Human Resource Management Competency Based Interviewing Skills Areeba Khalid SP-11/MM/007

 a systematic style of interviewing used to evaluate a candidate's competence rather than his/her technical merit or industry experience  Competence is a standardized requirement an employee needs to possess, in order to properly perform a specific job; a combination of knowledge, skills and behavioral traits  key competencies looked for in the candidates are Communication, Decision Making, Initiative, Leadership, Negotiation Skills, Persuasiveness, Planning and Organization, Relationship Building, Teamwork, Time Management, Problem Solving, Responsibility, Trustworthiness and Ethics, Commitment to Career, Commercial Awareness and Results Orientation  A set format; marks given according to pre decided criteria  Candidates asked to describe their behavior in specific circumstances and asked to back them up with real life examples to check if they have the required competencies Competency based interview (behavioral interviews)

Competency based interviewing skills Before the interview  The interviewer must understand the job well  make a list of the responsibilities the job requires, then list the competencies required to fulfill those responsibilities  Narrow down the competencies  Determine which type of answers would score positive points and which types of answers would count against the candidates.  Prepare competency-based questions, for example “Tell me about a difficult decision that you have had to make recently”

Positive indicatorsNegative indicators  Demonstrates a positive approach towards the problem.  Considers the wider need of the situation  Recognizes his own limitations  Is able to compromise  Is willing to seek help when necessary  Uses effective strategies to deal with pressure/stress  Perceives challenges as problems  Attempts unsuccessfully to deal with the situation alone  Used inappropriate strategies to deal with pressure/stress For example, for questions such as "Describe a time when you had to deal with pressure", the positive and negative indicators may be as follows: Before the interview

0 No evidence No evidence reported 1 Poor Little evidence of positive indicators. Mostly negative indicators, many decisive 2 Areas for concern Limited number of positive indicators. Many negative indicators, one or more decisive. 3 Satisfactory Satisfactory display of positive indicators. Some negative indicators but none decisive. 4 Good to excellent Strong display of positive indicators Before the interview Marks are then allocated depending on the extent to which the candidate's answer matches those negative and positive indicators.

During the interview Use the “STAR” approach Step 1 – Situation or Task  Tell the candidates to tell you real life situations or tasks they were confronted with  For example, “Tell me about a time that you had to make a difficult decision”  Give them time to think of a relevant situation Step 2 – Action  Ask the candidates what actions they took in those situations; what they did, how hey did it and why they did it  For example, “What decision you took in that situation?”  Be attentive when candidate says ‘we’, maybe taking undue credit The acronym STAR stands for Situation Task Action Result.

During the interview Step 3 – Result  Ask them what happened eventually – how it all ended  For example, “What was the outcome of the decision you took?”  Describe what they accomplished and what they learnt in that situation. Based on the answers to these questions, the interviewer must mark the candidate according to pre-set criteria and make the selection decision accordingly.

Thank You!