There are several tools and processes that can be used to assess Acquired Competencies. They are:
  1. CV’s
  2. Interviews
  3. Work Sample Tests
  4. 360 Assessments
  5. Assessment Centre Tools (ACT)

Let’s take a brief look at each of them.

     CV’s
Everyone involved with recruiting is familiar with the CV so there is no need to elaborate on this other than to say they are a good screening tool (provided they have not been misrepresented) which give a good overview of an individual’s knowledge base, qualifications and working experience and talk mostly to Job Specific Competencies.
Interviews
Everyone is familiar with job interviews. There are different types of interviews, some better than others. Type of Interviews that can be used…
 Unstructured
Unstructured interviews are interviews that are “made up as you go along”. It can be thought of as “a spontaneous conversation, not a specific set of questions asked in a predetermined order. Questions arise spontaneously in a free-flowing conversation, which means that different candidates are asked different questions. While often used, research has consistently identified them as the most ineffective method of assessing a candidate. (TalentLyft)
Structured
A structured interview is a type of interview in which the interviewer asks a particular set of predetermined questions. In structured interviews, questions are planned and created in advance, which means that all candidates are asked the same questions in the same order. (TalentLyft)
Competency Based Interviews
Competency based interviews are a highly structured way of interviewing a candidate to explore past behaviour as evidence of competency in a particular area. For them to be effective the competencies being assessed must be clearly defined and there should also be clear behavioural indicators that can be used to assess the candidate against.
Job Interview Limitations
Since job interviews are generally the most widely used and relied on selection tool, it is worth elaborating on their limitations to ensure that they can be offset. Here are some facts and views worth considering…
81 percent of people lie during the interview, because the interview is the candidate's selling opportunity.
Ron Friedman (an award-winning social psychologist and the author of The Best Place to Work)
“Interviews are a terrible predictor of performance. Many managers, recruiters, and HR staffers think they have a special ability to sniff out talent. They’re wrong… It’s a complete random mess… We found a zero relationship.”
Laszlo Bock (former senior vice president of people operations at Google Inc)
Hundreds of studies reveal the profound limitations of the traditional interview. Interviews favor candidates who are attractive, sociable, articulate, and tall. They also favor manipulative candidates, or ones who know how to make a positive impression even in a brief interview. But those aren’t always the best job performers.…. the research literature on interview effectiveness…(shows) that the job interview is a poor predictor of subsequent performance.
Feature 3
(Professor Don Moore, University of California Business School)
Interviews are subject to the following inherent flaws, however, they are generally the most relied on source of information about a candidate:
Flaws
Personal Bias – interviewers are biased, and their personal likes and dislikes affect their judgement. If an interviewer has a certain bias, he may also unconsciously devise questions so as to secure confirmation of his views.
Constant Error – The interview of the previous candidate affects how the current interviewee is judged.
Projection – this occurs when an interviewer projects his own ideas, knowledge and skills onto the candidate.
More Flaws
Halo Effect – A single characteristic of a candidate – whether good or bad - affects the judgement of the interviewer.
Leniency – Interviewers tend to give candidates the benefit of the doubt and assign unrealistically high ratings to candidates.
Stereotyping – Interviews stereotype candidates, for example a tall candidate may be seen to be more influential than a short one.
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