On paper, you’ve found the perfect candidate to join your executive team. The work experience and leadership positions listed on their resume will seemingly guide your organization in the right direction. However, a few months after completing the hiring process and onboarding, you discover they aren’t producing the results you anticipated, and there are early signs that might lead to interpersonal and communication issues.
How could someone with such a perfect background not be the right person for this mission-critical leadership role? The recruiting, on-boarding, and rehiring processes cost a great deal of precious time and money and another bad executive hiring decision could lead to more disruptions throughout the organization. How can you prevent a placement from not working out a second time?
What is Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing?
People often say, if you want to predict the future, look into the past. This statement is particularly true when it comes to behavior and performance at work. Behavioral-based interviewing, as part of your executive hiring process, is a technique that uses open-ended, competency-based questions to help determine if a candidate’s soft skills and values align with the organization’s culture. Additionally, because the questions are centered around specific competencies that align with each company, their past behavior responses shed light on intrinsic attitudes and personal values and provide insights into a long-term fit.
Traditional vs Behavioral Interview Questions
Traditional interview questions are straightforward and typically focus on work history or hypothetical situations. This can sometimes lead to planned, cookie cutter responses that don’t necessarily reflect executive leadership performance. Competency-based questions focus on past behaviors in real situations that the executive candidate will face in your organization, requiring the candidate to explain their behaviors and the actual outcomes of their thought process, decision making, and response to real situations.
Benefits in Executive Search
Predicting Future Performance: By examining how candidates have navigated previous challenges, employers can better predict their suitability for executive roles.
Assessing Cultural Fit: Understanding a candidate’s intrinsic attitudes and values through their past behaviors helps determine if they will integrate well with your company’s culture.
Reducing Turnover: Selecting candidates whose competencies align with organizational needs leads to more successful placements and longer employee retention.
Implementing Competency-Based Interviews
Create competency-based behavioral interview questions that align with your organization’s values and the soft skills required for a successful placement and long-term fit. Then listen carefully for not only the demonstrated behaviors, but also how they said it and what their body language tells you. This will assure that you move the best and most qualified candidates to the top during the interview process. Your company’s core values and beliefs are the drivers behind your culture and long-term business success. Asking competency-based interview questions will help you uncover if a candidate’s technical and soft skills fit with the nature and requirements of the position while ensuring they are a good cultural fit.
Qualifying candidates isn’t always easy, but remember, past behaviors are a true barometer of future behaviors in similar business and interpersonal situations. Investing your time and energy into creating the right strategic competency-based interview questions beforehand will pay off when the candidate you’ve chosen makes a positive impact on your organization in both the short and long term.
How Torch Group Can Help
Torch Group, a retained executive search firm, specializes in utilizing competency-based behavioral interviews as part of our proprietary Signature Search Process™. Our approach ensures that we identify and place candidates who are both functionally proficient and a cultural fit for your organization, leading to higher retention rates and long-term success.
To learn about our search services and Signature Search Process™, please contact Susan Acker at sacker@torchgroup.com or 203-536-2249 or complete and submit this form and let us know how we can help.
Incorporating competency-based behavioral interviews into your executive search process is a strategic move that can significantly enhance the quality and longevity of your hires. By focusing on the competencies that matter most, you can build a leadership team poised to drive your organization forward.