What is a competency?
Competencies are skills, attributes and aptitudes workers have for a certain job. Some skills are more suited for particular roles than others, so a hiring manager must identify each applicant’s competencies and skills to determine if they are a good fit for the role that’s being recruited for.
Types of competency
Some competencies are learned, while others are innate. Let’s explore the various core competencies in more detail.
Personal competencies
Personal competencies are an individual’s unique traits and characteristics. Every person has their own set of competencies and transferrable skills, ranging from interpersonal skills to communication skills and problem-solving aptitude. And each role typically requires a different set of personal competencies.
Technical competencies
Technical competencies are the role-specific skills required to perform the duties of a particular job, and they are acquired through education or training. So, technical competencies are learned skills that are important for performing a job correctly and safely, and they can be developed and improved through further training.
Examples are accounting expertise, knowledge of a language or a marketing certification.
Organisational competencies
While technical competencies relate to each role in a company, organisational competencies tend to be consistent across the whole organisation. They are what makes up the unique corporate culture and brand of a company. Needless to say, employees with the same values and preferences as the company will be a better fit than those who have a completely different outlook.
Examples of organisational competency are a company’s risk affinity, management style or attitude to employee well-being. Is the environment laid back and calm, or fast paced and dynamic? Is the organisation more traditional or rather unconventional? New hires should always be a good cultural fit.
Related: How Hiring For ‘Culture Add’ Can Help Your Business Outshine the Rest
Identifying core competencies
The job advertisement should already specify which competencies you are looking for to increase the chances of only suitable candidates applying.
Once the recruitment process is in full swing, there are different ways to identify someone’s core competencies:
- Personality test: A personality test will give the hiring manager a good indication of the applicant’s traits, character and innate aptitudes.
- Specific interview questions: Ask questions that are relevant to the competencies you are looking for, and the candidate’s answers will tell you what type of person you are dealing with.
- Situational judgement test: Here, applicants are presented with a number of hypothetical scenarios and possible responses to choose from. This is a great tool to assess how your potential new hire would respond in real-life situations.
What are the advantages of competence-based recruitment?
While traditional recruitment tends to look more at a candidate’s previous experience and qualifications, competence-based recruitment is likely to make the working relationship more successful and ultimately benefit both the company and the new hire. A candidate may have ticked all the boxes on paper but turned out not to be a good fit on an interpersonal level. Competence-based recruitment can prevent such situations from the outset and reduce your staff turnover .
Taking competencies into account during the hiring process also allows for a more holistic assessment of applicants. Contemporary recruitment strategies are more successful if they include competence assessments as part of the hiring process. This will help hiring managers make the right staffing decisions, as hiring for cultural fit minimises any unwanted disruptions down the line.
As a result, an organisation’s workforce will also be more diverse and inclusive, and more opportunities will open up to non-traditional applicants who may otherwise be overlooked if the focus is solely on education or certifications.
Related: How to Find Good Employees
What are the top ten core competencies hiring managers should look for?
While every company has their own preferences and culture, there are a number of core competencies most companies are looking for to a greater or lesser extent.
Determine which blend of the following competencies is the right mix for your business:
1) Communication
Effective communication is a key aspect of successful collaboration in organisations. An employee who can convey their ideas and concerns to others clearly and effectively is very valuable and makes teamwork easier.
2) Time management
Part of an organisation’s resource planning relies on staff completing their duties in the allocated timeframe. Projects usually have deadlines, and work needs to be performed at a certain pace. So, employees with excellent time management skills are a great asset and will help you save time and therefore money in the long term.
3) Motivation
Highly driven self-starters are the type of people you want on your team. If employees are keen to get out of bed and come to work in the morning, you’ve already won. Such a positive attitude will help keep things moving when your team encounters a rough patch or unexpected difficulty. A motivated team can counter certain shortcomings and get issues resolved promptly.
4) Customer focus
Whether an employee has direct contact with the public or not, customer focus is always a huge benefit. Staff who perform every work step with the customer in mind are likely to make fewer mistakes, achieve better results and ultimately higher customer satisfaction rates. Customers can usually tell the difference and know if a company truly cares about them and their needs or not.
5) Willing to listen
Many roles require at least some degree of teamwork and collaboration with other departments. Being able to listen and make others feel heard and understood is a great core competence that is very desirable. Listening also means a better understanding of issues and requirements, and therefore a higher chance of getting things right the first time.
6) Authenticity
The best people are usually authentic and genuine. If someone isn’t really a good fit for the company but tries and changes their personality to fit in and make it work, this will often fail in the long term. No one can keep up a facade for too long, and merely playing a character is not good for either the employee in question or the company. Individuals who feel they can be their true selves at work will be more motivated and perform better than those who put up a front and feel they can’t let their authentic persona shine through. And genuine employees are often also popular among their colleagues and a pleasure to be around all day.
7) Open to change
Change is something a lot of companies find difficult. Many employees are inherently resistant to change because they worry about having to learn and get used to new structures or technologies. So, if you have a workforce that is naturally open to change and willing – or even keen – to adapt to new processes in the organisation, you’re in a great situation. Openness to change is therefore a very desirable core competency.
8) Reliability
You need to be sure that your staff perform their work as expected and things get done the way they should. Reliability is probably one of the most important core competencies you will want in your staff. Knowing processes will run smoothly and jobs are getting done the right way and within the correct timeframe is a huge weight off your shoulders and will make your business that much more productive.
9) Problem-solving attitude
Critical thinking skills and a problem-solving attitude are great assets that you will want your employees to have. No matter what department or rank an individual has, the ability to quickly assess issues, analyse information and start working on solutions is a highly desirable core competence. This competence can already be assessed during the hiring process, for example through situational judgement tests, which will show you how the applicant would react in tricky situations.
10) Integrity
Employees need to be able to trust their supervisors, and customers need to be able to trust their points of contact in your organisation. Trust and credibility are only possible if you hire staff with integrity. That means they show goodwill towards their peers and the public, and they treat others with respect. It also means owning up to mistakes and striving to do the right thing by others. Integrity is one of the most important core competencies there is, and identifying it in candidates during the hiring process will pay off very quickly.
Related: 10 Recruiting Strategies for Hiring Great Employees
Now that you are aware of the importance of different competencies when hiring new staff members, put together a list of specific core competencies you want your hiring managers to look out for, and include all relevant competencies in your job descriptions. This will help you attract the best talent for your organisation.
