Unskilled or Incompetent
August 22, 2008
Ask anyone which is worse, an unskilled person or an incompetent person and I’d bet money most will answer incompetent. Why? The difference in meaning is subtle, but profound. An unskilled person can be trained. The word incompetent implies that the individual at hand does not have the aptitude to succeed or grow - they lack the basic competencies to get the job done.
I mention this because one of the most common mistakes made in Human Capital Management is confusing skills with competencies. Skills can be learned, certificates can be earned, etc. Competencies take much longer to develop. For example, a skill might be profient in C++ (a programming language), but a competency might be high capacity for problem solving. Problem solving is important for programming in any language, and can be applied to many other challenges in the workplace.
SuccessFactors Research conducted a study of competency management of our own customers, and was able to identify what some winners do in various industries. The implication was pretty clear, companies that effectively manage the competencies of their people have greater potential to do better. But competencies aren’t just about overall company performance - they are highly relevant to individuals. If you can figure out which competencies are the most important for a given position, you can better place and develop people to succeed in that position. Competencies aren’t just leading indicators of success for your company, but also for your people.
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5 Responses to “Unskilled or Incompetent”
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Properly defining and describing a job’s functions, required skills and competencies also makes the recruiting, hiring and selection processes easier.
If you can attract and select employees who have the skills and competencies required to perform the functions of the job your work is more than half done.
I’d like to confirm or ask if competence would pass for ability as it relates to this post
Ability is very similar to competency and they are sometimes used interchangibly; however, competency is the language preferred in the Human Capital Management space.
“Ability” can imply that you are discussing traits that are natural born or very general, and the word ability is more often used to describe organizations, not individuals in my general experience.
Aquiring a skill implies that the foundation knowledge has been grasped. The degree or extent to which one effectively and appropriately executes the aquired skill in a variety of real life situations will probably indiacte the competency level.The saying that you hire for attitude and train for skills explains it all. A good attitude will certainly lead to high competency.
[…] and Competencies. I have often struggled with differentiating between these. This post on the Success Factors Research Blog really helped clarify and provide a frame of […]