Untappedme® Compass
Jose Francis Llenado (RPsy, MA.Org Psy, BS Psy)
Carolyn Burr (M.Lead, Grad.Dip.Couns, B.A.)
The Untappedme® Compass was developed to help individuals understand the kinds of work activities, environments, and contributions they are naturally drawn to. The Compass draws on the principles of Holland's Occupational Themes, commonly known as the RIASEC framework, which identifies six broad domains of vocational interest: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (Bullock-Yowell & Reardon, 2024).
These domains provide a well-established foundation for understanding vocational interests and the types of work people may find most engaging. Within Untappedme®, RIASEC is used as a foundational lens for exploring work preferences and career interests. The Compass extends this foundation by integrating workforce capability insights, SFIA-aligned capability mapping, AI augmentation guidance, values exploration, and career development applications into a single applied framework.
By combining established vocational interest theory with practical workforce development methodologies, the Untappedme® Compass helps individuals connect their interests to meaningful work, learning pathways, capability development, and future career opportunities. Rather than functioning solely as an interest inventory, the Compass supports reflection, growth, and informed decision-making across multiple dimensions of work and career.
From Interests to Engagement
The Compass focuses on identifying the kinds of activities, environments, and work experiences that individuals may find naturally energising and motivating. For example, someone with strong Artistic interests may be drawn to creative exploration and open-ended problem solving, while an individual with Conventional interests may prefer structured, organised, and detail-oriented work.
This approach aligns with research on person-job fit, which suggests that individuals experience higher levels of engagement and satisfaction when their work allows them to express their interests and strengths (Kristof-Brown et al., 2005; Huang et al., 2019).
Drawing on Trait Activation Theory (Tett, Toich, & Ozkum, 2021), the Compass recognises that interests and personal qualities are most effectively expressed when individuals operate within environments that encourage and activate them. By connecting vocational interests with workplace contexts, the Compass helps individuals understand not only what they enjoy, but also where their natural preferences may create value and contribution.
Integration with SFIA Capabilities & Seven Embers
One feature of the Untappedme® Compass is its integration with the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). While RIASEC helps identify the types of work people may be naturally drawn towards, SFIA provides a structured framework for understanding professional capability, responsibility, autonomy, influence, and skills application.
This combination enables vocational interests to be viewed alongside workplace capability and contribution. For example, individuals with strong Social interests may be naturally attracted to facilitation, mentoring, stakeholder engagement, or people-focused work, while those with Investigative interests may gravitate towards analytical, research, or evidence-based activities.
By bringing together vocational interests and capability frameworks, the Compass creates a pathway between personal preference and professional contribution, helping both individuals and organisations better understand where talent, motivation, and capability can align.
The Seven Embers learning module extends the compass tool into values discernment. Vocational interests are connected to deeper values such as creativity, connection, or structure. This helps individuals clarify what truly matters to them in work and life, ensuring that career decisions are not only skill-aligned but also value-driven.
AI Augmentation Layer
The Untappedme® Compass incorporates an AI augmentation layer designed to support individuals in ways that align with how they naturally prefer to work. Rather than positioning artificial intelligence as a replacement for human capability, the Compass views AI as a tool that can enhance productivity, decision-making, creativity, learning, and performance.
For example, an Investigative profile may benefit from AI tools that support research synthesis and data analysis, while a Practical Systems Doer may benefit from AI applications that streamline troubleshooting, execution, and workflow support.
Emerging evidence suggests that human-AI augmentation can improve efficiency, support decision quality, and reduce cognitive burden when appropriately aligned to work requirements (Nguyen & Elbanna, 2025; Jiang et al., 2024). Within the Compass, AI guidance is therefore tailored to complement individual strengths, interests, and capability contexts.
Theory
The Untappedme® Compass draws upon established vocational interest theory, including the RIASEC framework, while extending these foundations through proprietary Untapped methodologies and workforce capability applications.
Research has consistently demonstrated the value of vocational interests in education, career development, and workforce decision-making. Wei (2024), for example, found that RIASEC classifications were strongly associated with discipline selection and educational pathways, highlighting the importance of aligning individual interests with career and learning choices
The Compass also incorporates insights from Trait Activation Theory, which emphasises the interaction between individual characteristics and workplace environments (Tett et al., 2021). Together, these evidence bases support the underlying principles informing the Compass.
While informed by established vocational interest theory, the tool incorporates proprietary integrations including SFIA capability mapping, AI augmentation guidance, workstyle insights, workforce capability development applications, and values-based reflection frameworks. The Compass is designed as a practical workforce and career development tool and is not intended for diagnostic or psychological assessment purposes.
The UntappedME® Compass is a tool developed by Untapped7 for the Untappedme® platform. The Compass draws upon established vocational interest theory, including the RIASEC framework and extends this through proprietary methodologies including workstyle profiling, SFIA-aligned capability mapping, AI augmentation guidance, wellbeing and workforce development applications.
To learn more about Untapped's learning and workforce capability ecosystem, visit the Untappedme® platform at https://learning.untappedme.com/
The reference listing included in this article were constructed with the assistance of AI, which supported flow and organized APA formatting based on the meta tagging of the bulleted journal articles and references
This Article contains cited materials from existing evidence-based sources. All referenced content is cited using APA format to ensure academic rigor and transparency. A comprehensive list of references is provided at the base of the article, as well as in text citations is the article sections
References
Bullock-Yowell, E., & Reardon, R. C. (2024). Holland's RIASEC Hexagon: A Paradigm for Life and Work Decisions. Florida State Open Publishing.
Holland, J. L. (1997). Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments (3rd ed.). Psychological Assessment Resources.
Huang, W., Yuan, C., & Li, M. (2019). Person–job fit and innovation behavior: Roles of job involvement and career commitment. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 1134.
Jiang, J., Long, H., & Hu, J. (2024). A meta-analysis of the impact of AI application on employees in the workplace. Advances in Psychological Science, 32(10), 1621–1639.
Kang, W., & Malvaso, A. (2023). Associations between personality traits and areas of job satisfaction: Pay, work itself, security, and hours worked. Behavioral Sciences, 13(6), 445.
Kristof-Brown, A. L., Zimmerman, R. D., & Johnson, E. C. (2005). Consequences of individuals' fit at work: A meta-analysis of person-job, person-organization, person-group, and person-supervisor fit. Personnel Psychology, 58(2), 281–342.
Nguyen, T., & Elbanna, A. (2025). Understanding human-AI augmentation in the workplace: A review and a future research agenda. Information Systems Frontiers. Springer Nature.
Tett, R. P., Toich, M. J., & Ozkum, S. B. (2021). Trait activation theory: A review of the literature and applications to five lines of personality dynamics research. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 8(1), 199–233.
Wei, R. (2024). Examining the influence of the RIASEC theory within the Holland code on students’ academic performance in their chosen disciplines among the context of higher education. Cogent Education, 11(1), 2391274.