Competency-based recruitment
Competency-based recruitment is a process of recruitment based on the ability of candidates to produce anecdotes about their professional experience which can be used as evidence that the candidate has a given competency. Candidates demonstrate competencies on the application form, and then in the interview, which in this case is known as a competency-based interview. The process of competency-based recruitment is intended to be fairer and a more realistic approach than other recruitment processes, by clearly laying down the required competencies and then testing them in such a way that the recruiter has little  discretion to favour one candidate over another; the process assumes high recruiter discretion is undesirable. As a result of its perceived fairness, the process is popular in public services. Competency-based recruitment is highly focused on the candidates' story-telling abilities as an indication of competency, and disfavours other indications of a candidate's skills and potential, such as references. Core Competencies. Core competencies are the set of skills which are crucial to a business, for them to gain a competitive advantage in their market. Senior managers are unable to manage every single aspect of their business, including the competencies  needed to maintain a strong business. This means that they must come up with a set of competencies which truly affect their competitive advantage, as this will save them time in the long run when it comes to hiring employees. Hamel and Prahalad's main idea was that over time companies will develop key areas of expertise which are unique to that company and crucial for their long term growth. They said the core competencies should not be seen as being fixed; these competencies should change in response to changes in the company's business environment. This is because over  time, the business will evolve and new opportunities will arise and so the same must happen to the core competencies. Hamel and Prahalad came up with three questions which businesses must consider when identifying their core competencies: Elements of a competency-based job description. Key elements of the job description are: Purpose. There are 4 main reasons why competency-based job descriptions are crucial to businesses: Job descriptions and competencies allow potential employees to identify the skills, qualities, experience and training needed for a certain job. The information in the job description and competencies is included in the performance requirements  which form the performance reviews. Businesses rely on job descriptions and competencies to create training programs for their employees whereas employees use these to obtain the skills required for them to get a promotion or pay rise! Small businesses. Small businesses struggle a lot more than larger businesses when it comes to employing people for jobs. It is much better for them to use competency-based job descriptions as they differ from standard job descriptions because they emphasize the worker rather than the work. Competency-based job descriptions decrease the chances of the employer hiring the wrong person for the  job. To ensure that staff are placed properly within a small business, they must create a detailed job description. For a small business it is crucial that they hire the right number of people. This is because, if they hire too many people it could lead to money being wasted on staff income (wages are the highest costs to business). As well as other issues, as the saying goes: “too many cooks spoil the broth”! On the other hand, if they hire too few people, it could lead to inefficiencies and large costs for the small business in the long  run. The best approach for small businesses will be to have a job preview, assess whether individuals are capable of learning the skills needed by the company. This will help filter out those candidates who will not be suitable for the job. If possible, small businesses should use experienced individuals in the hiring process, these individuals will know if the future employee will fit into the culture of the company as well as if they possess the relevant skills. Competency Life Cycle. The competency life cycle consists of 4 phases which aim to develop and enhance individual and organisational competencies . The different phases are: Competency Analysis. In order to conduct thorough competency analysis, one has to gather information from various sources. These sources are known as job content experts (JCEs) and they have a good understanding of positions in companies. JCEs are usually the people who manage the position one is looking to fill. The first step of the competency analysis is to accumulate detailed descriptions of the tasks which make up the job: ‘task analyses’. This is done through a range of data collection methods: Once the data from these various sources has been analysed, a list of the  competencies needed for the job description can come together, completing the competency analysis. Advantages. There are many benefits of using competencies in organisations: Criticisms. However, there are also some negative aspects of competency-based job descriptions. They can be time-consuming, as it takes a long time to gather the data needed to decide which competencies are relevant for the job profile. This process can also be very costly and not all businesses may have the funds available to carry out the competency analysis. The analysis also requires staff with specific skills, which certain businesses may lack. Best practices. Having  established the competency profiles for groups and roles, organizations can use the competencies as the standards for assessing candidates throughout the screening and selection process as well as advertising and communicating the organization's requirements to potential applicants. Competencies support recruitment and selection by: Some of the common benchmark competency-based practices in Recruitment and Selection include: Implementation stages. As competency profiles are developed for varied job groups, the following implementation stages are suggested for their use in recruitment and selection on a corporate-wide basis. Stage 1: Stage 2: