This site contains detailed skill sets for HMA industry personnel involved in production, testing, placement and management. These skill sets were developed and reviewed by NAPA’s QIC Education Subcommittee.

The purpose of these skill sets is to provide NAPA members with tools that may be used as part of an employee evaluation program. Other items such as the assessment of goals and objectives should also be considered in an employee evaluation.

These skill sets should not be thought of as just an employee evaluation tool but more as an employee improvement tool. The evaluation should be used to identify where additional training is needed, to show employees a career path and identify employees with superior skills who may be used to train other employees. These skill sets provide needed/vital information for career move assessment and is vital for training purposes but not all the needed information for performance evaluation is present as stated above. So be aware of the scope of this assessment/evaluation tool and its limitations as it currently stands.

An added feature, for those who would like to involve themselves in the ISO compliance/registration process, is that these skill sets provide a required tool needed to fulfill one or more of the 14000, 9000 and even the 18000 (when it’s finished) requirements. They help to provide a method to identify needed training (4.4.2 of ISO 14001) (6.2.2a of ISO 9001:2000). They also provide a method to evaluate the competency and the competency requirements for a person performing a given task especially one that can cause significant environmental impact and that may have significant quality impact (4.4.2 ISO 14001) (6.2.1 & 6.2.2c ISO 9001:2000).

What are they?
The skill sets are broken down into four groups with two Excel Workbooks for each group. The groups include:

Plant Personnel
Testing Personnel
Paving Personnel
Management
Each group has two Excel Workbooks. One for data entry and storage and the other for performing evaluations.

Reports:
The evaluation Workbooks include reports that may help you understand how these skill sets may be used. These reports included:

Specific Improvement
General Improvement
General Status
Meet & Exceed
Mastered
To understand the differences in each report you first need to understand how the skill sets are evaluated. Skill sets are broken down as follows:

Major Category
Major Subcategory
Competency Subcategory
Competency Definition and Behavior(s)
When performing an evaluation scores are assigned for each Competency Definition and Behavior. However, required scores are assigned for Competency Subcategories only. A person is evaluated on the basis of their average Competency Definition and Behavior scores for the Subcategory.

These reports have been prepared using the Pivot Table function in Excel. This is best when you have Excel XP or 2000. Using an older version of Excel may have problems with formatting the reports. Before you print any report it is recommended that you click on the gold box (Click Here to Refresh Data and Reset Column Width). This will start a macro that will refresh the data and reset the column widths. Above the columns for each table are dropdown boxes where you can customize the reports. You can go ahead and try them, but it is recommended you save changes to a different file name. There are also hidden columns on many of the reports, mainly column A. You can unhide this if you want.

Specific Improvement Report – This report identifies Competency Definition and Behavior(s) where the scores are below the requirement for the Competency Subcategory’s required score. The purpose of this report is to identify specific Competency Definitions and Behaviors where improvements can be made even if the person meets the Competency Subcategory requirements.

An example of this would be if the Competency Definition and Behavior scores for a Competency Subcategory are 2, 3, 4 and the required score is 3. In this case the average score meets the requirement, but the Competency Definition and Behavior with a score of 2 would be identified in this report.

General Improvement Report – This report is very similar to the Specific Improvement Report. The difference is that it only identifies Competency Definitions and Behaviors that are below the Competency Subcategory required score where the person’s average score for the Competency Subcategory does not meet the requirements. The purpose of this report is to identify where an improvement in one or more Competency Definition and Behavior would bring the average score for the Competency Subcategory up to the require value.

Using the above example where the Competency Definition and Behavior scores for a Competency Subcategory are 2, 3, 4 and the required score is 3, no Competency Definition and Behavior would be identified in this report. However, if the required score was 3.5, both the Competency Definitions and Behaviors with scores of 2 and 3 would be identified in this report.

General Status Report – This is a general report that can be used to show skills that meet, exceed or where improvement is needed to meet the required scores. This is based on the Competency Subcategory scores. This sheet may be modified using the dropdown box for SubCat Status to select either M (meeting), E (exceeding) and/or I (improvement needed).

Meet & Exceed Report – This is similar to the General Status Report except that it only identifies skills that meet or exceed requirements. Used in conjunction with the General Improvement or Specific Improvement reports this provides an overall assessment of the person''s skills.

Mastered Report – This report identifies skills that are mastered, with scores between 4 and 5. This may be used to identify personnel that may be suitable as trainers.

Using Skill Sets
Each skill set group includes two workbooks. The evaluation workbook includes instructions on using the workbooks on the first spreadsheet. It is recommended that you open the evaluation workbook first and print out the instruction sheet.

Note: When you first open up the file you may be prompted on whether or not you want to enable the macros. If you do not enable the macros you will need to update and format the pivot table reports manually.

When you first open the skill sets don’t be intimidated by the number of skills that have been identified. Because these skills are very specific it should be easy to score and less subjective than a more general description. It will also provide you and your employees with better information. You may think of it like going on a trip. If your checklist only includes pack clothes and load car you are likely to forget something. However a more detailed list with what clothes to pack, maps, food, etc. will make the trip more pleasant.

Each evaluation workbook includes example data so you may see how these skill sets function. You may want to delete these data from the data entry sheet before implementing the use of these skill sets.

Customizing Skill Sets
The skill sets may be customized to meet your company’s needs. You will need to use someone knowledgeable in Microsoft Excel to accomplish this to make sure formulas are correctly changed. Adding or changing a skill will require changes to multiple sheets. Most of the spreadsheets have been password protected to avoid unintended changes. If you need to make changes the password is NAPA (all caps). It is recommended that once you make changes that the spreadsheets be protected again. You may use any password you wish.