Competencies Pipsc
Identifying Competencies with Behavioral-Event Interviews
Competencies and Balanced Score cards are great assets in any organization when they are designed and used correctly. Unfortunately, many of the competencies we have seen established and the balanced score cards used are behavioral approached versus outcome focused. There is a big difference in the results you get in the workplace when they have been developed using behaviors as the base vs. outcomes for a job.
It is a proven fact that you can have competent people in your organization that produce little or no value to your team at the end of the day if the focus of your competencies is strictly focused on the behaviors or activities of a job performer. This is a poor measure for building competencies.
Using the STAR Technique
In a behavioral interview, the interviewer will ask questions about your past experiences. A useful way to prepare for this style of questioning is to use the STAR technique. The STAR technique is a way to frame the answers to each question in an organized manner that will give the interviewer the most information about your past experience. As you prepare to answer each question, consider organizing your response by answering each of the following components of the STAR technique.
Introduction to Coding
Coding is a scoring technique used to analyze interview data for evidence of competencies. Coding differs from rating in that it increases the reliability of evaluation by substituting strict rules for relative judgment. As in a court of law, circumstantial evidence is not sufficient for conviction, in an interview the candidate’s theory or generalization is not sufficient for presence of a competency. A person either did something or did not do something. In coding the evidence is either present or absent. There is no scope for inference or judgment on part of the interviewer.
Coding is based on coding categories, which are behavioral indicators. The behavioral indicators are from the interviews/observations of sample of job incumbents that are used to build the Competency Model for an organization. The indicators explicitly define those behaviors that are associated with a competency and are demonstrated by superior performers.
The Competency Model is made using only those behaviors that relate to superior performance on the job. If coders accept other evidence as codable data, then the validity of the method would be reduced.
Consider for example a statement, I usually seek the approval of my boss, and the behavioral indicator is ‘expresses a need or desire to persuade others’. The data does not point to what the candidate did on the particular occasion (the event) nor is there evidence that the candidate had a desire to persuade others, in this case the boss.