Competency-based hiring: Aligning talent acquisition with business goals

Competency-based hiring is a strategy that focuses on evaluating a candidate’s skills, experience, and behavioural traits. It determines whether they line up with the specific requirements of a position. Roughly 2/3 of businesses today use hiring practises based on skills.

This approach goes beyond traditional hiring methods, which often rely heavily on qualifications and interviews. Instead, it emphasises how well a candidate can perform within the company’s broader business goals.

Assessing real-world competencies allows businesses to select employees more accurately. This makes sure they not only meet the job’s demands but also contribute to long-term success.

Let’s see how competency-based hiring can be used to match talent acquisition with business goals, helping organisations find talent that is a good fit for both current needs and future growth.

Understanding competency-based hiring

At its centre, competency-based hiring is about matching a candidate’s strengths and abilities with the specific skills and behaviours that a business values.

It shifts the focus from merely hiring someone based on their education or previous job titles to determining their capacity to contribute meaningfully to a particular role. This approach focuses on the practical application of skills, behaviours, and knowledge rather than just theoretical qualifications.

Competency-based hiring is designed to evaluate the aspects that drive performance. These include cognitive skills, technical expertise, emotional intelligence, adaptability, problem-solving capabilities, and how a person works within a team.

Defining and assessing key competencies allows organisations to evaluate a candidate’s potential for success more accurately. This approach reduces reliance on factors that may be less indicative of future job performance.

Matching talent acquisition with business goals

For many companies, achieving business goals involves more than simply filling positions. Hiring individuals who can actively contribute to those goals is key.

Competency-based hiring aligns talent acquisition with strategic objectives. It makes sure that the selection process is tailored to assess the specific skills needed for success.

Businesses may face challenges in hiring candidates who can keep up with changing industry demands, particularly when rapid growth or transformation is involved. A focus on behaviours and capabilities that align with the company’s strategic direction helps overcome this challenge.

This strengthens the connection between talent acquisition and overarching business objectives. As a result, new hires are prepared to contribute effectively from day one.

For example, if a company is focused on innovation and staying ahead of industry trends, hiring for competencies like creativity, adaptability, and critical thinking becomes increasingly important. Similarly, organisations that emphasise customer service will place greater value on skills like communication, empathy, and conflict resolution.

The relationship between assessments and competency-based hiring

To properly assess competencies, companies need to test candidates in ways that simulate real-world tasks and challenges they will face in the job/role. Competency-based assessments are a big part of this process. They helps employers identify whether a candidate possesses the necessary capabilities.

These assessments may include practical exercises, situational judgement tests, or psychometric evaluations. They measure cognitive ability, emotional intelligence, and technical expertise.

One of the main advantages of using assessments is that they provide an objective way to evaluate candidates. Unlike interviews, which can sometimes be influenced by biases or subjective opinions, assessments offer a consistent and data-driven approach.

This allows businesses to test candidates in a manner that is directly in line with the competencies required for the role. Using assessments that are specific to the job, businesses can more accurately assess a candidate’s ability to perform and contribute to the company's success.

Testing candidates in a controlled, consistent manner helps organisations reduce the risk of hiring based on intuition alone.

Instead, decisions are made based on measurable outcomes. These may include how well a candidate applies problem-solving techniques, responds to challenging situations, or demonstrates technical proficiency in specific tasks.

Avoiding unconscious bias in recruitment

One of the challenges in traditional hiring is unconscious bias. We all carry biases, whether we are aware of them or not. These biases can influence our decisions when it comes to selecting candidates. They potentially result in a lack of diversity or overlooking highly capable individuals.

Competency-based hiring helps counteract these biases by focusing on tangible, job-related competencies. It makes sure that hiring decisions are based on relevant skills rather than personal traits or background information that may have no bearing on job performance.

Using structured competency-based hiring assessments helps make sure that all candidates are evaluated based on the same set of criteria. This level of standardisation promotes fairness. It helps eliminate the influence of personal biases and encourage a more inclusive approach to hiring.

With competency-based hiring tests, businesses create a level playing field. All applicants are assessed based on their true abilities rather than their appearance, gender, age, or any other subjective factors.

Overall, this approach encourages companies to use diverse hiring practises.

When competencies such as teamwork, communication, and adaptability are assessed across a broad range of candidates, companies gain a wider perspective. They are more likely to consider individuals from diverse backgrounds who may possess these abilities in unique and valuable ways.

Customising competency-based hiring for specific positions

Competency-based hiring isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Different roles within the same company may require different skill sets and behaviours. This means the assessment criteria should be specialised accordingly.

For instance, the competencies required for a sales position will differ from those needed for a software development job, even within the same organisation.

Defining specific competencies for each position makes sure that companies focus on the most relevant traits and skills. This approach helps them evaluate candidates based on job-specific requirements rather than general qualifications. As a result, organisations remain more targeted and strategic in their hiring decisions.

For example, a sales role may place a greater emphasis on communication skills, negotiation tactics, and customer relationship management. Meanwhile, a software developer role may require assessments of technical skills, problem-solving ability, and collaboration within a team environment.

Businesses can customise assessments so that they are able to select candidates with the right competencies for the role. This approach also helps identify individuals who align well with the company’s culture, fostering a more cohesive and productive work environment.

Whether you are trying to find talent for an entry-level position or a senior leadership position, competency-based hiring helps make sure that you are bringing in individuals who can drive success from day one.

Improving employee retention through competency-based hiring

Possibly the most frustrating of all challenges that many companies deal with is employee turnover. Choosing the wrong person for a job can lead to high turnover rates. This can be costly and disruptive to a business.

Competency-based hiring can help improve retention rates by making sure that new hires are better suited to the job and the company culture.

When organisations test candidates for competencies that are in line with the company’s needs and values, they are more likely to find talent who are a good fit for the position. This reduces the chances of mismatches and helps build a more stable and productive workforce.

Employees who feel that their skills are being used in a meaningful way and who share the company’s vision are more likely to stay with the organisation long-term.

The benefits of using Thrive for competency-based hiring

Thrive knows how important it is for businesses to match their talent acquisition strategies with their long-term goals. Our competency-based hiring assessments are designed to help organisations find talent that matches their specific needs, values, and business objectives.

With our platform, businesses can create a more objective, data-driven hiring process that reduces bias, improves retention, and helps guarantee that new hires contribute meaningfully from day one. Our platform offers a selection of psychometric tests and assessments that can be customised to suit the unique requirements of each role.

Whether you need to evaluate technical skills, cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, or problem-solving capacity, Thrive’s assessments are designed to meet your business goals. With no need for additional training, our assessments combine easily with your existing recruitment systems, saving time and resources.

Get in touch with Thrive today to learn more about how we can help you improve your hiring process and find the talent you need to succeed.

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