Human Resource Management

Competency Based Interviewing Skills

Areeba Khalid

SP-11/MM/007

a systematic style of interviewing used to evaluate a candidate's competence rather than his/her technical merit or industry experience

Competence is a standardized requirement an employee needs to possess, in order to properly perform a specific job; a combination of knowledge, skills and behavioral traits

key competencies looked for in the candidates are Communication, Decision Making, Initiative, Leadership, Negotiation Skills, Persuasiveness, Planning and Organization, Relationship Building, Teamwork, Time Management , Problem Solving, Responsibility, Trustworthiness and Ethics, Commitment to Career, Commercial Awareness and Results Orientation

A set format; marks given according to pre decided criteria

Candidates asked to describe their behavior in specific circumstances and asked to back them up with real life examples to check if they have the required competencies

Competency based interview (behavioral interviews)

Competency based interviewing skills Before the interview

The interviewer must understand the job well make a list of the responsibilities the job requires, then list the

competencies required to fulfill those responsibilities Narrow down the competencies

Determine which type of answers would score positive points and which types of answers would count against the candidates.

Prepare competency-based questions, for example “Tell me about a difficult decision that you have had to make recently”

Positive indicators Negative indicators

Demonstrates a positive approach towards the problem.

Considers the wider need of the situation

Recognizes his own limitations Is able to compromise Is willing to seek help when

necessary Uses effective strategies to deal with

pressure/stress

Perceives challenges as problems Attempts unsuccessfully to deal with

the situation alone Used inappropriate strategies to deal

with pressure/stress

For example, for questions such as "Describe a time when you had to deal with pressure", the positive and negative indicators may be as follows:

Before the interview

0   No evidence

 No evidence reported

 

1   Poor Little evidence of positive indicators.Mostly negative indicators, many decisive

 

2   Areas for concern Limited number of positive indicators.Many negative indicators, one or more decisive.

 

3   Satisfactory Satisfactory display of positive indicators.Some negative indicators but none decisive.

 

4   Good to excellent Strong display of positive indicators

Before the interview

Marks are then allocated depending on the extent to which the candidate's answer matches those negative and positive indicators.

During the interviewUse the “STAR” approach

Step 1 – Situation or TaskTell the candidates to tell you real life

situations or tasks they were confronted with

For example, “Tell me about a time that you had to make a difficult decision”

Give them time to think of a relevant situation

Step 2 – Action

Ask the candidates what actions they took in those situations; what they did, how hey did it and why they did it

For example, “What decision you took in that situation?”

Be attentive when candidate says ‘we’, maybe taking undue credit

The acronym STAR stands for• Situation• Task• Action• Result.

During the interviewStep 3 – Result

Ask them what happened eventually – how it all ended

For example, “What was the outcome of the decision you took?”

Describe what they accomplished and what they learnt in that situation.

Based on the answers to these questions, the interviewer must mark the

candidate according to pre-set criteria and make the selection decision

accordingly.

Thank You!