How Competency-Based Interviews Help Recruiters Hire Top Talent
As a Hiring Manager, do you rely on your gut instincts or make use of competency-based interviews when hiring a candidate? To some people, instincts are the best indicators of recruitment success. When you tap on your instincts, it does bring in some advantages as it reduces your mental resources while you make a faster judgement about the candidate. However, it should be noted that such judgement should not be used as the basis for hiring decisions.
The Downside of Using Instincts in Hiring
Instincts are prone to biases and will most likely result in a wrong hire! Worst still you can’t tell your boss or peers that hiring was based on your instincts, as it means there is no systematic process of decision making across the organisation! On the other hand, competency-based interviews can prevent unconscious biases. It also helps you see beyond candidates who are just verbally expressive through the use of a systematic assessment of core skills and behaviours and performance indicators.
The cost impact of an inaccurate hiring decision is far higher than most people expect let alone a series of wrong hires. There are many direct and indirect costs involved. The direct costs would be the training costs and salary costs. The indirect costs would be the loss of morale, poor productivity in the team, reputational loss and the list goes on. Studies have shown, the cost of a wrong hire is actually 7 times the average salary!
At Citadel Search, we have used a proven Headhunting 7-Step Methodology, which places a considerable amount of emphasis on ascertaining the DNA of the mandate, employing competency-based interview techniques and market mapping. This has seen us place over 1000 candidates across more than 380 employers in Singapore and the region.
How To Run Competency Based Interviews?
Competency-based interviews are designed to test competencies based on a candidate’s past experiences, sieving out their core skills. It is different from normal interview questions like “tell me a weakness about yourself” or hypothetical questions such as “what do you want to be in 10 years’ time”. Oftentimes, such questions only warrant hypothetical answers depending on how persuasive the candidate can be. He could lead you to cloud nine, but there is no way to validate his response since it is an open, subjective situation susceptible to interviewer biases and stereotypes.
Competency-based interviews focus on specific evidence of behaviour using validated competency based interview questions. We believe past behaviour is a strong predictor of future behaviour. Therefore, we seek correlational and concrete evidence of required behavioural traits or skills demonstrated in the candidate’s recent past. This competency-based interview approach ensures we’re highly effective in hiring the right candidate with the necessary role-specific competencies.
What Is Competency Based Interview?
The first step in conducting a successful competency-based interview is delineating the essential core skills and professional competencies required for the specific role. Here is a breakdown of this crucial step:
- Job Description Analysis: Thoroughly examine the job description to identify the role-specific competencies outlined. This initial analysis provides a foundational understanding of the required skills and qualifications.
- Consulting Job Content Experts (JCEs): Engage with JCEs – individuals currently holding the position – who represent the mid-range of performance (not high or low performers). This “middle ground” perspective offers valuable insights into the essential competencies (must-haves) needed to perform the job effectively.
- Identifying Differentiating Competencies: Next, leverage the insights of top-performing JCEs to identify unique and differentiating competencies (good-to-haves). These additional skills, while not mandatory, can elevate a candidate’s performance and set them apart from the competition.
Crafting Competency-Based Interview Questions
Once the key competencies are established, it’s time to design effective competency based interview questions. Here are some key points to consider:
- Behavioural Focus: Focus on past behaviours as strong predictors of future performance. Instead of hypothetical questions (“How would you handle…?”), craft questions that probe for specific past experiences demonstrating the desired competencies. A good example would be: “Tell me about a time you faced a challenging communication situation. How did you approach it?”. This behavioural interviewing technique allows for a more accurate assessment of a candidate’s capabilities.
- Clarity and Structure: Frame your questions clearly and precisely, outlining the specific behaviours you’re seeking. Avoid leading questions or questions that solicit opinions or views. Focus on skill-based questions that encourage candidates to share concrete examples from their past experiences.
- Probing Deeper: Recognize that candidates may not always provide comprehensive answers initially. As the interviewer (Hiring Manager or Talent Acquisition Partner), it’s your responsibility to delve deeper using probing questions. This allows you to gain a clearer picture of the candidate’s thought processes, actions, and results in past situations.
Examples of Competency Based Interview Question
An Example of a Competency-Based Interview Question: (Competency: Decision Making)
“Give me an example of how you made a difficult decision when you had insufficient information in your last company.”
Beyond Competency-Based Interviews: Assessment Centres
While competency-based interview questions offer a powerful tool for candidate evaluation, assessment centres can provide an even more comprehensive picture of a candidate’s suitability for the role.
Assessment centres are multi-faceted selection processes that typically involve:
- Interviews: In-depth discussions to assess a candidate’s communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and alignment with the company culture.
- Tasks and Exercises: Simulations of real-world job scenarios in the form of case studies, group discussions, presentations, or role-playing exercises. Such simulations enables one to evaluate a candidate’s ability to apply their skills and knowledge to practical situations. However, these tasks and exercises have to be rigorously evaluated and tested to ensure that it would elicit the responses that are required on the job. In other words, the behaviours must be categorically distinct, not ambiguous. Hence, they are best designed by psychologists/HR practitioners trained in occupational testing.
- Psychometric Tests: Standardised assessments designed to measure a candidate’s personality traits, cognitive abilities, and work styles.
Through these diverse components, assessors can directly observe a candidate’s behaviour in various situations. This approach allows a more comprehensive evaluation beyond simply assessing skills. It delves deeper into soft skills evaluation, such as teamwork, leadership, and critical thinking.
Advantages of Assessment Centers:
- Increased Accuracy: The combination of interviews, tasks, and assessments provides a richer data set for evaluating a candidate’s fit for the role as compared to solely relying on competency-based interview questions.
- Differentiating Top Performers: Assessment centres are particularly effective for roles with a high volume of qualified candidates. These multifaceted exercises can help identify subtle differences in competencies and performance indicators, allowing you to select the individual who best aligns with the defined competency framework.
Considerations for Assessment Centers:
- Cost: Assessment centres can be resource-intensive due to the time and expertise required for design, execution, and evaluation.
- Scalability: This approach may not be feasible for every hiring need, particularly for high-volume recruitment.
How We Can Help:
Citadel Search collaborates with organisational psychologists to develop and implement competency-based assessment centres tailored to your specific needs and role requirements. We can assist you in:
- Competency Mapping: Identifying the key core skills and professional competencies essential for success in the role.
- Developing Interview Best Practices: Creating effective competency based interview questions and interview structures to gather relevant candidate information.
- Assessment Center Design & Execution: Tailoring assessment centre components to accurately measure the desired competencies and performance indicators.
Citadel Search’s Competency Based Approach Will Ease Your Hiring Process
After reading this article, we hope you are convinced that instincts should not be used as the basis of hiring. Getting the right employees on board maximises productivity and reduces the need to rehire repeatedly like an endless cycle. It can sure be annoying when a new hire whom you trained leaves the company after a few months due to a job misfit. Imagine the time and effort spent on the new hire just to let them go.
Therefore, Hiring Managers need strategic hiring processes like competency-based interviews and assessment centres. These methods would render efficiency in weeding out unsuitable candidates and yield you the most ideal candidate for the role. Remember there is no perfect candidate, only ideal ones!
At Citadel Search, we recognise talents that are the competitive edge of outstanding organisations. We are constantly in touch with our clients to understand the core competencies they are looking out for in their organization and role.
Partnering with Citadel Search reduces costs and saves time for your company. Most importantly, we can help you get the talent in the door and keep them! Time can be better allocated to performing other business functions which will then improve productivity and enhance efficiency in this VUCA environment, reducing regrettable attrition. We can speed up the job fill with our existing network and provide you with quality candidates. Come talk to us today!
Interested to find out more?
Our article Good Interview Techniques That Work reveals some of the job interviews that not only made candidates all tensed up, but also would not be effective in finding you your ideal candidate.
For companies who are looking for effective ways of assessing candidates, take a look at our Candidate Assessment Tools. If you are interested in engaging us as your recruitment partner, do check out our Executive Search Service, or if you would like to train your hiring managers in Competency Based Interviewing Skills, contact us to have a chat.
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