Competitive employers consistently look for ways to gain a hiring edge. One strategy is to hire based on core competencies, assessing a candidate’s prior experience with the most important components of a job.
In this post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about competency-based interviews, which can help you hire strong performers who can hit the ground running and quickly add value to their teams.
What Are Competency-Based Interviews?
Competency-based interviews are a type of interview in which employers seek to identify certain skills or competencies in a candidate and learn how that person has applied those competencies in previous jobs. This type of interview is useful for determining whether a candidate is capable of performing the everyday duties of a role and understanding how they might approach specific challenges that arise.
Competency-based interviews can assess both hard and soft skills. They’re particularly helpful for learning more about skills that aren’t easily quantified, like teamwork and leadership.
What Are Competency-Based Interviews Used For?
This style of interview is useful in first-round interviews, where you need to filter out candidates who do not meet the minimum qualifications. A candidate’s responses to competency-based questions will quickly reveal whether they have had prior experience in a particular area that is important for doing the job.
Competency-based interviews are an excellent choice when you need to hire someone with very specific experience, such as navigating complex corporate politics or dealing with high-needs customers. Candidates who can speak to these experiences will quickly distinguish themselves from other applicants.
Finally, competency-based interviews are a great choice when promoting from within. Since you already know the candidate, you probably have an idea of whether they’re technically capable of doing the job. Still, this interview format gives them a chance to speak about their unique contributions and achievements that make them the strongest choice for upward advancement.
Benefits of Competency-Based Interviews
Competency-based interviews can help employers:
Accurately screen candidates in or out
Competency-based interviews give the candidate a platform to speak directly to their skills pertaining to the job. If an applicant is able to provide specific examples of times they’ve demonstrated the required competencies, an employer can confidently advance them to the next round of the hiring process.
Ensure skill alignment
Questions in a competency-based interview are created based on the qualifications required to perform the job successfully. This promotes strong skill alignment and produces higher-performing employees. Skill alignment ensures that the selected candidate does not require excessive training, which can strain employer resources and cause dissatisfaction among new hires.
Gain insights into work style
In addition to telling you about a candidate’s skills, competency-based interviews reveal how a candidate approaches tasks and makes decisions–things that are different for everyone. Their answers can provide insight into how well they’ll acclimate to your company’s systems and their general approach to work, which are important aspects of culture fit.
Predict likely performance
Past performance is one of the strongest indicators of future success. Since competency-based interview questions center around a candidate’s previous experiences, their answers shed light on how they’re likely to perform when faced with similar experiences, tasks, or challenges in the future.
Promote a fair hiring process
Based on the material a candidate provides during a competency-based interview, a hiring manager can point to concrete reasons an applicant was or was not selected for the job. This data can be used to give feedback to candidates who were not ultimately chosen, creating a better hiring experience.
Find the perfect fit for your team.
Speak to one of our recruiting experts today.
Steps for Conducting Competency-Based Interviews
Follow these steps to use competency-based interviews to select high-performing employees.
1. Identify core competencies
Refer to the job description to identify the most pertinent competencies for each role, considering both hard and soft skills. The list should include characteristics and capabilities that are required to do the job, as well as qualities that are strongly preferred in the right candidate.
In addition to job-specific technical competencies, here are some other good ones to look for:
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Decision making
- Critical thinking
- Motivation
- Creativity
- Adaptability
- Resilience
- Integrity
Related: How to Assess Soft Skills in an Interview
2. Create competency-based questions
Next, use the list you’ve developed to create competency-based questions. Remember, these are questions that aim to identify a candidate’s prior experience and aptitude with specific competencies. Competency-based interview questions often begin with phrases like “Have you ever…” or “Tell me about a time you…”
Here are some examples:
- Have you ever received negative feedback during a performance review? How did you handle it?
- Tell me about a time you had to make a difficult decision at work. How did you approach it?
- Describe a time you had to deal with a workplace conflict.
- What is your prior experience with creative problem-solving?
- Give an example of a time you had to remain calm under pressure.
- Tell me about how you adapt to changes in the workplace.
All candidates should be asked the same questions, in the same order. This helps ensure fairness while providing a consistent candidate experience.
3. Develop a scoring system
Competency-based interviews are typically scored using a numeric system, where a candidate’s answers are judged based on how well they demonstrate the competency in question. For example, you might use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest rating and 5 is the highest. Here’s how that might look within a scoring matrix:
Question: Describe a time when you had to work as part of a team to accomplish a goal.
Rating scale:
1 = Candidate did not demonstrate working as part of a team to accomplish a goal
3 = Candidate demonstrated moderate effectiveness working as part of a team to accomplish a goal but lacked in describing concrete details or showing meaningful outcomes
5 = Candidate demonstrated a high level of effectiveness working as part of a team to accomplish a goal, providing specific details of successful actions and outcomes
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Interview Scoring Sheets
4. Train interviewers
Competency-based interviews require some finesse, so all interviewers must be given adequate training beforehand. Prep interviewers on the scoring system as well as what they should be looking for in candidates’ answers: specific details, demonstrable results, timely examples, and actual experiences versus speaking in terms of what the candidate “would” or “could” do in a given situation.
5. Inform candidates
In any interview, it’s helpful to give interviewees an overview of the format and scoring system before you get started. You can also provide this information ahead of time in your confirmation interview.
Informing candidates of what to expect helps calm their nerves and lets them know what type of information you’re looking for so they can tailor their answers accordingly.
6. Ask follow-up questions
Often, a candidate will give an answer that partially answers the question. Or, they’ll get off track with the details of their anecdote and lose sight of the point they were meant to address. Help them get back on track–and give you complete information–by asking follow-up questions.
For example, if you ask the question, “Describe a time you dealt with a challenging coworker,” an interviewee might spend the bulk of their initial response talking about a particular incident, how it made them feel, and how it impacted their work. Get to the heart of what you’re really asking–whether they can get along with diverse individuals and resolve workplace conflicts effectively–with a follow-up question like “What strategies did you use to coexist with this coworker?” or “How did you prevent the conflict from negatively affecting your performance?”
7. Assess and refine over time
As with any interviewing framework, your approach to competency-based interviews must be adjusted over time. Certain competencies may become more or less important to a specific role as time goes on, impacting the questions you ask. For example, as AI becomes more of a player in the workplace, you might need to incorporate new questions about dealing with emerging technology or balancing productivity with creativity.
Inquiring closely into a candidate’s prior experiences can yield valuable data about their ability to meet goals, overcome obstacles, and work as part of a team. Consider incorporating competency-based interviews into your hiring strategy to promote objectivity while identifying a qualified, competent applicant.
