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鈥淭补濒别苍迟蝉鈥� is one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around in the HR world, but if you ask anyone to define it, you won鈥檛 get the same answer twice. 

Are talents synonymous with technical skills you can develop? Or are they something you鈥檙e born with? Can you list or quantify talents, or are they simply the indefinable 鈥�je ne sais quoi鈥� about a person? Depends on who you ask.  

It doesn鈥檛 help that the word 鈥渢补濒别苍迟鈥� already has so many definitions in HR. It can be used to describe some core HR processes (talent acquisition and talent management), a noun that can be used to describe a group of employees or applicants (sales talent or talent pool), and now we鈥檙e using it to describe someone鈥檚 aptitude for something. Talk about confusing! 

In this article, we鈥檒l set the record straight 鈥� we'll define talents, how they differ from hard and soft skills, and how talents are integral to a successful recruitment and hiring strategy. 

But first thing鈥檚 first, we need to get on the same page on what talents are. 

What are Talents? 

In their book , Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman differentiate talents from skills and knowledge. 鈥淪kills鈥� refer to the 鈥渉ow-迟辞鈥檚鈥� of a role; whether you know how to create spreadsheets with Excel, code with Javascript, or weld. 鈥淜nowledge鈥� refers to 鈥渨hat you are aware of,鈥� and can be quantified with a degree or designation, like BA, PhD, and RN.  

Talents In other words, they鈥檙e what come naturally to you. Whereas skills and knowledge quantify past performance, talents quantify potential. Talents might include innovation, adaptability, persuasion, communication, and teamwork.  

You may have previously described these capabilities as 鈥渟oft skills,鈥� and in a way, 鈥渢补濒别苍迟鈥� is another term for 鈥�soft skill.鈥�  

Examples of Talents

The problem with the term 鈥渟oft skills,鈥� as HR thought leader  recently pointed out, is that it's a bit of a misnomer. In fact, both hard and soft skills are improperly named. 鈥淗ard skills are soft (they change all the time, are constantly being obsoleted, and are relatively easy to learn)," Bersin says, "And soft skills are hard (they are difficult to build, critical, and take extreme effort to obtain).鈥� 

The word "talents鈥� does a much better job at articulating their function than 鈥渟oft skills.鈥� Especially because typical 鈥渟oft skill鈥� traits like communication, teamwork, and adaptability are anything but soft! They鈥檙e complex, and they are in high demand 鈥�  skills CEOs look for is a willingness to be flexible, agile, and adaptable to change. Those are talents!

Accurately quantifying someone鈥檚 talents, therefore, is a key component to a successful talent acquisition strategy. 

Talents in Recruitment and Hiring 

Talents are 4X more accurate at predicting someone鈥檚 job performance than their skills and knowledge. Yet someone鈥檚 talents are the last things to be considered in a hiring decision, if at all. It鈥檚 not that employers don鈥檛 want to expose these characteristics before making a hiring decision, it鈥檚 that they just don鈥檛 know how. Or at least, they don鈥檛 know how to quantify talents in a way that鈥檚 accurate and doesn鈥檛 slow down the hiring process. 

And we get it, deciphering whether someone can remain positive amid change, be a collaborative team player, or execute under a tight deadline is next to impossible when reading a resume or conducting an interview! A job tryout 鈥� placing a job candidate into a role for a limited time to get an idea of how they would perform on-the-job 鈥� can do a great job at predicting whether or not someone has the talents to succeed in a role, but you also have to be realistic. It鈥檚 just not sustainable 鈥� nor efficient! 鈥� to get every single job applicant to trial a job for a week or two before making a hiring decision.  

Thankfully, there鈥檚 another way! 

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychologists (who apply psychological theories and principles to organizations to improve hiring, training, and management) have spent decades understanding the make-up of talents and how to quantify them. This practice is called psychometrics 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;measuring knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.  

Traditionally, the only way to access this psychometric data was to pay large consulting fees. The resulting cost and lack of scalability meant that organizations opted not to collect psychometric data, and if they did, they did so in a limited capacity.  

In the last few years, however, I/O Psychologists have developed scientifically-validated assessments that measure three critical aspects of psychometrics: personality, problem-solving, and social intelligence. 

Hundreds of research studies have conclusively demonstrated the relationships between personality and job performance. Problem-solving scores consistently predict how successful candidates are in training and making effective decisions on the job. For many jobs, socially intelligent employees represent a competitive advantage.  

Together, personality, problem-solving, and social intelligence form the foundations of talents. For instance, if an I/O Psychologist-validated assessment finds that someone is prone to persisting through ambiguity and change, operating effectively in stressful situations, and developing plans to cope with unexpected events, then that person would have the talent of adaptability. Alternatively, if the assessment found that someone displayed empathy in difficult situations, analyzed information to find the best solution, and examined issues from multiple perspectives, that person would have the talent of conflict resolution.  

Forming a strategy to measure the talents of your job candidates is more than just a 鈥渘ice to have.鈥� A talent assessment is the most predictive way to place people into roles where they thrive, save for maybe the arduous and time-consuming practice of a job tryout. And accurately quantifying talents will only become more critical in the next few years.   

IBM recently launched a study that included surveys across 5800 executives and found that approximately 120 million professionals need to be reskilled to deal with AI and new digital business environments. The study also found that the biggest gaps are not 鈥渄igital skills鈥� but behavioral skills. In other words, talents.  

 believe that people coming out of college have the digital skills they need, but what鈥檚 missing is skills in complex problem-solving, teamwork, and leadership. 

HR and business leaders that are intentional about quantifying the talents of their job candidates now can reap major competitive advantages in the future as the behavioral skills gap grows. Whereas skills and knowledge represent someone鈥檚 past performance, talents represent potential. With the right talent assessment in place, businesses can unlock the potential of their people and make better and more predictive hiring decisions.  

Emily Lambert is the Content Marketing Specialist at 夜色直播. Her interests include dogs, podcasts, and Oxford commas.