Those in the park and recreation field, like those in most other endeavors these days, are expected to do more with less. Granted we have more and more technology that is supposed to speed up our lives and allow us to accomplish more. We have cell phones, blackberries and handheld computers. But are these gadgets in and of themselves making park and recreation agencies stronger? Most would rightfully say no. So, the question remains: How are park and recreation professionals supposed to increase services to combat the obesity epidemic, meet the increasing demands of the baby boomer population or mitigate the stress on natural resources?

Agencies have increased partnerships, streamlined services and sought alternative funding. But many have not pointedly strengthened the agency by investing in staff development. One way to invigorate a park district, forest preserve, recreation or special recreation agency is for it to become a competency-driven organization.

There has been much talk about and use of competencies in the commercial and nonprofit sectors. In the public sector, the federal government has become competency driven in its hiring and development practices. But public park and recreation agencies have lagged behind in adopting a competency-based management philosophy. This is most likely attributed to a lack of knowledge about what competencies are and how to use them.

The following pages provide an overview of competencies and their uses and offer examples of how agencies may incorporate them in their day-to-day operations.

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What Are Competencies and What Do They Do?

Competencies can be defined as skills, knowledge and characteristics needed to be successful on the job. To clarify, let's examine the notions of skills, knowledge and characteristics as they relate to the issue of on-the-job competencies.

--  Skills are specific observable abilities required to perform the particular tasks of a position.

--  Knowledge is information acquired for a particular area of expertise.

--  Characteristics are attitudes, personality factors, motives or mental traits needed for a position.

Competency-driven organizations ingrain skills, knowledge and characteristics in all management and human resources processes. The main purpose of developing individual competencies is to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Effectiveness is how capable the organization is at achieving its goals, whereas efficiency deals with minimizing the waste of such resources as time and money. In his book, The Competent Manager, Richard Boyatzis asserts that three contributing factors influence an organization's effectiveness:

--  Job demands,

--  The organizational environment, and

--  Individual competencies.

Job demands are the expectations of the job, the tasks performed and the role the employee assumes in the organization. This may be the role of coordinating special events, managing people, working within a team or planning programs.

The organizational environment is a factor that is ever changing because it is the climate and culture that are both internal and external to the organization. Internally, organizational effectiveness is impacted by policies, structure, goals and the role the board assumes. External factors include such things as economic downturns, demographic shifts and other trends and issues impacting parks and recreation.

Lastly, individual competencies heavily contribute to an effective organization. These competencies are not necessarily what a person does, but what he or she can do. As an employee moves from entry-level status to CEO, competencies increase and change. The manager may not use these competencies each and every day, but they always exist.

All three of these factors need to be balanced in order for effectiveness to occur. If one element is weak, there may be flashes of effectiveness, but that effectiveness is inconsistent. Take, for example, the case of an agency that is building a new, state-of-the-art recreation center. The community supports this enterprise project, and a high quality staff has been hired to make the facility financially self-sustaining in three years. But, this agency has a board that is micro-managing the project and all other aspects of the agency. The board's interference is impeding progress. Still, the project is on schedule to open with a full line up of programs despite the weakened environmental factor of the board. For the most part, the staff is able to achieve its goals, but not as efficiently as it would if the board would realize its proper place within the organization. In this scenario, the intermittent periods of effectiveness allow the agency to achieve some of its goals, but because the board has compromised the organizational environment, the agency is still inefficient and much less effective than it could be.

Although this article focuses on the competency element, all three elements - competency, environment and job demands - must be balanced.

Several writers have developed and analyzed competencies for nonprofit and public parks and recreation CEOs, public parks and recreation board members, entry-level employees, recreational sports and commercial recreation agencies. The following table shows some of these competencies.

Sample Competencies for Park, Recreation and Conservation Agency Officials and Professionals

Here are examples of competencies gleaned from research done with practitioners and boards. (The list of sources on page 33 will guide you to more detailed studies.)

Public and Nonprofit CEOs:

Knowledge of business and administrative principles Sound financial management skills Ability to raise funds Understanding of personnel law Ability to recruit, hire and train knowledgeable staff Ability to understand and maintain labor relations Ability to be an effective facilitator Ability to assess the needs of the community An understanding of the community and its cultural dynamics

Entry-Level Employees:

Ability to develop and stay within a budget

Patience and flexibility

Understanding of customer service practices

Understanding of the hiring process

Ability to program activities and events

Ability to conduct program evaluations

Ability to schedule programs, leagues and staff

Board Members:

Ability to discuss parks and recreation with all community

and government agencies Ability to accept other board members' opinions Ability to establish working relationships with other

commission members Ability to work in committees

Willingness to participate in committee and board meetings Willingness to study issues before making decisions Ability to build consensus Ability to set goals and objectives Effective long range planning skills Ability to create a vision or direction for the agency

How to Use Competencies

Competency building has the greatest impact when integrated into human resources management. Assimilating competency building into these processes strengthens current employees and guides staff in hiring the right person for each job. Here are examples of how to use competencies in an agency.

A Competency-Based Hiring Process

Assume a vacant entry-level position exists in your agency. Filling it using a competency-based model requires a well-written job description based on competencies. These competencies can come from research on entry-level positions (see, for example, my 2005 article on the subject in The Journal of Park & Recreation Administration). A competency-based job description does not list vague duties. Nor does it rely on such boilerplate language as "all other duties as assigned." Rather, a competency-based job description

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is succinct, but detailed enough that potential candidates and the search committee understand exactly what will be required of this position. Although a job can never be completely defined, it is important to minimize all other duties by detailing responsibilities.

Once the search committee screens the applicants based on the job description, it develops interview questions that match the job description. These questions require candidates to give detailed answers that demonstrate their competence in an area. No longer is "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" an acceptable question. Any well-seasoned interviewer knows how to deflect the question by pretending to turn a strength into a weakness (for example: "I'm sometimes too organized," or "I often spend too much time double checking details"). Instead, questions target strengths and weaknesses by ascertaining the experiences and competencies the person has. For example:

1.  Describe a situation where you had to work with someone you did not get along with. How did you handle it? (Competency = Ability to deal with personality conflicts)

2.  Describe a time when you had to deal with a difficult member of the public. What did you do?

(Competency = Ability to successfully deal with the public)

3.  Describe a program or activity that you developed that displayed your creativity. (Competency = Ability to be creative and innovative)

In addition to well-designed questions like these, skilled interviewers need to curtail question dodging to allow for a better assessment of the candidates' competencies related to the job.

For each candidate, interviewers should use a rating sheet, like the one shown below, that lists the competencies sought with and a rating scale. This will reinforce that all candidates are being compared on consistent traits. Furthermore, it provides a record for each candidate so that valuable information is not forgotten throughout the interview process.

Once a candidate is selected, an assessment of his or her full range of competencies should be done to ascertain what training, development and mentorship needs to follow. Rarely do new or even existing employees have all the skills they need. Cultivating top performers requires constant attention to career development through training, mentoring and experience acquisition. Competencies can serve as benchmarks for career development. After all, the more competent the individual, the more able he or she is to contribute to an efficient and effective organization.

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A Competency-Based Evaluation Process

Employee evaluation is another competency-driven component. Employees should be evaluated based on their job demands. This means going back to the job description as well as assessing the demands of the job and evaluating the employee based on the specific competencies achieved to perform well. One evaluation form for all employees is undoubtedly a weak appraisal system. Not all employees have the same job requirements and should not be judged on the same standards. Individual competencies should be clearly defined so employees know expectations. This results in a more fair evaluation.

This emphasis on job-specific competencies does lead to many highly personalized evaluation forms. However, to ease the burden of creating a unique evaluation instrument for each employee, you may find that there are classes of similar jobs, such as adult and youth sports coordinators, that are similar enough to demand similar competencies and thus allow for similar evaluation measures. There may also be a set of core competencies that all employees should possess that serve as the cornerstone of the evaluation.

With an emphasis on competencies fully integrated into human resources functions, employees should have skills, knowledge and characteristics to do their jobs well. They should have career development plans in place for career growth. And they should have a clear picture of how they will be evaluated based on job demands. If all staff have these clearly defined components, the entire organization will become more efficient and effective.

The Roadblocks to the Drive for Competency

As with any change, small or large, there will be people who resist a competency-based personnel management system. This may be due to an unclear understanding of why competencies are necessary, what the new philosophy will mean in terms of job demands, how the change will impact raises and job responsibilities or how much work it will take to change the agency culture.

The key to overcoming roadblocks is to involve staff at all levels of the organization. This first step requires helping the staff understand the need for change and how the change will benefit the agency. Not only should the benefits be discussed, but concerns from staff should be voiced. Staff should be involved in establishing the process, from determining what competencies are necessary for each position to clearly defining what the competencies are. It is essential that tangible products result, so the group can see their work in action. These may come in the form of new job descriptions, evaluation forms and professional development plans. The best strategy to effect this change is to keep communication flowing though all levels of the organization.

Some readers may be thinking that there is no way that the human resources department would implement such a process or that it is too much work. However, competencies are not a new concept. They have been around since the 1970s and have grown in prominence over time. The private sector has used competencies for decades (e.g., IBM). The nonprofit sector as a whole uses competencies to develop staff, and, most recently, the public sector

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has started looking at the value of competencies. For example, the California Park and Recreation Society is on the cutting edge of competency development and use. The CPRS has developed competencies that park and recreation professionals have and will need in the future, and the association is using a leadership development process to help practitioners identify their strengths and development areas. CPRS's purpose is to elevate the competencies of its professionals to meet the current and future demands of the field (see http://www.peopleassets.net/cprs/).

The value of competencies is in developing a more efficient and effective workforce. When park and recreation agencies are asked to do more with less, they need to know that they have developed - and can rely on - a highly skilled staff. Agencies cannot afford to make bad hires, have a staff person who is not as skilled as needed or have staff members who do not continue to grow to reach their potential. Competencies address all of these issues.

If becoming competency driven is too time consuming for your agency, start with one piece. Create it. Implement it. Evaluate and change it. If it works, add another piece. If not, try something else. A system that has had as much attention as competencies in all three sectors must have some merit to it. It just needs to be customized to your agency so that it works for you.

Dr. Amy R. Hurd, CPRP, is an associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and Recreation at Illinois State University. Her co-authored book Leisure Services Management will be published in 2008.

Resources

Barcelona, B & Ross, C. M. (2004). An analysis of perceived competencies recreational sports administrators. Journal of Park & Recreation Administration, 22, 25-42.

Boyatzis, R. E. (1982). The competent manager: A model for effective performance. New York : Wiley Publishing.

California Park and Recreation Society: http://www.peopleassets.net/cprs/

Hammersley, C. H., & Tynon, J. F. (1998). Job competencies of entry level resort and commercial recreation professionals. Journal of Applied Recreation Research, 23, 3, 225-241.

Hurd, A. R. (2005). Competency development for entry level public park and recreation professionals. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 23, 45-62.

Hurd, A. R. (2004). Competency development for board members in public parks and recreation agencies. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 22, 43-61.

Hurd, A. R. & McLean, D. D. (2004). An analysis of perceived competencies of CEOs in public parks and recreation agencies. Managing Leisure, 9, 96-110.

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