How to create a competency model for those who are not employees

What if the group you are developing competencies for are not employees but rather a large group of stakeholders? Are there any modifications needed to the competency development process?

Let’s assume the stakeholders are business partners – perhaps channel partners or part of the supply chain.  The process to develop the competency model will be the same, but identifying who to participate (who is a high performer) could be more difficult.  The other complexity, which we also experience when building models for associations, is that not everyone does things the same way or uses the same system.  So while the tasks people need to be able to do to be competent are likely the same, when writing behavioral examples, you’ll want to take care to not be too specific to one stakeholder’s environment.  For example, use “ERP system” instead of the specific brand name of an ERP provider. 

 When letting people assess against that model, consider making the tasks all optional, so that those who don’t have to do that task in their organization can skip it or select N/A.