Human Capital Acquisition: The Role of Knowledge, Skill, and Abilities

Monday December 20, 2010

It is an all too common occurrence. An organization’s recruitment efforts are rewarded with a placement that is 80% of what was hoped for when filling that critical position. Maybe they used a placement firm and the firm had great things to say about the selected applicant, the references checked out, and everyone who interviewed them were accordingly impressed. However, after a few weeks or months on the job, something was clearly missing in the new hire’s toolkit. Finally after a couple of missed deadlines, dropped assignments, and bungled projects it was evident that the new employee lacked even the basic knowledge, skill, and abilities to perform at the required level. Now the organization must release a new employee after a few months and start the entire process all over with the hopes of doing a better job of selecting the right candidate.

When there is a mismatch between the candidate and the job it often boils down to a misalignment between the knowledge, skill, and abilities required to perform the work and those possessed by the candidate. Maybe the job description has not been updated since there was a significant change in the technologies and tools required by the role. Sometimes it is as simple as the fact that there is no description of the job other that what exists in the manager’s head. Or my favorite is the canned job descriptions found on CD’s purchased from the local office supply store or downloaded from some website for $19.99. These pre-written descriptions might work for a low-level clerical or administrative role, but does the organization what to risk a major project based on a generic description of a software or network engineer.

Since most organizations will spend several thousand dollars in direct cost, lost productivity, and opportunity costs to replace an employee, it is increasingly essential that the selection work the first time and every time. While a candidate’s knowledge, skill, and abilities (KSA’s) are only a proportion of what is needed to be successful in a role, nevertheless it is a very large component of the formula for success. Therefore, it is vital that the KSA’s required by the position be mapped to the candidate during the selection process.

Below is a sample of mapping a candidate’s KSA’s for statistical analysis in which it is identified if the KSA’s are present, when, where, and at what level those KSA’s were used. This mapped should be validated via the interview process, credentialing, reference checking, and testing, if required.

Remember, there is noting wrong with asking a candidate to demonstrate their KSA’s with work samples. However, care should be taken not to breech any copyrights or other legal limitations on the use or dissemination of protected materials.

When I advised a candidate that they would tested on the following for their word processing and spreadsheet knowledge, they failed to show up on the following day.