Competency: Why Relying on Experience or Training isn’t Enough
- National Safety Services Inc.
Earlier this month, our COO, Nicole Orr presented at the Alberta Health and Safety Conference (AHSC) in a session entitled “Competency: Why Relying on Experience or Training Isn’t Enough”. Nicole, a seasoned serious workplace incident and fatality investigator, discussed how supervisor competency is often assumed and not verified. After years of performing investigations, she has discovered many things that companies are missing when they are hiring, promoting, and training supervision. Below she gives some insight into her experience.
Often, organizations believe that the prospective supervisor’s experience in their given field of practice is enough. They may be required to have a certain amount of experience, qualifications, and education for the role, but that isn’t all it takes for a Supervisor to be successful. Often, there is no attempt to ensure they are competent in all the areas the organization needs them to be. This may be internal knowledge, like company values, vision, and objectives. Or it may be soft skills, such as conflict management, coaching/mentoring, problem solving, communication (written and verbal), and leadership abilities. Not only do supervisors require good interpersonal skills to succeed in the role, but they also need additional abilities that a worker may not be required to have, such as resource scheduling, budgeting, quality, or additional health and safety responsibilities. And, they need to be capable of doing them.
People do not always remain experienced or even competent. Every person needs continuing professional development as technology changes, work processes adjust, industry evolves, roles change, and culture shifts. We all need the self-awareness to recognize faltering or stagnant knowledge in our practice areas. In some cases, supervisors grossly overestimate their ability to perform the role competently.
With increasing frequency, Regulators across Canada are holding supervision personally accountable when worksite incidents occur. Having a robust health and safety system doesn’t protect you when you have an incompetent Supervisor overseeing the work.
Some of the concerning things seen in investigations are:
Some of the ways organizations can verify competency, which were covered in the session, are:
Supervisor competency is not just about industry experience—it’s about verified ability, alignment with company values, and the skills to lead effectively. As workplace incidents continue to highlight gaps in supervision, it’s critical that organizations stop assuming and start confirming competency at every stage of employment. Your Supervisor will be as good as you make them, or as bad as you let them be.
If your team is serious about improving leadership, preventing incidents, and aligning with regulatory expectations, now is the time to take a closer look at how you’re hiring, promoting, and developing your supervisors.
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