At its core, the goal of the recruitment process is to clearly define the requirements of a job, and then to next find and select the ideal candidate. 

Unfortunately, not all organizations understand and appreciate the value of a well-developed job description in their hiring and selection processes.

Why Job Descriptions Matter

Job descriptions play an integral role in hiring talent as they detail the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and structure of a job. Ideally, they are objective and based on an understanding of required competencies and skills.

The best way to make sure that interviews stay focused on the person's ability to fill a job is to make use of a competency-driven job description; a description that has identifiable competencies mapped directly to it.

Why Use Competencies in Your Job Descriptions?

By incorporating competencies into a job description, applicants are given clarity on the specific skills and behaviors required to successfully perform all job-related tasks. On the other side of the table, the interviewers are empowered to more accurately describe job requirements and pose questions that directly apply to these necessary skills and behaviors. 

In this ideal scenario, the job descriptions, with mapped competencies, actually provide the foundation for your interview questions.

Building Competency Based Interview Questions

CompetencyCore's Interview Guide Builder functionality allows you to build customized interview guides that can be saved for future use. Benefit from a proven, consistent and transparent interview process that effectively eliminates the potential for bias and subjectivity.

This process also provides a significant benefit to job candidates in that they understand more accurately how suited they are to a position. Newly-hired employees are more likely to understand what is expected of them and better adapt to new challenges and opportunities.

With competency-driven job descriptions in place, you may not even have to look outside your organization to fill a position. Internal recruitment becomes easier than ever when you can map each employee’s competencies, strengths, and skills gaps. Easily note which employees are qualified based on the required competencies for each job, and which will require the least training to move into another position. What a great way to save time and money on external hiring costs! 

Improve Your Job Descriptions, Improve Your Selection Process

The easiest and most effective means to incorporate competencies into your job descriptions is to use HRSG’s CompetencyCore job description software, which includes Interview Guide Builder functionality to create competency-based interview quickly and easily.

Want to learn how your job description process compares to other HR professionals? Check out our 2019 State of Job Descriptions report:

Download the 2019 State of Job Descriptions report using the form below.

Post last updated: July 2, 2019.