Digital profiles per family of functions
About this good practice
With the deployment of new digital tools, the question arises as to how to verify whether civil servants have the digital skills required to be able to perform their work effectively.
It is necessary for each position to verify the tasks that require the use of digital tools now and in the near future and to define the digital skills associated.
This is how we proceeded :
Listing the existing positions within the Ministry and classify them by roles family. We have defined 6 : person whose job requires...
1. rarely the use of digital tools. E.g.: social services contact, HR contact
2. occasional use of digital tools. E.g.: emails, intranet, etc.
3. regular use of digital tools
4. regular use of digital tools in the digital field
5. is based on the use of digital tools in a digital field
6. Supervisory staff
Define digital profiles based on job descriptions from the DigComp framework.
Associate each position with corresponding digital profile in order to align roles and skills.
Assign a digital skills assessment questionnaire (we use Pix) and a minimum skill level to each digital profile based on an average of the required digital skills.
Conduct interviews with focus groups to validate digital profiles and skills matrix.
Refine the digital profiles, role associations and skills matrix based on feedback, and validate it with stakeholders.
This work is a prerequisite for the integration of digital skills into HR processes for recruitment and assessment interviews.
Resources needed
This is a one-off task and resources depend on number of civil servants and diversity of roles to be mapped (7300 civil servants and +/- 270 different roles). The MW-BF has delegated the mission to external consultants and expects the job to be done in 1 year and a half: cost : 800.000 euros
Evidence of success
The mission is not completed yet, but we started a test phase using digital profiles in our recruitment process and see the benefit ot it, for the organization as well as for people.
Potential for learning or transfer
The practice can be replicated without major difficulties, as the methodology is rather simple.
One point of attention is to ensure that employees are involved in mapping the digital skills related to their job, especially when these skills will be evaluated in an annual performance review. This is not yet on the agenda, to avoid any discussion with the unions.
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Ministry of Wallonia-Brussels Federation