By: Suditi Jindal
Most of the leading companies within India and in the global job market, are adopting ‘strength recruitment’ as opposed to the traditional ‘competency recruitment’. In a recent Campus Induction Drive at Durham University, United Kingdom, a team member from Earnest and Young asserted that her company relies upon ‘strength recruitment’ only for all profiles.
Shared below are a few pointers about strength recruitment that may come in handy while facing such an interview.
• What is strength recruitment?
Strength recruitment is the practice wherein a company inducts a person on the basis of her/ his strengths. It is clearly different from hiring on the basis of the competency(ies) of an individual. Hence, this leads to the next question as to the difference between the two.
• What is strength vis-à-vis competency?
Strength is defined as the activity that a person likes to perform often and is particularly good in it. In fact, it makes a person feel good to do that activity. This feel-good factor creates opportunities and courage within the individual to take risks, develop new and better ways to perform the activity. This creates a specialization of sorts within the skill-set of the person for that particular activity.
Competency is more like an acquired taste. It is defined as the activity that a person has learned to perform and is reasonably good at. Performance of the activity does not create a feeling of goodness or happiness within the person. The scale of specialisation and innovation in such a task is highly limited and at times, temporary as well.
• Why is strength recruitment preferred by a company?
Strength recruitment enables a company to bring together such people who are highly inclined to perform a particular task. While achieving a heterogeneous mix of employees with a diversified skill-set, the company is also able to ensure a high level of motivation among its employees. The employees are engaged in the performance of those activities, that each of them is most proficient in and also, most happy in. Hence, strength recruitment is a win-win solution for the employer-employee relation.
• How is strength recruitment conducted?
Strength recruitment is conducted through an interview and/or evaluation through participation in games and exercises.
The interviewee wields greater control over the course of an interview in such a recruitment process. However, that is the case with most of the successful interviews. Strength recruitment interviews, however, allow the interviewee greater freedom of expression.
The candidate is asked questions about her/ his strengths with a great emphasis on how the candidate feels. A few examples of such questions can be:
1. How do you develop and deepen relations?
This question replaces the following question in a competency interview: ‘If you had to develop and deepen relations, how would you do it?’
The difference lies in the assumption that the candidate would prefer or like to develop and deepen relations that are present in the second question as a condition. In the former, the candidate’s response comprising of facts about the frequency of developing relations, success in such an endeavor, and the ensuing happiness within her/him; enable an interviewer to gauge her/his true strength.
2. How do you feel when working on a disorganised project? What do you do in situations like this?
3. How do you maximize your time to achieve your goals?
The participation of a candidate in various role-play and situation-based exercises bring out or corroborates claims of her/his strength.
• Is strength recruitment better for the candidate/ employee as well?
Strength recruitment is the ideal situation for the candidate to get inducted and achieve subsequent growth in her/his career. Strength recruitment enables a person to do the work that she/he actually likes and is proficient in. A person should prefer to work in a company that recruits through strength evaluation rather than competency evaluation. There is no greater a blessing in extremely enjoying one’s work and even getting paid for it. However, it implies that a candidate should be aware of her/ his strengths and hone them on every opportunity available.
• How can one become aware of one’s strengths?
All the activities that a person performs in her/ his life can be broadly classified into the following four categories:
1. Realised Strengths- these are marked by frequent use, good performance and are energising for the person.
2. Unrealised Strengths – these are marked by lower use, good performance and are energising for the person.
3. Weaknesses – these are characterised by poor or variable use, low performance and are de-energizing for the person.
4. Competencies- these are learned behavior patterns that are characterised by variable use, reasonably well performance, and are de-energising for the person.
An individual should thoroughly examine her/his activity spectrum and classify the activities in one of the above four categories. The aim should be to invest more resources in the performance of the strengths and shifting unrealized strengths to the arena of realized strengths.
• How does one answer questions in an interview based on strength recruitment?
Answering questions in a strength recruitment interview is the same as answering questions in an interview. One must follow the STAR approach to answer any question.
S-situation that is either given to you or arises out of the narration of events to you.
T- a task that emerges as the primary means to resolve the situation.
A-action is the list of actions or only the single action that is required to be performed to accomplish the task at hand.
R- a result that is arrived at after going through the above three stages.
At every stage of the answer, the inclination and zest of the interviewee determine the assertion of strength or not, in her/him.