O*NET work styles and BLS terms for US hiring: what each source measures

What to take away

Skill, competency and proficiency: three words to keep apart

US employers often mix these words in job postings. This page uses them in fixed senses.

A skill is a task-specific ability. Operating a forklift, reconciling a bank statement or writing a Python function are skills. They can be taught, observed and tested.

A competency is a bundle: a skill plus the context, judgment and behavior that make it useful at work. The ATD competency model treats a competency as something a role requires, not something a person happens to have.

Proficiency is a position on a scale. A proficiency level definition says what a person can do at each step and how much supervision the work needs. Without a scale, "proficient in Excel" is hard to compare.

A useful test: if you can watch someone do it in ten minutes, it is a skill. If you need to see it applied under pressure over weeks, it is a competency. If you need to rank people against each other, you need proficiency levels.

What the BLS publishes that hiring managers use

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook is the reference most US hiring managers already use. Each occupation entry covers duties, work environment, typical education, pay and job outlook, in the same order every time. That consistency is why recruiters copy its phrasing.

The Handbook describes the work, not the person. If you want to know what a medical assistant does in a typical week, it is authoritative. If you want to know whether a candidate stays calm under pressure, you need a different source.

The projections show whether an occupation is expanding or contracting nationally. Regional markets differ, so check state sources for licensing rules and local pay before you set a range.

BLS productivity is defined as output per hour of labor. It is the one BLS definition this page relies on. Adding a person raises output, but productivity can fall if output does not keep pace with the added hours.

Throughput, meaning the volume passing through a process, and cost per unit are general management measures. They are not BLS definitions, but they make a training claim testable.

Here is a worked example from a fictional Illinois distribution center.

The table shows why the definitions matter. Throughput, productivity and cost all improved here, but they would not have to. If hours had risen faster than units, productivity would have fallen even as throughput rose.

BLS productivity figures will not tell you whether training caused the change. They tell you what to measure, so the claim is at least stated in standard terms.

O*NET work styles and the vocabulary of measured behavior

O*NET is the U.S. Department of Labor database, sponsored by its Employment and Training Administration. It describes occupations through tasks, skills, abilities, knowledge, work activities, interests and work styles.

Work styles are personality tendencies shown at work, such as persistence, attention to detail, dependability, cooperation, self control, stress tolerance and adaptability. Each work style is rated for importance on a 1 to 5 scale.

Skills, abilities, knowledge and work activities also carry a level rating from 0 to 7. Importance and level cannot be compared directly, because each level scale has its own anchors. Read each rating against its own scale.

Two occupations can both list attention to detail while rating its importance differently. Read the rating, not only the label. A job description that says the role needs attention to detail at a stated importance is more useful than one that uses the phrase alone.

Each ONET occupation has an ONET-SOC code, such as 15-1252.00 for software developers. The code lets you look up the occupation's full descriptor list.

Assessment vendors often map their items to O*NET codes. Check the mapping, because a code alone is not proof that a test measures the job.

The Uniform Guidelines and the hiring test standard

The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (29 CFR Part 1607) set the federal standard for validating a selection procedure, such as a test or a trait score used to screen candidates. Enforcement agencies, including the EEOC, apply them to hiring tests.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on protected characteristics, and the Americans with Disabilities Act covers disability-related selection issues. A screening test that rejects candidates needs evidence that it predicts job performance.

The ATD competency model in development planning

The ATD competency model comes from the Association for Talent Development, a professional membership body for trainers and instructional designers. It describes what a talent development practitioner should be able to do.

The practical difference is direction. Federal sources describe what the work requires now. The ATD model describes what a person should build next, which makes it useful for learning plans rather than job ads.

The ATD model is not a government standard and carries no legal weight. It is a professional consensus, which is why it travels across industries and states.

Writing a job posting from these sources

Borrowed O*NET phrasing gives managers in different offices one vocabulary. Without it, managers in California, New York and Texas can write three different postings for the same job title.

Use O*NET language for the requirements section, and your own words for the opening. Say what the team does, who it serves and what the first ninety days look like. Standard language alone reads like a government form, and candidates skim it.

Checklist for adopting a framework

Common questions

What is the difference between a skill and a competency? A skill is a specific ability you can observe and test. A competency adds context, judgment and behavior, so it describes how the skill is used in a role. O*NET describes skills; the ATD model describes competencies for development.

Does O*NET define proficiency levels? O*NET rates the demands of an occupation, not an individual's proficiency. Skills, abilities, knowledge and work activities carry a level rating from 0 to 7, and work styles carry importance only. Employers still need their own proficiency level definitions.

Can I copy O*NET text into a job posting? O*NET is a public federal database. Use its occupational language for the requirements section, then add your own description of the team and the work so the posting does not read like a form.