Behave yourself!
The topic for today is ‘’ behavioral competencies’’.
Task 1
Read the text below to get the general idea:
The cluster ‘’behavioral competencies’’ is based on two major concepts:
‘’behavior’’ and ‘’competencies’’. The first word refers to actions that a person
undertakes in varied situations, but the second one implies a combination of
knowledge, skills and abilities that contribute to successful job performance.
Generally speaking, behavioral competencies are defined as the coexistence of
individual attributes, patterns of behavior, particular actions, knowledge, skills
and experience which altogether help an employee to perform well at work and
achieve success in an organization.
Behavioral competencies can apply to most jobs in a company and they
constitute a list of requirements which are to be met at a particular position or a
career level. Although they are specific to a person rather than a job, they can
be observable and measurable. They may also establish a base-list of necessary
competencies describing the guidelines of common behavior in different
business-related situations.
Behavioral competencies, in particular, describe how people deal with
tasks, how they solve problems, how they manage their jobs, how they collect
information or how they make decisions. The overall knowledge of behavior
standards of particular employees can help other co-workers and managers
build teams, assign roles or improve work in an organization. On the other
hand, behavioral competencies allow the workers themselves to know exactly
what is expected or required from them in order to perform efficiently or
achieve better results in a company.
Behavioral competencies are now widely used by HR specialists,
especially during so called behavior-based job interviews as they allow
recruiters to check and assess potential candidates more thoroughly in terms of
their future actions on the basis of their past behaviors.
Task 2.
Study the text carefully and decide whether the sentences below are true (T) or
false (F):
1. The term ‘’behavioral competencies’’ is a complex one.
…T.
2. Well defined behavioral competencies help people to perform better at
work.
…T.
3. Behavioral competencies only apply to positions.
…F..
4. Behavioral competencies can be measured and observed.
…T.
5. Most job descriptions include a specification of behavioral competencies
required on a particular position.
…T.
6. Behavioral competencies can be easily tested in everyday situations. …F..
7. Precise lists of behavioral competencies allow employees to know exactly
what is expected from them in a company.
…T.
8. Clear sets of behavioral competencies help managers to assess job
performance.
…T.
9. Company’s performance hardly ever relies on people’s behavior.
…F..
10.HR specialists use behavior-based interview questions in recruitment
processes nowadays.
…T.
Task 3
Watch the video ‘’Behavior based interview …‘’ and chose (a) or (b) to
complete the sentences below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKBubKO-798
Speaker 1 (Mark):
1. He believes that, during behavior based interviews, employers are :
a) looking at past behavior to get a predictive future behavior
pattern of a candidate,
b) asking lots of varied questions to get a general idea about the
candidate.
2. At job interviews students generally tend to:
a) invent stories about their past experiences and successful initiatives,
b) tell great stories about their past initiatives, but they forget to
mention the results.
Speaker 2 (Abbey):
3. A behavior interview means telling a story by:
a) setting a frame, describing a task and providing specific details
about results of your actions,
b) setting a picture and describing what people did in a particular
situation.
4. The speaker compares a bad behavior interview to:
a) a joke without a punchline,
b) a joke with a punchline.
Speaker 3 (Linda):
5. Replying to behavior questions is mostly about:
a) taking a deep breath and describing the works of a committee,
b) including the depth and breath of what you have accomplished.
6. Answering behavior questions, students should :
a) use ‘’I’’ instead of ‘’we’’,
b) use ‘’we’’ instead of ‘’I’’.
Speaker 4 (Eric):
7. The man believes that at a behavior based job interview it is:
a) enough to go through your resume in details,
b) essential to get into details about real situations in your previous
organizations.
8. It is vital to provide as much information as possible about:
a) the situation you encountered and the people involved in the project,
b) the problem you faced, the options you considered to solve it, the
actions you took, and finally about the results you produced.
Speaker 5 (David):
9. The candidate was asked the following question:
c) Can you tell me about a time you set an impossible goal to achieve and
you were short of breath?
d) Can you tell me about a time when you set a goal and you thought
you did everything possible to achieve that goal but still fell short?
10.During his internship the candidate:
a) had to create a merger model for a hypothetical situation for a
major client,
b) participated in a merger of two major clients in a real life situation.