What were the concrete objectives with the framework of competencies?

• To see what the logistics jobs recover in the companies. What are the tasks and activities performed by logisticians? What factors are influencing the logistics jobs?
• Identify and define of competencies required is necessary to enlarge the transparency of the professionalisation process. Competencies have to be developed according to the companies expressed training needs. Which qualifications are required?
• To reach a better understanding about the interrelationships of logistics related jobs and possible career opportunities.

For reasons of complexity, the scope had to be reduced and focused on two selected logistical functions in the context of the NOVALOG project: one is the warehouse function with the respective jobs of a forklift driver, order picker and warehouse operator, another is the logistical assistance function with jobs like the logistics analyst, the logistics engineer and the logistics controller were analysed.

Design of the framework of competencies

The framework of competencies for logistics jobs of both functions, appart from the tasks and activities' description, also includes the distribution between fields of activity, a description of the competencies and skills required to perform these jobs.
This framework is built on the basis of the influential factors that design the jobs contents (country, sector, company organisation, company type) and of the training needs.

Elaborating the framework of competencies

Common competencies have been defined as well as specific ones referring to job influencing criteria.

Influencing Factors selected

The reflection of national situations is obvious to get a European-wide picture of the occupational pattern in logistics. This territorial coverage integrates six sectors considered to be leading sectors in logistics - road freight transport, wholesale/retail, telecommunications, automobile, electronics/high-tech, chemicals. Last, the companies diversity is taken into account by several indicators, such as companies' size and type.

The Jobs analysis process

The data analysis of companies allows a job analysis relating the activities and the required performance level. For each job, the post and the working conditions have been linked with the required demands of the visited companies. Tasks and competencies are therefore analysed in the real context of their professional background.

Job analysis

In order to analyse the performance in relation with the resources, the distinction between competencies is the following:

• The technical competencies, which can be obtained easily and are directly related to the function of a certain workstation.
• The relational competencies, which result from the necessity to interrelate with other people and to understand the importance and role of the job in the whole working context.
• The competencies related to the procedures: they include the ability of self-organized work and to deal with uncertainties e.g. trouble shooting in terms of variations from the normal process.
• The "personal" competencies, which consider the working conditions to be taken into account by the employees.

Locating the functions/jobs analysed in the logistics system

Logistics jobs are by their nature difficult to locate and identify among all the jobs represented in the companies visited. A number of interviewees in companies had difficulty identifying or isolating jobs that were strictly "logistic" in their own companies.
Interviewing in the companies fulfilled this first function, viz. locating the jobs. Locating the jobs in relation to the logistics system produced the following result:

Locating the functions/jobs analysed in the logistics system

Having looked at their position in the logistics chain, jobs have been characterised according to the following criteria: job emphasis, mobility aspects, job accessibility (vocational training, experience...).

Mapping the 2 functions

This global overview of the jobs allows their location according to the main common trends for both functions.
For example, the criteria "job emphasis" is associated to the way jobs take part to the logistics process:

• a strategic level
• a project-based level
• an operational level

Vocational training (both continuous and initial) is specified, as is the level of experience required. This dimension is crucial in logistics, as it is a field that constantly seeks flexibility. The labour market is in tense, with the offer frequently remaining unsatisfied (substantial increase in the number of load handling jobs).

The empirical research gives new elements:

• A trend of logistics to cover a broader spectrum of jobs that are specific, in the warehousing function as in the assistance function.
• A common tendency of flexibility and the polyvalence for these jobs, particularly in warehouse related jobs.

These elements being observed:

• The gathering of similar jobs together in one "reference" job. Example: the reference job of warehosue operator gathers the job of forklift drover or order picker.
• For the assistance function, the situation is the same: the reference job of logistics analyst could gather jobs requiring more qualifications or more experience, like the logistics engineer of the logistics controller.