Recruiting new employees can be costly both in terms of time and money. You often spend hours reviewing applications and conducting interviews, but how can you make sure you choose the person who is best suited for the job?
It is not uncommon to make use of traditional recruitment processes or rely on gut feeling, which can lead to expensive incorrect recruitments. Fortunately, with a competency-based recruitment process, you can increase the likelihood of successful recruitment and choose the candidate who has the greatest chance of success in the role.
What does a competency-based recruitment process involve?
A traditional recruitment process focuses on identifying and linking the candidate’s qualifications to the job description. The competency-based recruitment process aims to identify and match existing competencies, knowledge, and skills, by preparing a clearly defined list of requirements that is specified in the job description.
A well-thought-out job description is prepared on the basis of a thorough needs analysis. The competency-based job description ensures that the intended position is defined on the basis of which competence and experience are necessary to achieve the desired result.
Once you have decided what competencies and experience are required for the role, the next step is to develop customized interview questions and tests to evaluate how the candidates use their skills and experience. In addition, they should convey a clear picture of what will be required in the new position, and here the candidates also get an opportunity to tell about their experience of performing similar tasks.
The competency-based recruitment process is structured, which enables a professional and objective assessment. In recent years, this process has become increasingly widespread as it aims to treat all candidates equally and give applicants the opportunity to highlight their skills.
What are the benefits of using a competency-based recruitment process?
Increased candidate satisfaction – It is important that the candidate gets the right expectation and a clear idea of what will be required in the new position. You ensure this by having a job description with clear competence requirements in combination with tailor-made interviews and tests. It reduces the risk of disappointed candidates later in the process, at the same time as the structured methodology conveys an experience that you as a candidate are judged on the basis of your competence and nothing else.
Promotes diversity – Although the structure is one of the main ingredients in competence-based recruitment, a customized process is also important. Structured interviews and tests help you focus more on the candidate’s actual skills, leading to a reduced risk of discrimination. When discrimination is reduced, it will slowly but surely lead to increased diversity in the organization, which has many positive aspects.
Focus on results – A candidate’s level of education and number of years of experience are not necessarily an indication of his or her ability to deliver. In a competency-based recruitment process, the candidates are assessed both on the basis of the results from previous experience and on the basis of which existing competencies can be useful for achieving a desired result in the future.
Gain control over the competence needs with a clear requirements profile – By mapping the team’s competence and goals, you focus on the company’s overall needs. With a clear requirements profile, you can in the next round adapt the questions according to the competence required to achieve the desired result. In this way, the questions are directly linked to the needs of the company and the team. It should also be mentioned that a clear requirements profile helps to set expectations in the team and can be an effective tool for assessing competence needs in the future.
The labor market is changing faster and faster, and our recruitment processes must do the same. There is no need to waste time hiring based on intuition. Hiring the most suitable candidate should be based on a thorough needs analysis where you ensure that your specific business needs are met.
