A job skills assessment is the process of observing and rating an employee’s skills and abilities based on the established requirements of their job. These requirements are a competency model.
Competency models should not contain every activity they perform on the job but only tasks and skills critical to success in the role.
In other words, job competency assessment measures how well an employee does the activities essential to fulfilling her role. The competency level selected by the individual is compared to the target level, defining skill gaps for each task.
Advantages of conducting a job skills assessment
Competency assessment has excellent benefits for an organization. Next, we go through each of them:
- They offer a tool to evaluate the performance they have in the organization.
- They are an excellent tool for employees to receive continuous training and improve the execution of their roles.
- Recognize the great work that employees do.
- It helps to define the objectives set to reach the goal.
- It allows highlighting the skills of employees that require additional training.
- It allows you to compare the performance of employees in all standards and areas of the organization.
Types of competency assessment
There are different types of job skills assessment. We have for you the most important:
Self-appraisal
A self-assessment is a method where employees have the opportunity to rank themselves against a measurable competency model.
This type of job competency assessment allows you to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses while also getting an idea of the areas in which you need further development to match the competency model required for that role.
It is important to note that self-assessments cannot provide accurate data; a manager’s assessment must supplement them. Otherwise, it will lead to individual bias where one will rate below or above the competition model.
If you are interested, we will share some tips for a self-assessment survey.
Manager evaluation
A manager can only conduct a job skills assessment after having enough time to monitor and assess the employee.
The right way to do this is by offering the employee activities that test the competencies in the competency model for their position.
Management evaluation is often easier for entry-level positions where the competencies are fairly introductory and more difficult for higher-level positions, where the competencies are more complex.
In this type of job skills assessment, managers need to be aware of their own biases to be as objective as possible.
360-degree evaluation
The 360-degree assessment will produce the most accurate results because they rate the individual as objectively as possible from every possible angle.
Because of this, 360-degree assessments are one of the most popular and widely accepted methods of measuring competency.
Start by having the employees rate themselves against their position’s competency model to complete it. Then find others who work directly with them, such as their supervisor, co-workers, or subordinates.
Once the data collection process is complete, the scores must be averaged.
Guide to carry out a job skills assessment in your organization
Next, we have the steps to effectively carry out a manager evaluation of job competencies within your organization.
- Test your employees
This evaluation is a way to assess employees’ technical and theoretical knowledge. However, such tests are carried out in conditions isolated from their daily activities, so they do not give an accurate idea of whether the employee will be able to use the knowledge in real life or not.
Take this job performance test, but only occasionally, as you might be disappointed once it comes to more realistic conditions.
- Design a self-assessment test
We recommend applying a survey to employees to auto-evaluate their skills and self-perception.
As we mentioned earlier, a self-assessment may not benefit you by offering a subjective point of view, so the test should be used in combination with another, more objective method.
- Collect feedback from teams
The next step to evaluate work competencies is collecting information from the organization’s different areas.
Get employees from different areas and departments of the organization to share their feedback on each other’s performance, and assess whether they can do their job at a high level.
- Place employees in real situations
One of the most efficient ways to conduct a competency assessment is through practice.
To test your employees and make sure they can perform their tasks, you can put them in real-life conditions to challenge them and check their competence.
- Request customer feedback
This step is another way of doing a job skills assessment in real life, but it consists of analyzing the actions that the employees took.
By requesting customer feedback, you will know how your employees perform, how they interact, and learn more about their needs.
Importance of evaluating job skills
The evaluation of job skills is a process that must be carried out constantly since knowledge and skills are continuously developed.
Today, it is critically important to understand current capabilities and develop new ones to stay ahead of the curve. But not only do you need to develop new skills. Competency levels can be used to define different stages of experience.
Competitive assessment can provide an excellent foundation for a succession planning process for businesses.
Organizations and employees have to adapt to the quickly changing environment. To facilitate change, HR managers need to know precisely what skills the company’s staff already have and what competencies they lack. In addition, this also results in a benefit for employees since it will allow them to find better job opportunities.
Based on the information collected by conducting a job skills assessment, trainings and seminars can be arranged to fill in gaps in knowledge and skills.
Carry out a job skills assessment in the organization. Contact us and our team will show you the online tools to carry out an effective personnel evaluation. Achieve your goals today!
