All you need to know about competency based Interviews
What is a Competency Based Interview?
Competency Interviewing have been in use since the mid-1980’s when Competency Frameworks were first introduced and have now become a standard tool in the recruitment of staff. Competency Based Interviews can sometimes be referred to as Structured Interviews, Evidence Based Interviews or even Behavioural Interviews. The key outcome is to discover whether the job applicant matches the requirements of the job and this is achieved through the use of specifically targeted competency questions.
Competency interviews are now widely used in the selection and recruitment process with many benefits including improved accuracy of selection, removal of bias from the interview process and better matching of candidates to actual duties.
How is a Competency Based Interview Different from a Traditional Job Interview?
In many ways a Competency Based Interview and a Traditional Interview are very different.Whereas a traditional interview could be seen as an exploratory conversation which is fluid with a great deal of interchange between the interviewer and candidate, the Competency Interview is highly structured with the same set of questions asked of each candidate in the same order and in the same way.
Why Employers Use Competency Interviewing?
Traditional interviewing has always been prone to the risk of making a decision made on some arbitrary element such as how the interviewer ‘feels’ about a candidate. Quite often this can be correct however in many cases a wrong decision is made resulting in a costly rehiring process for the employer.By using Competency Interview techniques the employer is more assured that the decision made is based on the applicant’s abilities. There is very limited room for bias and as a result, less risk of discrimination
What Are Competency Based Interview Questions?
Competency Based Interview questions are used in an effort to make the interview process as standard and as fair as possible and there are two common approaches; one is to ask a series of questions, targeted at each of the core competencies, while the other involves in-depth probing questions with the interviewer actively listening for clues which provide evidence that the candidate possess the necessary skills.
As mentioned above the key difference lies in the way that the interview questions are phrased. For example a traditional interviewer might have asked “How good would you say your communication skills are?” A response might have been “Excellent”, however without further evidence there is no way for the employer to know just how accurate this is.
The aim of Competency Interview Questions is to gather this evidence. This is done by asking the candidate to describe specific situations and to give actual examples of when they used specific skills.
Something to be aware of; even if your interview is not described as such, it is very likely in today’s recruitment market that you will be asked Competency Interview Questions.
Examples of Common Competencies
The word competency is widely used in business environments and refers to the skills that are necessary to achieve an effective performance level in the job. Every job will have a set of key competencies, some of which are essential and others desired and all are required to do the job properly.
- Communication skills
- Delivering Results
- Interpersonal Skills
- Use of Initiative
- Planning and Organising
- Analytical Thinking
- Strategic Thinking
- Building relationships
- Developing Others
- Team Work
When preparing for a Competency Interview the experienced interviewer will draw up a list of questions relating to each competency and all directed towards discovering if the candidate has the necessary skills.
Sample Competency Based Interview Questions
Here are 12 tough sample Competency Based Interview questions. Take a moment and see how you would answer them:
- ‘Tell me about a time when you successfully conveyed your ideas to an individual or group so that they were able to understand and retain the message. (Communication)
- ‘Tell me about a time when you had to deliver bad news. What was the situation and what actions did you take?’
- ‘Describe for me a situation where you were required to gather a large amount of data, to analyse it objectively and to make a decision or a recommendation based on the results.’
- ‘Talk me through a time when you had to implement challenging and measurable goals for your team.’
- ‘Provide an example of a time when you did something exceptional.’
- ‘Describe a situation when you were required to use your initiative to complete a complex task.’
- Give me an example of a time when you led a group of people to deliver a particularly difficult task. (Leadership)
- Tell us about a time when you showed leadership. What did you learn from the experience? (Leadership)
- Can you give me an example of a time when you have had to convince a person to do something that they were initially reluctant to do? (Persuading)
- Tell me about a time when you had to consider conflicting workloads, when planning a task or project. (Planning and Organising)
- Talk through a situation where you had to develop a solution to a complex problem which could not be resolved by using existing methods. (Problem Solving)
- Tell me about a time you had to persuade your team to implement an unpopular policy or procedure. (Persuading)
How to prepare for a Competency Based Interview
The key to preparing for a Competency Interview is firstly to study the Job Description and Person Specification in detail to discover the competencies required and secondly to prepare examples of situations you have been in where you demonstrated each of those competencies.
So for example, if Communication is an essential competency, then jot down your recollection of when you completed a task where excellent communication skills were required. Ask yourself, what was involved, what did you do, what part did you play, why do you choose those actions and what was the outcome of your actions.
All of this is essential when answering competency questions. You will be able to arrive with the information fresh and you will be able to deliver your answers clearly and succinctly. After all what the interviewer wants is for you to prove to them that you can do the job better than any other candidate. And how do you prove you are the best candidate for the job? You give a strong confident relevant example which demonstrates each competency required.