Technical competencies describe the application of knowledge and skills needed to perform effectively in a specific role or group of jobs in the organization.
What are technical competencies?
They are closely aligned with the knowledge and skills needed for successful performance in specialized fields such as IT, sales, marketing, accounting, and many others.
How do you use them?
Technical competencies are typically used in a combination with general or interpersonal competencies to create highly targeted job profiles that focus both on the “soft skills” and “know-how” needed for successful performance.
Why do you need them?
Technical competencies help differentiate between jobs within a functional area. Let’s take the marketing group as an example.
How do you differentiate between a Marketing Manager and a Media Relations Specialist?
If you look at the infographic below, you can see that the general competencies included on both competency job profiles are essentially the same.
So if you are hiring according to these competencies, there is little differentiation between the two. But when you include the technical competencies, you see the differences.
Understanding both the soft skills and technical know-how will help you identify the best hire or the next best successor to a job.
Want to learn more about using competencies? Get started with our Competency Toolkit:
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Post last updated: January 8, 2021