MHRM 6902 Week 1 SHRM BASK Self-Assessment Example

Shown, Partly Shown or Claimed Only: A Self-Assessment Against the SHRM BASK That Rates What an HR Generalist Can Prove Today Rather Than How Capable She Feels

Student Name

Walden University

MHRM 6902: Capstone: Meeting SHRM Competencies

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Shown, Partly Shown or Claimed Only: A Self-Assessment Against the SHRM BASK That Rates What an HR Generalist Can Prove Today Rather Than How Capable She Feels

Why Evidence Ratings Instead of a Scale

I have worked in human resources for six years, the last four as the only HR generalist at Sorrel Ridge Residential, a composite property management company with about 410 employees across 31 apartment communities in Arizona and New Mexico. Given a five-point scale and the list of SHRM competencies, I would produce a table of fours, and the table would tell a reader almost nothing. Dunning et al. (2004) reviewed decades of studies showing that people's ratings of their own skill track their actual performance only loosely, and that the gap is widest where feedback is rare. HR generalists in small departments receive little structured feedback, so a confidence scale is the wrong instrument for me.

This self-assessment uses three evidence ratings instead. "Shown" means a specific piece of my work exists today that a stranger could read and judge. "Partly shown" means an artifact exists but reaches only some of what the competency covers. "Claimed only" means I believe I can do it but could hand a reader nothing. Eva and Regehr (2005) argue that self-assessment becomes useful when it is treated as a search for external information rather than as an inward judgment, and the three ratings force that search for every row.

The Standard and Its Order

The rows follow the SHRM Body of Applied Skills and Knowledge in the edition the course assigns (Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM], 2022): the leadership cluster, the interpersonal cluster and the business cluster of behavioral competencies, followed by the three domains of HR expertise. I kept the published order instead of sorting by strength, because a sorted table would invite me to read my strengths first and stop. The newer edition folds Global Mindset into a broader competency, but the course uses the edition named here, and the portfolio will cite that one throughout.

Ratings

Table 1

Evidence Ratings Against the SHRM BASK, Week 1 Baseline

Composite generalist and organization. Ratings record what evidence existed when the term began; they do not measure ability.

Reading the Table

Two rows rate shown on the behavioral side. Communication rests on the benefits guide I wrote in Spanish and English for maintenance crews, along with the slides from nine sessions. Analytical Aptitude rests on a turnover analysis I built from two years of leasing agent exit dates. Both artifacts are mine, dated and readable. Even so, a shown rating is only as strong as the artifact behind it, and I suspect the turnover analysis will turn out to reach some parts of Analytical Aptitude and not others. I will test that in Week 3 instead of assuming it now.

Most rows rate partly shown, and the reasons differ. Ethical Practice has a real artifact, a summary of a harassment investigation I conducted, but the employer will release it only as a description, so it is weaker evidence than the rating suggests. Consultation has a memo that sets out three staffing options for a regional manager, but a memo shows analysis, and consultation implies that my advice shaped a decision. Business Acumen has a cost estimate attached to the turnover analysis and nothing else: I have never built, defended or managed a budget.

One row rates claimed only. Global Mindset, in the edition assigned, covers working with people of diverse backgrounds and operating in a global context. Sorrel Ridge operates in two states and nowhere else. My work with Spanish-speaking crews touches the first half of the competency, but nothing I have done touches the second. I have kept the row at claimed only rather than softening it to partly shown, because this table will become the baseline that the development plan is measured against, and an inflated baseline would make progress impossible to see.

Limits of a Self-Assessment

Sitzmann et al. (2010) found in a meta-analysis that learners' self-assessments of knowledge correlated only moderately with tested knowledge and were more strongly related to how satisfied and motivated they felt. Evidence ratings do not remove that bias; they move it. I still decide whether an artifact reaches a competency, and I am likely to be generous. For that reason, the table names the artifact behind every rating, so classmates and the instructor can disagree with a specific judgment in later weeks.

Priorities for the Term

Three rows will take the most work. Global Mindset needs an artifact that does not yet exist, so it depends on an opportunity at work rather than on writing. The budgeting side of Business Acumen needs the same. Consultation needs a second look at the evidence around the staffing memo, especially whether the regional manager's decision can be shown to follow from it. The two shown rows come next, since each needs testing against the standard's behaviors before I rely on it.

References

Dunning, D., Heath, C., & Suls, J. M. (2004). Flawed self-assessment: Implications for health, education, and the workplace. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5(3), 69-106. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1529-1006.2004.00018.x

Eva, K. W., & Regehr, G. (2005). Self-assessment in the health professions: A reformulation and research agenda. Academic Medicine, 80(10 Suppl.), S46-S54. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200510001-00015

Sitzmann, T., Ely, K., Brown, K. G., & Bauer, K. N. (2010). Self-assessment of knowledge: A cognitive learning or affective measure? Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9(2), 169-191. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.9.2.zqr169

Society for Human Resource Management. (2022). SHRM body of applied skills and knowledge (SHRM BASK). https://www.shrm.org/credentials/certification/shrm-bask