How can you ensure your chosen candidates are qualified for the job post?
Simple!
You apply behavioral competency—a method that helps organizations evaluate new employees and build their skills so that they move smoothly from one level to the next.
However, many human resources professionals find it challenging, especially since it’s hard to analyze someone’s personality.
Don’t get discouraged, though—this article will:
- Disentangle what behavioral competency is
- Share tips for correctly measuring it
- Offer easy-to-understand examples
What Is Behavioral Competency?
Definition
Behavioral competency refers to the sum of personality traits and attitudes an individual must have to succeed in a role they aspire to.
Human resource management uses this strategy during the hiring process to predict how good a potential employee will be at the job—and ensure their success in the new work environment.
Don’t worry; we’ll offer examples later on, so stay with us!
Also known as soft skills, behavioral competency contains specific skill sets, actions, technical know-how, and qualities that align with the company’s culture, values, and mission.
In addition, it helps to identify top performers and helps contribute to an individual’s professional development as they assume more significant responsibilities.
There are four types of behavioral competencies:
- Personality traits—They consist of a person’s thoughts, ideas, and habits, ensuring the candidate is the right cultural fit for your organization.
- Functional competencies—Employers seek candidates who can find timely and efficient solutions to the company’s challenges, such as knowing how to use specific software (an example of a technical competency).
- Interpersonal skills—These include communication skills and the individual’s ability to get along with team members and work together.
- Managerial competency—A potential candidate showing leadership competencies can guide co-workers and motivate teams to perform to the best of their ability.
While all of this sounds nice, what exactly are the benefits?
We’ve also wondered that and searched for the answer. Check our findings in the next section.
Key Benefits of Using Behavioral Competency
Behavioral competency has the power to improve the business as a whole by doing the following:
- Assesses a candidate’s skills and abilities, which means you streamline the selection process and prioritize people who can bring you organizational success.
- Identifies training needs so you can implement a development program addressing those needs by creating goals and milestones for performance improvement.
- Benefits your succession planning initiatives, meaning you can spot future leaders in-house based on their behavioral competencies.
- Helps with employee performance evaluations by providing meaningful feedback while also correcting problematic behaviors.
Overall, an excellent competency strategy will increase job satisfaction, improve retention rates, and keep employees happy.
But how can you measure behavioral competency?
Let’s discuss what you should look for when evaluating your candidates to reap the maximum benefits.
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How to Measure Behavioral Competency
Measuring behavioral competencies is difficult, especially since it’s hard to quantify and track personality traits.
However, it’s essential to any excellent recruitment and onboarding process.
To gauge an individual’s abilities during the interview process, determine which behavioral competencies matter most to you.
The ideal place to start is the job description, where you can add specific competencies your future employee will need daily, such as adaptability, creativity, or ability to work in a team; during the interview process, try to stay focused on these attributes.
Furthermore, you can assess your candidates through strategies like the Enneagram System or the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), as they provide guidance on how the individual will behave while employed.
The final solution—and probably the most effective—is to ask situational and behavioral questions.
Interviewers often ask candidates default questions about their work history, resume, and future plans. While you shouldn’t skip these essential interview questions, they don’t demonstrate a hire’s behavioral competencies.
Allow potential candidates to share how they respond to past or hypothetical situations by using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, and Result).
You can consider the following sample questions:
- Can you tell me about a time when you had to learn something new to overcome a challenge?
- Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and what you did to achieve it.
- What is your typical way of dealing with conflict?
- Tell me about a time when you motivated others.
- Describe a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision.
But behavioral competencies are also vital beyond the recruitment process.
Once you’ve figured out the behavioral indicators you’re looking for, you can use one of these assessment methods to evaluate an employee’s behavior at work:
- Self-assessments: Employees rate themselves based on the company’s values. It allows them to reflect on their performance and think of ways to improve. However, to get a clear picture of their competencies, using it in tandem with another assessment method is essential.
- Manager assessment: In this type of evaluation, managers evaluate an individual’s overall performance. Usually, it should result from many months of observation; otherwise, it might be subject to unfair bias. It’s an unsuitable method for new hires.
- Peer assessment: Peers rate the employee’s work capability and performance by the standards the company established in the competency model.
By using these methods, you can understand what makes a new hire tick—and choose candidates that fit your company’s culture.
Now, as promised, we’ll take a closer look at core competency examples.
Examples of Behavioral Competency
Different industries seek specific competencies and might choose one over the other.
What’s essential is to understand which traits your company values in order to improve your hiring process and performance reviews—and evaluate candidates holistically to create a diverse, innovative, and thriving team.
But what should you look for? Let’s look at some examples!
Please keep in mind that the following examples of behavioral competency apply both during pre-boarding and after hiring an individual.
Communication & collaboration
Communication is vital for connecting with co-workers, customers, and stakeholders and creating a harmonious work environment.
By effectively collaborating both verbally and non-verbally, employees can clearly share their ideas while also actively listening to what others have to say.
Indicators for this competency might include:
- Excellent written and verbal skills
- Ability to recognize and understand other people’s perspectives
- Adding value to others by sharing useful information
Leadership
Leadership skills are sometimes challenging to understand and measure because only a few know what makes a good leader.
However, some hints can help you distinguish between a high-performing employee—and a true leader.
Here are the characteristics you should look out for:
- Encouraging and teaching others to be better
- Inspiring trust and credibility
- Hungering for more responsibility
- Giving peers the appropriate credit
- Leading by example
Emotional intelligence
The best leaders have a high level of emotional intelligence that gives them the capacity to identify, understand, and manage their own emotions.
But it also helps them perceive and empathize with peers’ feelings to enable better collaboration.
Emotional intelligence might include competencies such as:
- Self-regulation
- Self-awareness
- Aptitude for building and maintaining positive relationships
Problem-solving & decision-making
We’ve mentioned earlier in the article that business leaders seek candidates who can find efficient solutions to the company’s issues.
We want to add that they also recruit individuals who can quickly evaluate the situation and make a decision based on the available information.
Moreover, businesses want people with critical thinking or problem-solving skills that know the difference between poor and sound judgment—and can take responsibility for their actions.
Adaptability & teamwork
Every business needs its employees to work seamlessly as a team.
The new hire needs to contribute to the company’s success by:
- Adopting ideas and suggestions when carrying out a task
- Asking for help and receiving help when offered
- Sharing the spotlight with others when successful
The individual must be flexible, open to ideas, and willing to grow while coping with stress and being resilient in trying times.
They also thrive in changing circumstances and can adapt to any situation, expectations which you can establish in the employee onboarding process.
Author’s Tip: Make your new hires feel at ease by sending welcoming employee announcements.
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Now Over to You
Overall, behavioral competency helps businesses pick people who are fit for the role right from the start.
It’s an incredibly effective method when screening and hiring potential candidates because it ensures they can meet the company’s objectives—right from pre-boarding.
However, there’s more to HR than meets the eye.
Discover the wonders of the human resource department by checking out our glossary filled with plenty of valuable terms.