From Traits to Competence: How Tripod Tests Strengthen Evidence-Based Talent Assessment 

2025-12-04

Modern organisations increasingly recognize that strong performance is driven not only by skills and experience but by competence—the behavioural patterns underlying how people think, interact and solve problems. Personality traits and cognitive abilities shape these behaviours, making psychological assessment a powerful tool for evidence-based HR. 

What Competence Really Is 

Competence can be understood through the KSAO model — Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics. 

In most professional roles, it is already assumed that employees or candidates possess the essential knowledge and technical skills needed to perform the job. Degrees, certifications, professional experience, and training ensure a baseline of hard skills. Because these components are relatively easy to verify, competence assessment focuses on what differentiates good performance from exceptional performance — the psychological attributes that shape how people apply their skills in real situations. 

This is where Tripod tests provide unique value. They target the parts of performance that are hardest to observe yet most predictive: “Abilities” can be measured by Tripod Analytical and “Other characteristics”  (personality) by Tripod Persona. 

These deeper factors explain why people behave the way they do, how they respond to challenges, and how they fit into teams, adapt to change, collaborate, communicate, and solve problems. While hard skills may qualify someone for a role, traits and abilities often determine how successfully and sustainably they perform within a real organisational context. 

How Organisations Use Tripod Tests in Practice for a competence assessment 

To illustrate how competence assessment works in real organisations, consider a recent large-scale project involving a group of frontline operational professionals working across multiple locations. The main challenges of the role: high customer contact, pressure to solve problems independently, and the need to stay organised in unpredictable environments. 

1. Assessing Current Competence Levels 

The organisation wanted to understand which competence areas were strengths and which required development. All employees completed Tripod Persona online and Tripod Analytical in supervised conditions. The results were combined with the organisation’s competence model, focusing on customer orientation, communication, problem-solving, stress resilience, initiative and adaptability. 

2. Identifying High-Potential Talent and Risk Areas 

The combined results allowed the organisation to identify individuals with clear leadership potential as well as those who needed support in areas like planning, communication or stress management. Rather than relying on assumptions or one-off observations, decisions were based on evidence from both traits and abilities. 

3. Designing Targeted Development Activities 

Based on the assessment, the organisation launched a development programme. 
Modules included: 

• Effective communication and conflict handling 

• Stress resilience and emotional regulation 

• Structured problem-solving 

• Planning and organisation 

Tripod results were used to tailor coaching conversations, ensuring each employee received development feedback aligned with their personality profile and reasoning strengths. 

4. Supporting Managers With Evidence-Based Insights 

Managers received aggregated team-level insights, helping them understand: 

• why certain collaboration challenges occurred, 

• which employees needed more structure or guidance, 

• how to assign tasks based on strengths, 

• and how to adapt feedback approaches to each team member. 

This increased consistency in day-to-day management and improved overall team effectiveness. 

Conclusion 

Competence is behaviour — and behaviour has psychological roots. This organisational example demonstrates how Tripod tests offer a scientifically grounded, practical way to understand the traits and abilities that shape performance. When integrated into competence models, Tripod results help organisations make clearer decisions, build targeted development plans, and create stronger, more adaptable teams. 

With evidence-based insights, organisations can move beyond intuition and towards a more transparent, fair and effective way of evaluating and developing talent.