Exploring Selection Techniques: How Do Competency-Based and Behavior-Based Interviews Differ?

Hi all,

My name is Baqir. I'm an Assistant Manager in HR, and my responsibilities are towards the development side. I'm trying to gain detailed knowledge about selection techniques. Please guide me, is there any difference between competency-based and behavior-based interviews? Or what other modern techniques can be used for selection?

I will be awaiting your reply.

Regards,
Baqir

Thanks a lot, Vinod, for your guidance. I would like to ask you a few more things. What would be the right way to identify competencies for a particular position? And how can someone be rated against them?

Hi,

One of the best ways to identify the competencies and behavioral aspects you need in a candidate is to yourself prepare the job responsibilities and job profile of the candidate. Once you go through the whole process of his job responsibilities on your own, you will know what competencies you have to assess and what behavioral aspects you are looking for in a candidate.

Hi Baqir,

What I do in my organization is, for example, if I have to recruit a team leader, I would first make his job profile and job responsibilities. This involves going through his entire workday process - starting from the morning tasks, identifying to whom he will report, determining his areas of responsibility and accountability. By analyzing the entire day's process, I can outline his job role and responsibilities. Once I have created this profile, I gain a clear understanding of the candidate we are looking for - including their behavioral aspects. Please feel free to let me know if you would like me to explain further.

Regards,
Prakash

Baqir,

Let us start by understanding what a competency is. It is a personal characteristic (skill, knowledge, trait, motive) that drives behavior leading to outstanding performance.

So when you want to do competency-based assessments, the objective is simply to get a person who performs brilliantly in his job. The first thing would be to identify the top performers in a given job and dialogue with them to understand what about them helps them excel in their work. Brainstorm on these and then deliberate to come up with a list of competencies.

For example, for the role of a business development manager, "Result orientation" could be a competency because he has to really drive himself to get the business. For senior leaders, "vision and strategic orientation" could be a competency.

Then in your interviews, you build scenarios (maybe a case study or by asking about past experience) to assess these.

Let me know if you need any more clarity on this.

Thank you, Sana. Do you have any idea what the success rate is of achieving a desired potential after using competency-based interviews? Some seniors mentioned that if an applicant is sharp, they can easily create stories and satisfy you. Are there any other techniques that can be used?

Hi Baqir,

I'm searching for the same. Actually, the tools for making an assessment center could come in handy, like in-basket exercises, role-plays, or simulations. A person cannot lie in these exercises; you should be able to judge his/her competencies quite accurately.

Maybe this is late to write regarding your question, but at least this discussion might be useful for others searching for the same topic. Although I have observed all the comments regarding your question, I am still confused about the main part of the question, which is: is there any difference between competency-based and behavior-based interviews?

Difference Between Competency-Based and Behavior-Based Interviews

Yes, there is a significant difference between these two types of interviews. Let me briefly explain:

• In a competency-based interview, the recruiter is trying to identify the core competencies necessary to differentiate high performers from slow performers. These core competencies are reflected in the competency matrix of the position.

• Thus, in a competency-based interview, we are trying to identify what the candidate will perform in a specific situation that may occur in the future, to assess their performance potential.

• In a behavioral interview, the recruiter is trying to identify what the candidate did in the past in specific circumstances to understand their actions and results.

Nevertheless, regarding your senior management's concern that there is a probability a person might fabricate a story and present it to the panel members, it's not a solid reason, and it's not possible. In a competency-based interview, the panel will have many probing questions, such as:

• Please tell me a situation where your communication skills made a difference in senior management decisions.

• What have you learned from this action?

• If you want to perform the same action in the future, what changes will you bring to your action?

• In your point of view, is there any other way to achieve a better result in this case?

However, selection techniques are changing day by day due to the needs of the market and organizations. Please study as much as possible about this question, and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons].

Regards

According to my point of view, you are completely right. In a competency-based interview, the recruiter will look to find all those core competencies in order to differentiate higher and lower performers.

In a behavior-based interview, the recruiter will search to know what specific tasks the candidate did in specific circumstances to understand the positive results.

You also shared really good questions.

Hi, this is late to reply on this topic, but I would like to mention a few things specifically.

Behavioral Event Interview (BEI)

1. BEI is useful when the interviewer wants to capture behaviors only. The assessment takes time, so during the interview, only behavior should be noted carefully. BEIs should be done with other tools so that the behaviors are easily evaluated/measured. Basically, BEIs are used in assessment centers.

Competency-Based Interview (CBI)

2. CBI is useful when specific competencies are required to measure. This is used generally by all interviewers and it's a part of the simple interviewing process.