When hiring or promoting employees, employers often consider a person’s competencies. Competencies combine the hard and soft skills, knowledge and traits a person uses to complete daily tasks. If you’re applying for a job, preparing for a performance review or seeking a promotion, you might want to learn about competencies and how to highlight them for your future or current employer. In this article, we discuss what competencies are, how they differ from skills, types of competencies, how and when employers assess competencies and how to answer competency questions in an interview.

What are competencies?

Competencies are the combination of a person’s knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors. Together, they represent a person’s ability to do their job. An organization may have a list of necessary competencies for all employees or individual roles.

How are competencies and skills different?

Skills are one of several attributes making up competencies. Skills refer to a person’s ability to do specific workplace tasks. A person learns skills through education, training or experience. For example, operating a piece of technical equipment or understanding a coding language are skills.

What are the types of competencies?

You can organize competencies in a variety of ways, including by these common types:

Behavioral

Behavioral competencies describe a person’s personality traits. These soft skills include matters of personal conduct, such as time management. Other types of behavioral competencies include teamwork, responsibility and compassion.

Technical

Technical, or functional, competencies refer to industry- or position-specific knowledge. These are the skills necessary to perform one’s job effectively. For example, technical competencies might include familiarity with applicable labor or health and safety laws, specific subject knowledge and product specification knowledge.

Leadership

Leadership competencies are a collection of personal traits and soft skills. They’re specific to the attributes of effective workplace leadership. Examples of leadership competencies include decision-making, communication, adaptability and problem-solving.

When do employers evaluate competencies?

Employers might evaluate competencies at multiple points throughout an employee’s career with their organization. For example, employers often include a skills and attributes list when posting job advertisements. This list of competencies helps employers screen for their ideal candidates. Employers might also test for appropriate competencies when reviewing resumes, during job interviews or as a part of prehiring examinations.Once a person works for an organization, their employer may continue to evaluate their competencies. For example, supervisors and managers might observe employee performance or keep quantitative records. They might reference this information during routine performance evaluations. An employer might also assess an employee’s competencies when deciding whether to offer a promotion. For example, a person can have the appropriate competencies for their role but must demonstrate additional leadership competencies before promotion to a managerial position.

How do employers evaluate competencies?

Employers can evaluate competencies formally and informally. For example, an employee can informally show they have the necessary technical competencies by successfully completing their tasks at work every day. More formal assessments, such as performance reviews or promotion assessments, might take many forms. For example, an employer could host designated training days, have one-on-one discussions with their employees and ask technical questions or ask their employees to complete simulations and hands-on tests.

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