The paper discusses the importance of the competencies of the organization’s staff and leaders for its development in the digital economy. The classification of employee competencies is given. The dependence of the organization’s material profit on the level of competence of its employees is clearly presented. The importance of managing the knowledge and competencies of personnel within the organization is determined. Four ways of knowledge management and their features are described. The possible ways for the assessment of personnel competence are listed. The scheme of creating a methodology for assessing the competencies of employees of the organization is described. The factors influencing achievement by the organization of steady, and advanced development are considered. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.