Questions on competencies for general development. Recruitment technology for the position of top manager

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Tired of asking why a candidate left his previous job? And here is an interview on competencies - sequentially, using four groups of questions and with examples.

The question of selecting the “right” people, I think, will always arise - regardless of the economic situation, the popularity of remote work and freelancing, IT revolutions in work processes, the effectiveness of training and development in organizations. After all, the stakes are very high: Will the person be able to adequately cope with the tasks at the new place of work? Is it possible to conduct an interview and answer this question confidently, or can we just play Russian roulette and hope that the candidate we like is successful?

Different types of interviews and answers to these questions are given in different ways:

During biographical During the interview, the recruiter clarifies where the candidate worked before, what range of tasks he solved, and why he is changing jobs. As a result, he understands how to motivate a candidate and what kind of interest to expect from him in a specific job.
During metaprogrammatic During the interview, the recruiter tries to determine what personal behavior patterns (meta-programs) are characteristic of the applicant: desire or avoidance, immersion in the process or focus on results, and so on; and on the basis of this it determines whether a person is suitable for a certain type of activity. Similar problems are solved by interviews on psychological characteristics.
IN case interview(English case - case) the candidate is placed in a hypothetical work situation. He is asked to tell how he would act in the described circumstances. Such an interview primarily reveals the quality of knowledge and professional outlook of the candidate.
At behavioral interview(behavioral interview, BI, behavioral interview) the recruiter asks the candidate not about hypothetical problems, but about real ones that the candidate solved in his work. This method reveals how a candidate copes with certain work tasks. Sometimes behavioral interview is also called competency interview.

Behavioral interviewing is applicable to candidates from any industry. During the interview, the recruiter collects complete behavioral examples (FBS) from the candidate's experience. From each of these it becomes clear:

Situation the situation the candidate encountered;
Task, which stood in front of him (task);
Actions, taken by the candidate (action);
Result, the result of the situation (result).

These components are easy to remember by their abbreviations STAR - S situation, T ask A ction R esult.

Note. There is a similar model PARLA, focused on development:

P roblem - problem, complexity;
A ctio№ - actions taken;
R esult - result;
L earned - lesson learned, conclusions drawn;
A pplied - how this experience was subsequently applied.

As a rule, it is enough to obtain 2–3 complete behavioral examples (FBE) for each competency of interest, then the picture of experience becomes more or less clear. In order to collect valid PPPs and draw conclusions about the competencies of candidates, it is important to take into account some subtleties. Each group of questions has its own.

Questions about the situation (S) - “Tell me about a situation in which...”

Clearly define the experience of solving what problems you are interested in.

Sometimes you can start from a list of competencies, but this is usually not enough.

For example, if you need to assess the “Attracting Clients” competency when selecting a corporate sales manager. The answer to the question “tell me how you attracted a new client” may not be informative enough. When answering such “free” questions, the candidate names the first examples he remembers, the content of which may simply not be enough for assessment.

You can hear about more interesting situations if you ask questions like these:

Tell us about the largest potential client you have negotiated with.
Tell us about your most difficult negotiation with a potential client.
Clients you have attracted. What incident do you consider the most outstanding in the last six months?
Your biggest failure in attracting new clients in the last six months.

When we ask about the greatest achievement in this competency, we evaluate the current “ceiling” of the candidate, because someone’s golden client has an annual turnover of 100 thousand rubles, while another has 10 million.

By asking about difficulties, difficulties and failures, we find out what the candidate does to resolve such situations, assess the breadth of his tools and ability to use them.

The most complete reliable examples come from the last 3–6 months. The brain habitually “archives” earlier ones, discarding details (which we really need).

Examples of S-questions for some competencies:

Region	Competence	Examples of S-questions
People management	Hiring	Tell us how you looked for the last employee you hired. Tell us about a situation in which it was most difficult for you to find the right specialist.
	On-the-job training	Describe a situation in which you taught a subordinate a skill. Why did such a need arise? Remember the most difficult incident in the last six months related to training your subordinates in the workplace. Tell us about a time when you remember how you were proud of how you trained your subordinate.
	Motivation	Think about a time when you needed to get more performance out of an employee. Your subordinate has lost interest in work. Tell us about it.
	Operational management	Remember the situation when it was necessary to organize the execution of some work as soon as possible. Remember how you faced a serious problem when assigning tasks to subordinates. Remember when you had to change the mode of control over task completion.
	Delegation	Give an example of a situation where you delegated your responsibility to your subordinate.
Personal effectiveness	Prioritization	Remember how you were faced with several large tasks at once and had to decide which ones to do first. Tell us about it. Think back to a time when you had a hard time deciding which of two important issues to tackle.
Personal effectiveness	Making decisions	The most difficult decision you have made at work in the last six months. What was the most creative decision you made in the last six months? Give an example of a situation where you made a wrong decision.
Sales	Negotiating terms	Think back to the situation in which you traded most actively. Remember the case when the client most actively asked for a discount or deferment.
Sales	Cold calls	Remember how you needed to arrange a meeting with a stranger from an unfamiliar company. Which cold call of yours are you most proud of?
Communications	Teamwork	Remember how you needed to cooperate with colleagues to solve a common problem. When was the hardest time for you to work in a team?
Communications	Conflict situations	What communication situation became the most emotionally stressful for you? Remember how you communicated with an aggressive interlocutor.

It is very important that we receive from the candidate a description of a specific behavioral example, and not general information in the spirit of “I have often had such situations; and most importantly, that...”

Sometimes at the S-survey stage we are faced with the fact that the candidate cannot give the necessary example.

Then you can ask the question differently a couple of times. If this does not produce results, then the candidate does not have experience in resolving such situations.

The candidate gives examples of the “wrong story”: we ask about delegation, and the candidate talks about the usual assignment of tasks to subordinates. In this case, we need to clarify the questions being asked and make sure that the candidate correctly understands what situations we are asking about. Then he can either give suitable examples, or confirm that he has not encountered similar situations and has no experience in resolving them.

Questions about the task (T) - “What was the task before you?”

Without knowing the task that a candidate faced in a specific situation, it can be difficult to assess the adequacy of his actions. For example, the candidate reports: “the client asked for a 14-day grace period, and I offered it if the client agreed to order lawn mowers from us for 200 [thousand] a month, and he was happy with that.” If the candidate’s task was to expand the assortment, then this is a plus in his negotiating competencies, and if the task was to reduce delays, then this is a minus.

In addition, without knowledge of the problem it is impossible to assess the success of solving the problem.

T-questions are posed in three main formulations:

What was the task before you?
What task would you set for yourself in this situation?
What was the main thing for you in this situation? [What was most important to you to achieve?]

Questions of the second and third types are good when discussing the actions that the candidate took to solve the problem on his own (without instructions from management).

Action Questions (A) - “What did you do?”

The candidate's specific actions are perhaps the most meaningful and interesting part of his story. Here you need to understand how exactly the candidate solves the problems that we learned about from T-questions. To create a complete picture, the recruiter should ask clarifying questions that reveal the candidate’s practical experience, for example:

What exactly did you do?
What difficulties have you encountered?
What exactly did you say?

This part of the interview requires the recruiter to be able to bring the discussion back on track and stick to the format.

Deviations in interviews	A-questions for clarification	Required format
Non-specific description of actions: "I convinced the client"	What exactly did you say? How did you argue?	Description of specific candidate actions: “I told the client how the Gold card would make his holiday abroad easier”
Summary: “In such situations, I always try to find arguments to convince the client”	What evidence did you find in this particular case? What did you tell the client?
The candidate talks about the “we” experience: “We spoke with the client, told him about the benefits of the Gold card for travel, and he agreed”	What did you personally do? What did you do, and not your colleagues?

A-questions will vary slightly depending on the type of competency, for example:

Types of competencies

Typical A-Questions

Communicative:

Negotiation,
public performance,
motivation,
setting goals,
handling complaints,
working at a meeting,
business correspondence.

What did you say?
How did he react? What did you do after that?
How did you explain this?
What arguments did you give?
What did you do to set your interlocutor up for a calm conversation?

Intelligent:

making decisions,
prioritization,
information analysis.

How did you make the decision?
How did you collect information?
What other options were there?
What did you consider?
What parameters did you compare? How?

Questions about the result (R) - “How did it end?”

So, the behavioral example is almost complete, we know the initial situation, task and detailed actions of the candidate. It remains to be seen how successful the latter were, and whether the candidate managed to complete his task. This should be done carefully: if the candidate suspects that we are assessing success, he may give a biased answer in order to make a good impression.

Therefore, it is better to ask indirect R questions:

How did it all end?
Is this the end?

If the candidate’s answer is general, in the spirit of “everything worked out,” then you can clarify:

What were the final agreements?
At what point was everything ready?
What exactly did the client/manager/colleague say after that?

Wrapping up the interview

As a result of the behavioral interview with the candidate, we must confidently answer the question: Does the candidate have sufficient successful experience in resolving situations similar to those that await him when working with us?

To facilitate their analysis, the obtained data can be summarized, for example, in the following table:

Competence	Situations from the candidate’s experience		Techniques that the candidate knows
Competence	frequency	what situations	variety of methods	how exactly
Motivating subordinates	++	Motivation for responsible work without systematic control	+	Provides reasons for career growth prospects.
Operational management of remote subordinates	+++	Setting and adjusting tasks on RAM Setting individual goals	++	Checks understanding using “meeting minutes.” Together with subordinates, he draws up an action plan when setting difficult tasks. Takes into account the level of readiness.
Delegation	+	Mentoring of newcomers was delegated	+	The choice of mentor was largely random. The tasks were set according to SMART. There was no transfer of authority.

Based on such tables, it is convenient to highlight the pros, cons, opportunities and limitations of candidates associated with working in a certain position.

Note. Behavioral interviews are also widely used in assessing existing personnel. Such an assessment can be used for grading, identifying candidates for promotion, and also for creating training and development plans.

Work with personnel

This type of interview is one of the most objective ways to assess a candidate’s suitability or inadequacy for a specific position. Competency-based interviewing is used as one of the personnel selection methods by many foreign and domestic recruiting companies.

The purpose of a competency-based interview is to obtain information to assess the severity of those behavioral characteristics(competencies) that are necessary for effective work in a certain position. A competency-based interview is a type of structured interview because it is based on a pre-developed interview script.

The script for such an interview contains list of competencies And questions necessary to obtain information on each of the competencies. Competence is a certain skill and knowledge that is actualized in a certain activity. Competency-based interviewing is based on the premise that a person's past and present behavior are the best "predictors" of future behavior and job success. It is also fair that if a person has developed one or another competence, then he will be able to use it in a work situation.

The competency-based interview process examines real-life situations that the candidate has encountered in the past. The applicant's answers are analyzed and correlated with one or another competency being assessed. The interviewer's attention is directed to studying the candidate's behavior.

When discussing specific situations (examples), it is necessary to obtain complete information on 3 blocks:
Situation/Problem(Problem) - Behavior/Action(Action) – Result(Result) [ Learned–Learned Applied-Applied]
Based on the first letters of the components (in the English version), this method of analyzing achievements is called PARLA method

The interview begins with an analysis of the interviewee's main or several key achievements in a particular job. The methodology is based on the idea that a person achieves success in a certain activity thanks to the most pronounced competencies. With a high degree of probability, when analyzing achievements, behavioral manifestations of not one, but several competencies at once will be identified, because achieving success requires maximum effort from a person. During the interview, the interviewer asks for additional examples confirming the presence of those competencies that were identified during the analysis of one or more achievements. If, when analyzing one or more main achievements using the Parla model, the recruiter was unable to identify any of the competencies he was interested in, then he uses additional techniques, i.e. special “behavioral” questions planned earlier and asked using the same scheme: Problem - Action - Result.

As a rule, competency-based interviews are conducted with those applicants who have passed the preliminary selection and meet the formal requirements of the vacancy (skills, knowledge, abilities, experience), and are also sufficiently motivated to get the job. This type of interview allows you to make the personnel selection process itself more structured, objective and of high quality.

CASE interview, or situational interview

This type of interview is based on constructing certain situations and asking the interviewee to describe a model of his behavior or solution to a given situation. Situations close to workers or situations with alternative behavior options are offered as such cases. The recruiter’s task in this case comes down to constructing a situation that will allow him to check exactly what interests the interviewer at the moment.

Conventionally, cases can be divided into three large groups:
1. testing specific skills;
2. testing values and views;
3. testing behavior patterns and individual personal qualities.

Another type of cases can be considered tasks that require finding a way out of given problem situations. Such tasks are not designed to assess specific skills and are suitable for all candidates, from whom we expect to demonstrate resistance to stress, creativity, the ability to achieve goals in different ways, high responsibility for achieving results, as well as the ability to work under strict time constraints. Moreover, it makes sense to constantly rush the candidate, to say “more...” or “further.”

Let's give several examples of possible interview cases:
1. You flew to an unfamiliar city for a super-important meeting. Get off the plane, meet in an hour in the city center. Suddenly you discover that you have neither money nor documents. Your actions.
2. You have arrived at a client’s office to make an important presentation. 10 minutes before the start, you discover that you have the wrong flash drive with a Power Point presentation. Your actions.
3. Your presentation in 5 minutes. Suddenly you discover that the materials that will be distributed to listeners contain a typo that distorts the meaning. Your actions.

Projective interview

A projective interview is based on constructing questions in such a way that they invite the candidate to evaluate not himself, but people in general or some character. This method is based on the assumption that a person is inclined to project, i.e. transfer your life experience and ideas to interpret/explain the actions of other people, as well as fictitious situations, characters, etc.

It is on this pattern that a number of psychodiagnostic techniques are based: the “Non-existent animal” test, “House. Tree. Man", "Rorschach Spots" (by graphic stains of various shapes you can determine the object that they resemble), TAT (thematic apperception test), which is based on the fact that a person describes the actions of characters in special pictures, explains the causes and consequences of actions .

A lightweight technique based on projective techniques, quick and simple, the use of which the candidate does not even have to be warned about, is called projective questions.

The advantages of a projective interview include:

less likely to respond socially;
the ability to correlate the candidate’s expectations with the real situation in the company;
the opportunity to analyze the motivational potential of a future employee.

Answering projective questions gives very good results on the following topics:

motivation material and non-material;
manager-employee relationship;
values, honesty, loyalty;
interaction with teams, features of communication with people;
behavior in conflicts;
interaction with clients.

Rules:

Questions are asked at a fast pace, leaving little time for thinking. The respondent is asked to give several different answers. The first thing that comes to the respondent’s mind is the significant factor for him.
The question should be aimed at assessing other people or their actions, which makes the person more relaxed and avoids socially desirable or deliberately false answers that the candidate gives based on the desire to be liked.
The form of the question should be open and require a detailed answer.
Questions should not be asked in consecutive thematic blocks (for example, several questions in a row that reveal motivation), because this increases the likelihood that the candidate will try to understand the interview and “fit in” and give a socially desirable answer.
It is desirable to have a semantic connection between projective questions and the previous context,because in this case they sound more natural and do not attract much attention from the candidate.

Some examples of projective questions and the factors they assess:

№	Projective question	Factor being assessed
	What motivates people to work most effectively?	motivation
	What do people like about work?	motivation
	Why does a person choose this or that profession?	motivation
	Which team is most productive?	team preferences
	What character qualities are most significant?	environmental preferences
	Why do people strive to make a career?	career motivation
	In what situations is lying justified?	admission of deception
	Why do you think people pay back their bank loans?	motives for honesty
	Why is it justified to fire an employee immediately?	Values in relation to the organization
	What causes conflicts with clients most often?	Bottlenecks when working with clients

Stressful interview

A stress interview takes place in the most intense psychological environment. The following methods can be used:

Cross survey
The "good and evil cop" method
Clarifying questions: a large number of such questions, interest in small details. The conversation can last several hours
Non-standard questions
A set of fairly standard, but “tricky” questions (Why should we hire you?)
Psychological pressure: external interfering factors and interviewer behavior

A stressful interview has a number of benefits:

helps to “reveal” a prepared candidate
effective for positions where the work involves a lot of stressful situations (for example, sales manager, advertising, insurance agent)
helps to demonstrate the ability to behave competently in provocative, conflict situations, the ability to productively distribute attention, the speed and efficiency of decision-making in extraordinary situations
designed to show the applicant that, in general, he is of little value because he is not able to answer “sophisticated” questions. But, nevertheless, he is suitable for growth, as a specialist with good potential. Thus, the company gets a motivated employee for little money.

Flaws stress interview:

will alienate some potential employees who could be useful to your company. This applies to those who do not need immediate employment and can afford the choice.
if carried out ineptly, it can only do harm: the applicant will receive a negative experience, and rumors spread quickly, and the company will very soon be known as unprofessional among interested parties.

Among those who are able to pass such a “filter”, two groups can be clearly distinguished:

These are people with low self-esteem, they are ready to endure anything just to be hired. Even if you consider such a candidate suitable, his “decadent” attitudes are unlikely to have a positive impact on the psychological climate in the team;
those who withstood stress or, perhaps, managed to “outplay” the recruiter during the interview process (the candidate may simply be prepared for it). It is very likely that he will understand your intentions and draw conclusions for himself: here they wanted to “humiliate” him, this failed, and he won. Moreover, he defeated you and your boss, and not other applicants. As a result, you will receive an influx of employees who are subconsciously determined to oppose the company’s management.

Following the meeting, it is imperative to clarify the situation of the stressful interview for the candidate, ask for forgiveness for incorrect questions, thereby relieving tension and accumulated negativity.

Tired of asking why a candidate left his previous job? And here is an interview on competencies - sequentially, using four groups of questions and with examples.

Different types of interviews and answers to these questions are given in different ways:

During biographical During the interview, the recruiter clarifies where the candidate worked before, what range of tasks he solved, and why he is changing jobs. As a result, he understands how to motivate a candidate and what kind of interest to expect from him in a specific job.
During metaprogrammatic During the interview, the recruiter tries to determine what personal behavior patterns (meta-programs) are characteristic of the applicant: desire or avoidance, immersion in the process or focus on results, and so on; and on the basis of this it determines whether a person is suitable for a certain type of activity. Similar problems are solved by interviews on psychological characteristics.
IN case interview(English case - case) the candidate is placed in a hypothetical work situation. He is asked to tell how he would act in the described circumstances. Such an interview primarily reveals the quality of knowledge and professional outlook of the candidate.
At behavioral interview(behavioral interview, BI, behavioral interview) the recruiter asks the candidate not about hypothetical problems, but about real ones that the candidate solved in his work. This method reveals how a candidate copes with certain work tasks. Sometimes behavioral interview is also called competency interview.

Situation the situation the candidate encountered;
Task, which stood in front of him (task);
Actions, taken by the candidate (action);
Result, the result of the situation (result).

These components are easy to remember by their abbreviations STAR - S situation, T ask A ction R esult.

Note. There is a similar model PARLA, focused on development:

P roblem - problem, complexity;
A ctio№ - actions taken;
R esult - result;
L earned - lesson learned, conclusions drawn;
A pplied - how this experience was subsequently applied.

Questions about the situation (S) - “Tell me about a situation in which...”

Clearly define the experience of solving what problems you are interested in.

Sometimes you can start from a list of competencies, but this is usually not enough.

You can hear about more interesting situations if you ask questions like these:

Tell us about the largest potential client you have negotiated with.
Tell us about your most difficult negotiation with a potential client.
Clients you have attracted. What incident do you consider the most outstanding in the last six months?
Your biggest failure in attracting new clients in the last six months.

By asking about difficulties, difficulties and failures, we find out what the candidate does to resolve such situations, assess the breadth of his tools and ability to use them.

The most complete reliable examples come from the last 3–6 months. The brain habitually “archives” earlier ones, discarding details (which we really need).

Examples of S-questions for some competencies:

Region	Competence	Examples of S-questions
People management	Hiring	Tell us how you looked for the last employee you hired. Tell us about a situation in which it was most difficult for you to find the right specialist.
	On-the-job training	Describe a situation in which you taught a subordinate a skill. Why did such a need arise? Remember the most difficult incident in the last six months related to training your subordinates in the workplace. Tell us about a time when you remember how you were proud of how you trained your subordinate.
	Motivation	Think about a time when you needed to get more performance out of an employee. Your subordinate has lost interest in work. Tell us about it.
	Operational management	Remember the situation when it was necessary to organize the execution of some work as soon as possible. Remember how you faced a serious problem when assigning tasks to subordinates. Remember when you had to change the mode of control over task completion.
	Delegation	Give an example of a situation where you delegated your responsibility to your subordinate.
Personal effectiveness	Prioritization	Remember how you were faced with several large tasks at once and had to decide which ones to do first. Tell us about it. Think back to a time when you had a hard time deciding which of two important issues to tackle.
Personal effectiveness	Making decisions	The most difficult decision you have made at work in the last six months. What was the most creative decision you made in the last six months? Give an example of a situation where you made a wrong decision.
Sales	Negotiating terms	Think back to the situation in which you traded most actively. Remember the case when the client most actively asked for a discount or deferment.
Sales	Cold calls	Remember how you needed to arrange a meeting with a stranger from an unfamiliar company. Which cold call of yours are you most proud of?
Communications	Teamwork	Remember how you needed to cooperate with colleagues to solve a common problem. When was the hardest time for you to work in a team?
Communications	Conflict situations	What communication situation became the most emotionally stressful for you? Remember how you communicated with an aggressive interlocutor.

Sometimes at the S-survey stage we are faced with the fact that the candidate cannot give the necessary example.

Then you can ask the question differently a couple of times. If this does not produce results, then the candidate does not have experience in resolving such situations.

Questions about the task (T) - “What was the task before you?”

In addition, without knowledge of the problem it is impossible to assess the success of solving the problem.

T-questions are posed in three main formulations:

What was the task before you?
What task would you set for yourself in this situation?
What was the main thing for you in this situation? [What was most important to you to achieve?]

Questions of the second and third types are good when discussing the actions that the candidate took to solve the problem on his own (without instructions from management).

Action Questions (A) - “What did you do?”

What exactly did you do?
What difficulties have you encountered?
What exactly did you say?

This part of the interview requires the recruiter to be able to bring the discussion back on track and stick to the format.

Deviations in interviews	A-questions for clarification	Required format
Non-specific description of actions: "I convinced the client"	What exactly did you say? How did you argue?	Description of specific candidate actions: “I told the client how the Gold card would make his holiday abroad easier”
Summary: “In such situations, I always try to find arguments to convince the client”	What evidence did you find in this particular case? What did you tell the client?
The candidate talks about the “we” experience: “We spoke with the client, told him about the benefits of the Gold card for travel, and he agreed”	What did you personally do? What did you do, and not your colleagues?

A-questions will vary slightly depending on the type of competency, for example:

Types of competencies

Typical A-Questions

Communicative:

Negotiation,
public performance,
motivation,
setting goals,
handling complaints,
working at a meeting,
business correspondence.

What did you say?
How did he react? What did you do after that?
How did you explain this?
What arguments did you give?
What did you do to set your interlocutor up for a calm conversation?

Intelligent:

making decisions,
prioritization,
information analysis.

How did you make the decision?
How did you collect information?
What other options were there?
What did you consider?
What parameters did you compare? How?

Questions about the result (R) - “How did it end?”

Therefore, it is better to ask indirect R questions:

How did it all end?
Is this the end?

If the candidate’s answer is general, in the spirit of “everything worked out,” then you can clarify:

What were the final agreements?
At what point was everything ready?
What exactly did the client/manager/colleague say after that?

Wrapping up the interview

To facilitate their analysis, the obtained data can be summarized, for example, in the following table:

Competence	Situations from the candidate’s experience		Techniques that the candidate knows
Competence	frequency	what situations	variety of methods	how exactly
Motivating subordinates	++	Motivation for responsible work without systematic control	+	Provides reasons for career growth prospects.
Operational management of remote subordinates	+++	Setting and adjusting tasks on RAM Setting individual goals	++	Checks understanding using “meeting minutes.” Together with subordinates, he draws up an action plan when setting difficult tasks. Takes into account the level of readiness.
Delegation	+	Mentoring of newcomers was delegated	+	The choice of mentor was largely random. The tasks were set according to SMART. There was no transfer of authority.

Based on such tables, it is convenient to highlight the pros, cons, opportunities and limitations of candidates associated with working in a certain position.

Application

FRAGMENT OF THE PLAN
conducting interviews for the vacancy “HR Manager”

FULL NAME. candidate ___________________________
FULL NAME. interviewer _________________________________
Interviewer Title _____________________ Date __________________

Preparing for an interview

Review the candidate's resume or application form and determine in which area his or her existing work experience matches the content of the vacant position. Enter the names of the companies where he previously worked in the “Key information about the candidate’s background” section. Start with the most distant experience.
Recall the definitions of professionally important qualities that are contained in the planned interview questions section.
Estimate the time you can devote to studying each candidate's IPC.

Interview start plan:

Greet the candidate.
Tell him your name and position.
Explain to him the purpose of the interview.
Describe the interview plan.
Obtain the candidate's consent to take notes during the interview.

Objectives of the interview:

Acquaintance.
An opportunity for company management to make fair and correct hiring decisions.

Interview plan:

A brief overview of the candidate's existing experience.
Obtaining information about past experience.
Informing the candidate about the open position and the company.
Answers to candidate questions about the vacancy.
Smooth transition to the questions in the section “Key information about the candidate’s background.”

Section “Key information about the candidate’s background”

experience

What job duties did you perform? Have they changed?
What did you like most about this job?
What didn't you like about this job?
Why did you decide to change your job?

Education
(A question about education is asked if this information is not in the resume or application form. )

University ___________________ Specialty ____________________ Year of graduation __________
What specialization did you choose? __________________________
For students and young professionals without work experience:
Topic of your thesis? _____________________________
In what disciplines did you have the best results? Why? _______________________
What subjects did you like at university? Why? ___________________
Additional education ___________________________________

Section of planned questions to assess the competency “Communication in writing”

Give an example of a writing task that you had to complete on your own.
Tell us about the most difficult document you have ever prepared?
Have you ever had to write a report on a completed task? Tell us about the last (difficult, interesting) case.
Give an example of a time when you had to draft a document based only on oral information.

Based on the answers to questions 1–4, fill out the table:Section of planned questions to assess the competence “Decision Making”

Give an example when the decision you made was successful (unsuccessful).
Describe a situation where circumstances required quick action or immediate decision making.
Give an example when you had to involve other employees in making a decision. Why was this necessary?

Based on the answers to questions 1–3, fill out the table:Section of planned questions to assess the competence “Planning and self-organization”

Planning and self-organization	Basic steps
Development of an action plan: for yourself or for subordinates in order to achieve a specific goal	determining the goals of the work and its stages prioritization planning preliminary preparation for meetings, interviews
Skillful work planning and distribution of workload among subordinates	time budgeting load distribution use of working time management tools (calendar, folders, schedules, etc.)

Tell us about your normal work schedule.
Give an example when, due to unexpected factors, you had to reschedule your entire work day.
Tell us about the techniques and tools that help you in planning.
Tell us about your plans for the current/next month of work (or outside of work).

Do you want to be sure that a real professional came to your interview? Conduct a competency-based interview. We provide sample questions and practical advice for HR. With us, you will quickly prepare for the interview and conduct it brilliantly.

From the article you will learn:

Useful materials

What is a competency-based interview?

A competency interview is a type of interview. It is based on an analysis of the level of development of the required qualities of a specialist, without which the performance of job duties is difficult or impossible. During the interview, with the help of questions, the manager determines the business and personal abilities of the applicant, and based on the answers, determines his potential effectiveness.

The structure of the interview consists of blocks of questions. Each of them is aimed at determining the degree of manifestation of criteria corresponding to a specific position. The number of questions varies - depends on the time available and the purpose of the interview.

Examples of cases for assessing candidates by competencies

The competency-based interview differs slightly from the usual one. It can combine several types of interviews. Its effectiveness directly depends on the manager’s skills. If the manager does not know how and what questions to ask, and does not know how to analyze the answers to them, it is better to invite an outside expert. Otherwise, the likelihood of hiring an employee who cannot cope with his responsibilities increases sharply.

What qualities can be determined using competency interviews?

During the conversation, questions are asked, the answers to which help to assess a person’s qualities and make a forecast of behavioral reactions in different situations. Based on the analysis, the manager selects a suitable specialist from among the applicants.

Interviews reveal:

leadership;
ability to organize things and plan them;
initiative, ability to make decisions;
communication skills;
stress resistance;
analytic skills;
ability to delegate authority and work in a team;
multitasking, business awareness;
goal orientation;
flexibility, the ability to adapt to any situation.

What qualities can be identified depends on the list of questions that should be drawn up based on 7-10 competencies. When preparing them, take into account the level of the position, requirements for the specialist, etc. Never include provocative questions that affect a person’s personal life.

Example

HR Director Yuri was meticulous in his selection process. He loved conducting competency-based interviews, for which he composed the questions himself. Yuri considered it acceptable to clarify personal information and asked:« What do you choose: relax with your family or go to work, if notdo you have time to complete the project?» , « Does family interfere with career growth?» etc. Most applicants refused to talk about these topics. The director interpreted this as low stress resistance and weak motivation, so he continued to search for employees. As a result, a lot of the organization’s funds were spent on personnel selection, but there was no result.

The editors of the HR Director website learned from your colleagues, personal questions at an interview - is it a violation of ethics or a safety net? .

Irina Myagkova, business coach, certified master and trainer of NLP programs, says, how to conduct a structured competency interview.

In what situations are competency interviews conducted?

How and when to conduct interviews is up to you. It is suitable for selecting candidates for any position, but this method requires serious time investment in preparing for it, conducting it, evaluating the results, as well as highly qualified interviewers.

Interviews are used in the following cases:

before moving an employee to a higher position;
to evaluate working personnel;
when compiling ratings of specialists;
to plan personnel training and company development;
during grading;
during the period of staffing temporary staff, for example, to complete a project or seasonal work.

If the company frequently requires employees, you periodically move personnel, do not forget to change the questions or their wording from time to time. This is due to the fact that information can leak to open sources or spread within a group. People will start preparing for the interview in order to pass it. As a result, you will make the wrong decision, which may affect the internal processes of the organization.

Algorithm for preparing and conducting interviews based on competencies

Create your job profile carefully

Don't just list the relevant competencies, but also describe them. Indicate the required and desirable job, professional, leadership, management qualities, work experience requirements, etc. If you doubt whether you have compiled correctly , check it for errors, based on the recommendations of Frame System experts.

Prepare an interview plan

Conduct the initial selection

During this process, carefully study the information about the candidates. Try to look for hidden subtext in the wording in your resume.

Conduct interviews, collect behavioral examples

To do this, ask questions prepared in advance. Analyze the answers during the interview and make notes for yourself. To avoid prolonging the conversation, put + and - next to the desired qualities and skills on the form. After the interview is over, think again about whether the applicant really meets all the requirements and how well the skills and qualities are developed.

Competency assessment sheet for HR director

Analyze results and interpret data

To , hidden and obvious motives, involve a psychologist or follow the recommendations that you will find in the “Personnel System”.

Give feedback to the applicant

Feel free to refuse those who did not approach, without giving hope that the decision can be reconsidered.

Sample Interview Questions

Choose questions whose answers involve giving real-life examples. They must be relevant at the moment. Don't ask anything you can say yes or no to. Encourage a person to engage in dialogue and talk about their own achievements, skills, and performance results.

1. Responsibility

Questions will help assess whether a person is able to see guilt in his actions and whether he strives to fulfill his obligations. Observe carefully how the person responds, whether he is nervous or not. This will allow you to understand whether he is lying or telling the truth. Examples of questions to identify responsibility:

Tell us, what important assignment was entrusted to you by your previous manager?
Demonstrate a situation where you took on responsibility but realized that you had overestimated your capabilities.
Remember a time when you failed to achieve your goal.

2. Motivation employees

To assess whether a specialist is able to help another employee cope with a situation, provide motivation for fruitful work, or manage a team, ask one of the questions below:

Tell me about a time when you needed to get more out of your colleagues.
Tell us how and when your subordinate lost interest in work.

3. Teamwork

The questions presented will help determine the ability to provide assistance in a team and the desire to put forward ideas:

Think about how you teamed up with your employees to solve a common problem.
Tell us a situation when it was difficult for you to work in a team?

4. Result-oriented

The following questions will help assess your ability to set goals and achieve them despite obstacles:

Think back to a time when work on a project was unproductive.
Tell us about a time when you set an important goal and achieved the goal despite obstacles.
Do you consider yourself persistent?
Tell us when perseverance, determination, and stubbornness came in handy for you.

5. Planning and organization

The questions presented allow us to determine whether a person knows how to plan things and make organizational decisions:

Tell us about your experience planning and implementing tasks or projects.
Tell us how you calculated the project budget.
How did you organize the work to implement the project?
Have there been any difficulties associated with the implementation of the project?

★ When preparing for a competency interview, look for examples of questions and answers in the public domain, for example, on the Internet. Paraphrase them or make others of a similar plan. If you don't want to do extra work, be prepared to receive template answers.

★ Interview each applicant in turn. If you want to test more than one person, give them some paper and pens. But keep in mind that writing detailed answers will take time and important details will be missed.

★ Conduct the interview in a calm environment. Don’t ask unnecessary questions, wait for the person to give a detailed answer. Do not apply psychological pressure under any circumstances!

★ End the competency interview on a positive note, even if you know for sure that this particular candidate is not suitable for you. This way you will avoid damage to your reputation and negative reviews about you and the company.