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The purpose of this article is to define and explain a trend that has caused a great deal of confusion among HR researchers, practitioners, and consumers of HR‐related services: competency modeling. The Job Analysis and Competency Modeling Task Force, a work group jointly sponsored by the Professional Practice Committee and the Scientific Affairs Committee of the Society For Industrial and Organizational Psychology, has recently concluded a 2‐year investigation into the antecedents of competency modeling and an examination of the current range of practice. Competency modeling is compared and contrasted to job analysis using a conceptual framework (reflected in a 10‐dimension Level of Rigor Scale) that practitioners and researchers may use to guide future work efforts, and which could be used as a basis for developing standards for practice. The strengths and weaknesses of both competency modeling and job analysis are identified and, where appropriate, recommendations are made for leveraging strengths in one camp to shore‐up weaknesses in the other.

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) has recently been developed as a replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. As a comprehensive system designed to describe occupations, the O*NET incorporates the last 60 years of knowledge about the nature of jobs and work. This article summarizes its development and validation by first discussing how the O*NET used multiple descriptors to provide “multiple windows” on the world of work, utilized cross‐job descriptors to provide a common language to describe different jobs, and used a hierarchical taxonomic approach to occupational descriptors. Second, we provide an overview of the O*NET's Content Model of descriptor domains (i.e., worker characteristics, worker requirements, occupational requirements, experience requirements, occupation characteristics, and occupation‐specific requirements) and their potential uses. Third, we discuss some of the technical issues surrounding the O*NET Finally, we discuss some of the implications for research and theory, as well as some limitations of the O*NET system.

This article describes and illustrates the adaptation of the linear‐regression‐based decision‐theoretic equations used to estimate the dollar impact of valid selection procedures on workforce productivity to the evaluation of intervention programs designed to improve job performance. The appropriate equations are derived and explained, methods for estimating equation parameters are discussed, and the use of these equations is illustrated by means of a hypothetical example. It is concluded that in the future these methods and equations will allow psychologists to make more accurate assessments of the impact of intervention programs on workforce productivity than has heretofore been the case.

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