MCA: assesing competencies

The Management Competencies Assessment is a feed-back tool between supervisor and employees with management responsibilities. The goal of the MCA is to improve the professional competencies of employees in their current positions. The MCA is based on the evaluation of competencies in several dimensions of management, and is not to be mistaken with the performance reviews normally linked to a salary bonus. The result of the MCA depends both on the individual competencies of the employee and on the requirements of the position. The MCA process is usually carried out on a yearly basis, or after a professional change within the organization.

One possible of model of  MCA involves the evaluation of 12 dimensions of management clustered in 3 general categories (Energy, Problem Solving, and People Management), and 3 skill related to the requirements of the specific position. 

The MCA process involves the following steps: 

1. Preparation: both the employee and the supervisor prepare the MCA session individually, by rating each of the dimensions of management and skills of the employee in a scale from 1 to 7 (1: needs significant improvement; 7: significant personal strength). In order to facilitate the following stages of discussion, examples of achievements and performance are provided to support the marks.

2. Discussion: employee and supervisor compare the evaluation, discuss the examples that give support to each mark, and agree on a rating for each management dimension and skill. The development needs are identified at this stage.

3. Development plan: supervisor and employee agree on a plan to improve the weakest competencies. 

4. Review: the result from previous development plans is evaluated. 

An MCA template sheet can be downloaded here.