10 Competency-Based Interview Questions Recruiters Must Ask
The process of the interview is getting complexed with the evolving requirements of employers. Recruiters nowadays are tilting towards competency-based interviews rather than a conventional form of interviews. There is also a significant shift from questions based on knowledge to questions that test the competencies of individuals.
Competency-based interview questions attempt to evaluate the behavioral parameters, knowledge, and skills of candidates. With the help of these questions, interviewers assess whether the individual strikes a perfect balance of the competencies required to match the job.
Here a list of common competency-based interview questions you can ask the candidates while hiring. These questions will ensure that you choose the right person with the right skills every time. Also, don’t miss to read the description to gain an idea what to expect from the candidate.
Common Competency-Based Interview Questions
1. Can you describe an instance when you proactively helped a customer to solve a problem he has encountered?
Handling customers is certainly not an easy task. The question assesses several competencies of the candidate as once. An individual will require proper communication skills, management capabilities, and problem-solving skills to tackle customer’s issues.
2. What is the biggest risk that you have taken to achieve your goals?
Risk-taking capabilities help employees to achieve growth and success in less time. You can analyze the candidate if he has the potential to take risks and go beyond the edge to achieve the organizational goals.
3. How do you cope with adverse situations?
This is certainly amongst the top competency-based interview questions you can ask candidates. The question will help you to assess the overall experience of the individual regarding how he managed himself in adverse situations and learned from his mistakes.
4. Describe a situation when you handled a conflict in the workplace
A company is where several teams exist together to achieve a common goal. Therefore, arising a conflict between people is quite obvious. Any individual looking for a job in your organization must handle such situations with his problem-solving approach.
5. What is your biggest achievement?
This is the question that will allow the candidate to speak about his accomplishments in the workplace. You can ask him the question at first place to assess the confidence and the communications skills he possesses.
6. Give an example where you showed your management skills to solve a problem.
Management is one of the most crucial skills that an employee could boast. This competency-based interview question will test the candidate skills on how he managed work processes, customers, managers in the past workplaces.
7. How do you and your team deliver the standards required by customers?
What would happen if the employee is skilled but not ready to work in a team? His skills won’t be useful for the organization. An employee must know how to work in a team in order to achieve business goals. The contribution of every single member is essential to meet the customer requirement.
8. Tell me a time when you took decisions against the will of other team members and succeeded.
Individuals must not always agree to the managers even if they feel something is not right. They must take a stand and speak his/her thoughts no matter whole team disagrees. Such capabilities make the person stand out of the box.
9. Describe a way in which you demonstrated excellent leadership.
No matter what level in the company you are hiring for, it is highly recommended that you seek leadership qualities in a candidate to ensure you’re hiring a right employee. This question demands the candidate to speak freely on his leadership skills and instances when he managed his team effectively.
10. Tell me an instance when your communications skills helped in managing a situation.
Strong communication skills are a requirement for practically every job in the market. Not only for jobs, but communications skills are also pre-requisite even for basic tests such as an HR Interview. Asking the candidate about his communication skills will help you to assess his patience and calmness when he talks to his team members, seniors, and most importantly customers.
Conclusion
Competency-based interview questions set the benchmarks to evaluate people based on their competencies and skills. These are some of the common questions that you can ask candidates the evaluate them for the job requirements. Also, you can always mold them according to your company needs and avoid mis-hires.