Crafting Indirect Questions for Competency-Based Interviews: How Do You Do It?

Hello everyone,

I'm working on my project on "competency-based interview techniques." The competencies in this organization are already defined at different levels. Now, based on this, I have to design a questionnaire. Candidates have to be selected based on the competencies required at those levels. The competencies defined are:

1. Organisation and business awareness
2. Communication skills
3. Teamwork
4. Planning & Organising
5. Interpersonal skills
6. Health, safety, and environment
7. Result orientation
8. Change and innovation
9. Customer focus
10. Leadership
11. Problem-solving and Decision-making
12. Critical thinking

Now, my mentor wants my questionnaire to consist of questions that are indirect yet serve the purpose of judging competency in a candidate. Please guide me on how to frame questions.

Looking forward to getting good input from the members of citehr.

Regards, Bushra

Hi Bushra,

I think what you have to do now is prepare an attribute list defining each and every competency. Don't have too many attributes for the competencies. Decide on the top 3-5 ones based on the culture, values, and vision of the organization. Once you have these attributes, identify the skill sets required for each attribute and accordingly prepare a set of questions to assess these skill sets. For further help, refer to books by T V Rao on the same subject.

Anuradha

Dear Bushra,

I work for Bose Corporation, and we have processes in place for interviewing candidates on questions which target the required competencies.

It is very important that the interviewer should be clear of the profile and what is it that s/he is looking for in the candidate. Also I would suggest that the interviewer should make a checklist about what are the eliminating factors for the candidate and make notes during the interviews about the required competencies.

The below mentioned questions are a few of them which could be used to help us understand the candidate effectively.They could be of some help for you in your study.

A Innovative Thinking: Develops creative ideas and solutions that enable individuals to meet and exceed customers' and colleagues' expectations.

Relevant Interview Questions

1. Describe a time when you solved a problem that required a unique solution. How did you know that established methods or solutions would not work?

2. Describe a work situation when you identified opportunities for doing things a different way that would save time and/or money for the department in which you worked.

3. Describe a time when you applied existing knowledge in a new way or in a new situation to solve a problem.

B. Continuous Improvement: Identifies and helps implement improvement and cost saving solutions.

Relevant Interview Questions

1. What improvements have you made to your job? Why did you improve it?

2.Tell me about a time you worked with others to share ideas on company improvements.

3 Everyone knows that sometimes, even though something should be changed or improved, it just is not worth the effort to do so. Give me an example of an organizational/team/departmental policy or procedure change you believe should be changed but have done nothing about.

C. Develops/Improves Self: Gains the skills, knowledge and experiences critical for current and future job success and satisfaction.

Relevant Interview Questions

1. What objectives did you set for this year? What steps have you taken to make sure you're making progress on them?

2. Have you taken any steps to improve your skills or performance? Give me an example.

3. Tell me about an area you identified as an improvement area for yourself? What have you done to gain knowledge/skill in that area?

D. Effective Communication: Expresses verbal and written information clearly, accurately, concisely, and in a form most helpful to the audience.

Relevant Interview Questions

1. We all have times when we need to communicate information to a large group of people. Tell me about a time that happened to you. How did you decide what method to communicate the information through? How effective was it?

2. Sometimes the message we deliver is not always interpreted as we hoped. When has this happened to you?

3. There are times when we need to provide individuals with negative feedback. Tell me about one of those times. What did you say? How did the person react? What was the final outcome of the interraction?

E. Initiative/Self-Motivated: Anticipates the need and takes proactive action to fully and effectively complete work, resolve issues, and assist others.

Relevant Interview Questions

1. What has been your biggest achievement on your job?

2. Describe a situation in which you saw a problem and took action to correct it rather than wait for someone else to do so?

3. Tell me about a time you needed to respond quickly to address the needs and requests of another individual.

F. Plans and Organizes Work: Identifies and follows logical steps in a well-organized work space in order to complete assignments and tasks.

Relevant Interview Questions

1. Walk me through yesterday or last week and tell me how you planned the day's or week's activities.

3. Tell me about a time you were faced with conflicting priorities. In scheduling your time how did you determine what was the top priority?

4. We've all experienced situations in which we just couldn't get everything done on time. Tell me about a situation in which this happened to you.

G. Technical/Functional Knowledge: Demonstrates excellence in the area or field of expertise for which one is responsible.

Relevant Interview Questions

1. What technical training have you received? How have you applied this training?

2. Describe a project, situation or assignment that challenged your skills. What did you do to effectively manage the situation?

3. How have you kept current on technical information concepts and practices relating to your job? How have you applied them?

In case of any queries, feel free to revert back

regards,

Karuna Ahuja

Thank you, Karuna and Anuradha.

Anuradha, I'll surely go through the book of TV Rao.

Karuna, your guidance is really of great help.

Regards,
Bushra

Hello bushra:

"Now my mentor wants my questionnaire should consist of questions which are indirect as well as solve the purpose of judging competency in a candidate."

It seems to me your mentor wants to assess for more than competency.

Hiring for talent is the key to hiring successful employees.

If we want to be sure that all our new hires and employees become long-term successful employees, we need to make sure that all employees are competent and have a talent for their jobs.

For employees to find job success...
® talent is necessary, but not sufficient.
® skills are necessary, but not sufficient.
® training is necessary, but not sufficient.
® orientation is necessary, but not sufficient.
® knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient.
® competency is necessary, but not sufficient.
® qualifications are necessary, but not sufficient.
® effective management is necessary, but not sufficient.
® successful interviews are necessary, but not sufficient.
® appropriate behaviors are necessary, but not sufficient.

Talent is the only necessary condition for job success that employers cannot provide their employees and schools cannot provide their students. Employers must hire talent, see the book "First, Break All the Rules, What the world's greatest managers do differently."

Most employers don't measure talent so they can't hire for talent even if they do hire the best and the brightest.

Competence and talent are necessary but they are not the same. The following ties competence and talent together in a short guide for selecting the right people for a position. Talent and competence are necessary but they are two different things. Selecting for competence and talent avoids many performance problems. There are two conditions, see 3A and 3B below, when competent people should not be hired or selected for a position.

Each position has its own talent requirement.

Job applicants can have
1. Excellent Talent ... greater than 85% job suitability
2. Adequate Talent ... 85% to 70% job suitability
3. Inadequate Talent ... less than 70% job suitability

Job applicants can also be
A. Highly Competent
B. Competent
C. Not Competent

The following is the order in which applicants and/or employees should be selected for positions.
1A = Excellent Talent and Highly Competent
1B = Excellent Talent and Competent
2A = Adequate Talent and Highly Competent
2B = Adequate Talent and Competent

The following should be selected if they can become competent.
1C = Excellent Talent and Not Competent
2C = Adequate Talent and Not Competent

The following should not be selected.
3A = Inadequate Talent and Highly Competent
3B = Inadequate Talent and Competent
3C = Inadequate Talent and Not Competent

Talent must be hired since it cannot be imparted or acquired after the hire.

I want to know the exact difference between talent and competency, with examples. Please help me out...?

---

When distinguishing between talent and competency, it is essential to understand that talent refers to natural abilities or aptitudes that individuals possess, often seen as innate gifts that come effortlessly to them. On the other hand, competency relates to specific skills, knowledge, and behaviors that are developed through learning and experience.

For example, someone with a talent for music may have a natural inclination towards playing instruments or singing, whereas competency in music theory and performance could be acquired through education and practice.

In summary, talent is inherent, while competency is acquired through effort and training. Both are valuable in different contexts and contribute to an individual's overall capabilities.

Hi Akansha,

The difference between skills and competency has already been discussed quite a lot on CiteHR. Refer to the following links, where you can find useful information on it:

https://www.citehr.com/3620-difference-between-skills-competencies.html

https://www.citehr.com/76810-competency-vs-skills.html

Moreover, you can also see the following links on the web:

http://www.authorstream.com/presentation/gouriverma-102178-competency-mapping-entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/

http://rammuraly.blogspot.com/2004/11/skills-vs-competency.html

Regards,

Rashee

Hi, can anyone help me in preparing my project on the topic "competency-based interview techniques"? Please guide me in preparing it and provide an idea of a report that has already been prepared by someone.

Thank you.

Hello Dear all, thanks to all of u for sharing valuable info...lemme do my bit tooooo,

IV. TYPICAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ASKED



These can be categorized under the following heads:

• Personal

• Education

• Experience

• Career goals

• General

• Most tricky (with answers)

• Job specific (with answers)



PERSONAL

1. What do you consider to be your greatest strengths?

2. Can you name some weaknesses?

3. Define success. Failure.

4. Have you ever had any failures? What did you learn from them?

5. Of which three accomplishments are you most proud?

6. Who are your role models? Why?

7. How does your college education or work experience relate to this job?

8. What motivates you most in a job?

9. Have you had difficulty getting along with a former professor/supervisor/co-worker and how did you handle it?

10. Tell me about yourself.

11. What are your hobbies?

12. Why did you choose to interview with our organization?

13. Describe your ideal job.

14. What can you offer us?

EDUCATION

1. Why did you choose your major?

2. Why did you choose to attend your college or university?

3. Do you think you received a good education? In what ways?

4. In which campus activities did you participate?

5. In what ways do your college education or work experience relate to this job?

6. Which classes in your major did you like best? Least?

7. Which elective classes did you like best? Least? Why?

8. If you were to start over, what would you change about your education?

9. Do you plan to return to school for further education?

EXPERIENCE

1. What job related skills have you developed?

2. Did you work while going to school?

3. What did you learn from these work experiences?

4. What did you enjoy most about your last employment? Least?

5. Have you ever quit a job? Why?

6. Give an example of a situation in which you worked under deadline pressure.

7. Have you ever done any volunteer work? What kind?

8. How do you think a former supervisor would describe your work?

CAREER GOALS

1. Do you prefer to work under supervision or on your own?

2. What kind of boss do you prefer?

3. Would you be successful working with a team?

4. Do you prefer large or small organizations? Why?

5. What other types of positions are you considering?

6. How do you feel about working in a structured environment?

7. Are you able to work on several assignments at once?

8. How do you feel about working overtime?

9. How do you feel about travel?

10. How do you feel about the possibility of relocating?

11. Are you willing to work flextime?

GENERAL

1. What motivates you most in a job?

2. Have you had difficulty getting along with a former professor/ supervisor/co-worker and how did you handle it?