Behavioral Competency

Table of Contents

What is Behavioral Competency?

Behavioral competency is a kind of evaluation an employer makes while hiring, based on the candidate’s character traits. The competencies under this category include communication, ability to focus, adaptability, or any other people, managerial, and achievement skills. Such evaluation is essential as it identifies the candidate’s actions and relationships with co-workers and clients.

Examples of Behavioral Competency

Behavioral competency depends on the roles and responsibilities an employee will address. Also, different companies may evaluate competencies differently as per their needs. Though, here are some common ones.

The creativeness competency will be for the member of the marketing team.
Problem-solving skills of HR managers can be their competency
Analytical skills and project management skills will be competencies for the leadership teams like the head of the department.
Negotiation/communication will be the competency of the sales team.

Frequently Asked Questions about Behavioral Competency

Why is behavioral competency essential for organizations?

Behavioral competency is the candidate’s personality traits and qualities that help the employer identify if they are suitable for the role or not. These include the candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and behavior, enabling companies to identify all the factors right from an employee’s responsibilities to the training. Employees can thus be trained in a way that helps organizations reach higher targets.

How many categories does behavioral competency include?

Behavioral competency can be categorized into 7 different types. They are:

Adaptability/Decisiveness
Interpersonal skills
Ability to take initiative
Ability to focus
Stress management
Valuing diversity
Leadership capability

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How can behavioral competency be assessed?

As a first step, employees are assessed under different conditions and situations and then compared to the ideal model. There are three types of ways with which competencies can be measured.

Self Assessment: It is beneficial for employees to assess themselves based on ideals set by the organizational management. Employees can understand where they have performed well and where improvement is needed. Though it is a great way to help them develop, other assessment methods should be used along.

Peer Assessment: An employee’s skills can be assessed by their peers or teammates they are working with. These peers can rate the employee as per the company ideology.

Manager Assessment: Managers are allowed to evaluate the employee based on a project they have accomplished. Rather than taking a simple answer, managers should observe employee performance over months, which will help them decide better.

What are behavioral indicators?

Behavioral indicators are the descriptions or indications showing an employee possesses the said attribute or trait. These indicators can thus be either positive or negative.

Other than behavioral, how many types of competencies are there?

Companies examine three types of competencies other than behavioral ones. They are:

Core Competency: Employee's knowledge or specialization of certain software or technology is measured.

Managerial Competency: Team management, leadership, organizational awareness, and other proficiencies are evaluated.

Functional Competency: Skills needed for a particular job role, quality result, etc., are regarded as functional competencies.

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