The ultimate guide to competency-based interview questions

Research from Deloitte shows that 98% of business executives want to make their organisation skills-based, making them 90% more likely to retain high-performers in the long term. As a result, organisations are looking for ways to hire employees who demonstrate the skills they need to be successful.

On top of uncovering candidates’ skills and knowledge, competency-based interviews are becoming increasingly popular because they provide more objectivity than other interviewing techniques. As a result, if you’re looking to reduce bias in interviews and expand talent pools, you’ll want to consider implementing competency-based interviews.

In this article, we’ll look at competency-based questions you can ask candidates to bolster your recruitment efforts.

What are competency-based interviews?

Competencies themselves are made up of the knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviours that contribute to high performance and efficiency levels in a job. Competency-based interview questions are therefore designed to explore whether a candidate has the skills and knowledge required to carry out the job they are interviewing for.

The benefits of competency-based interviews

There are a number of important benefits that employers can unlock by implementing a competency-based approach into their talent acquisition process. These include, but are not limited to:

• Increased objectivity: Because these interviews focus on specific skills and behaviours relevant to the job, all candidates are evaluated on the same criteria, increasing objectivity and fairness in the interview process.
• Proof of capability: Competency-based interview questions tend to delve into how a candidate approached a situation in the past. This gives a strong insight into whether they really have the required skills and how they might behave in the future in similar scenarios.
• Better insights into the candidate: By delving into real-life examples, you can get a deeper understanding of a candidate’s abilities, work ethic, and problem-solving skills beyond what is stated on their CV.
• Improved decision making: Using structured interviews with competency-based questions makes it easier to compare candidates objectively, leading to more informed hiring decisions and ultimately better hires who fit the skills profile required.
• Consistency in interviews: These interviews ensure a consistent approach across all candidates, providing a more systematic method of assessment.
• Reduced turnover: By accurately assessing the competencies required for the role, employers can select candidates who are more likely to be good hires who succeed in their roles. That’s because employees tend to be more engaged when they have the required skills to do their jobs well, which in turn means they are much more likely to stay in the position long-term, reducing turnover rates.

Examples of competencies

During the interview process, recruiters and hiring managers will likely be screening for key competencies that are most likely to make an employee effective in a role.

Recruiters will therefore often look for candidates to demonstrate these core competencies in the interview process. These might include:

• Communication skills
• Leadership
• Decision-making
• Problem-solving
• Management
• Business
• Teamwork
• Critical thinking
• Organisation

Structuring competency-based interview questions

While determining which competency-based interview questions to ask is important, first it’s vital to ensure any questions you ask are structured correctly. One place to start with this is by utilising and understanding the funnel technique.

The funnel technique

A tried and tested approach, the funnel technique involves targeting a desired competency, asking the candidate to introduce an example of when they used it and probing them for more information before finally clarifying the answer they have given.

By deploying this technique, interviewers can better control the amount of detail they get from a candidate in an interview, driving more insightful answers and helping to uncover additional insights.

Let’s delve further into the structure of common competency-based interview questions and the specific steps within the funnel technique.

Introduction

To kick things off, you’ll want to prompt the candidate to give real examples of the desired competency in action. For example, you could ask a candidate “tell me about a time when you worked as part of a team.”

This is where it’s important to know how to ask competency-based interview questions. You can do this by using the TED (tell, explain, describe) method of questioning. This means starting your questions with:

• “Tell me…”
• “Explain to me…”
• “Describe…”

If you wanted to find out about a candidate’s time management, you could ask the question:

Questions like this allow you to delve into real-life scenarios of how candidates solved a problem or achieved success.

Probe

Once the candidate has provided their answer to your initial question, you may want to probe them more for additional information.

Candidates often spend time preparing for a competency-based interview, and as a result many will deploy the STAR (situation, task, action, result) technique to answer competency-based interview questions. This means that candidates answers will include:

• Situation: Describing the background or content.
• Task: Describing the task or challenge they were faced with.
• Action: Explaining the action they took and how and why they did it.
• Result: Describing how it ended, and what they accomplished and/or learned from the situation.

However, if the candidate misses something from the STAR technique in their answer, or you just want additional context, you can ask follow-up questions to establish the full picture.

Some of the follow-up questions you can utilise include:

• Who was involved?
• Why did you take that course of action?
• Where did you get that information from?
• What effect did that have?
• When did you complete this?
• How did you deal with that?

Clarify

Once the candidate has given their answer and you’ve probed them for further details, it’s time to seek any clarification you need.

You can do this by summarising the key details of the candidate’s answer to ensure you’ve heard all the information correctly and giving them the opportunity to provide more context. This can be confirmed by the candidate with a simple “yes” or “no”.

7 Common competency-based interview questions

There are some tried and tested competency-based interview questions that you can reliably use for almost any interview to gather great insight into a candidate’s suitability for the role. We’ve listed out 7 below to get you started.

1. Tell me about a time when you had to meet a tight deadline. How did you ensure timely completion of the task?

This question assesses the candidate’s time management and organisational skills. It reveals their ability to work under pressure, prioritise tasks, and maintain productivity. It also looks at their approach to planning and carrying out tasks within a specified timeframe.

2. Describe a situation where you had to work as part of a team to achieve a goal. What was your role, and what was the outcome?

In many roles, teamwork is going to be a crucial competency. This question helps identify a candidate’s collaboration skills, their ability to contribute to a group effort, and how they handle interpersonal dynamics. It can also reveal their communication and conflict-resolution skills.

3. Explain a time when you identified a problem and took steps to resolve it. What was the issue, and what action did you take?

Problem-solving skills are essential for many positions. Here you get to evaluate the candidate’s analytical thinking and initiative when faced with a problem at work. It provides insight into their approach to diagnosing issues, developing solutions, and implementing them.

4. Tell me about a decision you made that was not popular and how you handled it.

Decision-making can often involve making tough calls that might not be well-received. This question assesses a candidate’s ability to stand by their decisions, communicate them effectively, and manage any resulting conflicts or resistance. It also highlights their leadership and resilience.

5. Describe a time when you had to adapt to a significant change at work. How did you handle it?

Adaptability is important in many work environments, especially with the pace of change in the world of work thanks to technology. This question reveals the candidate’s flexibility and their capacity to manage change. It also gives you insights into their ability to remain productive and maintain a positive attitude in the face of new challenges.

6. Give an example of a goal you set and how you achieved it.

Setting and achieving goals demonstrates a candidate’s drive and ambition. This question helps you to understand if they take an active role in planning their own development at work, and the strategies they might use to carry out these plans.

7. Describe a time when you received constructive feedback. How did you respond, and what did you do as a result?

Receiving and processing feedback can be a difficult process at work, but it’s necessary in many roles. This question allows you to evaluate the candidate’s receptiveness to feedback and their ability to use it for personal and professional growth. Here they have the chance to demonstrate competencies such as self-awareness, humility, and commitment to improvement.

Want to take your hiring to the next level with a comprehensive list of the best competency-based interview questions to ask candidates? Check out our top 50.