Everyone knows that if you want to get the right answers, you need to ask the right questions. This is never more true than when you’re interviewing a candidate for a role – especially online. What you ask, and how you ask it, will determine what types of answers you get – and how useful those answers are.
That’s why our talent management suite includes competency-based interviewing tools. In order to gain a detailed understanding of a candidate’s abilities, and how competent they’ll be in a role, you need a methodology and a structure – one which helps you find out who your candidate is and whether or not they’re suited to the role.
Without a system you’ll be asking generic questions and getting answers that are unlikely to give a true reflection of your candidate’s abilities. If you want a reliable method of finding the right person for the role, you need to use competency-based interview tools. Here’s why…
What is a competency-based interview?
A competency-based interview does what it says on the tin: it tests a candidate’s competency for the role in question. By asking pre-determined questions you can establish whether or not the person in front of you has the requisite skills for a specific role.
This structured approach to interviewing ultimately allows you to get to the heart of who someone is much more effectively than loose, open-ended questions.
Competency-based interviews give you the tools to test skill and ability in areas including:
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Decision-making
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Agility
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Teamwork
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Resilience
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Problem-solving
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Conflict resolution
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Leadership
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Independence
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Flexibility
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Communication skills
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Stress management
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Trustworthiness and ethics
By employing questions that require candidates to give real life examples of their skills in action, you can target each competency in a systematic way.
Competency-based interviews create consistency
When you use a methodological process or system, you create consistency. When you’re hiring, this consistency helps in a number of ways.
How can you compare two or three candidates if you’ve just gone in and asked them questions based on their individual CVs? When you have a system, you standardise your questions. One of the benefits of this is that you can make direct comparisons between candidates. By asking all your candidates questions based on the requirements of the role, you create a metric.
Competency-based interviews also help the interviewer remain impartial and on-track. With unstructured interviews you stand much more chance of unconscious bias creeping in.
If the interviewer likes the candidate and starts to build a rapport with them, the interview could become more of a cosy chat than an honest indicator of a candidate’s suitability.
In situations like this, the person conducting the interview is likely to ask questions that yield ‘nice’ or comfortable answers. The end result is that you might come away with a positive impression but with no real knowledge of their skills or competencies.
“This means the entire process is fairer for everyone.”
Conversely in a structured interview, you have a set of pre-scripted questions. Rather than letting your personal opinion of that individual guide you, by following the questions you’ll get a true reflection of their competencies. This means the entire process is fairer for everyone: the recruiter is able to qualify candidates more accurately, and the candidates are judges on their aptitude rather than their likeability.
Why competency-based interviews work
Structured interviews help you extract much more information from a person than you would in an unstructured interview. This is especially important in remote hiring as you have the added barrier of not being physically face to face with someone.
Asking someone to tell you what type of animal they’d be or asking them to open-endedly elaborate on their CV will tell you nothing of any real relevance. It may, however, give you the illusion that you know what their competencies are. This is when hiring mistakes happen.
Our suite automates competency questions based on an assessment of that individual and the role in question. This means the questions are designed to get to the heart of the matter: how well will they do in the role? Do they have the key competencies required to meet the expectations of this position?
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For example, if decision making is a key part of the role in question, a competency-based interview will include questions which truly reveal a candidate’s confidence and skill in this area.
Asking someone, “Would you say you’re good at decision-making?” is a world apart from asking them, “Can you think of an example where you had to make a difficult decision very quickly?”
The second question asks for practical examples of the key competency. The result is a much more revealing and measurable answer.
How the candidate answers – their enthusiasm (or lack of it), how long it takes them to think of a response, their body language when answering, their level of confidence and comfort – all of these elements paint a detailed picture. Not only will you learn how they dealt with the situation, but also what they consider to be a difficult decision. Their entire notion of what constitutes a difficult decision may be completely different to yours, and to the requirements of the role.
Asking a candidate to share examples of when they have demonstrated a certain competency in the past gives you a good idea of what their future behaviours will be. It also means the candidate has to give you a specific example. This in itself will speak volumes. You may think the person in front of you is incredibly confident, but what if you ask them to give you an example of a time when they challenged authority to create a positive outcome, and they can’t think of any?
Now, let’s look at the alternative, unstructured interview question: “Would you say you’re good at decision-making?” They’re unlikely to say no. Instead, they could tell you they’re brilliant at decision-making, they thrive when they have to make quick decisions, they do it all day, every day, their middle name is decisiveness. If you’re simply using instinct and free-flow questions, their confidence and assertion will convince you – or you’ll simply be none-the-wiser.
Asking a candidate hypothetical or open-ended questions is effectively asking them to give you their opinion of themself.
Recruiting people based on how well you clicked with them in an interview, how charming they were, or how confidently they extolled their virtues is the equivalent of buying a car just because you like the colour.
These factors alone will not give any real insight into how they will practically do the job; only a competency-based interview can do that. This doesn’t negate intuition or the vibe you get from someone, it simply backs up those elements with reason and logic. And what you learn from a structured interview doesn’t just help with the hiring process – it goes beyond simply choosing the right person.
When someone joins your organisation, if your interview revealed that stress management was a weak area, you know that’s something to consider in your onboarding program. Going forward, the information you received during the interview could tell you which areas they’re likely to need support with in terms of performance management.
“The more you know about someone, the more you can treat them as an individual.”
The more you know about someone – their weaknesses and their strengths – the more you can treat them as an individual. Ultimately, this makes it much more likely that your new recruit will be happy and productive, and that they’ll stick around.
Another major benefit of competency-based interviewing is the experience from the candidate’s point of view. When you use a structured interview method, you’re able to formulate a constructive assessment for each candidate. You can use this information to give them feedback about why they were unsuitable for the role, or why someone else was chosen over them. It also ensures clear communication, which is positive for both the candidate and you, the recruiter.
By asking them the following question: ‘This role can be very challenging at times. Can you give me an example of a stressful occasion at work, how you managed it and what the outcome was?’ You provide clarity for both parties: the recruiter finds out if the candidate has the necessary experience and skills, and the candidate is given key information about the role. Maybe they themselves will decide that the role is unsuitable for them.
Competency-based interviewing gives you the tools to look beyond whether a candidate looks or sounds right for a role. It gives you a tried-and-tested method to delve deeper and find out if your candidate has the appropriate skills and abilities. It gives you consistency, makes it easier for the interviewer, and ultimately helps you hire people who won’t just perform to an average level, but to an outstanding one.
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