1. Competency-Based Recruitment and Selection
CHS Alliance Module 2

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Attain increased understanding of CHCF
Attain increased understanding of using competency-based HR practices in recruitment and selection
Apply aspects of the CHCF in recruitment and selection activities
Describe the objectives of the session. Ask if any participants have experience using CHCF or any competencies framework in recruitment & selection. Ask what is difference in using competency based recruitment & selection. 1

3. CORE HUMANITARIAN COMPETENCY DOMAINS
“the behaviours that employees must have, or must acquire, in order to achieve high levels of performance in their role”
The six domains of core competencies are:
Outcomes for the domains:
Understanding Humanitarian Context: Understand operating contexts, key stakeholders and practices affecting current and future humanitarian interventions
Achieving results: Be accountable for your work and use resources effectively to achieve lasting results
Developing & Managing Collaborative Relationships: Develop and maintain collaborative and coordinated relationships with stakeholders and staff
Operating Safely & securely at all times: Operate safely and securely in a pressured environment
Managing Yourself in a pressured and changing environment: Adapt to pressure and change to operate effectively within humanitarian contexts
Demonstrating leadership in humanitarian context: Demonstrate humanitarian values and principles, and motivate others to achieve results in complex situations, independent of one’s role, function or seniority 1
Understanding Humanitarian Context & Applying Humanitarian Principles & Standards 4
Operating Safely and Securely at all Times 2
Achieving Results 5
Managing Yourself in a Pressured and Changing Environment 3
Developing and Maintaining Collaborative Relationships 6
Demonstrating Leadership in Humanitarian Context 2

4. COMPETENCY-BASED HR PRACTICES
Competency Framework
Learning and development
Planning and organisational design
Lets look at some of the competency-based HR practice. We shall focus on four areas namely; planning & organizational design; recruitment & selection; performance development; learning & development. I will briefly describe how each practice incorporates the competencies and the benefits of doing so.
Performance development
Recruitment and selection 3

5. Competency Based Recruitment & Selection
Right People
Right Skills
Right Behaviour
Right Place
Right Time
Right Cost 4

6. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS
Analyse the job
Short-list the candidates
RECRUITMENT
SELECTION
Develop JD and JS
Selection methods
Decide recruitment method
Making a decision & offer
Decide application method
Get references
Advertising vacancy
On-boarding 5

7. SELECTION PROCESS ELEMENTS
Organisational Strategy
What are the organisation’s goals and objectives?
What are the competencies required to what level, for successful performance?
Competency Framework
What are the tasks and responsibilities of the worker that contributes to these goals?
Job Description
What are the qualifications and experience required in an employee to perform these tasks?
Person Specification
RECRUITMENT POLICY
What should be the criteria for selecting the right candidate, based on specifications and competencies required for the job?
Selection 6

8. CONSEQUENCES OF BAD RECRUITMENT
Recruitment & selection expenses
Loss of productivity
Inadequate services to affected population
Unfair demands on other staff
Unfavourable perception of HR and recruiting line manager
Poor team morale
Increased level of distress to the manager
Reduce organisational effectiveness
Unfair treatment of the individual recruited 7

9. Interview Questionnaire
COMPETENCY-BASED RECRUITMENT & SELECTION
Gives structure and focus to the recruitment process
Concentrates on skills and behaviours (‘how’) and not just background and education (‘what’)
Minimises bias by ensuring decisions are evidence-based
Ensures selection decisions are consistent and transparent through measuring and rating answers according to a predetermined criteria
Allows candidates to know what to expect
TOOLS:
Interview Questionnaire
Reference Questions
Scoring Sheet
Competency Based approach could make recruitment systems fairer and more open and differences between levels, job titles and grades more transparent. Competency frameworks have also been shown to play a major role in both attracting and retaining staff, particularly when linked to career progression and pay. Hiring decisions are made more objectively, with behaviour-based short listing & interviewing. Under this area we offer the behaviorial interview questionnaire. The interview questions directly correspond to the behaviours listed in the core competencies framework. 8

10. JOB DESCRIPTION DEMONSTRATE MIX OF COMPETENCIES
Core Humanitarian Competencies
Competencies
Functional
Technical Competencies
Leadership Competencies
For example, post of Head of Programmes do not usually have a technical focus but will require a number of core competencies as outlined in the CHCF and functional competencies.
By contrast, an Advisor’s post usually has a technical specialism and therefore requires specific technical competencies related to their area of expertise. The balance of competencies is weighted towards technical competencies. 9

11. Leadership Competencies
COMPETENCIES GROUPS: ADVISOR’S POSITION
Leadership Competencies
Core Humanitarian Competencies
Functional Competencies
Technical Competencies
Advisor 10

12. Leadership Competencies
COMPETENCIES GROUP: POSITION OF HEAD OF PROGRAMMES
Leadership Competencies
Core Humanitarian Competencies
Functional Competencies
Technical Competencies
Head of Programmes 11

13. EXERCISE: 10 MINUTES Work in pairs Identify a role you need to recruit
Discuss responsibilities
Use diagram to think about the competencies mix
Use CHCF you would need in the role
Identify the type of assessment against the competencies 12

14. TYPES OF COMPETENCY-BASED ASSESSMENTS
Interviews
Group assessments
Presentations
Written assessments
Psychometric testing
CV/Application/Reference Letter 13

15. QUESTIONS: STANDARD VS. COMPETENCY-BASED
What are your goals in the next five years?
Tell me about one of your personal goals and something you’ve specifically done in the last year to achieve this goal.
How do you make decisions?
Describe a situation where you had to research and review information for the purpose of making a decision or recommendation.
Are you a team player?
Describe a situation in which you had a peer that wasn’t cooperating. 14

16. STANDARD INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Open or closed ended questions
Have you managed a team?
What attracted you to this position?
What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses? 15

17. What would you do if a conflict arises among your team members?
SCENARIO TYPE QUESTIONS
What would you do in a situation?
What would you do if a conflict arises among your team members?
You are the Country Representative & one of your female staff members approaches you with a grievance. Female staff member complains of sexual harassment against one your most trusted male manager. How would you deal with this grievance? 16

18. COMPETENCY BASED INTERVIEW
Also known as Situational Interviewing or Behavior Descriptive Interviewing
Tool to discover how candidate’s past performance impacts your future performance
Candidate’s past behaviour is used as PREDICTOR for future performance
More accurate than standard interviewing technique 17

19. COMPETENCY BASED INTERVIEW
Focus on open-ended questions
Starts with a main question; citing a critical incident
Expects specific examples of candidate’s skills, knowledge, attitude & values required for job
Describe a situation when you…
Tell us about a time when you…
Give us an example of a time when… 18

20. COMPETENCY BASED INTERVIEW: STEPS
Start with a job analysis; need for the post
Develop job description
Identify competencies required for the post
Formulate main questions based on competencies
Supplement main questions with probing questions
Be mindful of position level (entry or experience)
Start with positive questions (accomplishments) 19

21. SAMPLE QUESTION
COMPETENCY DOMAIN 1: UNDERSTANDING HUMANITARIAN CONTEXT
What in your opinion, and from your experience in the field, do you think are the current three main issues in the humanitarian response debate? How have you promoted and ensured compliance of humanitarian standards and principles that govern behaviour of staff? 20

22. SAMPLE QUESTION COMPETENCY DOMAIN 2: ACHIEVING RESULTS
Organisations have a tendency to raise crisis-affected people’s expectation in various stages of project cycle including during needs assessment. How can organisations collect, analyse and disseminate information without raising affected people’s expectations? (Accountability)
Organisations have a tendency to raise crisis-affected people’s expectation in various stages of project cycle including during needs assessment. How can organisations collect, analyse and disseminate information without raising affected people’s expectations? (Decision Making) 21

23. STAR INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE
STARS technique:
S – situation
T – task
A – actions
R – results
S – summarise
The most common approach to conducting a competency-based interview is to use the STARS technique.
Situation and/or Task: Begin by asking a broad, open question about a specific situation or task, e.g. ‘Describe a challenging, work-related situation or task where you …’
Actions: Try to understand the specific actions the candidate took to deal with the situation or task. This is the most important part of the answer. For example, ‘What specific actions did you take to resolve the situation? Tell me what you did to ensure the necessary structures were in place’.
Results: Finish by asking the candidate what results they achieved in the end. It may also be appropriate to ask what lessons the candidate learnt. This is the follow-up question, they don’t have to be the same for each candidate but they must relate directly back to the answer given.
Summarise: If you are in any doubt as to what the candidate said, it is a good idea to summarise briefly what the candidate told you. This allows you to check that you understood the candidate correctly.
Tips:
• Asking follow-up questions, such as ‘what did you learn from this experience?’ or ‘how would you approach the same issue now?’ can illustrate the candidate’s ability to learn from their mistakes and adapt to changes and challenges.
• Inform the candidate it will be a competency-based interview beforehand. This will allow them time to reflect on their past experiences and select their most appropriate examples to display their skills, behaviours and overall abilities.
• Keep it simple or managers won’t use it! Ten questions should be enough if follow-up questions are used. 22

24. COMPETENCY-BASED INTERVIEW INDICATORS
Demonstrates a positive approach towards the problem
Considers the wider need of the situation
Recognises his/her own limitations
Is able to compromise
Is willing to seek help when necessary
Uses effective strategies to deal with pressure/stress
Positive Indicators
Perceives challenges as problems
Attempts unsuccessfully to deal with the situation alone
Uses inappropriate strategies to deal with pressure/stress
Negative Indicators 23

25. SCORING COMPETENCY-BASED INTERVIEW
Not met
no evidence of competencies shown 1
Partly met
lacks competencies 2
Met
demonstrates some evidence of competencies 3
Exceeds
strong evidence of competencies 24

26. RATING ANSWERS DESCRIPTION OF RATING SCORE
Answers should be rated according to the level of competency required for the role.
Interviewers should consider together what level of competency is needed (based on the job description and knowledge of the role) and what sort of answer would ‘exceed’ rather than  ‘meet’  the required level of competency.
This will help interviewers to give the same ratings to similar answers. 25

27. RATING ANSWERS DESCRIPTION OF RATING SCORE
After an answer, consider how the example given would relate to the requirements of the role, 'would this behaviour meet expectations for this role or would it fall short of what is expected?’ and rate accordingly.
Occasionally, the rating system can be changed for very important competencies, so more points are awarded to a particular competency. This is known as ‘weighting’ and is acceptable, so long as every interview is weighted in the same way.  26

28. EXERCISE: COMPETENCY-BASED INTERVIEW (10 MINUTES)
In your groups, develop 3 competency based questions based on the competency domain assigned to you.
Write your competency-based interview questions clearly on flip chart. 27

29. INTERVIEW PRACTICE
In your respective groups, identify 2 interviewers & 1 interviewee
Be prepared to conduct interview using the competency based interview questions you developed
You may refer to the interview question bank
Remember to ask follow up / probing questions
Each interview round lasts 10 minutes
Assessors are to rate the interview using the interview record 28

30. GROUP ASSESSMENTS: EXERCISE
Split each group in half. One half to be task group, one half to be assessors.
Task group asked to clear table and make space.
Assessors given brief to mark a candidate on 3 domains, by recording notable behaviors – positive and negative.
Task group given task (10 mins).
Assessors then discuss their notes and ratings given for each competency 29

31. DEBRIEF AND WRAP UP
Review and evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of this competency-based job interview.
Identify improvement areas and recommend strategies to improve future interviews. 30