From Skills to Success: The Power of Competency-Based Interviews

In today’s competitive talent market, organisations need to ensure they are selecting candidates who not only meet technical requirements but also demonstrate the behaviours and skills essential for long-term success. Structured competency-based interviews (SCBIs), also known as structured behavioural or situational interviews, have become a cornerstone of effective recruitment and selection.

For business leaders, interviewing and selection consume valuable time that could otherwise be spent driving strategic priorities. That’s why it’s essential that every hour invested in recruitment is efficient, purposeful, and leads to the right outcomes. Competency-based interviews support this by offering a structured, evidence-based approach that helps identify the candidates most likely to succeed and stay long-term.

SCBIs cut through rehearsed responses, giving employers authentic insights into a candidate’s real abilities.​ Unlike traditional interviews that often focus on hypothetical scenarios or general conversation, competency-based interviews are designed to assess specific skills, behaviours, and attributes aligned with the role. Candidates are asked to provide concrete examples from past experiences, demonstrating how they have handled relevant situations. This structured approach reduces bias, improves consistency across interviews, and allows hiring managers to target assessing specific behaviours critical for success in a particular role and make more evidence-based decisions.

The power of SCBIs lies in their predictive validity. Past behaviour is one of the best indicators of future performance, and by focusing on real-life examples, employers can gain deeper insights into how candidates think, problem-solve, and interact with others in certain situations. For instance, competencies such as leadership, collaboration, adaptability, and decision-making can be assessed more reliably through hearing examples of a concrete situation and the actions undertaken by the candidate than through abstract hypothetical questioning. According to research, situational interviews tend to yield a higher mean validity of employment interviews, particularly when linked to certain competencies of the job.

Interview validity chart

Additionally, SCBIs promote fairness and transparency in recruitment. By evaluating all candidates against the same set of competencies, organisations minimise the risk of subjective judgments and create a more inclusive hiring process. This not only strengthens talent decisions but also enhances the candidate experience, as applicants understand clearly what is being evaluated.

Structured competency-based interviews require thoughtful preparation to ensure questions align with the role’s key competencies, but there are proven tools and frameworks available that make it easier to design role-specific competency questions and ensure consistency across the hiring process. When arranged well, SCBIs not only streamline decision-making but also reduce the risk of costly mis-hires.

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