University Human Resources purchased a library of competencies through a vendor, Kenexa, following a competitive review of the options available.  While competencies could be developed independently, purchasing a prepared library provided a valuable resource for the variety of jobs at the University.

Universal competencies were developed by a campus wide committee working with University Human Resources and Senior Human Resource leaders from each college and division. The Kenexa library was used to identify the competencies most relevant to University jobs and our core values.

University Human Resources staff also used the Kenexa library to identify common competencies for the job classifications with a job family. Typically 3-5 competencies were identified as job family technical competencies, although not every competency will apply to every job assignment within a family.  Recognizing this, optional technical competencies were also identified that may be appropriate for individual jobs or assignments within a job classification or job family.

The initial assignments of technical competencies to University job families were reviewed with Human Resource representatives from across the campus, along with other experts including some members of the two committees that helped develop and assign staff into the new classifications during the redesign project. Through a series of thirty meetings, approximately 200 people participated in this review process. The insight gained from these discussions led to further refinements and revisions. The competencies continue to be a work in progress, but are sufficiently developed to begin their use by supervisors and staff, particularly for setting career development and performance goals.