Interviewers use competency questions to have candidates show how they have performed in various situations in the past, revealing individual personality traits. These are a great help for interviewers interested in finding out exactly who a candidate is and how they may act if employed.

Ideally, developing a competency model is the first step in a transformation that can apply to other talent management areas. Competencies will be most successful if used for sourcing candidates, selection and onboarding, performance management, learning and development, assessment, and promotion.

There are 2 kinds of competencies observed in a job interview:

• Behavioral Competency: Behavioural competencies help you define an employee’s behavioral strengths that can contribute to organizational success. When managers hire an employee they generally look for behavioral competencies like interpersonal skills, ability to accept constructive criticism, ability to understand the perspective of others, decision-making skills, time management, taking responsibility for their actions.
• Functional Competency: Functional competencies are more like technical skills of an employee that contribute to overall organizational productivity. It is more about skills that employees need to possess to perform technical operations in an organization.

Top 10 Competency-based questions to Ask in a Job Interview

1.Give an example of a time you handled conflict in the workplace.

2.How do you maintain good working relationships with your colleagues?

3.Tell me about a big decision you've made recently. How did you go about it?

4.What has been your biggest achievement to date?

5.When have you taken responsibility for a difficult task at work?

6.Can you give an example of when you have supported change within an organization?

7.Describe a situation when you had to work with someone with who you didn’t get along.

8.Describe a time when you had to deal with a customer complaint? What did you do and how did you resolve the complaint.

9.Tell me about a time when you achieved success even when the odds were stacked against you.

10.How do you cope with adversity?

Why Is Competency Important In A Workplace?

Competencies have long been used as a framework to help focus employees’ behavior on things that matter most to an organization and help drive success. They can provide a common way to harmonize, select and develop talent. The benefits are clear for employees and managers, and the overall organization.

• In the case of employees:Competencies offer a description of the standards of excellence for current roles and potential future roles. In other words, they describe what a “great” performance could look like.
• In the case of managers: They provide resources to help them select and develop employees, and provide language to guide performance feedback.
• In the case of organizations: They provide an action-oriented translation of what it looks like to demonstrate the values that are key to success.