Good day, dear friends. I am Serhiy Bondarev, director of data management and director of analytical solutions at the First Cargo Company (PGK). Our company is actively developing, which requires our teams to create new subject areas of analytics, implement transformational projects and create new data processing functionality.

Our team is growing and is replenished with new members. When a team grows out of the size of “two pizzas”, maintaining its former controllability and effectiveness requires some effort. Undoubtedly, the basis of manageability is adherence to standards, planning and development processes. Here you can get carried away, burdening internal work processes to the point of impossibility of compliance, I personally know such examples. But, as is known, the complexity of work processes is a consequence of attempts by participants to hack and bypass them. Therefore, the issue of manageability can be solved differently: not through process requirements, but by managing the requirements for team members. That is, to develop the competencies of team members, while leaving simple and convenient work rules.

The life cycle of an employee in a team can be divided into three stages:

• selection and recruiting;

• adaptation, development and relocation in the company;

• maintenance during care.

Most often, each stage is determined by different types of competences. In hiring, preference is usually given to candidates who demonstrate hard skills, that is, professional skills. Vertical growth is determined by soft skills. In nursing, the retention criteria are usually acquired skills, for example, knowledge of a specific system, especially if they are unique, presented in the singular. Therefore, under the conditions of team growth, the manager needs to ensure the management of competencies at the system level. The competence management process allows you to build a logic of grades and promotion that is understandable for the team, to avoid employees who pose a significant threat to teamwork at the entrance, to ensure the exchange of knowledge and “elimination of illiteracy” – the phenomenon when an employee within one department is not aware of what a colleague does, sitting at the next table. I will share my experience of how it works.

The basis of the system is the so-called competency matrix. Vertically, the competence matrix is ​​the entire set of knowledge necessary for the unit to perform its functions, and is compiled according to the MECE (McKinsey) principle. Grades from specialist to department head are presented horizontally. The target level of knowledge of the relevant competence is indicated in the intersection. This is how we are.

Competencies are presented in three categories:

Hardy Knowledge of technology, knowledge of software, academic knowledge, but not just a tool, but a specific field of its application, which is used in our production process. For example, Qliksense application data model optimization, PL/pgSQL procedural extensions, Postgresql cluster administration on Patroni, load distribution across NiFi nodes, and more.

Soft rocks. There are many of them. But since their evaluation is very subjective, I highlighted several manifesting manifestations that an employee of our unit should have:

• client orientation, in the absence of which the employee’s communication will be corrected by his manager with enviable regularity;

• systematic thinking, without which, according to the “adept of Agile, who breaks processes”, the team will eliminate technical debt for months. Many of you probably have similar examples;

• orientation to the team result (especially important).

Acquired skills. This is specific knowledge that is applied to the organization and allows it to perform functions. For example, knowledge of the logic of the control mechanism of our warehouse, the organization of data of the BI platform, the general production process and the artifacts of the work of the adjacent departments of the department.

For each of the competencies, its leader is fixed – an employee who demonstrates expert qualities. In terms of soft skills, we took existing corporate competencies for the possibility of assessing audibility by colleagues from HR.

Initially, we wanted to use a single matrix for the department, but it was difficult to work with due to its bulkiness. As a result, we made matrices by departments.

Based on the matrix, we evaluated employees and drew conclusions. First of all, we found the competences presented in the singular, while the functionality with their application received a noticeable development and spread. Secondly, we confirmed the fact that the employees of our teams, while significantly exceeding the requirements for hardware and some software, are rather poorly oriented to what is happening outside their team. The result of the assessment went into the KPI of managers for the organization of cross-functional training.

A competency matrix is ​​a good basis for reviewing a position and building a team through assessment. I will talk about my principles of team organization:

• Soft and hard are equally important. All positions require the availability of the necessary software. An employee who clearly does not meet the software requirements will not be selected for us either from the market or from internal rotation. And the higher the position, the more dominant are certain software.

• In order to advance vertically, to the role of a leading specialist, it is necessary to either pump up your hards in the main specialization, or master a related role at the specialist level. A business analyst who knows how to develop BI products is sometimes more effective than two separate employees. The main specialist is an expert in his field of competence who can and knows how to train the team.

• The head of the department must be an expert in at least one of the team’s roles. He must also have clearly expressed team-building competencies. Personally, I am a supporter of developing leaders from among team employees. I will note separately that it is always individual.

Our competence assessment system is well connected with the corporate system of the individual development plan. The employee’s development plan is formed based on the evaluation of the employee’s competencies, which helps to understand the areas of growth and to choose the optimal tools for training and development.

Using the matrix of competencies will give team members the opportunity to pump rocks, learn new things from colleagues and generally improve interaction in the team. This eliminates the situation where the work of the entire team depends on any one project participant and gives all specialists the opportunity to grow. Write in the comments if your teams have competency matrices.