Key to finding the right fit: Competency-based interviews

For organisations, when it comes to selecting employees, the biggest challenge is finding the right fit. Towards this, organisations rely on a selection process comprising different phases, which more often than not include interviews.

The field is broad in an interview, and interviewers can ask anything. This freedom is often misused to ask irrelevant and unnecessary questions. To avoid such a situation, the interview format needs to be defined, and interviewers have to be briefed about the parameters on which the candidates are to be assessed. Competency-based assessment and interview come as a scientific approach here. 

People differ in their personalities, with various traits and competencies. Every role in the organisation has particular requirements, and ensuring that those in these roles have what is needed for effective performance becomes necessary. In a broader sense, these needs or conditions can be termed competencies. A competency is a specific quality, skill, behaviour or knowledge to perform a job or a role successfully. Competency Based Interviewing is a process to ascertain whether the candidate appearing in the selection process possesses the required competencies.

Before holding competency-based interviews, the role for which the interview is being held is thoroughly analysed. Based on this analysis, specific competencies required for the position are determined. The interviewer’s job is to frame questions to explore the listed competency or competencies. Here, the interviewer will seek examples of a candidate’s past behaviour, which may provide her concrete evidence of whether the candidate has that specific competency.

Depending upon the roles, the required competencies may include the ability to work under pressure, organise and prioritise, conflict management, communication, adaptability, readiness to learn, creativity and innovation, ability to influence and negotiate, decisiveness, leadership, etc. Some of the competencies can be broken into finer components. For example, communication may include verbal and non-verbal communication.

We have to take a 360-degree approach, so while judging communication, the focus has to be both on the ability to convey one’s idea and being receptive to others’ ideas, which, to some extent, is represented by listening skills. The order of competencies may vary from position to position. For example, a software developer and a lead software engineer in some information technology companies are expected to communicate well. Still, the lead software engineer needs to have a higher order of competency in communication. As such, questions about assessing communication skills in interviews may vary or be twisted.

Competencies are forward-looking; these describe traits and attributes that employees need to build human capital to meet future challenges. Thus, competencies help organisations clarify expectations and define development needs.

Competency-based interviewing is founded on the idea that if you can demonstrate what you have done in the past or learned from the past, chances are that you’ll be able to do that in future. This interview model will likely be more helpful in judging a candidate’s potential, provided appropriate questions are asked. In this method, the panel members must do a great deal of homework in formulating targeted questions and be observant towards the responses so they don’t miss any relevant cues.

How to conduct interviews

The interviewers should know what type of answers would score positive and which would count otherwise. These are known as positive and negative indicators. Hypothetical situations relevant to applying a particular competency may be presented before candidates for their responses.

Interviewers may also dig into their past experiences to recall situations that could be reproduced to know what the interviewee would have done in that particular situation. The situations should be framed in a way that does not appear too common or generic.

While assessing applicants’ responses, the interviewers also ascertain the depth and complexity of responses and are wary of textbook answers. Follow-up questions may be required, which may help understand whether the candidate’s answers appear natural. The interviewers must be cautious that their biases or halo effect doesn’t influence the assessment.

Competency-based interviewing is challenging for both the interviewer and the interviewee. Nevertheless, it helps understand a candidate’s true self, which can be instrumental in sourcing the right manpower. The outcome leads to a win-win situation for the organisation and candidate. Candidates selected through this process will likely be more aligned with organisational goals, leading to higher employee engagement. 

(The author is a Mumbai-based human resource professional)