Competency Based Interview Questions for Recruiters

Jonathan Kidder

5 years ago

Recruiters can use a number of strategies to get the information they need out of interviewees, but competency based questions are among the most beneficial because they ask interviewees to get specific about how they have demonstrated specific skills in past scenarios. These questions are an excellent way to have a candidate explain their abilities to practically utilize skills like communication, creativity, and even adaptability.

How do Competency Based Questions Work?

In general, when you ask a competency-based question, you’re prompting a candidate to explain a situation or problem they’ve dealt with in the past and the steps they took to handle it. This allows you to readily evaluate their mindset and better understand how they would do in certain scenarios. Most recruiters use these questions for “soft skills” that are essential for a candidate to be able to work together with others in a high-stress and or fast-paced situation.

The competencies you question will depend on the position you’re interviewing the candidate for. For instance, if you’re hiring for a retail position, you may ask questions about teamwork and communication. For an upper management position, you should instead gravitate towards questions about creativity, independence, and leadership capabilities.

Why are competency based interview questions important when interviewing candidates?

Competency-based interview questions are important when interviewing candidates because they help to assess a candidate’s past behavior and performance in specific situations. Here are some of the reasons why competency-based interview questions are important:

Better candidate assessment: Competency-based interview questions focus on a candidate’s past behavior and performance, providing a more accurate assessment of their skills and abilities.

Improved predictiveness: By focusing on past behavior, competency-based interview questions can help to predict how a candidate will perform in similar situations in the future.

Consistency: Competency-based interview questions provide a structured and consistent approach to interviewing, ensuring that all candidates are evaluated based on the same criteria.

Increased objectivity: Competency-based interview questions help to remove subjective biases and ensure that the interview process is fair and objective for all candidates.

Better alignment with job requirements: Competency-based interview questions help to assess a candidate’s skills and abilities in relation to the specific requirements of the job, ensuring that the best candidate is selected for the role.

Improved candidate experience: Competency-based interview questions provide a clear and transparent process for candidates, helping to improve their interview experience and build a positive impression of the company.

Preparing to Ask Competency-Based Interview Questions:

When you are preparing for an interview, you can decide which competency-based interview questions you’d like to ask by making a list of the aptitudes you would find in your ideal candidate. The job listing will be a good place to start your research by looking at the required abilities and skills, whether it’s ambition, compliance, critical thinking, initiative, or otherwise.

With your list in mind, think about some situations where a candidate may be able to show off these abilities. This will give you a way to lead them into a specific example in case they blank on the spot and aren’t able to think of one. You’ll certainly want them to elaborate, but giving them an example of how they might answer the question is great for encouraging an answer that goes beyond a few words, especially for entry-level candidates who may not have a lot of experience to pull from.

What to Look for In the Right Answers

If you’re trying to determine what makes a “good” answer to a competency-based interview question, look for confidence. Confidence and sureness in what the candidate is saying to you are good signs, not only that they have prepared for the question, but that they are sure in how they handled the situation and they ability to demonstrate the skills at hand.

Of course, the candidate should also be humble. Humility in how they answer the question will help ensure that they don’t see things as their way always being the best way. While they should be confident, they might bring up things they could have done differently or better. You may even ask them what they thought could have been done better, looking back on the situation. This will give you further insight into their abilities.

Competency Based Interview Questions:

When have you worked as part of a team to complete a difficult task?
When have you taken responsibility for a difficult task at work?
When did you make a difficult decision within a team that most people were against?
Can you give an example of when you have supported change within an organization?
Describe a time when you had to deal with a customer complaint? What did you do and how did you resolve the complaint.
Describe a time when you used your communication skills to get across an important point of view?
Describe a time when you had to present an idea to a group of people?
When have you introduced an innovative and unique idea into your team? How was it received?
What is the toughest decision you have ever had to make whilst at work? Why did you make the decision and what was the outcome?
Describe a time when you set yourself an important career goal? What difficulties did you come up against and how did you overcome them?
Describe a situation when you had to work with someone who you didn’t get along with.
Describe a time when you helped a new member of a team to integrate into the workplace.
Describe a situation you were in when you motivated a difficult member of a team?

What to Look for in the Applicants Responses:

Communication – how well can they discuss a story or project. A good way to understand how to screen for interview questions is understanding the STAR interview method.

Decision Making – how can they use solved effectively?

Leadership – how can you motivate others within your team?

Results Oriented – are they focused on delivering results?

Team Work – how well can they work with others?

Responsibility – what they owned? Can they be trusted and valued on the team?

Technical skills – always important to screen for these skills. Here’s how to effectively conduct a phone screen (here).

Career Motivation – understand why they are making a change. Is there any red flags?

Customer Focused – who is there focus and do they have any positive examples of this?

Interpersonal Skills – can they resolve conflict and work with other teams?

Final Thoughts…

Overall, competency-based interview questions are important because they provide a structured and consistent approach to assessing a candidate’s skills and abilities, improving the predictiveness and objectivity of the interview process, and ensuring that the best candidate is selected for the role.

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