How to create a competency model – should Directors and above participate?

“Would it ever make sense to have someone above the manager position (such as a division head) participate in the job analysis workshop?” 

In our experience, this is not a good idea for several reasons. 

(1) When there is someone 2 levels higher or more in the workshop, it can be intimidating for some participants, which could mitigate their input.  

(2) The purpose of the workshop is to identify what the people doing the job need to be able to do to be good and great in their job.  A person who is 2 levels higher is not currently doing the job, and while they may have held that position at some time in the past, they will not have done so recently, and therefore be out of touch with the current realities of the position.

(3) The person who is 2 levels higher may know what kind of skills they want people to have in the future, which should be imparted to the person facilitating the workshop.  You can bring up those topics in line with the appropriate tasks and competencies (e.g., “how do you foresee data analysis impacting the role going forward?”).  This person, not being an expert in the process, could derail the workshop by bringing it up at the wrong time.

(4) One of the things that often presents itself in workshops is regional differences. A high performer describes how something is done in their region.Another person says, “that’s interesting because we do it differently in our region.”And you get these different perspectives that can be aggregated into the competency model appropriately.It will be less likely that someone tells a Director level person that what they said is not entirely true.The quality of your model may suffer.