Difference Between Competency Based And Behavior Based Interviews

hi all,My name is Baqir, i m an assistant manager HR and and my responsibilities and towards development side. I m trying to get some detailed knowledge about selection techniques. Please guide me that, is there any difference in between competency baesd and behavior based interviews??? or what other moderen technique can be used for selection ??I will be awaiting for your reply.Regards,Baqir

thanks alot vinod for your guidence. i just would like to ask you few more things... what would be the right way to identify compentcies for a paticular position? and how someone can be rated against them?

hiii,
One of the best way to know the competencies and behavarioul aspect you need in a candidate is to u your self prepare the job responsinbilities and job profile of tha candidate, once you will go through the whole process of his job responsibility on your own, you will yourself know what competencies you have to check and what are the behavarioul aspect you are looking in a candidate.:icon1:

Baqir,
What i do in my organisation is like if i have to recruit a team leader, then i would first mke hi job profile n job responsibilites like first going through the whole day processofhiswork like first in th morning what he do, then to whom he will report, what is his areas where he will be held responsible and where he will accoutable, you go through the whole day processfrom that u can pen down what his jr and jp will be and once you make it by your own u will know how the cadidate should be,what will be his behavioural aspect and all the things feel free if u want me to explain more
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 perform brilliantly in his job. So 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 to excel in their work. Brainstorm on these and then deliberate to come up with some list of competencies.
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(may be a case study or by asking about past experience) to assess these.
Let me know if you need any more clarity on this

Thanks alot sana. do u have any idea, that what is the sucess rate of getting a desired potencial after using competency based interview. because as per some seniors, if an applicant is sharp he can make stories very easily and can satisfy you. Is there any other technique which can be used???

hi baqir,
m searching for the same.. actually, the tools for making an assessment centre could come in handy, like in-basket exercise, roleplays or simulations. a person cannot lie in these exercises.. you should be able to judge his/her competencies quite accurately..

Dear Baqir,

Maybe this is late to write regarding your question, but at least maybe this discussion would be useful for some other folks; whom searching for the same topic. Nevertheless as I had observed all the comments regarding your question, still I am confused about the main part of the question which is (is there any difference between competency based and behavior based interviews)

Yes, there is a lot of difference between these two types of interview, hence let me briefly explain to you as follows;

• In the competency based interview question, the recruiter is trying to identify those core competency which is necessary to differentiate the higher performer from the slow performer, and the main core competencies are reflected from competency matrix of the position.

• Thus, in the competency based interview we are trying to identify, what will the candidate will perform, in a specific situation which may occur in the future, in order to identify how the candidate is in terms of the performance.

• In the behavioral interview question, the recruiter is trying to identify what the candidate did in the past in a specific circumstance, to know the specific action/result.

Nevertheless, regarding your senior management concern which they think, there is the probability that a person makes a story from their own side and present to the panel members, its not much solid reason, and it's not possible.In the competency base interview, the panel will have a lot of probing questions , such as following :

• Please tell me a situation which your communication skill made a difference to senior management decisions?

• What have you learned from this action?

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

• In your point of view is there any other way to approach better to result of this case?

However selection techniques are changing day by day due to the needs of the market and organization, please study as much as possible about this question, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any question to this by [Login to view]

Dear Nijati SB,
Well according to my point of view, you are completely right. In the competency based interview the recruiter will look after to find all those core competencies in order to differential higher and lower performer.
While in behavior based interview, the recruiter will search to know what specific task in specific circumstance the candidate did. To know the positive result.
Also you really share good questions.

Hi,
This is late to reply on this topic but I would like to mention few things specifically.
1. BEI (Behavioral Event Interview) is useful when the interviewer wants to capture the behaviours only. The assessment takes time so, during the interview only behaviour should be noted carefully. BEIs should be done with other tools, so that the behaviours are easily evaluated/measured. Basically, BEIs are used in Assessment centres
2. CBI (Competency Based Interview) is useful when specific competencies are required to measure. This is used generally by all interviewers and its a part of simple interviewing process.