Bench Marking Skill

Standards
Reaching out to Best HR
Practices

To What Skill Standards ?

AT&T- HR Departments performance tracking economic value ( people value )

added by measuring financial results such as cash flow, profitability and margins, and
customer value added by doing continual surveys of both internal and external
customers, which focuses on two processes - leadership and diversity. The data
tracks how employees perceive the leadership and diversity processes within their
business collected annually for each business unit or division.
The scores are calculated as part of a manager's balanced scorecard and are used in
calculating salary increases.
Values dealt with the ways in which the manager behaved under the GE Leadership
Effectiveness Survey . A manager is evaluated on both counts.
HR development processes are now getting quantified. RoI on Skilling is also being
worked out.
Challenge:
Low labour productivity harming manufacturing in India: Boston Consulting Group
Lets Discuss on Skill Standards for various of Job Occupations. Electricians Case will
be taken up here for an example.

Human Capital Calhlenges in the Indian Power

Sector,IEMR Report

Typical Operator- Supervisor Manager Requirements

Supervisor

Operator

Level %Requirem
ent

Education

Experience Skill Requirements

ITIs and below, In-depth trade knowledge and skill

1-3 Profile
years of
Professional skills and work attitude
85-90% Current
Requirements
experience
On the job learning

8-9%

Diploma and
above , 3-5
years of
experience

Understanding of latest technologies

Ability to meet daily production targets
Troubleshooting skills and understanding
business implications of errors in
operations
Good team management and
communication skills

Manager

Diploma/
Ability to map business requirements into
Engineering
production process
End-to-end business implications
of operations
degree or
Project and team management
1-2%
above
Provide inputs to training needs of
>5-10 years
supervisors/ operators
experience

 Machinist / Operator as a common Industry Requirement

Welder / Operator Level :Specialized welding depending on product
requirement
Operator for robotic material handling - Wherever Automation is involved
Quality controller Operator / Supervisor
Maintenance Operator / Supervisor
Heat Treatment at Operator & Supervisor Level
Foundry at Operator & Supervisor Level
Specialist (Erectn.&Commg. Engineer) Supervisor for Subcontracts
Paint Booth Operator / Supervisor
Electrician / Supervisor Level Deployed in QC and assembly
Instrument & Controls / Supervisor Level Deployed in assembly &
Integration
Tool & Die Maker / Supervisor Level
Machinist for precision machining - Supervisor / Experienced machinist
with specific training
Hard To find Profiles : For Site Work Safety, NDT, High Pr. Welder,
Riggers, Mill Write Fitter, Gas Cutter, Driver, Earth Moving Operator.

What Are Skill Standards?

Skill standards are performance specifications
that identify the knowledge, skills and abilities
an individual needs to succeed in the workplace.
Critical to improving workforce skills, raising
living standards, and improving the
competitiveness of the economy.

14

What Are Skill Standards?.... contd

Industry based skill standards should be:
Responsive to changing work organizations, technologies and market
structure.
Benchmarked to world-class levels of industry performance and free
from gender, racial, or other forms of bias.
Tied to measurable, competency-based outcomes that can be readily
assessed.
Inclusive of basic reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.
Useful for qualifying new hires and continuously upgrading employees
skills.
Applicable to a wide variety of education and training providers, both
work and school-based.
Based on a relatively simple structure to make the system user-friendly.
A cooperative effort among all stakeholders.
Developed independently of any single training/education provider or
type of education/training provider.
15

Why Are Skill Standards Important?

In todays work environment,
Continuous Change is constant
Todays Jobs require high performance work processes and enhanced
skills for cost Competiveness.
Skill standards reflect changing workplace realities.
Skill Standards - a tool for various stake holders.
Nationally recogned skill standards in Vocational fields is a common basis
for certifying achievement benchmarked to these standards, allowing
portability ( even across Industry Sectors) of skills across geographic areas,
companies and careers and also Internationally.
Skill and knowledge Updation is a lifelong endeavor, forcing employers
and employees to spend more effort, time /money on education and
training.
Skill standards are benchmarks for deciding education and training ,
shaping curricullam, and directing moneytoward highest value education
and training investments
16

Skill Standards -Benefit to Employers

Skill standards establish personnel qualification requirements.
Interviews, performance reviews, and productivity are evaluated and
assessed to a higher degree of accuracy and efficacy.
Employers identify core competencies and workers abilities to
demonstrate competencies.
matching competencies to critical work functions and key activities,
employers can significantly improve efficiencies and productivity.
Performance based skill standards provide a vehicle for varying degrees of
job certainty and the structure for establishing competency-based pay
scales.
Align personnel qualification requirements with nationally adopted
certificates of competence.
Modify employee training.
Simplify measurement of employee training effectiveness.
Assess employee skill levels based on industry standards.
17

Skill Standards -Benefit to Employers Contd

Match employee skills to the work needed.

More easily document employee skills, training needs, and
performance criteria.
Improve consumer satisfaction and confidence through
better developed evaluation skills for customer contact
personnel.
Improve employee satisfaction and morale by clarifying
expectations.
Improve quality, productivity, time-to-market and
competitiveness.
Achieve business goals.
Partner with education and labor in developing school-towork initiatives
18

Skill Standards to Benefit Skilling Facilitators

identify core competencies and assessments for including in the curicurra.
Trainers evaluate the Trainees to demonstrate competency throughout their
coursework
Academia and industry build a cohesive relationship through a like-minded
expectation of student competencies and work readiness.
Partner with business and labor in developing school-to-work initiatives.
Provide effective, targeted instruction.
Develop benchmarks for certificates of competence earned by students.
Communicate what companies expect of employees.
Develop new and evaluate existing curriculum and programs based on industry
needs.
Develop assessments to evaluate skills, knowledge, and abilities in classrooms and
internships.
Develop a common language on workforce preparation with business and labor.
Improve relationships with local businesses, labor unions, other educators and
agencies.
Provide students with relevant career education and counseling.
19

Skill Standards to Benefit Labor Unions

Labor unions can use skill standards to gain support for companysponsored worker training programs and to identify career paths for
workers within companies and industries.
Unions can provide this information to union members and develop
strategies to improve career mobility and stability.
Improve member value to the company.
Provide a greater worker voice in the company.
Link skill standards to increased training and upward career mobility for
union members.
Assist employers to match employee skills to the work needed.
Develop skills-based training and certification initiatives that complement
union apprenticeship programs.
Communicate effectively with employers about worker training and
retraining needs.
Cooperate with education and industry in developing school-to-work
initiatives.
20

Skill Standards to Benefit Students and Workers

Skill standards assist students in making career choices by providing industry
expectations for success in the workplace.
Standards-based curriculum and assessments provide students with credentials
that certify work-readiness.
Work-ready students can anticipate being hired at higher rates of pay and can
experience faster advancement in their chosen fields.
Workers can accurately assess their skills against those required for career
advancement and plan effectively for their career pathways.
Determine the skills and abilities needed for advancement or transfer within
industries, and determine the continuous learning and training they need to
upgrade their skills.
Achieve clarity regarding what they are expected to learn and how to prepare for
work.
Enter and re-enter the workforce with better control of their choices of high paying
jobs requiring high skills.
Accurately assess business expectations of the skills needed for positions and
careers of their choice.
21

Skill Standards to Benefit Students and Workers Contd..

Improve mobility and portability of their

credentials.
Obtain certification of competence of the
skills they gain through experience, school,
training, or self-study.
Enhance their performance and achievement
by self-evaluation against known standards.
Be active contributors
22

Skill Standards to Benefit Government

Governments Policies / Plans for Investment can ensure a better skill match
between workers and employers and initiate education reform to better educate
future members of the workforce.
Skill standards better enable agencies to provide options for career and job
mobility and link learning to the needs of the workplace.
Assist in the development of a highly skilled, high-quality, and competitive
workforce and industry base.
Evaluate the effectiveness of publicly funded education and training.
Increase opportunities for under-represented populations by making public the
information that defines the skills required for success, and by facilitating the
national adoption of those definitions and their use.

23

Skill Standards to Benefit Government.. Contd.

Support the creation of high performance

organizations where they improve living standards
for all members of the population.
Facilitate collaboration between educators and
industry.
Communicate the need and basis for education
reform to business, education, labor, and the
community-at-large on both local and national
levels.
24

Skill Standards to Curriculum: A Continuous Development Process

Standards Documents to Keep update with a dynamically changing
workplace, standards need to be re-evaluated and updated on a regular
basis.
New technological developments impact the ways that workers organize
and apply their skills, including time management and interpersonal
relationships.
Increased technological complexity may simplify some of the job tasks (
automation) but make others more intricate.
Workers are challenged to acquire a broader range of decision making and
customer service skills as well as keep current with emerging technologies.
Ongoing changes like these must be reflected in curriculum in order to meet
the needs of industry, where expectations for workers are evolving

25

Skill Standards for continuous improvement in economic development

Step 1: Skill Standards Identification
Compile and research existing standards in related jobs and careers.
Conduct focus groups to identify critical work functions and key activities,
define key activity performance indicators, and identify technical
knowledge, foundation skills, and personal qualities.
Conduct a survey of current workers to determine level of skills required for
each job.
Develop work-related scenarios to place the skill standards in the context of
the work environment.
Verify the data gathered from focus groups.
Disseminate skill standards information to involved parties from industry,
education, and labor for their review and editing.

26

Skill Standards for continuous improvement in economic development,Contd.

Step 2: Assessment
Develop assessments through the collaboration of industry and education to reflect
competent performance as defined by the skill standards.
Collect evidence of a persons ability to perform at the levels determined by the
skill standards.
Determine present skill level through direct and indirect evidence by assessing a
student, trainee, apprentice, prospective worker, or worker seeking additional
training.
Use products and items produced by the person being assessed as direct evidence.
Gather supporting information to use as indirect evidence.
Assess results using the criteria of validity, currency, authenticity, and sufficiency.
Demonstrate validity using a tangible item or record of action.
Demonstrate authenticity by having the individual being assessed produce the item
or specific piece of a team-effort.
Demonstrate sufficiency by providing enough evidence to match key tasks and
performance criteria of the skill standards.
27

Skill Standards for continuous improvement in economic development Contd.

Step 3: Curriculum Development

o Identify necessary competencies based on the skill
standards information and assessments.
o Develop program outcomes for specific academic and
training programs, including ITC , ITI , and
apprenticeship programs.
o Perform gap analysis to determine changes or
additions to be made to curriculum.
o Revise existing curriculum to better meet the current
and future needs of the industry.
o Develop new curriculum and establish new programs
based on these competencies.

28

Skill Standards for continuous improvement in economic development Contd.

Step 4: Articulation
o Develop models to support the articulation of
program outcomes and competencies between
academic and Skilling systems.
o Establish articulation agreements between
existing programs to ensure portability of skills.
o Connect competencies and Certificates of
Competence with benchmark documentation to
build national portability systems.
29

A Continuous Updating Process

A continuous revision of curriculum and current skilling
methods & verification necessary in view of changing
technologies.
Individual workers must have access to clearly stated
competency goals and direct access to skill
development assistance.
With cooperative effort on local and national levels, HR
can begin to resolve the workforce shortages in the
industry that face us today.

30

A Continuous Updating Process .. Contd..

The costs for industry to train a skilled workforce are considerable. It

would be impossible to total the costs to the energy industry of NOT
having a skilled workforce when you consider the huge investment in
infrastructure, the need for system reliability, the inherent safety hazards
of the work, and customer relations. Both labor and management have a
vested interest in maintaining the skills of the current workforce and in
preparing the future work force.
When developing effective training programs those responsible must
know what the results of the training need to be. This generates
questions. Where do we start?
How deep do we teach the subject(s)? How will we measure success?
Skills Standards answer a multitude of questions. They clearly identify the
knowledge and skills required to perform the identified job.
Skill standards needed for industry careers consistent with the current and
future needs of the public and business

31

Institutes - Skilling, Education &

Training : Responsible for
delivery Employers / Employees
/ Industry feel

Employers : Need
Skilling & Business
Growth move
Achieving together
High Skill
Eco
System

Policies of the
Government : VET
employment and
Industry Policies
supporting High
Skill Strategy

Skill Eco System

Individuals- Invest time, effort & money for
enhancing employability

Typical Operator- Supervisor Manager Requirements

Supervisor

Operator

Level %Requirem
ent

Education

Experience Skill Requirements

ITIs and below, In-depth trade knowledge and skill

1-3 Profile
years of
Professional skills and work attitude
85-90% Current
Requirements
experience
On the job learning

8-9%

Diploma and
above , 3-5
years of
experience

Understanding of latest technologies

Ability to meet daily production targets
Troubleshooting skills and understanding
business implications of errors in
operations
Good team management and
communication skills

Manager

Diploma/
Ability to map business requirements into
Engineering
production process
End-to-end business implications
of operations
degree or
Project and team management
1-2%
above
Provide inputs to training needs of
>5-10 years
supervisors/ operators
experience

Power Sector Global Skill Shortage

Singapore (16.01.2013Report of PMs Office) Main Findings
i.
Attraction, Retention and Frame work to be developed targeted to youth
and mid career changers , extending outreach.
ii. Branding the Power Sector Careers
iii. Coordinated approach to drive manpower efforts
The Median Age in Power Sector is 48 Yrs against Industry Median of 42 Yrs.
Australia calls: Skills to be a global currency
USA:
The average age for workers in the energy industry is near 50, whereas the
average age of all U.S. workers is just above 40.2
At least half of electric utilities technical workforce may retire in the next
5 to 10 years
Demand for 250,000 replacement workers in the energy utility field (20072017) is projected to far exceed current supply -- not including thousands
more needed to fill related construction jobs.
34

 Key Workforce Challenges Facing the U.S. Energy Sector

Rising demand for well-educated and skilled workers Energy companies
are experiencing all of the workforce challenges faced by other U.S firms,
but the problems are more severe than in other sectors:
The average age for workers in the energy industry is near 50, whereas the
average age of all U.S. workers is just above 40.2 Years
At least half of electric utilities technical workforce may retire in the next
5 to 10 years.
Americas Energy Sector workers average 50 years in age. Half are likely to
retire by 2010. Retirements will occur at all skill levels from equipment
operators and truck drivers to scientists and engineers.
Demand for 250,000 replacement workers in the energy utility field (20072017) is projected to far exceed current supply -- not including thousands
more needed to fill related construction jobs. 10,000 20% of the current
number working for utilities or outsourcing companies.
Insufficient supply of qualified workers
Energy production and distribution companies are concerned that younger
workers will not have the skills or experience needed to successfully
35
replace retiring workers:

 Utility employers report that their pre-employment tests reveal dismal

performance by job applicants and an absence of skills essential to
understanding energy technology and innovation.
In a 2005 survey, U.S. power companies indicated that the leading skill
deficiencies among energy sector job applicants were Technical
Knowledge (56% of applicants), Math Ability (54%), and Communications
Skills 54%).
Significant demand for workers, at various skill levels, will occur in
traditional positions as experienced energy workers retire. These include:
Mechanics, installers, and repairers;
First and second line supervisors;
Plant maintenance staff;
Skilled laborers;
Electrical, mechanical, and civil engineers;

36

Global Scenario : Top 10 Jobs That Employers Find Difficult to Fill

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Skilled Trade Workers

Engineers
Sales Representatives
Technicians
IT Staff
Accounting & Finance Staff
Drivers
Management Executives
Labourers
Secretaries , PAs, Administrative Assistant & Office Support Staff

37

Job Location Geographically not

acceptable

4%

Part Time / Temporary Jobs /

Contigent Roles not accepatble

4%

Pay Packages not meeting

Requirements

13%

Soft Skills - Lacking

18%

Experience- Lacking

24%

Hard Skills / Technical Skills Lacking

33%

Lack of Applicants' Availability

33%
0%

5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

38

Language Barriers
Verbal Communication Soft Skills
IT & Computer Skills
Operation of the Plant & Machine
Skilled Trades Certification specific to
Industry
Professional Qualifications Specific to
Industry

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

Global Skill Deficiency Level

39

Soft Skills Deficiency at

Global Level
Decision Making for Solving Problem
Dealing Ambiguous Situations
Detailing
Flexibile Approach
Punctuality & Personal appearance
Team Work - Collabrative approach
Innovation Enthusiast
Skills Interpersonnel
0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

40

Industry - Institution Curricullam allignment

7%

Strenghtening Supply Pipe Line

7%

Benefits enhancement

7%

Skill Shortage Strategies

Employed Globally by
Employers

8%

Enhancing Start Salary

9%

Employee Retention on Hard to find Skills

Developing Skills to Teachable Fit

12%

Broadening Search from Outside Local Region

12%
25%

UP Skilling Existing Employees

0%

10%

20%

41

30%

How widespread is the skills gap today?

The demands of a global, technology-driven, data-intensive,
knowledge-based economy are creating skills gaps across entire
industries including the Power Sector.

The one-two punch of recent fresh entrants of the workforce who

are VET trained or Engineering Diploma Holders are unprepared for
current industry demands undermines the ability of businesses to
grow efficiently and compete.
What is the impact of the skills gap? A shortage of skilled workers
can put the brakes on innovation and growth. The reason: In todays
economy, the knowledge and skills of the workforce are the key to
growing and sustaining a competitive advantage. The
Manufacturing or the Construction cycle in India are longer in terms
of International benchmarks.
42

Conclusions

We should be moving towards building our own team in the

Organization
rather than
Depending on the subcontractors team.
We may think of Strategies to create employment opportunities for
youngers rather than extending the contracts of the existing work force
and train youngers well.
Think of plans for utilizing the existing experienced work force for
transfer of Skills.
Most of the Skilling Institutes are focused on Engineers, but very less on
Supervisors & Technicians.
Recommendations: Lets begin interacting on developing our own
companys Skill Standards and then get it consolidated at regional and
national level

A wake up call for each of HR Manager to Bench Mark Skill

Standards and then India Inc.
for Productivity Improvement

Tick Tick !!
Tick Tick !!

Video Clip

Well said in the Life of Pi

safr hO mauSa ik la
mauSa ik laoM hI mauSa ik lao M hOM .
rahoM mainjala maoM yahaM
haOMsalao hI haOMsalao hOM Aaj,amaanao ko ilae.
Lets all contribute to Bench Mark Skills
Before it is too late and any one says Indias
Glory days are over.

Aap saba kRt&ta ko pa~ h OM.

YP Chawla 98107-08707 ypchawla@gmail.com;
yashchawla@hotmail.com

Fixed no. of days for Skilling

needs - good culture

Strongly
Disagree

Fixed no. of days for Skilling

needs leads to poor Skilling

Disagree

Skilling long lead process

Neither
agree, nordisagree
Agree

In house Skilling Competence

External Skilling
FacilitatorsCompetent
SNA on Perf. basis & needs

0%

20% 40% 60% 80%

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

Skilling Innovation
existent in Industry
Skill improvement
measurement
Getting adequate
Return on Investment
on Skilling