How Do You Really Measure an Employee's Experience, Knowledge, and Ability?

Dear HR Seniors,

Good afternoon, each and every one. Henry Ford said, "If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."

1. Can you please let me know how to judge the experience, knowledge, and ability of an individual employee?
2. Better ways to measure individuals.

I am awaiting your inputs.

Regards,
Mahesh
maheshvhr@gmail.com

There are different tools to measure a person's ability towards the job. Simply telling that experience can be checked through references, knowledge can be judged through critical job questions (i.e., for HR what is the meaning of Head Hunting, for Accounts how many types of ledgers, etc.), and thirdly the ability can be measured by asking for any achievements in prior experience.

On the other hand, you can use different behavioral type questions, etc.

Regards,
Adeel
Recruitment Officer (Lahore, Pakistan)
Email: Adeel42@gmail.com

Hi Mahesh,

Your question is an open-ended one. There are various methods to measure ability, but the most reliable one is a consistent dedication to the assigned task, a thirst for learning new innovative methods, and an inquisitive mind that first defines the given framework, studies it thoroughly, and then excels in delivering the desired output.

Regards,
Nahela

Dear Mahesh,

A very generic question. I guess the people who have posted here and made it absolutely clear that there are many ways to measure. Judging one's ability will vary from people to people - because my opinion of you will be different from another's opinion.

If you are looking at a tool to measure these in your employees:

Experience:

- Years of experience
- In-depth exposure in the field
- Not just theoretical knowledge but hands-on experience in managing the "exp" you are looking at (You have not mentioned if the experience is in service or manufacturing. Your employees can be insurance people or product designers - so "YOU" need to share more information on that, and the best would be to do research first and then ask)

Knowledge: Knowledge of the "subject" in context. This can be arrived at by asking questions relevant to the subject in context. For example, if you are interviewing a Quality Manager in the automotive field, apart from his experience, you may want to know his interest level in updating himself with the new concepts in quality management, new productive techniques in quality, and how he makes sure he receives the advanced material on such aspects.

Ability - Again - apart from asking the candidate to explain stage-wise experience in his/her previous job, you could also ask questions that are related to the job you are going to hire. Maybe if you are hiring an insurance salesperson - you may want to ask him, "What strategy do you adopt to meet people? What if the person keeps avoiding your calls and declines to even meet you for 5 minutes? How will you take it forward?" --etc--

And your second question is just a repetition of the first question. I would suggest you to be clearer on what context you are looking to measure. And please search CiteHR - you will have a lot of material! Rather than asking people to email you the vast measures.

Dear friend,

I fully endorse the views of Nahelaji. Being part and parcel of interview panels numerous times in our organization, what I infer after the interview about a person becomes futile on seeing the performance!! Hence, sustained performance needs to be watched over a period of time. Our present education system produces only individuals stuffed with knowledge and not skills - most importantly soft ones.

Direct questions on subject matters can bring out the knowledge level. Experience can be seen from the years of service, and what is important is to confirm whether the years of experience and knowledge level are matching together, as some people would merely exist and not learn. Ability certainly differs from person to person and from post to post. I have seen individuals dwindling when promoted as they do not suit that level of performance.

It is all the more important as to who assesses and judges the individuals. Because the assessor must be competent enough to assess the person accurately. A diamond merchant alone can identify a diamond as others would call it a dull stone. The famous Hindi heroine of yesteryears, Hemamalini, in fact, was screened unfit for films by the famous Tamil Director Sridhar - we know pretty well how high she went in the silver screen and tinsel world - we can cite many such instances.

Various tools devised for this purpose can be indicative, and the real position can be known only after some time on seeing the performance. That's why people are put on Training/Probation initially.

Regards,

Ganesh.R.

Dear HR Seniors,

Good Afternoon everyone.

Henry Ford said, "If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."

1. Can you please let me know how to judge the experience, knowledge, and ability of an individual employee?

2. Better ways to measure individuals.

I am awaiting your inputs.

Regards,
Mahesh
MAHESHVHR@GMAIL.COM