What is the difference between skills and competencies?

Forbes indicates that 76% of employees are willing to stick with the company offering additional skills training. Deloitte equates skills to employee talents and provides a list of 25 skills crucial for professional success in the digital age. Interestingly, the same credible source, Deloitte, provides a different list, that time, one of the competencies, highlighting the importance of such for business growth in a digital era. I think it is clear from this that both skills and competencies are important. However, what’s the difference between the two??

Skill and competencies in a nutshell

Is decision-making a skill or a competency? What about the ability to write an engaging text? When diving deep into the topic, one thing appears most obvious - skills and competencies are different notions though they are deeply connected.?

Let’s explore each one in detail.

There are many definitions of what a skill is. Yet, their gist is that a skill is a specific learned activity or task. For example, when you learn how to mop a floor, you receive a “floor mopping” skill.?

Competency is a set of skills coupled with abilities and knowledge. Simply put, a competency takes a specific set of skills and integrates them into a certain professional behavior.?

As I understand it, skills offer you an idea of what specific ability you need to do a certain task at once. In turn, competencies show how you should behave to get the desired outcome in the long term. Skills can exist without competencies, while competencies cannot exist without skills.?

We’ve shown how skills and competencies are different. Yet, how are they similar? Foundationally, both skills and competencies correlate to something a person acquired due to training or learning. In other words, you get both skills and competencies from the experience and knowledge you receive that turns into some actionable ability.?

Let’s explore the two through a range of examples. When it comes to skills, think something like:

• typing a text
• making a speech
• creating a presentation
• installing software

While speaking of competencies, these are the following:

• communication
• problem-solving
• staff development?
• risk management

To be a good communicator, you need to have a set of particular skills, for instance, active listening. There are many more skills within a communication competency. So, you get the idea. Besides, check my other post to understand how to develop employee skills and competencies with CliftonStrenghts.

What to use?

The most important question is what to develop first, skills or competencies? If you want your employees to do specific tasks better, develop their skills. If you want your business, in general, to do better, focus on competencies. Evidence shows the development of competencies leads to a 144% greater ability to plan for future workforce needs. Besides, it gives an 87% higher chance of hiring top talent.?

All in all, as a business owner, make sure you have the proper tools for developing competencies first. If you don’t have such or don’t know where to start, Effy’s always there? to help you get started.