Course Overview
This competency based interviewing course works on the principle that past behaviour is an accurate indicator of future performance. Competency based interviews can be used by organisations across all sectors. A competency-based interview is more systematic and each question targets a skill needed for the job.
Competency based interviewing, often referred to as situational, behavioural or competency interviews, are a style of interviewing often used to evaluate a candidate’s key competencies, particularly when there are a number of candidates who have the technical merit for the role.
This competency based interviewing training course is designed for those with responsibility for selecting new members of the team. It will help reduce staff turnover by ensuring that your selections are of the right calibre. Using competency based interviewing techniques will help identify those that will perform well within your team and also be a closer fit for the role.
Competency Interview Course Outline
Context for Competency Based Interviewing
- What are competencies and competency frameworks
- How they benefit the organisation and their people
Planning and structure
- Layout and tips for a competency based interview
- Preparing and briefing the candidate
- Timing and structure for each competency
- Using the WASP interview structure
Effective Communication – Questioning & listening skills
- Competency question examples
- Using the STAR questioning method
- Analysing responses to questions
- Observing behaviours and differing responses
- Linking responses to the competency frameworks
- Using the listening ladder
Making the selection decision
- Scoring, evaluating and rating
- Developing a scorecard evaluation system
- Moving to the next stage in the selection process
Review and next steps
- Application of learning and next steps
- Further support
The Competency Based Interview course is supported with:
- A participant pre-course Milestones for Success evaluation questionnaire
- A colour printed workbook with skills, methods, tips and techniques
This course is designed for:
Individuals who already have some experience in recruitment. Additionally it is suitable for team leaders, managers and directors.
Download your free Milestones self assessment sheet here: Milestones to Success – Competency based interview skills
Questions about the Competency Based Interviewing Course
What will I learn on this course?
By the end of this one day course, participants will have:
- Conduct a competency based interview, using a variety of techniques such as the STAR method.
- Learn how to acquire evidence through effective questioning and listening skills
- Position competency based interviewing in the context of your organisation
- Format and develop techniques of a competency based interview
- Review of candidate ratings and recommendations
- Score candidates without bias and make the right candidate selection
Is this course right for me?
If you have had mixed results up to now with your recruitment decisions then this course will help you to increase your effectiveness and make your hiring decisions more robust
How long does the course run for?
This is either a half day or one day course dependent upon numbers
Enquire now!
Complete our course enquiry form and we’ll be back in touch within 48 hours.
Alternatively, you can email us at: info@axiodevelopment.co.uk
Further questions about Competency Based Interviewing
Most frequent questions and answers
What is competency based interviewing?
Competency based interviewing are more systematic questions which target certain situations, tasks, actions and results a candidate may portray in the workplace.
As an example, an interviewer may ask: Describe a situation in which you had to deal with a difficult person.
You would be expected to provide a concrete example, in which the interviewer would then dig further into, asking for specific explanations about the candidate’s behaviour, skills or techniques.
Why use competency based interviewing?
Competency interviewing is a great way to not only understand someone’s technical capabilities, but allow you to gain an understanding to how someone would act within certain scenarios.
As the name implies – you would use a competency based interview to understand a candidates competency to do the job.
What are competency based questions?
Competency based questions are interview questions that cover some of the following key competencies:
- Teamwork
- Communication skills
- Leadership
- Problem solving
- Organisation
- Responsibility
Some example competency questions include:
- Describe a situation where you solved a problem
- Give an example of a time where you made a difficult decision
- Tell me about a time you took responsibility for a project
How do competency based interviews differ from normal interviews?
Normal interviews tend to deal in generalities – focusing on broad open questions to gain a general impression of the candidate. You can combine a normal interview with a competency based interview
Normal interviews are great to do over the phone to seek a candidates interest in a role.
What differs from a normal interview to a competency based interview is, within a competency based interview the interviewee with ask specific questions focused entirely on:
- About you and your values – do you fit company culture?
- Technical capabilities – are you able to do the job
- Soft skills – how does the candidate perform when working in a team?
The questions are structured with each technical skill/soft skill being tested.
Still have questions?
Request a call back
Fill in the form to the right and we’ll call you back to answer your questions.
Competency Based Interview Training
How to Run Competency Based Interviews
Interviews can be just as nerve wracking for the interviewer as it is for the interviewee, however, with proper preparation you can develop your own competency based framework to use when interviewing candidates.
This is a quick guide/outline to follow in order to be prepared for the next time your conduct an interview.
1. Reflect on company values and needed skills
Before you can start building a strategy and effective questions for the interview, it’s important to reflect on what are the company values, what makes a good employee at the business and what are the required technical and soft skills for the role.
Doing this ground-work will ensure you create the most effective questions to use in your competency based interviewing framework.
2. Build effective questions
Now that you know what is important to the company and what is need from the candidate, you can start to write effective questions to ask in the interview.
Your questions should focus on core competencies for the role you’re hiring for. Think carefully about the structure of your question, to ensure the candidate can provide specific examples for each competency.
A good method to keep top of mind is the STAR framework:
- Situation
- Task
- Action
- Results
3. Develop a selection criteria / framework
You’ve built a series of questions to ask in your interview, it’s now time to build these into a selection criteria.
A selection criteria allows you to accurately grade each candidate on their skills, attributes, knowledge and behavioural traits, that you are trying to recruit for.
A great place to start is to review the job description that has been set as well as creating a skills matrix for this role.
4. Prepare yourself and the interview team
Prepare yourself by understanding the matrix you’ve created. It’s also hopeful to build an interviewing team that also understand the selection criteria / framework you created, as well as ensuring your team understand how competency based interviews work.
5. Implement and conduct a structured in terview
A great competency based interview will be structured and have defined goals for the business.
Some of the ways to ensure you deliver a structured interview with your candidates is to:
- Define a structure before hand. E.g. Ask each candidate the exact same initial questions.
- Listen carefully.
- Allow thinking time. You’re asking difficult questions – give the candidate space to think.
- Take notes to reflect on later when evaluating and discussing the candidate’s performance.