What’s The Difference Between Skills and Competencies?

Many organizations have relied on competency models for measuring performance since they entered the business conversation. In the early 1950s, a framework was born, a model unique to an organization that lists expectations required to perform well for a particular role or function all credits to David McClelland, Professor of?Psychology at Harvard University.

Now, some organizations are looking at an alternative: skill-based talent strategies and a majority of people also said skill-building at their organizations has increased in an effort to close the gap

To understand how they’re different, let’s look at how “competency” and “skill” are defined:?

• Competency:?Knowledge, behaviours, attitudes and even skills that lead to the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. The ability to make business decisions would be a competency.
• Skill:?Learned and applied abilities that use one’s knowledge effectively in execution or performance. Using the same example of making business decisions, in order to do so, you would have to maintain certain skills to perform well: budgeting, market research and competitive strategy.

Whether your organization is using skills or competencies to measure development, the goals are the same: assessing your people, identifying areas for growth and offering the right opportunities to learn and stay engaged.?

Breaking it Down

While these concepts might seem complicated, they’re ideas you can often blend when you’re planning goals and strategies for your organization and people. Understanding how they work can help you determine when and how each model or a combination is best for your team.?

Competencies: Powerful, with Limits

A competency entails more than just knowledge and ability. It’s a mix of behaviours and attitudes. And it can include skills, too. But managing such a large and complex model can be challenging.

Competencies are value-based. They’re specific to an organization or project. Since they’re tied to values and culture, they aren’t easily measured or standardized. For example, expectations for competency in analytical ability can differ heavily depending on context.

Competencies are rigid. They aren’t agile in practice. It can take months or even years for someone to reach a specific competency. You could become skilled in data analytics software in a few hours, but you can’t become fully competent in data analytics in that time. In our fast-paced and ever-changing world,?adaptability and agility are vital?for success.

Competencies are non-transferrable. They’re mostly mapped to individual functions or behaviours, making it hard to transfer them across an organization. Because of this, it’s difficult to imagine how one competency can perform in another role.

Despite limitations, many learning teams create competency models for their organizations. Because competencies are specific, rigid and non-transferable, the act of creating a competency model takes a ton of time and effort. Your model can become outdated before it’s even put into action.

Skills: Agile and Efficient

When we talk about skills, we’re using the language that people use to describe their own development. Skills are smaller and more manageable than competencies, making them easier to track because of that, skills are the unit of measurement.

Skills can be developed. Think of skills such as computer programming, project management, knowledge of specific platforms or even soft or human skills such as active listening and communication. These can be learned in a matter of days, weeks or months and improved in practice over time.?

Skills can be measured.?As opposed to being outcome-based or value-based, skills can be measured and standardized.

Skills are applicable.?Work can be deconstructed into three components: tasks, projects and roles. Skills are used to perform tasks. Tasks are the things required to complete projects. And projects are how roles are organized. This means skills are how work gets done. You can’t complete the task of making a sale by solely being competent in customer service, but you can when you are skilled in communication, active listening, project management and negotiation.?

Skills are transferable.?Skills — like programming and project management — are transferable between companies, roles, projects and tasks. Competencies are loaded with factors related to roles, like performance expectations, attitudes and behaviours, making them non-transferable between jobs or collaborative projects.

Competencies are the language of behaviour. Skills are the language of work. And as we all know, leaders most of the time are more concerned with the language of work.

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