What Is a Competency?
A competency is a cluster of related knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours that enables effective performance in a role. Common competencies include: communication, problem-solving, leadership, teamwork, adaptability, commercial awareness, and attention to detail.
Competencies are distinct from technical skills (the ability to do specific tasks) and personality traits (enduring dispositions). They describe observable behaviours — what the person demonstrably does, not what they could theoretically do or tend to feel.
The Competency Framework
Most organisations using competency-based interviewing do so within a competency framework — a defined set of competencies relevant to the organisation, typically organised by role level. A junior analyst role might require analytical thinking and attention to detail; a senior manager role might require strategic thinking and leadership.
Generic frameworks have value but lose the specificity that makes competency-based interviewing most useful: the direct link between the competencies assessed and the behaviours that actually predict performance in this specific role, in this specific team.
Competency-Based vs Behavioural Interviewing
The two terms are often used interchangeably, and in practice they describe the same thing. The distinction, where one exists, is that 'behavioural interview' refers primarily to the question format while 'competency-based interview' refers to the broader system — the framework, question bank, scoring rubric, and evaluation process.
A competency-based interview uses behavioural questions, scored against a competency rubric.
Designing Competency-Based Questions
Good competency-based questions are specific, past-oriented, and tied explicitly to observable competencies. Each question should target a single competency — questions that attempt to assess multiple competencies simultaneously produce responses that are hard to score cleanly.
For each competency, the question bank typically includes 2–3 alternative questions of similar difficulty. This allows for multi-stage processes where candidates may be asked different questions at different stages while still being assessed against the same competency.
Scoring Competency Responses
The scoring rubric for each competency describes what a strong, adequate, and weak response looks like — with behavioural indicators at each level. Strong responses demonstrate clear personal agency, specific and measurable outcomes, and behaviour that maps directly to the competency definition. Weak responses are vague, hypothetical, or collective.
Where AI is used to score competency-based video interviews, the EU AI Act requires that the competency framework and scoring logic be documentable and auditable — the organisation must be able to explain what was assessed, how it was scored, and why those competencies were relevant to the role.
How Palantrix uses competency-based assessment
The Team DNA Profile is a form of bespoke competency framework — built specifically for each role from structured team input rather than adopted from a generic library. This means the competencies assessed in every Palantrix interview are directly tied to the behaviours your existing team has identified as predictive for the role. The Trait Alignment Score is the output: a consistent, auditable score for each candidate against each trait in the profile.
How Team DNA Profiling works →Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a competency-based interview and a standard job interview?
All competency-based interviews are job interviews, but not all job interviews are competency-based. Competency-based interviews use a structured, pre-defined framework of skills and behaviours to evaluate candidates. Traditional interviews are often unstructured — the interviewer asks what seems relevant in the moment, without a systematic framework for comparison.
How many competencies should be assessed in an interview?
Most competency-based interviews assess 3–5 core competencies. Fewer than 3 provides insufficient evidence for a decision; more than 5 leads to insufficient depth on each. The most important competencies should be assessed with multiple questions.
Are competency-based interviews suitable for all roles?
Yes, though the competency set varies significantly by role. Technical roles may include problem-solving and analytical competencies; people-management roles will include leadership and communication. The key is that the competencies are genuinely relevant to the role's demands.
Can competency-based interviews be conducted online?
Yes. Competency-based questions work well in both live video and asynchronous video formats. Async formats are particularly effective for consistent evaluation — every candidate answers the same questions, scores are applied against the same rubric, and there is a documented record of every response.
How do competency-based interviews reduce variability in hiring decisions?
Competency-based interviews reduce the influence of non-job-related factors on hiring decisions by focusing evaluation explicitly on role-relevant behaviours. When responses are scored against a pre-defined rubric, the evaluator has less room to be swayed by irrelevant characteristics. The rubric also makes evaluation decisions transparent and auditable.