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What should an employer be looking for when hiring someone new?

Knowledge, skills and abilities are all important when you’re hiring someone new. You need someone with a theoretical understanding and the skills (or qualifications) to show that they’ve put that knowledge to practical use. Abilities are harder to quantify, so shouldn’t be as much of a concern during the interview and hiring process but should be an important consideration for future career development.

‘Knowledge, skills and abilities’ is often reduced to the acronym KSA for the hiring process.

An interviewer can look to qualifications as proof of a skill. Interview questions can be asked to determine the level of knowledge. An ability is more difficult to assess, but certain questions can help. For example, an interviewer might ask:

Can you tell me about a time when…?

You solved a problem by working in a team.

You turned a complaint into a positive experience.

Such questions can give an interviewer a sense of someone’s ability to work in a team, solve a problem or provide good customer service. The only way to really see abilities in action, however, is to put someone into an actual working environment.

Some employers choose to have trial days before committing to taking on a new employee, and these can be very useful when checking that someone is suitable for a job. Trial days can also help candidates to get a sense of what it’s like to work for a certain company, so that they can be sure that they’re a good fit for the culture as well as the role.

How important is ongoing development?

It’s never wise to allow things to become static or stagnant, which is why it’s important for employers to provide ongoing training for members of staff. Training can help people to expand their knowledge, develop new skills or improve their existing skills.

Employees should also work to hone their abilities in order to enhance their career prospects, but you’ll find that some abilities are naturally improved through repetition and experience. Cashiers in supermarkets, for example, develop their ability to memorise through typing PLU codes for fruit and vegetables hundreds of times each day. Some employers might ask their cashiers to work on memorising the PLU codes quickly, but those that don’t will soon find that the codes are memorised anyway.

Always remember that skills and knowledge are easier for an employer to influence, and for an employee to improve, but that you can’t develop skills without ability.