Competency-based Vs Education/Experience-based selection ?

Rasha good question first of all , there are many cases where people are Gold Medalist in education and also been working with companies from many years but when you call them for a meeting or ask them to give a presentation you can see fear, stammerness, lack of knowledge because they are not confident what they are speaking , so this happens even in interview so being competent will always have an edge.  A smart and efficient person always stands out in regular crowd and companies like such people as they will represent their company not some one who would have been book work or have been working but just working wont help as you gain experience over the years but if your career graph , if you knowledge graph is not growing then its just years of working not counted as valuable experience.

I hope you will agree with what i said here.

Dear Rasha,

I agree with Mr. Kapil, Kapil that competency is the base for the selection; education and experience if not transfered into competency than he has nothing.

Regarding the interviews it depends on the jobs; if it is replacement or addition to the same role; than there is already previously prepared JD that has been written based on job analysis and pre-design. yet if it is a new role; than we have to design the job first and identify its compecies and KPIs before the selection and interviews. At the end of the day your selction should be done based the job requirements.

Hi Rasha,

I believe your question is very important in the current times as the recruitment trend is diverted & concentrated more on competency based selection as it's not used or prefered to be used with most employers as it sometimes takes time or not fully understood by recruiters.

While competencies are observable & measurable characteristics of a person & that include using knowledge & demonestrating skills, behaviors which contribute to performing well.

Nowadays, competencies analysis & identification are used not only for selection purposes but also for Job profiling which you mentioned as setting JD's, and also for skill assesment for appraisal & promotional purposes. Also it's used for the purpose of coaching for development of employees by discovering skill gaps & increase the skills from good to great.

I do thank you all for sharing your perspectives. 

In our context we mean "Behviour" by the word "Competency" 

Competence (or competency) is the ability of an individual to do a job properly. A competency is a set of defined behaviors that provide a structured guide enabling the identification, evaluation and development of the behaviors in individual employees. The term "competence" first appeared in an article authored by R.W. White in1959 as a concept for performance motivation. 

Some scholars see "competence" as a combination of practical and theoretical knowledge, cognitive skills, behavior and values used to improve performance

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competence_(human_resources)

For example do you determine "Assertiveness" as a competency for a Business Development Manager and do you asses that in an interview by asking different questions in different manners to evaluate the level of assertiveness of the Candidate?

Do you prepare these competencies for each job description before starting?

In some jobs such as Engineering, obviously education is essential but it is not enough, you still have the competencies and the cultural-fit (By culture we mean corporate culture not ethnic discrimination)

In other jobs such as Sales, Business Development, Even some IT fields, education is secondary to competencies. What do you think?

In my opinion, selection must be based on Competency of an individual candidate.

When we used the term competency we refer individual ability to utilize KSA(knowledge skills and attitude) to perform a job or his ability to present the solution in given scenario. For experienced positions we do check potential candidate competencies through interview, panel sessions and presentations which are based on marketing launch or related term. Through such assignment we (HR & TECHNICAL HEADS) are in better position to make the recruitment decision.

We do conduct initial interview based on traditional way by asking structured and unstructured question and then ask and review his response against set questions and this helps us to measure his/her effectiveness. Recently, we end a case where individual was good on theoretical side and he was double masters but lack in certain personality and professional skills due to which he was not suitable at his position and his case was like a case study for us that solely making decision on good institution or grades is not a wise decision do evaluate the candidates on technical side also, give them scenarios, test and certain assessment and this help HR to reach competency based decision.

Copetency means - Individual skill set and practical knowledge

Education is - Thorotical 

Most of my experiences with business in Ghana points to an education based selection system. But the trend has changed. in the last few months, i have interviewed candidates based on conpetencies rather than education. 

For instance when interviewing candidates for a sales role, i am interested in targets and how they are acheived rather than how qualified the candidates are. some of the finest people i have nterviewed in my professional life do not have  university degrees

Yes I have conducted competency based interview and have competecy based job descrption. Before going to introduce competency based interview, we reviewed in different international NGOs what they are practicing. We introduced competency based job description, IAP and performance appraisal system and link into Training & Development.

Why competency based interview? is it right tool for selection of the right candidates?

I belief competency based interview is a tool of selection for the right candidates. Firstly, we evaluated as knowledge and skills. Are these knowledge and skills fit for the job?  For that reasons, we invited for interview and checked knowledge and skill.  If they fit for the job as right knowledge, skill and attitude then offer job.