Why Workplace Proficiency Matters

Job proficiency refers to an advancing level of skill and knowledge in a certain field.

While someone who is proficient is usually considered highly skilled or knowledgeable, proficiency itself can be a sliding scale of competence when developing a skill, attribute or knowledge.

While performance is measured in controlled circumstances, proficiency is the act of using a skill at any time. Proficiency, then, is the crux of employee training or the desired end state of a test of performance.

We can look at proficiency as a way of understanding employees’ day-to-day performance. If we know an employee is proficient at X and Y but not Z, then you have a better foundation for understanding your organisation’s strengths and skills gaps.

Importance of Proficiency

Learning and development programs need to have a purpose and strive to deliver a business outcome. Outcomes rooted in business goals can be continually assessed and measured beyond the end of a course.And this is where proficiency comes in.

Efficient Recruitment

Use mini assessments to shed light on a candidate’s niche skillset in a standardised way e.g., writing tasks for communications roles. Build a standardised criteria for recruiters and HR to use in interviews to help make culturebased choices as well as performance-based ones.

Performance Evaluation

Very few enjoy the performance review. But proficiency-based performance management ties behaviours to successful goal execution, enabling realtime course correction.

Benefits of Proficient Employees

Maximised Productivity

A highly proficient individual can confidently say why something would or wouldn’t work, which saves their team time, money and duplicate work.

Optimised Resources

A proficient individual knows the scope of their abilities and can better delegate areas of weakness to other employees – or even more sophisticated software.

Increased Profitability

A handful of highly skilled employees are more likely to deliver the results you want than dozens of workers who have, let’s say, a tolerable proficiency. (Quality over quantity always wins out.)

Developing Employee Proficiency

It can be easy to recognise high proficiency in a high-performer, but harder to narrow down how a high-performer develops it.

Proficiency measures competence, knowledge and skills – and competence, knowledge and skills are developed through theory and practice.

By following through on this line of thought, you can develop workforce proficiency in 3 different ways.

Measuring Job Proficiency

If you’re starting from scratch, it often helps to review your onboarding experience. Beyond that, consider utilising self-assessments, routine performance reviews and specific work assignments.

Target Soft Skills

Transferable skills like adaptability and critical thinking bolster chances of employees understanding and applying new knowledge. People have to be willing to change for a development program to be effective. If people aren’t adaptable, they can’t change.

Personalise The Process

Learning in the flow of work gives employees a chance to see real-world implications of what they learn. Adaptative learning utilises technology to adjust learning pathways to accommodate pace, preferences and capabilities.

You can learn more about this topic by checking out the full article:

https://acornlms.com/enterprise-learningmanagement/proficiency