Because…
People often confuse Capabilities and Competencies, it is worthwhile recapping on what they are.
Capabilities are pretty much your genetic hard – wiring that is expressed in many ways. In a job context the cognitive, emotional and personality expression of that hard wiring significantly determines how effectively you cope with the workspace. Capability is internal, psychological, under the surface. Most simply stated, it is the EQ and IQ that drives most of an individual’ s behavior at work.
Competencies are skills and sets of behaviours that are learned through education and experience. They are tools that we use to cope with job demands.
As long as organisation are not clear on this distinction, they will always run the risk of using the wrong assessment tools. What do we mean?
While there are many tools available to assess person’s competencies such as:
⦁ CV checks
⦁ Qualification Reviews
⦁ Interviews
⦁ Work Sample Tests
⦁ Assessment Centre tools like role plays, case studies, in – baskets.
You CANNOT use these tools to assess Capability (EQ and IQ). They are not designed for this purpose.
The ONE AND ONLY WAY to assess Capability accurately, objectively, AND legally, is by means of PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS.
You CANNOT use Psychometric Tests to assess Competencies, because they are also not designed for this purpose.
Looking ahead, we will devote modules 3 to 6 to do a deep dive into Psychometric Test, and then discuss the various ways of assessing Competencies in Module 7.