Workshop for introducing competency based interviewing

1. Competency Based
Interviewing Skills

2. Objectives
• Apply best practice in competency based interviewing
• Improve existing interviewing skills
• Make accurate, informed and objective assessments
• Conduct a structured and fair competency based interview.
• Evaluate behavioral evidence gathered throughout the interview.
• Make selection recommendations or decisions.

3. Why Interviews are important?
• It is the initial opportunity to meet with job candidates.
• Opportunity to interact with candidates to gain insights into their experience,
knowledge, behaviors, and more beyond resume.
• Determine if a candidate’s profile meet the job's requirements.
• Assess whether a candidate would likely fit in with the team or culture.
• Help promoting your employer brand.

4. The Interview Experience
• Think of a time you have either interviewed someone or were the one
being interviewed.
• What was your role during the interview?
• Was the interview goal accomplished?
• If you had a chance to do it over again, what would you have done
differently?

5. What is a successful interview?

6. Interviewing: Back to Basics
• Do your Homework
• Have Presence
• Document, Document, Document
• Topics to Avoid
• Post Interview Tips

7. Traditional Interview Questions
1. Walk me through your work history.
2. How would you describe yourself as a person?
3. What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
4. Where do you want to be in five years?
5. How would your boss describe you?
6. Where do you see yourself in the coming 5 years?

8. Scenario Type Questions
• What would you do in a situation?
What would you do if a conflict arises among your team members?
You are the Country Representative & one of your female staff members
approaches you with a grievance. Female staff member complains of
harassment against one your most trusted male manager. How would
you deal with this grievance?

9. Standard Interview Questions
• Open or closed ended questions
Have you managed a team?
What attracted you to this position?
What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?

10. What do we mean by “Competencies” ?

11. Types of Competencies
• Core
• Personal
• Functional/Technical
• Leadership
• Role Specific

12. Competency Based Interview
• Also known as Situational Interviewing or Behavior Descriptive
Interviewing
• Tool to discover how candidate’s past performance impacts your
future performance
• Candidate’s past behavior is used as PREDICTOR for future
performance
• More accurate than standard interviewing technique

13. Competency Based Recruitment and Selection
Competency
Based
Recruitment
& Selection
Right
People
Right Skills
Right
Behaviour
Right Place
Right Time
Right Cost

14. Competency Based Interviewing
• Competency-based behavioral interviewing is a structured interview
process that combines competencies with the premise that, with few
expectations:
• The best predictor of future performance behavior is past performance
behavior
And
• The more recent the performance/behavior, the more likely it is to be
repeated

15. CBIQ Structure
Competency
+
Open Ended
Question
=
Behavioral
Interview
Question
 All questions in a Behavior-based Interview are based
upon competencies directly related to the vacant
position.
 Competencies include all the related knowledge,
skills, abilities, and attributes that form a person’s
job.
 Usually questions are open-ended
 Tell me about a time when…
 Describe for me…
 Give me an example of a time when…

16. CBIQ are
• The questions asked during CBI are based on real situations that
relate to the competencies for the position
• Candidates are evaluated based on actual behavior/performance
rather than on possible or potential behaviors/performance.
• In CBI, the interview asks the candidate to provide an example of a
time when she/he demonstrated the competency rather than asking
them if they have the competency and the answer will most likely be
“yes”.

17. In order to use CBI you need to:
Review/revise the job description
Identify required skills
Develop the interview questions based on
required skills

18. How to create CBI questions?
• When we think about the behavioral interviewing process, we
typically start by asking the question:
“What knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) are most critical for success in this
position?”
• You might also ask,
“What behaviors are important or strategically critical to my organization?”
• You can then decide:
“What competencies (i.e., clusters of KSAs) are most strategically important to

19. Sample CBI Questions
• Tell me about a time when…
• Give me an example…
• Think of a specific situation when…
• Walk me through a time in which you demonstrated…
• An important skill for this job is ________.
• Describe a situation that demonstrates your strength in this area.
• What types of experiences have you had in _______? Tell me about a specific
situation

20. The STAR Technique

21. Interviewer View

22. Applicant View

23. Also Look For…

24. Creating a Rating Scale
• A rating scale could be relatively simple and only include anchors such as
“satisfactory” or “unacceptable.”
• A rating scale of this kind can be useful in that it simplifies the rating process by
making it a “yes or no” type of decision, reducing variance and the need for much
more deliberation by interviewers.
• The disadvantage to these kinds of scales is that it reduces variance in the results,
meaning that you may end up with all of you candidates either “satisfactory” or
“unacceptable.”

25. Rating Scale Example
• Far Exceeds Requirements: Perfect answer. Demonstrates competency accurately,
consistently, and independently. All points relevant. All good examples.
• Exceeds Requirements: Demonstrates competency accurately and consistently in
most situations with minimal guidance. Many good examples.
• Meets Requirements: Demonstrates competency accurately and consistently on
familiar procedures and needs supervisor guidance for new skills. Some good
examples.
• Below Requirements: Demonstrates competency inconsistently, even with
repeated instruction or guidance. Few good examples.
• Significant Gap: Fails to demonstrate competency regardless of guidance
provided. No good examples.

26. Steps for a successful CBI
• Opening the Interview
• Ask CBI Questions
• Ask Probing Questions
• Take Notes
• Close the interview
• Score and rate

27. Opening the interview
• Introduce yourself to the candidate, determine your role in the organization
• Describe the interview process to the applicant and ask if he or she has any
questions before the interview begins.
• At this point, you may recap the position and what it entails.
• Ease tensions further by encouraging the applicant to talk about a particular
interest—perhaps something on the person's resume.
• To gain as much information as possible from an applicant, you should create an
atmosphere that promotes communication

28. Examples of Opening Questions
• Tell me a bit about your work background?
• Tell me about your present or last job. Why did you
choose it? Why did you, or why do you, want to
leave?
• After learning about this opportunity, what made you
take the next step and apply for the job?
• What do you like most about the [name of
profession]? What do you like least, and what do you
find the most challenging?
• What are your short- and long-term career goals? Tell
me about two work accomplishments that were very
successful or you are the most proud of.

29. Use CBIQ
• Focus on open-ended questions
• Starts with a main question; citing a critical incident
• Expects specific examples of candidate’s skills, knowledge, attitude &
values required for job
Describe a situation when you…
Tell us about a time when you…
Give us an example of a time when…

30. Probing Questions
• Probing questions are follow-up questions asked of candidates when:
• Initial answers are vague, ambiguous, evasive, or do not fully address the lead
question.
• The candidate’s tone changes drastically or word choice becomes negative.
• The candidate seems to have difficulty forming an answer or takes extensive
pauses.

31. Probing Questions Examples
• Probing questions are not developed in advance of a behavioral interview; they
are based on triggers that are prompted through the candidate’s responses to
lead questions.
• These types of questions are grounded heavily on an interviewer’s use of active
listening and observation as a candidate relates facts and experiences about how
they have behaved in the past.
• These questions should be open-ended and should not direct a candidate
towards a desired response.
• Here are a few examples:
• I'm not quite sure I understood.
• Could you please tell me more about that?
• I'm not certain what you mean by . . .
• Could you give me some examples?
• You mentioned . . .
• Could you tell me more about that? What stands out in your mind about that?

32. Take Notes
• Note taking is key to your ability to revisit and remember your candidates’
responses.
• Too much note-taking may unnerve a candidate or could detract from one’s
ability to connect with a candidate on a personal level.
• Find the right balance, since candidates may speak at different paces, with
different tones of voice, or even with different accents.
• Record basic info at the beginning, such as the date, time, and length of the
interview and the name and job title of the interviewer.
• Note the responses to each question, highlighting key pieces of information that
will help in evaluating each candidate according to each competency

33. Tips for Note Taking
• Use short-hand or key phrases to summarize the content and delivery of
responses.
• Balance your note taking with maintaining eye contact and engaging in
conversation (try taking notes without breaking eye contact with the
candidate).
• Avoid writing down judgments of your candidate in your notes.
• Avoid rating a candidate’s response until they have left the interview (but rate
the candidate responses for yourself as soon as possible after the interview).
• Ensure that your notes support or justify your ratings (list actual answers
along with how these answers apply to the competency being rated).

34. Closing the interview
• Mention that the interview is ending and to offer the candidate the opportunity
to ask questions.
• This will enable the candidate to gain clarification on aspects of the position and
on employment conditions such as hours, salary and benefits.
• Answer the candidate's questions as frankly as possible.
.

35. In closing an interview, the interviewer may want to:
• Ask if the candidate is interested in the job based
on the information provided during the interview.
• Ask about availability.
• Ask for a list of people who can be contacted for
references.
• Explain the time frame for the rest of the
subsequent steps in the process and when a
decision is likely to be made.
• Explain when to expect to hear from him or her.
• Walk the candidate to the door and thank the
person for the interview.

36. The CARL Technique

37. The CARL Model
• The CARL model is a job interview technique where you structure each of your
questions according to the different aspect of the model. Given the reflective
nature of successfully answering many job interview questions, this model can
easily be used in general to guide your reflective process on experiences.
CARL stands for:
• Context: Briefly describe the context of you experience
• Action: Explain what actions you took
• Results: Explain what happened as a result of your actions
• Learning: Identify what you have learned

38. Common Interview Mistakes
• Bias and Discrimination: Bias can be based on your first impressions of the
person. Do not compare yourself to the interviewee so that you choose an
individual whose personality is similar to yours.
• Try to evaluate each applicant fairly based on his knowledge, experience and how
he answers the interview questions.
• Avoid the Halo effect, in which one good aspect of the applicant makes him look
good in other areas as well. Your judgments of his personal character can be
influenced by your overall impression of him, with scanty information
• Limited Interviewing Skills: If you are new to interviewing, practice with a co-
worker if possible to make sure you have everything you need to do the
interview. Another suggestion would be bringing another co-worker into the
interview that has more interviewing experience.

39. Common Interview Mistakes – Cont..
• Lack of Preparation: It’s very important you make a checklist of all the
things needed to do the interview. It’s unprofessional and it looks bad on
the organization when you are unprepared. Just remember the interview
goes both ways, you are being judged just as you are judging them.
• Communication: Some of the barriers in communication during an
interview are:
• Not listening to the interviewees and having them constantly repeat themselves.
• Not projecting your voice for the interviewee to understand what is being asked of
him.
• Talking too much - you are trying to build a rapport with the interviewee and not hear
yourself talk.
• The non-verbal communication can say a lot about you as well: are you smiling,
making eye contact, are
• you showing interest by the way you’re sitting?

40. More Hiring Challenges?
• Sourcing
• Time
• Employer Brand
• KPIs
• Turn Over
• Process
• More…?