Fundamentals of Competency Interviewing

The Central Purpose: Predicting Future Behavior

The fundamental purpose of any selection interview is to attempt to predict a candidate's future behavior.

We seek to determine how a person will perform if hired for the role. However, the traditional interview process is flawed.

Often, interviewers rely too much on "intuition" or "gut feel," and candidates, for their part, may exaggerate or embellish their true capabilities.

Competency-based interviewing, also known as behavioral or problem-solving interviewing, is the methodology designed to overcome these obstacles.

The Premise: Past Behavior as Predictor

Competency-based interviewing is based on a key premise: the most reliable way to predict a person's future performance is to analyze his or her past behavior.

This structured methodology has proven to be significantly more valid and effective in predicting job performance than unstructured interviews.

Unlike hypothetical questions (which only reveal what a candidate thinks he or she should do), this approach focuses on what the candidate actually did.

By asking for detailed descriptions of past experiences, it also becomes more difficult for the candidate to fabricate answers.

What is a "Competency"?

Before we evaluate, we must define what we are looking for.

A "competency" is not just a trait; it is a set of observable behaviors that demonstrate a person's ability to execute a task efficiently in a given context.

For example, the "Communication" competency is not just one thing; it is the sum of several behaviors, such as expressing ideas clearly, practicing active listening, being assertive, and knowing how to adapt one's speech to different audiences.

If a person possesses only one of these behaviors (such as being empathetic but not clear), we cannot say that he or she possesses the communication competence in a comprehensive way.

The Method: Inquiry into Past Events

In practice, the competency interview works by asking open-ended questions that invite the candidate to narrate specific past events.

The candidate is asked to describe a situation he or she has experienced, a problem he or she solved, or a project he or she executed.

As the candidate narrates his or her story, the interviewer's job is to listen actively to identify whether, within that narrative, specific behaviors associated with the competency being assessed are present.

If the interviewer is able to identify evidence of those behaviors, he or she can infer with greater confidence that the candidate possesses that competency and will be able to apply it in the new role.

Application Example: Assessment of "Planning".

Let's imagine that the competency to be assessed is "Planning and Organization".

First, we must define the observable behaviors of this competency, for examp