Competency-based Interviews - What to expect and preparing for outstanding performance

Competency-based interviews, or CBIs, grew in popularity in the “Blue Chip” commercial sector during the last decade and have now cascaded down to medium sized employers as the HR Profession has become increasingly impressed by their positive effect on recruitment decision-making. There are some large studies provide evidence that this technique is twice as effective (as traditional interviewing methods) at identifying candidates who both succeed in the role in question, and thrive in the employer’s corporate culture.

This last point is important, since over time the consistent “measurement” of attitudes and natural behaviours within the selection process – behaviours seen as fundamental to the corporate culture – have proved very powerful.

The branded FMCGs (Mars, Nestle, Procter & Gamble etc) have used CBIs (usually as a key component of an Assessment Centre with other exercises such as role plays) for many years to identify management-level applicants who are likely to thrive in their Businesses, from the Graduate-entry point to the highest echelons. In this way two purposes are served… employees are very likely to feel comfortable; and the aspects of corporate behaviour of which the organisation is most proud are naturally preserved.

Alternatively, CBIs (alone or within a broader assessment) can be used in an aspirational way as part of a deliberate change process, with competencies selected to reflect a desired, future state.

From 2006, BAA, the Airport Operator, used them (with other assessments, and linked to a major re-structuring strategy) to re-engineer its management culture over a 3 year period… from one defined by its legacy as a state-owned, non-commercial & non-customer-driven organisation to one that is now tuned-to the same leadership standards of Companies such as those listed a few paragraphs above.

What are they and why have they been successful?

A CBI is a form of interview that is structured to look for convincing, hard evidence of historical career achievements that line-up strongly with pre-defined competencies (natural aptitudes and behaviour, with examples normally that have a people, process, improvement and/or project leadership context).

Usually the core competencies being explored are around “organisation fit”, but the flavour of the precise question used are typically tuned to the precise role requirements.

Supplementary, role-specific questions are sometimes referred to as Technical Competencies.

The reason they work is because, by making a list of what is really important in advance and looking for evidence that those skills definitely exist, the interview process is about the candidate’s innate fit to the Company and Role, rather than “have they done a suitably near-identical job before”?

Although there is plenty of scope for Interviewers to adapt things, most Competency-based questions in effect start with: “Tell me about a time when you…..”

For instance, if one of the Competencies being measured is the motivation to take on really significant leadership challenges, the above question can be finished with… “achieved something that as a manager was seen as against all the odds?”

Whether Line Managers or HR Professionals, CBI’s require significant training on the part of the interviewer, both in the interview technique and the disciplines around the scoring system.

Typically they will have been trained using a structure called STAR. Situation>Task>Actions>Results.

They will take notes (or one of the interviewers will), and sometimes a few hours later (at Assessment Centres for instance) will re-read their notes and award a score for each example given, both to the opening “tell me about a situation” question and their later “steering & probing” secondary questions. This is another reason why preparation pays, since a well thought-through and delivered “story” will come alive at the time but also stay alive in notes being re-read by the interviewer several hours earlier.

A typical scoring system is as follows:

1. No evidence of any achievement relevant to this competency/management behaviour.
2. Weak evidence of above.
3. Reasonable evidence, slightly below expectations but a gap that could be bridged with some support & development.
4. Good evidence, of a level appropriate to the role and level.
5. Better evidence than could be expected, suggestions that in this regard the applicant may be approaching the level expected at the next management rung (up).

If there are 5 Competencies, 5 examples given and 5 scores awarded, in the end an average will be calculated. Usually, an average above 3.0 will be sufficient, unless the employer is deliberately aiming high. In this case 3.5 or more may be the benchmark. So anything that turns 3s into 4s is good news?

The questions, expectations, and scoring approach are also usually tuned to the job level. At Line Management level the expectation is for examples based on the leadership of teams of operational (or supervisory) staff. At “functional head” level, evidence will be expected of a more strategic nature, including managing, coaching and developing staff who are Line Managers themselves.

Each example, with the probing questions and answers as you go along, should take c. 20 minutes each. This is another reason that preparation, especially preparation structured to reflect the STAR principle, can make such a big difference.

The above is an extract from our full preparation guide please click here and we will send you the full document within 24 hours.