How does a competence-based recruitment process work? What are the requirements for the recruiting organization? What are the pros and cons and what does the research say? We explain and give you all the answers!
What is competency-based recruitment?
In a nutshell, competency-based recruitment is about how to structure a professional recruitment process and thereby avoid gut feelings taking over. First, you identify the competencies that are crucial for success in the role in question, then these follow as a common thread through all parts of the recruitment.
What’s so great about competence-based recruitment?
There are major benefits to competence-based recruitment. According to research in the field, it is the most accurate method of recruitment. The chance of finding the best match between company and candidate is increased because the process starts with the company mapping the competencies required for the role and each candidate is evaluated against these competencies.
This creates good conditions for the candidate to be able to use their competence in a developing role and will most likely thrive in the workplace. Having a competency-based recruitment process also benefits the employer as candidates perceive the organization as more professional and attractive.
It is also an effective way to avoid discrimination, be it on the basis of age, gender or ethnicity.
Competency-based recruitment, step by step
When working with competency-based recruitment, each candidate is evaluated on their ability to perform the role based on certain given competencies. To be successful, you need to ensure that the person carrying out the recruitment has the relevant knowledge of how a competence-based recruitment process works. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do this.
Competence analysis
Competence analysis
01.
Start the process by carrying out a competence analysis to find out what competences are required for the role. Competence can be described as the knowledge, experience, skills, personality and motivation used to achieve what is required in a given situation.
Developing a requirements profile
02.
The next step is to design a requirements profile based on the competence analysis. It should set out specific requirements for the role. Examples include educational requirements, experience requirements, skills, personality and practical requirements.
The requirements profile lays the groundwork for what the interviews should focus on and what areas any tests should cover. Based on this, the questions to be asked to the candidates and referees are then decided.
The requirements profile should always be done together with the recruiting manager of the client. The wish list can be long. It is therefore useful to identify which requirements are mandatory and to weight them according to a scale. Otherwise, there is a risk that the requirements profile will be too extensive and thus impossible to match.
Advertising & search
03.
The aim of an advertisement is to attract candidates to apply. Therefore, the ad needs to be both clear and selling. Advertise both internally and externally.
It is common to recruit in an informal way (without advertising) through network contacts. People who do not have the right connections are then not given the same chances as others. In informal recruitment, the recruitment process can be less formalized. This risks leaving room for more subjective assessments.
Search is a complementary tool to ensure that the recruiter finds and reaches the candidates requested by the client. By sourcing for people with a defined profile of requirements who are not actively looking for a job, it is possible to establish in advance that they have the right profile.
Interviewing consciously
04.
Competency-based recruitment involves conducting structured interviews where the questions have been formulated in advance. The requirements profile is the basis for the questions asked and all candidates are asked the same questions. This allows for a factual comparison of candidates’ answers and weighting of relevant areas against each other. Research has shown that this approach increases the chances of finding the most competent candidate for the job.
Use tests
05.
Occupational psychology tests can be a good complement to get a clearer picture of the candidate, especially if personality, ability and motivation tests are used. Having all applicants complete tests as a first step provides a more qualitative basis for the selection process than having only candidates’ CVs and personal letters.
Reference checking
Reference checking
06.
By taking references, it is possible to verify information obtained during the recruitment process and obtain information on past work performance and the candidate’s personal qualities. However, reference checking as a method to predict future job performance is given low validity by researchers. This is because the candidate has normally chosen their referees. The reference checks should be done with the requirements profile as a starting point and the questions formulated accordingly.
Prerequisites for decisions
07.
Before you start the actual evaluation of the final candidates, you go back to your requirements profile to remind yourself how each competence should be assessed. An individual assessment of the selected competences is then made for each candidate. Finally, you can rank the candidates among themselves and thus have a good basis for which candidate is the best match for the role.
Evaluate
08.
A research study shows that it is not always only the selection criteria described in the requirements profile that guide the decisions taken. In the worst case, this can lead to discrimination. It can therefore be useful to evaluate your recruitment process to review the grounds on which candidates have been screened out. By systematically following up on the recruitment process, the organization can create a better basis for future processes.
FAQ
A competency-based interview is a structured interview where the recruiter asks behavioral questions based on the relevant competencies for the role. All candidates are asked the same questions designed in advance for the same position. Candidates are evaluated on a uniform assessment scale and interviewers agree on what constitutes a good answer.
The questions should be factual and concrete, asking the candidate to describe a given situation, with the aim of finding out how it was carried out and why the candidate chose that particular course of action.
This interview session relies on the STAR technique, where STAR stands for Situation, Target, Action, Result. The recruiter asks the candidate to describe a situation when they needed to use a competence area, examines what they were aiming for or trying to achieve, how the candidate acted and what the results were.
Here is an example of questions you can ask in a competency-based interview to explore how self-driven a candidate is in taking responsibility for a task and driving the process forward.
What are your responsibilities or commitments in your work?
– What is your position on this?
– How much do you think you should check, ask or report in order to pursue your issues?
– Can you describe a concrete example?
Describe a major task you were given responsibility for?
– What was it about?
– What were the conditions?
– How did you go about it?
– What was the main problem?
– How did you solve it?
– How did it go?
– Is this typical for you?
Have you ever started something that was not finished?
– What was it?
– What happened?
– What was it that made things go the way they did?
Source: Lindelöw, Malin (2008). Competence-based workforce strategy: how to find out what your organization needs, staff it right and develop it for the future
There are great advantages to competency-based recruitment, especially in terms of avoiding discrimination and rejection due to age, gender, ethnicity, etc.
The chance of finding the best match between company and candidate increases, which creates good conditions for the candidate to translate their competence into what is required to cope with the role and will most likely thrive in the workplace!
The only disadvantage of competency-based recruitment is if the recruiting company has not taken the time to conduct a competence analysis from which the requirements profile is created. At worst, it can lead to the recruiter asking questions about competences that are not relevant to the role and recruiting the wrong person for the role.
However, this is the same disadvantage as if you don’t work on the basis of competences but on regular recruitment.
According to research and Malin Lindelöw, author and PhD in psychology, competence-based recruitment is the most accurate method of working with recruitment. This method is crucial for finding the right person for the job, and for candidates to perceive the organization as professional and attractive.
To succeed in competency-based recruitment, the recruiting organization must put in the work to conduct a competency analysis, which in turn forms the basis for the requirements profile. Developing a competence analysis may take some time, but it pays off in the long run. HR may be the driving force behind the requirements profile, but in order to identify all the tasks and competencies required for the role, it must be done together with the hiring manager. It may be wise to invite a couple of colleagues to join the group.
In a competency-based interview, the recruiter focuses on your qualities, so-called personal competencies, in addition to the formal requirements, such as work experience and education. This is done, for example, by asking you about specific situations in which you have used the competences you need to perform in the position you applied for.
For example, if you have applied for a position involving human resources management, examples of questions might include
Describe a personnel-related decision you made, which was not very successful.
– Why was it not a good decision?
– What would you have done differently today?
Give me an example of how you recently delegated responsibility for an assignment.
– Who did you choose?
– What did you delegate, and how did you do it?
– What did you do to follow up the work?
What leadership style is the best you have worked under?
– What have you learned from them, and what aspects of that leadership do you use yourself?
Describe a time when you had difficulty getting people to work together (to solve a problem, or to complete a project).
– What did you do?
– How did it go?
– What might you have done differently?
What type of employees do you find most difficult to manage?
– Why is this?
– How do you deal with it?
When the recruiter asks the candidate to talk about different situations and how he/she dealt with them, it allows for an objective and unbiased evaluation of the candidate’s competence in different areas relevant to the position. The reason why this type of interview technique has become so successful is that it allows the recruiter to get an idea of how the candidate works in practical situations and determine if they have the right background and skills. The candidate’s past behavior is the best way to know how they will behave in the future.
If the recruiter does not use competency-based interviewing techniques, there is a high risk that the interview will be unstructured. During unstructured interviews, a series of questions are constructed during the interview itself that do not always add information about a candidate’s ability to perform a specific job. There is also a risk that the recruiter loses focus and asks inappropriate questions that are not relevant to the assignment.
Since competency-based recruitment is based on specific and selected competencies for the role already at the selection stage, and each candidate interviewed for the role is asked the same questions, there is less room for personal interpretation.
One study makes three recommendations that are important to reduce the risks of discrimination:
1. using the requirements profile as a starting point during all phases of the recruitment process
2. to clearly define the meaning of the different criteria in the requirements profile and to rank the requirements in the profile.
3. the study also highlights the importance of determining at an early stage the weighting of the different requirements in relation to each other.
Source: Lindelöw, Malin (2008). Competence-based workforce strategy: how to find out what your organization needs, staff it right and develop it for the future.
There is a variety of different training courses in competency-based recruitment, choose your training with care and make sure that what you choose meets your needs.
