How YURiA-PHARM developed competency assessments in LMS Collaborator
Competency assessment is part of a broader system of employee development. For it to be truly effective, you need not only clear evaluation criteria, but also the right tool, a clear objective, and a single platform where you can track an employee’s entire career path.
This was precisely the approach YURiA-PHARM took to the assessment process. The company’s HR team wanted to consolidate all employee development processes into a single platform and move away from disparate tools.
The solution was to implement competency assessments in LMS Collaborator.
Anastasiia Obertiukh (HR project development manager) and Oksana Kopaieva (staff training manager) discuss how the team structured the process, prepared over 4,000 assessments, and what they plan to improve.
Anastasiia Obertiukh, HR Project development manager, and Oksana Kopaieva, staff training manager, discuss how the team organized the performance review process for 430 employees, prepared over 4,000 assessments, automated key HR processes, and which areas they plan to develop further.
From disparate tools to a unified ecosystem
YURiA-PHARM is a Ukrainian pharmaceutical group of companies engaged in R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of pharmaceuticals. It operates in 50 countries worldwide and has manufacturing facilities in Ukraine, Italy, and Uzbekistan. Today, the company employs more than 3,000 people.
Employee development is one of YURiA-PHARM’s key priorities. It is important for the company to understand where its employees stand and how they can continue to grow. Regular competency assessments help achieve this.
A separate tool was used for assessment, but the team lacked a unified platform where they could bring together onboarding, learning, assessment, and employee development.
“The idea was to have all processes in one place: onboarding, learning, assessment, and further development. This ensures there are no gaps in the data and allows us to track the entire employee development cycle,” notes Oksana Kopaieva, staff training manager.
The decision was made to move the competency assessment to LMS Collaborator, where learning and adaptation processes had already been implemented.
According to Anastasiia Obertiukh (HR project development manager), the key selling point was the ability to view an employee’s entire career path within a single system:
“We realized that it makes sense to use a single system for all processes. This way, we can see the entire cycle: an employee joins the company → goes through onboarding → learning → development → assessment. And it’s all in one place.”
The first large-scale assessment round in the LMS: 430 employees and over 4,000 evaluations
A total of 430 employees participated in the first round of evaluations. Overall, the team distributed 4,098 assessment surveys. The entire process took place on the LMS Collaborator portal, and the preparation consisted of several stages:
- defining and mapping competencies,
- creating job profiles,
- creating tasks,
- assigning performance ratings to employees.
Employees were evaluated based on three competency areas:
- corporate (based on company values),
- managerial (for leadership roles),
- professional, and skills.
A competency profile with specific target competency levels has been developed for each position. For example, a five-level model has been created for corporate roles: from Level A (entry-level) to Level E (senior management). This approach has helped make the assessment more relevant for different roles and levels of responsibility.
Library of competencies and position profiles
Depending on the type of competencies, the team used various assessment models:
- 360° – for corporate competencies. The assessment involves the employee themselves, their manager, colleagues, and cross-functional team members.
- 180° – for managerial and professional competencies. Self-assessment plus manager’s assessment.
Before the full-scale rollout, the team conducted a pilot program with managers using a 180-degree feedback format. This helped them test the process in real-world conditions, identify potential challenges, and adapt the evaluation scenarios before rolling it out across the entire group of companies
“We’ve received positive feedback: the functionality turned out to be user-friendly and intuitive. Given the specifics of the pilot program, we’ve already rolled out the assessment directly to the group of companies,” says Oksana Kopaieva.
The team paid special attention to preparing employees for the evaluation. After all, even a well-designed process won’t work effectively if people don’t understand its logic, its goals, and their own role in it.
So, before launching the assessment in LMS Collaborator, they organized a preparatory campaign:
They developed separate courses for managers and employees explaining the purpose of the assessment, its format, and what would happen based on the results. But the most interesting part was the practical section with a simulator, where participants could practice assessing competencies using real-life case studies.
Preparation materials
At the same time, we held in-person workshops for managers on the purpose of performance reviews, a culture of feedback, and how to provide feedback effectively. We prepared written and video instructions for different roles, so everyone could choose the format that worked best for them.
According to Anastasiia Obertiukh, this was one of the most extensive phases of preparation: “This was a major component into which we invested a great deal of time and resources. We developed several courses on LMS Collaborator. We also held in-person workshops for managers, online training for specialists, and organized a communication campaign. Overall, it was a fairly lengthy preparation process.”
The assessment is complete – now comes the most interesting part: PDP and development
After the assessment, the manager holds a final meeting with the employee. During this meeting, the results are discussed and a final rating is assigned. Additionally, 2–3 competencies are identified for further development.
Next, the employee fills out their PDP (personal development plan) in LMS Collaborator and reviews it with their manager. To simplify this process, the team has prepared some guidelines: for each competency group, there is a selection of books, internal courses, and links to external resources.
“An employee takes the recommendations for developing their skills, assesses their current skill level, selects relevant reading material, a course, or some other activity, and adds it to their development plan,” explains Anastasiia.
Recommended resources for skills development
Since the recommended courses are available in LMS Collaborator, employees can enroll in them on their own. Certificates, which can be uploaded to the platform, serve as proof of external training.
The team also held an online webinar where they explained in detail the principles of creating a development plan, how to fill it out, and the technical aspects of the process. A recording of the webinar was added to LMS Collaborator so that everyone could watch it.
Webinar on creating a PDP
Once a quarter, the company holds one-on-one meetings between managers and employees. They discuss progress, adjust development priorities, and review the status of PDPs.
“Assessment is just one step in the process. Equally important is how the individual development plan is designed and how progress is tracked. That is what prepares students for the next assessment,” Oksana emphasizes.
The next challenge: automation and analytics
One of the key outcomes of implementing LMS Collaborator has been the automation of a large number of processes.
The team managed to:
- Speed up the launch of evaluations by assigning tasks in bulk via CSV files;
- Automate the collection of 360° and 180° evaluations;
- Configure the automatic assignment of assessor roles;
- Automate reminders, notifications, and tracking of assessment progress.
Reporting features have become essential for the HR team. The platform allows them to track the current stage of the evaluation process. In addition, managers can view their teams’ results and work on employee development without having to switch between different systems.
Competency assessment report
Colleagues emphasize that it is the seamless integration of processes that has become the company’s main advantage of LMS Collaborator.
“Assessments, IEP development, and educational resources — everything is brought together on a single platform. It’s convenient for staff. There’s no confusion,” says Oksana.
“You receive a notification, you click on it, and you see who you’re evaluating. You don’t have to navigate to other pages to view the competency description and assign a rating. You see your result right away. All the information and the evaluation are available within a single interface,” Anastasiia explains.
At the same time, the team sees further areas for development.
The main challenge right now is to build a comprehensive analytics system across the entire group of companies. Looking ahead, the plan is to make performance evaluations a regular annual process and gradually integrate all company divisions into a single platform: from automated onboarding emails to storing certificates for completing external training courses.
Tips for beginners
Based on their experience, Anastasiia and Oksana have identified several key principles for those planning to implement competency-based assessments:
- Start with a clear goal. Figure out why you need the assessment and what you’ll do with the results.
- Simplify the competency model. Excessive complexity hinders both the HR team and employees.
- Invest in training, especially for managers. The ability to give feedback doesn’t just happen on its own.
- Don’t conduct an evaluation just for the sake of it. If nothing changes as a result, people will lose faith in the process.
“Assessments shouldn’t be tied to money. It’s not about changing compensation. It’s about development,” – Anastasiia emphasizes.
