Competency-Based Recruiting

As a senior leader in your organization, you know the importance of finding and hiring the right people. Your employees are the lifeblood of your company and can make or break your success.

Yet so few companies are taking full advantage of a recruiting process that is not only faster and more effective, but also cheaper than traditional approaches.

Competency-based recruiting isn’t exactly new, and lots of companies (maybe even yours?) say they’re doing it but in reality, few are, and an even smaller number are doing it well.

If you’re not familiar with this concept, it focuses on hiring employees based

on a real understanding of the competencies required to perform well in a particular role, and an accurate assessment of a candidate’s demonstrated competencies in order to determine their fit for that role. This is a lot more detailed than traditional methods that use proxies like academic or other qualifications and experience to determine whether someone should be hired.

So why should you be pivoting towards competency-based recruiting?

Better Quality Hires

Competency-based recruiting means you’re not hiring someone on the basis of where they went to school (or even, if they went to school), or because of a long list of impressive-sounding previous jobs. Instead, you’re hiring someone who has the demonstrated skills and abilities (ie, competencies) that are absolutely essential to the role for which they are being hired. This means that you’re going to find employees who have the right kind of experience, as demonstrated by the mix of proven competencies that they possess – a combination that is going to ensure they can “knock it out of the park”

By focusing on competencies in the recruiting process you’re ensuring that you’re hiring an employee who is more likely to succeed in their role, while helping your organization move forward.

More Inclusive Hiring

Competency-based recruiting casts a wider net. Traditional hiring methods can often be biased towards (or against) candidates from certain backgrounds, or with specific qualifications, which can result in a less diverse workforce. By focusing on competencies you can attract a wider pool of candidates and make sure your recruiting process is inclusive.

Improved Retention Rates

The data is clear – when you hire based on their competencies you’re more likely to find candidates who are the proper fit for your organization and have the potential to grow within their role. This means they are more likely to stick around for the long haul – which reduces turnover, increases employee morale and engagement, and prevents you from having to go through the expense of hiring again.

More Efficient Hiring Process

Competency-based recruiting streamlines the hiring process. By focusing on specific competencies required for a particular job, you can create a more tightly targeted job description and job posting, making it easier to attract the right candidate. Plus, competency-based screening and interviewing can help you quickly assess a candidate’s suitability for a role, saving you a ton of time and resources in the hiring process.

Increased Agility

Finally, competency-based recruiting can help your organization become more agile and responsive to changing business needs. By hiring employees based on their competencies, you can build a workforce that’s adaptable and flexible, ready to respond to shifting market conditions or changing business priorities

The Bottom Line

Competency-based recruiting gives your organization a serious edge in a highly competitive skills marketplace. By focusing on competencies, you can attract a wider pool of the right candidates, improve your retention rates, streamline the hiring and onboarding process is, and build a workforce that’s ready to tackle the challenges your business faces. If you’re not already doing it or aren’t doing it well you’re missing out!

Over the next couple of posts, I’ll be looking at this in more detail: from how to determine the right competencies for a role, to how to use competency-based screening when selecting potential hires, to using the results of those screenings to tailor your onboarding processes.

So… stay tuned! (You can sign up below to be notified as we release the rest of this series)