How can we identify leaders with the greatest potential? How can we objectively assess employee competencies and turn the results into concrete development plans?
At Croatia osiguranje, these questions were addressed through DNLA (Discovering Natural Latent Abilities), an assessment and development tool that helps organisations better understand the leadership and social competencies of their employees. To learn more, we spoke with Vera Čubranić Bocak, Director of the Human Resources Management Sector. Below, we share the conversation about key insights from DNLA results and explore recommendations for developing talent, leaders, and successors.
Why did you decide to use DNLA competency assessment, and what goals did you want to achieve?
First, I would like to highlight what kind of tool we were looking for when assessing competencies. Namely, we recognised the need for a tool that:
• helps us objectively assess individuals in terms of their fit with Croatia osiguranje’s organisational culture, including attitudes, leadership style, and managerial competencies
• helps identify ambassadors who can have the greatest impact on the organisation and business
• does not measure “fixed”, unchangeable characteristics, but instead provides clear guidance for possible and necessary development
• can be used both for selection and development purposes
We were primarily motivated by the need to clearly structure our approach to the development of middle management, while being fully aware of the benefits of a consistent and clearly defined approach to both selection and development.
In which situations do you most often use the DNLA tool?
So far, we have primarily used DNLA for development purposes, including analysing potential for taking on roles with greater managerial responsibility, with the aim of clearly managing expectations and defining individual development plans. We have also used it to analyse organisational strengths and areas for development, in order to define plans for organisational development initiatives.
We also use DNLA in selection processes, with a focus on teams where an assessment of the existing team has already been conducted. The assessment of potential new team members helps us identify the key competencies that are important not only for the defined role but also for the team as a whole.
Which leadership and social competencies did you focus on?
In practice, we have found it extremely useful to assess social and managerial competencies at the same time and to look at the assessment results from a combined perspective. We mapped all assessed competencies against key managerial competencies, and this approach helps us focus feedback and identify strengths and weaknesses in a clear way.
We do not exclude any aspect, because the complete picture provides the most valuable insight. A development area that has been identified can often be strengthened by an identified strength in another area, and vice versa. A single borderline competency can represent a risk if several related areas are also expressed at a low level. The overall pattern of results provides equally valuable insight into a manager’s profile as individual results for a specific competency.
What did you do to gain buy-in and how did you address potential resistance?
We gained trust through clear and transparent communication about the tool itself, including how it was developed, what it measures, what its purpose is, what the process would look like, how long it would take, what was expected from participants, who would have access to the results, and, of course, the purpose of the entire process, why we were doing it and what would follow after the self-assessment.
It is important that the HR team is the “face” of the entire process, from the introductory presentation and preparation of the manager of the person taking the self-assessment, to preparing for feedback discussions, facilitating conversations during feedback sessions, and preparing further analyses and recommendations. It is very important to ensure that managers are properly prepared because they are the ones who need to understand the assessment results and place them in the context of what is truly important for a specific role, especially when working on development initiatives. It is also important to identify situations where self-assessment results do not align with what a person demonstrates in their everyday work.
What were the most valuable insights you gained from the results?
First of all, we very rarely encountered “surprises” in the assessment results. In most cases, the assessment confirmed previous impressions, while also providing much more detailed insights. In a way, the initial perception received a clearer structure. In cases where there was a greater or smaller surprise, meaning that the impression a colleague leaves through everyday work did not align with the assessment results, the assessment provided an excellent foundation for individual discussions aimed at closing the gap between self-perception and the perception of colleagues and managers.
At the organisational level, it is very valuable to identify shared strengths and common development areas, not only through average results but also through the distribution of results, especially the proportion of very strong (optimal) and very weak results. Additionally, especially when a team is large enough, an organisational perspective enables the identification of ambassadors who, through their example, best represent the competencies we want to develop.
What advice would you give to other HR directors considering competency assessments? What are the most common pitfalls to avoid?
I would say, in this order:
• Have a clear objective for why you are conducting a competency assessment and communicate it transparently to participants in advance.
• Ensure that the team providing feedback on assessment results is well prepared. Our recommendation is that this should always include the HR business partner and the direct manager.
• Plan sufficient time for preparation and feedback discussions and do not deviate from the timeline promised to participants.
• Do not worry if the company’s competency framework is not fully developed, because DNLA assessment will certainly provide valuable insights and an excellent foundation for open discussions about leadership style, individual and team strengths, and development areas, regardless of whether you are completely satisfied with the level of detail in your competency framework.
