Work Experience Doesn't Count Much - Competence is Key

Many employers use lack of experience as the number one reason to reject potential employees. But does this criteria provide an accurate measure of an employee’s actual capabilities? A study by Tempo-Team shows that the image of youth unemployment has changed dramatically and that training and experience are less relevant now than they were a decade ago.

Instead of focusing solely on a CV, organisations should be actively seeking the answers to the following questions:

• What are candidates capable of?

• What is their intrinsic motivation?

• Can they adapt effectively?

A number of studies reinforce the research done by Tempo-Team, demonstrating that operational and interpersonal competencies have been shown to predict effectiveness in professional, managerial and leadership roles.

But which Competencies should Organisations be Looking for and How are they Measured?

• Aligning competencies to a specific job role will yield the highest rate of return in terms of performance outcomes.

• That being said, there are certain competencies that have been found to be applicable to multiple roles and job levels. These include decisiveness, planning, social skills and the ability to perform under pressure.

• Some interviewers advocate competency-based interviews as a methodology for assessing competence, but research on the topic is mixed. Experts have found that there is a significant opportunity for candidates to ‘fake good’ in such situations, greatly decreasing the value of the information obtained.

• Lumenii Competency Assessment System (CAS) allows you to select the most relevant competencies for a specific job role from a comprehensive framework. The results of the Lumenii competency assessment uncover whether a candidate's personality is predisposed to the selected competencies, providing you with a quick and efficient prediction of future performance in the role. Incorporating this information into your human capital decision-making will likely yield a higher return on investment.

Want to test your candidates? Download a sample report of our competency assessment, which will give you quick and objective insight into the skills of job applicants and current employees.