Competency FAQs for HR Professionals

Competencies have been part of the talent management landscape for many years. First introduced in the 1950s, they began to gain widespread recognition in the 1980s. Today, nearly three quarters of organizations (73%) are now using competencies to drive their talent management processes.

But there is still a lot of confusion about what competencies are and how HR managers can use them to identify, manage, and develop organizational talent. In this blog post, we'll answer some of the most frequently asked questions about these powerful talent management tools.   

What are competencies?

A competency is an HR tool that describes the knowledge, skills, abilities, and traits defined in behavioral terms that describe successful performance for a job.

The most effective competencies describe these requirements in detail on a progressive scale, from basic to advanced capabilities. These detailed statements are called "behavioral indicators," and they describe the observable behaviors that successful employees demonstrate on the job. Because these statements provide a deep level of detail and objectivity, they help employees, managers, and HR teams understand and agree on what success looks like for a specific role. 

What's the difference between competencies and skills?

Competencies are more detailed and multidimensional than skills. Every competency includes in-depth descriptions of the skills, knowledge, and aptitudes needed to demonstrate success on the job. 

For example, while "client focus" is a skill, the corresponding competency defines what "client focus" looks like at five distinct levels, from basic to advanced competence. Each level includes multiple behavioral indicators that describe the behaviors of successful performers. 

Find out whether your organization should use skills, competencies, or both.

Why do HR professionals prefer competencies over skills?

Competencies define job requirements in greater detail, and those details are validated to ensure real-world accuracy. 

The deeper level of detail makes it easier for managers and talent professionals to use competencies to identify, assess, and develop employees. 

Organizations with fully developed competency management programs not only enjoy better employee engagement, but also enhanced business success, including increased revenue, customer retention, customer satisfaction, and market penetration.

Competency-based management is a gold standard in HR because competencies unify all HR processes across the entire employee lifecycle according to one common, measurable framework.

What do the levels in a competency mean?

A single competency includes five proficiency levels, and each level represents a level of proficiency on a progressive scale, from basic to advanced competence.

This progressive structure enables HR professionals, managers, and workers to visualize their current level of proficiency and determine the steps they need to take to achieve a higher level.  

Learn how Everbridge accelerated career growth through competency frameworks.

What are behavioral indicators in a competency?

A behavioral indicator is a detailed description of an observable behavior that a successful employee will perform on the job. Each proficiency level of a competency includes multiple behavioral indicators to provide a detailed view of the behaviors that successful people perform on the job. 

For example, for the "client focus" competency, the behavioral indicators listed at a level-three proficiency might include:

• Looks for ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests
• Enhances client service delivery systems and processes
• Anticipates clients' upcoming needs and concerns

What is a competency profile?

A competency profile is a group of competencies required for successful performance in a specific role. The profile captures each competency at a specific proficiency level, from basic to advanced.

A competency profile must meet three basic criteria:

• It includes the competencies that employees need to help the organization achieve its vision and support its values.
• It can support all HR activities, including recruitment, retention, assessment, development, and career pathing.
• It's easy for all stakeholders to use, including employees, managers, and HR professionals.

What are core competencies?

Core competencies are the competencies that are "core" to your organization's success. They reflect the employee skills, knowledge, and aptitudes that align with your organization's business goals, vision and mandate. As a result, core competencies are universally applied to every role in the organization, from entry-level to C-suite. 

What are general competencies?

General competencies (also called "universal" competencies) are similar to soft skills. They define various abilities, motivations, and traits that are applicable to a wide range of roles in different departments, disciplines, or industries. For example, a general competency like “adaptability” may be equally required for success in marketing, accounting, and IT.

What are technical competencies?

Technical competencies define the specialized knowledge, skills, and aptitudes needed to perform effectively in a specific role or domain. A role in data analytics, for example, may require a competency in “data mining” that would not be required for any other role in the organization. Similarly, a police officer may require a specific competency in “interviewing victims and witnesses," but it's a competency that is relevant to very few roles outside of a law-enforcement context. 

What are leadership competencies?

Leadership competencies describe the behaviors of successful, transformational leaders who inspire the organization and drive performance and results. Leadership competencies are generally applied to roles at the leadership level of the organization. Examples of leadership competencies include "inspiring others, "leading change," and "embracing diversity."

Are competencies expensive to implement?

Before the availability of licensed competency content, competencies had to be custom-developed by industrial organizational psychologists, making them a costly and resource-intensive option. As a result, the use of competencies tended to be restricted to large enterprises. 

However, companies of any size can now license competencies and use technology to apply competency profiles to their job descriptions and talent-management processes. Compared to a decade ago, HR can implement competencies in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the budget, enabling even HR "teams of one" to select and deploy competencies across the organization.

Are all competencies created equal? 

Just as skills statements can vary in quality, so can competency content. Some competencies consist of little more than a title and a one-line description, but to effectively drive talent management, competencies need to be:

Validated. Competencies need to reflect the realities of the workplace and be validated against those realities. This means that they must be developed in collaboration with a representative workforce. 

Observable. Translating job success into a set of objective, observable behaviors is the cornerstone of a competency's value. A competency should capture not only WHAT top performers do, but HOW they do it.

‍Multi-level. The best and most actionable competencies include progressive levels of proficiency. This structure not only provides more detail and accuracy, but helps people visualize the steps they need to take to achieve greater proficiency in specific areas.

Competency-Based Job Descriptions

Now that you know a little bit more about competencies, it’s time to start using them to drive effective talent management programs. Quinto is a job description software that allows you to define your own competency architecture and build competency profiles. With Quinto, you’ll also save time with job description templates and AI-powered, expert-curated content suggestions. Ask us how Quinto can help you build better job descriptions.