What are competencies?

In Factorial, competencies are the combination of learned skills and inherent qualities that impact how well a person can perform a specific job. They help standardize what “good performance” looks like in your company and are used in performance reviews and role definitions.

How to Create Competency Groups

Competency groups help you organize related competencies into categories, such as Soft Skills, Leadership, or Technical Skills. Grouping competencies makes it easier to manage them and improves the experience during performance reviews by providing structure and clarity. Example of common competency groups: Soft Skills, Leadership, Technical Skills, Management, Values.

1. Go to the Performance section from the sidebar
2. Click on the Competencies tab
3. Select the Groups sub-tab
4. Click on + Add group (top right)
5. In the popup, enter a group name (e.g., Soft Skills)
6. Click Add group

How to Create a New Competency

1. Go to the sidebar and click on Performance
2. In the top navigation bar, go to the Competencies tab
3. Click on + New Competency
4. A popup will open where you'll follow two simple steps:
   1. Basic Information
      1. Competency group: Select an existing group (e.g., Leadership, Soft skills, Technical skills) or create a new one.
      2. Name: Give your competency a clear, descriptive name.
      3. Description: Describe what this competency involves and why it's relevant.
   2. Audience. Define who this competency applies to:
      1. You can assign it to everyone in the company.
      2. Or select specific jobs (e.g., Marketing, Engineer, Manager).
5. When you’re done, click Create and assign competency

How to delete/archive/edit a competency?

To delete a competency:

1. On your sidebar, click on Performance
2. Click on Competencies
3. Click on (...) of the competency of your choice
4. Press Delete
5. Proceed

To edit a competency:

1. On your sidebar, click on Performance
2. Click on Competencies
3. Click on (...) of the competency of your choice
4. Press Edit competency
5. Apply the changes
6. Press Save

To duplicate a competency:

1. On your sidebar, click on Performance
2. Click on Competencies
3. Click on (...) of the competency of your choice
4. Press Duplicate competency
5. Click on Duplicate

How Are Competencies Evaluated?

Competencies are evaluated as part of a Performance Review. Once competencies have been created and assigned to specific job roles, they can be included in evaluations to assess employees based on the skills and attributes relevant to their position.

Requirements for Competency Evaluation

To evaluate competencies within a performance review, the following conditions must be met:

• The review must have competency assessment enabled
   

• Competencies must be assigned to job roles. Each competency is linked to specific job positions or to the entire company. This means that when a review is launched:
  • Each employee will be evaluated only on the competencies assigned to their role.
    • For example, if the competency Leadership is linked to the Manager role, only employees in the Manager role will be evaluated on that competency.

What You’ll See in a Draft Review

In a draft review, you’ll see a note indicating that competencies will be evaluated—but you won’t yet see which ones. This is because the competencies shown depend on the roles assigned to each employee. Once employees are added to the review, their associated competencies will appear accordingly.

Scoring and Evaluation Scale

To configure the competencies score scale:

1. In your sidebar, go to Settings 
2. In people, click on Review  
3. Choose the Scoring scale
   • You can choose a numeric scale:
     • 1 to 4
     • 1 to 5
     • 1 to 10

Where Can You See Competency Evaluation Results?

Once the performance review has been submitted, each participant will be able to view the results of the competency evaluation. This includes both the manager's assessment and the self-evaluation provided by the employee.

The results are visible within each review, specifically in the Action Plan section. There, you’ll find:

• A list of competencies that were evaluated.
• The scores given by both the manager and the employee (if self-review was enabled).
• Visual indicators showing how aligned or different the evaluations are.

Competency Graph

The competencies are also displayed in a graphical format, where:

• Colors represent different scorings (e.g., manager vs. employee).
• You can quickly identify gaps or alignments between evaluations.
• This helps inform the development plan and follow-up conversations.