Competency Identification

Concept of Competency Identification

Identification of the competencies required to

perform successfully a given job/role or set of tasks
at a given point of time.
Various practices and tools for identification of
competencies namely:
1. Task forces 2. Benchmarking against superior
performer
3. By self and superior 4. Job experts/subjects matter specialists
5. By HR Specialist 6. Industrial Engineers
7. Psychologist 8. Task analysis workshop
9. Questionnaire 10. Critical Incident Technique
11. Interviews 12. Repertory Grid
 Task Force

The organization form a special task force

for comprising 3 to 7 members dedicated to
the task identifying competencies.
The task force identify competencies
job/role-wise or any other type like
organization or level-wise or generic
competencies across all levels etc., as per
need of the organization.
 Bench-marking

 Organization may benchmark or compare the

competencies with the better one’s in any of the
following two ways:
1. Benchmarking against other Organization
If Organization ‘A’ considers that organization ‘B’ which
is having similarity in their nature of business, is
performing better than it and it can go for getting to
know the competencies identified for organization ‘B’;
‘A’ can adopt competencies of organization ‘B’ in any of
the following ways
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a. Adopt competencies by ‘B’ or with modification

according to the needs.
b. If it has already identified its competencies
requirement, then can compare those with ‘B’ and
modify its competency requirements according to the
different jobs or levels.
2. Benchmarking against superior performers:
Organization may identify the competencies of
superior performers for different jobs/roles or levels
working with it or in any other organization.
 Continue….

Normally the following steps are followed in

benchmarking:
Step -1: Choose the jobs/roles or levels in the organization for
which competencies have to be identified through
benchmarking.
Step -2: Select the other organization or superior performers
against whom competencies have to be benchmarked.
Step -3: Get the competencies of selected organization or superior
performers.
Step -4: Adopt the competencies of benchmarked organization or

superior performers.
 Critical Incident Technique

Respondents are asked to relate

specific incidents, which highlighted
the exemplary behaviours in critical
situations.
This is based on the assumption that
the best and worst of a person
surfaces in a crisis.
 Key Steps for Critical Incident Analysis

1. List the key demands. The key demands of a job

are the things that must be done. For example,
the boss wants to follow procedures while the
customer wants you to be flexible.
2. Analyze the constraints in the job. E.g.,
Conflicting demands can also feel like constraints.
3. List job tasks.
4. Define each task in terms of difficulty, importance
and frequency.
5. Identify critical incidents.
 Repertory Grid
‘Repertory’ comes from the word repertoire, which refers to a
participant’s repertoire of constructs. The term grid refers to the
data extraction and analysis procedure researchers use to gather
and compare information from a number of participants in a
study.
The Repertory Grid is a data extraction and analysis technique
rooted in Personal differentiate Construct Theory, which was
developed by George Kelly in the 1950s.
The central theme of the Personal Construct Theory is that
people organize their experiences with the world into
conceptual classifications that we can and describe using
attributes of those classifications called constructs.
 Repertory Grid Analysis

 Personal Construct Theory:

Everyone interprets (or
constructs) events and their
universe differently.
 Constructs are bipolar, for
example to describe friends: easy- George Kelly
going versus tense, reliable versus
unreliable. etc
 Repertory Grid Analysis: a
method to elicit these specific
constructs.
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Repertory Grid studies:

 Quickly generate a large number of attributes, or
constructs, that are useful in comparing different examples
 Elicit differentiating attributes in the participants’
vocabulary rather than the researcher’s vocabulary
 Identify constructs that are important to the participants
rather than the researcher
 Provide a structured process for eliciting feedback that is
easy for participants to understand
 What is Repertory Grid Analysis?

 identify important attributes

 for each attributes, establish a bipolar scale
with differentiable characteristics and
their opposites
For Example:
Respondents may asked to think of the top 10
performers and 10 poor performers they have
witnessed in a role.
They were then asked to give specific behaviors that
differentiates the best from the worst
These behaviors then used to create appropriate
constructs for arriving at successful behaviors.
Then grid is prepared with polar scale to measure
each construct.
 What Language to use in Competency
Identification

Use Technical language for technical competencies.

For example: knowledge of Linux and Java.

Use Business language for business competencies.

E.g. Knowledge of markets for watch business or

strategic thinking.
Use own language or standard terms for behavior

competencies. E.g. Ability to negotiate, Interpersonal

sensitivity, Sales techniques.
 How to Validate Identified Competencies?

Different tools can be used to validate the

competencies identified to ensure their relevance
and authenticity for a superior performance:
1. Duplication
2. Jury
3. Survey
4. Departmental Focus group
5. Structured interviews/observation
6. Benchmarking
 Continued….

8. Balance Scorecard Approach: Subject matter

experts identify the competencies needed to achieve
the desired organizational goals across the complete
spectrum of the organization.
 The scorecard measure organizational performance
across a number of perspectives, such as financial,
customers, internal business processes, and learning
and growth.
 This method works best for the upper ranks of leaders.
Its goal is to base performance on several indicators
that measure the ability for long-term growth.
 Continued….

9. Customer Service Standards

10.Competencies based behavioral interviews:
Investigate the attributes of the superior and
average performers through the use of critical
behavior interviews, individual describe work
situations in which they were effective and
ineffective.
10 (A). Behavioural Event Interviews
10 (B). Behavioural Description Interviews
 Behavioural Event Interview (BEI)

It is an interview technique based on the premise

that the best predictor of future behavior is past
behavior.
BEI allows the interviewers –
 Gain detailed job related examples.
 Assess past performance
 Assess competencies
The purpose of the BEI is to best match the
candidates’ skills competencies and motives with the
requirements and success factor of the position.
 AIM OF BEI

Position /role
Task
Success factor
Increased
productivity and job
satisfaction

Candidates
Skill
Task mastery
competencies
 PURPOSE OF BEI

CANDIDATES
POSITION/ROLE
SKILLS
TASK TASK MASTERY

SUCCESS FACTOR COMPETENCIES

 Behavioural Description Interview (BDI)

BDI is a version of behavioural event interview (BEI), one of

the main competency definition techniques.
Both are related to critical incident techniques, but differ
from it in the scope and length of the examples or ‘event’ that
interviewees are asked to describe, and in the trigger
question that are used by the interviewer to elicit these
examples.
The BDI and BEI techniques are considered to be more
suitable for complex jobs (such as management roles) or
those involving high level of interpersonal skill (such as sales
roles).
This is because they elicit a small number of examples of
complex behavior, which can then be explored in depth.
Behavioural Event interviewing methodology

1. Step one : open the interview

 Make the candidate feel at ease and explain the
purpose and expectation of interview.
2. Step two: review the candidate's career
history
 Work related experience and overview
3. Step three: conduct focused behavioral
event interview
 Get into detailed behaviour probing with the
candidate
To assist in best preparing and understanding the
questioning technique, below are sample questions
commonly asked in a BDI:
Reflect over the past few years to a situation where
you made best use of your technical or problem-
solving skills. Please describe a specific challenge
that brought out the best in your skills; and
Tell us about a time where you feel you showed
significant initiative in one of your previous roles.
The most effective answers follow the STAR
Principle. When responding to BDI questions,
structure your responses to include the following:
Situation: What happened? When? With whom?
Task: What was the task or opportunity that you
encountered?
Action: What did you do?
Result: What was the consequence of your
actions? What were your key learning take Aways ?
Competency-Based
Behavioral
Interview
Questions
 Traditional Unique Questions

 If you could be any animal in the jungle,

which one would you be and why?
 If you were given a free full-page ad in the
newspaper and had to sell yourself in six
words or less, how would the ad read?
 If you could invite three people—living or
dead—to lunch, whom would you invite
and why?
By asking such questions, proponents
say, they will find out how creative a
person is, gain an understanding of the
candidate’s ability to think on his
feet, be able to measure his ability to
deal with ambiguity, and be able to
determine whether he is able to . . .
well, you get the idea.
 Situational Interview Questions

 What would you do if someone higher than you

in the organization instructed you to do
something that was unethical or illegal?
 How would you handle a situation where you had
conflicting information with which to make a
decision?
 How would you handle an employee who was not
performing up to expectations?
 Brainteaser Interview Questions

 If you could remove any one of the Indian states, which

would it be and why?
 How would you manage a project to get everyone in India
to drive on the right-hand side of the road?
 Why are manhole covers round?
 How would you weigh an airplane without using a scale?
 Proponents of the brainteaser interview questions
indicate that these types of questions will provide
information on:
i. How well the person performs under stress
ii. The processes the candidate uses to analyze a
problem
iii. How creative or innovative a solution the
candidate can come up with
iv. How intelligent the person is?
v. How the person reacts to unanticipated challenges
or difficult problems
 Traditional for Stress management

 Interviewer: ‘‘I think I mentioned earlier

that this is a high-stress position. How do you
manage stress?’’
 Candidate: ‘‘My last two positions were high
stress. I actually do some of my best work
under stress. Through experience, I’ve learned
how to make stress work for me rather than
against me. I think two of the most effective
stress management techniques are . . .’’
Using CBBI techniques, the interviewer
would, instead, say something like this:
Interviewer: ‘‘Tell me about a time you
had to perform a task or project under a lot
of stress.’’