To paraphrase a favourite quote of mine, “why do we all hire on knowledge but then fire on behaviour”.
The essence of this is that most recruitment processes look at lived experiences and knowledge of something rather than genuine competency and behaviours. Look around your business, and think about all of those who are the best at what they do. Is it because they worked at a certain business before or that they know the most about something? Or is it because they are a great analyst, an empathetic leader, can sell ice to an Eskimo or just simply a great listener on the telephone. And does your attraction and recruitment process genuinely look for these traits.
We will frequently be briefed for roles and more often than not we are given a “shopping list” of must have knowledge and experience and are told that a competency interview will be used to assess the credentials of candidates. But candidates are often only selected based on where they have worked (a competitor) and if they have knowledge of that specific role (i.e. have done a similar one or that exact role before).
But how have the competencies tied to that role actually been tested to see if they are the key indicators of success, would you start that process by asking what someone in that role knows or by what they do? Unfortunately the competency based interview is often actually just a method of reinforcing the need for someone to have knowledge, so whilst the questions may be geared around teamworking, leadership, attention to detail, analysis skills (all competencies), unless you use examples in a similar role in a competitor business you will not pass.
We hear feedback so often that it was between 2 candidates but the one who worked for a direct competitor just pipped them to the role because of the knowledge they have of our sector.
Is that right? Does that get the best long term candidate, or just the person who can ‘hit the ground running’ the fastest? And how does that lead to a diverse workforce if you are only looking in a certain pool.
Done well, competency interviews can probe how an individual has demonstrated certain values and core elements of the role but so often competency is substituted for knowledge. So please, look at the questions you ask in the interview process, look at how objective your assessments are in looking at the core skills needed for the role and not just how quickly someone can start doing the role.
If you would like to listen to a more in-depth discussion on this area, you can hear our Director, Tim Betts, discuss this subject on a recent podcast as part of his ‘Talking About Diversity’ series. Go to:
Recruiting for Competency & Behaviours