SFIA skills-based job analysis - evolving community practice

Understand what’s in SFIA

The SFIA Framework

• the full framework 
• the A to Z skills list and directory
• the levels of responsibility
• SFIA views
• A3 summary chart provides an overview of all the content in SFIA 9
• pdf versions of the framework, the About SFIA guidance and the framework in XLSX format are available here

Additional SFIA guidance resources

These are part of the eco-system supporting the framework

• SFIA 8 skills profiles – suggested mappings of SFIA 8 skills to common industry career groups. 
• A collection of standard SFIA skill profiles aligned to common jobs and roles
• Mappings to industry frameworks for roles, skills and processes

If you are completely new to SFIA

• Understand the design principles of how SFIA works  
• Take an iterative approach to gradually learn more and more about the content and test by applying skills and levels to the jobs/roles you are mapping
  • The A3 chart and the short descriptions of each skill 
• You are looking to match the activities and responsibilities of the job/role to the SFIA skills and SFIA levels

Principles of skills mapping

Here's some ideas.

1. Focus on doing: It is important to focus on what the job/role actually does. Knowing about something is an important part of the job, but it is different from the responsibilities, activities, and deliverables that an individual is responsible for.

2. Identify relevant SFIA level: Use SFIA to determine the relevant level for the job, based on the complexity, autonomy, and impact of the role.

3. Match SFIA skills to purpose,  responsibilities, activities, and deliverables of the job/role.  Use the content of the framework to identify the key competencies required for the role, based on the level and responsibilities of the job. Select potential SFIA skills for the role.

4. Categories and sub-categories are a navigation guide only.
   • It is common practice for a specific job /role to map to SFIA skills from multiple SFIA categories and subcategories.

5. Levelling:

   • It is common practice for a specific job/role to map to SFIA skills at more than one level.

   • Try to avoid large SFIA Level differences within one job/role. This will help to ensure that the job description accurately reflects the complexity, autonomy, and impact of the role.

   • As a guide - if one particular SFIA skill is 2 or more levels different compared to others, it is probably not actually part of the role. Usually influenced by activities of present incumbent of role. e.g. 
     • Skills mostly Level 4-5 but one skill at level 3 – not core to the role, probably covering for team
     • Skills mostly Level 3-4 but one skill at level 5 – probably covering for manager
   • In some cases - where the job/role implies operational duties (e.g. at SFIA level 3) then do not assume that a person who has management level skills can perform the role
   • Some organisations include multiple levels to cover this - so a hybrid manager/doing role may need 2 levels of the same skills

6. Avoiding "scope creep".

   • Focus on critical skills: Identify the most critical skills and competencies required for the role, rather than trying to include too many skills. This will help to ensure that the job description accurately reflects the key competencies required for the role.

   • A manager does not need to have the skills of all of the people working in their team. 
     • A role can be accountable for the work of the team - but it is the roles that are responsible for delivering the work who need the skills
     • Consider how many skills a CIO level role would need if they needed to have all the skills of all the people who work for them 
   • Why limit number of SFIA skills?: Having too many skills listed in a job description can make it more complex and difficult to understand, reduce focus, overburden employees, and create difficulty in measuring and evaluating performance. When in doubt, leave it out! 

   • Aim for a maximum of 5 to 7 SFIA skills that accurately reflect the key competencies required for the role.

   • Look for a match of the activities and context, not just keywords.
7. A common root cause of "too many skills" is lack of clarity e.g. 
   • In many roles, individuals will collaborate with others and take part in processes involving many different roles.
   • Being part of a process does not necessarily mean you need the skill. Focus on the SFIA skills that are key to performing successfully in the role.
     • responsibilities of the role - (these are the driver of the skills)
     • the need for the role to understand how other areas/teams/roles work - this is knowledge
     • the need to provide information to or get information from other teams/roles - you don't  need the skills they have
     • the need to monitor other's work or ensure they follow appropriate process/standards - you don't need the skills they have
8. Job analysis techniques to aid SFIA skills mapping
   • RACI - focus on the Responsibilities  to find the skills
   • Customer map / "give and get analysis" - this identifies interactions and the nature of interactions with other roles/teams that the Service Transition Manager interacts

Test and learn

Organisational fit

Independent of specific methods, technologies and suppliers

• SFIA skill and level descriptions do not reference or mandate specific methods or technologies 
• But, of course, but these are often a key part of the requirements for a job/role so you may need to add specifics (e.g. technology, method, legislation, sector specifics) to even generic roles in a specific context.
• For SFIA skills - focus on the activities people perform or the deliverables they create with a technology or in a specific context to identify skills and responsibilities.
• You may wish to list specific technologies, methods, standards separately on a skills profile for a job/role 

Job families

• Ensure consistency across roles by considering the levels of responsibility (LoR) of the set of roles.
• Strive for commonality in role titles, but tailor them to specific purposes as needed.
• Avoid creating roles for every SFIA level unless necessary.
• Take into account any relevant industry-specific standards or frameworks, such as the ITIL, NICE, APS

Organisation / team design

• Keep in mind that illustrative roles do not imply an organisation or team design, which is a specialised activity.
• Larger organisations may have specialised roles, while smaller organisations may combine several roles into one job.

Organisational skills coverage

• If you have skills mapped for all jobs/roles and job families - then you can perform a structured analysis of all SFIA skill requirements across the entire organisation, functions or teams within the organisation
• This can provide a good sense check and highlight skills and/or level gaps or duplications
• This analysis should take a diagnostic (not prescriptive) approach to identify gaps and opportunities e.g. It is unlikely that a single organisation would need all the skills described in SFIA so some skills "gaps" are to be expected

Updating existing job descriptions

• A skills-based analysis of jobs/roles can highlight opportunities to improve the content and use of existing job descriptions
• Communicate the updated job description to relevant stakeholders to ensure understanding of the key competencies required for the role.
• Use the updated job description in recruitment, development, and performance management to ensure employees have the necessary skills and competencies to perform the role effectively.

A couple of examples to see if that helps