In 2021, Fred. Olsen Windcarrier launched its Behavior Competency Framework for both the offshore and onshore workforce. This exciting initiative allows us to define the behavioral competencies expected of our leaders and managers, with a focus on building their skills and creating opportunities for career development.
The Framework promotes fair evaluation criteria for human resource management. This covers the skillsets we see as most important for different leadership positions, how to assess an employee’s current strengths, and how they can be encouraged to build on their own skills, as well as other people’s.
What is a Behavior Competency Framework?
A Behavior Competency Framework defines the soft skills and traits that a company expects of its leaders and provides a roadmap for developing new leaders. Each competency is titled and defined, and markers for expected behavior are listed within a matrix for each position, for example the expected traits of a line manager or head of department.
Within this Framework, ‘competencies’ are described as a combination of knowledge and skills, such as what has a person learned through formal education and through expertise, combined with their capability to act on that knowledge. Behavioral competencies then build on this by helping to know what behavioral markers are exhibited by, and expected for, an individual position, or how a person is expected to act in their role.
This enables an organization to guide its employees through a structured evaluation and promotion process and helps to define the behaviors that will secure its growth and development for the future.
Our Behavior Competency Framework is already proving its worth
What advantages does this bring to Fred. Olsen Windcarrier?
The Behaviour Competency Framework is invaluable to develop both synergy in leadership styles and a common language for communicating our expectations to employees through ‘ideal’ behavior profiles.
Traditionally, leadership was based on a rigid hierarchal structure, however today we recognize that an organization must value both teams and individuals in order to reach its (and their) potential. In an onboard environment, a hierarchy will always have its place, but this approach places greater focus on empowering colleagues in their growth, rather than on immediate results.
In this way, the Framework provides an ideal mechanism for developing the behavioral qualities leaders need to help make this happen. Furthermore, these leaders can identify a crew member’s strengths and areas for improvement.
Career development pathways can then be planned according to personal goals, such as through technical courses or on-the-job experience. As all crew members are, at times, expected to act as leaders in their work environment, development of these specific behavioral competencies is essential to guide people along their career path.
Bringing this onshore
The same principles have also been used for our onshore organization, to link both sides of Fred. Olsen Windcarrier closer together with the same values and expectations for leadership and growth.
Here, as there are many different roles across our offices, we compressed the competency framework into ‘types’ of leaders vs by position, for example Team Leader, People Leader, and Organizational Leader. We amended the framework where necessary to conform to the office environment, which differs slightly in that it involves different strategic and commercial client relationships.
How else can the Framework be used?
The Framework also provides an effective guideline for our recruitment process, where HR can select applicants whose behaviors align most closely with our criteria. In turn, this aids onboarding for new employees by providing a clear outline of what is expected of them.
In addition, the framework can also help with assessing job satisfaction. Verifiable measurements within behaviors can be used for survey purposes to measure employee satisfaction and to assist us in developing further initiatives for continual improvement.
Creating tomorrow’s leaders, today
Our Behavior Competency Framework is already proving its worth by delivering a solid foundation from which to transform good leaders into great leaders. It is helping Fred. Olsen Windcarrier as a whole to speak a common language and clarify which skills are essential for which roles, and to create more defined career pathways that generate opportunities for personal growth.
The initiative is still in its early stages, but so far it has helped us to restructure and rethink how to maintain our constant and positive evolution for the future. We are very excited to see how far it will take us!