economy	15 %
G 3	Vision of development, co-operation with owners, supervisory board, subsidiary companies and employees	70 %
	COMBINED AVERAGE SCORE
	CANDIDATE RANK

*Evaluations range from 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest. 

Evaluator's summary

Candidate A: Combined average score 3,53 (3rd place) 

Candidate's advantages:

1. knowledge about the company, its products and the manufacturing process,
2. loyalty, 
3. continuity.

Possible weaknesses of Candidate A:

1. a narrower view due to his long-time employment in the same company, potential lack of broadness of view,
2. weak financial and business knowledge,
3. has no sales references and knowledge,
4. has never ran a company and been responsible for its business results.
    

Candidate B: combined average score 4,20 (1st place)

Candidate's advantages:

1. knowledge about the industry,
2. positive references – crisis management,
3. knowledge about finances,
4. leadership abilities (running a company), taking care of the business results.

Possible weaknesses of Candidate B:

1. has never ran a company of this size,
2. has no sales references and knowledge.
    

Candidate C: combined average score 3,93 (2nd place)

Candidate's advantages:

1. technical education,
2. has experience in international business environment,
3. sales oriented,
4. knows the industry,
5. the market knows him.

Possible weaknesses of Candidate C:

1. has never ran a company and been responsible for its business results,
2. has never led so many people,
3. weak knowledge about business.

The competency model helped us to rank the candidates and made the decision the supervisory board had to make easier. According to our recommendations the supervisory board chose Candidate B for the company's management board president.