Competency examples - can anyone help?

[EwanWhosearmy]

I am trying to improve my competency examples for a job application within my organisation. Feedback from previous interviews is always that I focus on the process rather than how I did it.

Despite googling, I can't get my head around the difference. How much detail can you fit in 250 words?

If I was describing how I went around different offices, gave a presentation to the (hugely reluctant) staff on new ways of working, sat down individually with them to coach etc, how would you write the "how"?

Are you sure that you've understood the feedback. It sounds like you've been concentrating on the how (describing the process) but neglecting the why. Try to think about why what you did was effective and how it produced a desirable outcome, not just what you did.

Why did you do a presentation, why not just send an email telling them how it was going to be?
How did you engage them in the process when they didn't want to be there?
What negitativity did you face? How did you overcome it?
What made you do individual coaching? How did you select the people to sit down with?? (Everyone, the highly influential ones, the most negative???,)

Not all of that will fit into 250 words, but might give you some starting points.

Make sure the whole lot is "I did, I decided" not "a presentation was written", but "I designed and wrote a presentation"

What I look for when marking competency forms is that the person shows that they thought through their actions. For example something like:

Aware staff were resistant to the change I arranged 1-2-1 sessions. This allowed me to identify individuals key concerns and adapt the training to address these, building engagement with the process.

(Would need work but it is just meant to illustrate the structure we look for)

Use STAR. Situation, your thoughts / the task, action you took, results. Make it all about you!

If you look at the guidance on writing competency forms pdf on this page you'll find some really good tips- www.gov.uk/government/organisations/marine-management-organisation/about/recruitment

For my organisation the 'what' is what you did - sentence or two to say what you did, set the scene and describe context (to show it was an activity that was suitable and of the standard for the grade). Then the majority should be the 'how' is the behaviours demonstrated to get the 'what' done. E.g demonstrating leadership, looking at the big picture - wider aspects, being proactive, communicating positively, challenging when necessary, dealing with change, prioritisation, rewarding staff etc...

The link sampotatoes gave is good....especially for civil service jobs....sometimes it's making sure you use the right language and keywords to make it easier for the sift team to see you're worth a punt at interview.

Thank you for these, they are very useful.

If I was describing how I went around different offices, gave a presentation to the (hugely reluctant) staff on new ways of working, sat down individually with them to coach etc, how would you write the "how

'I had this problem and had to figure out the best way of approaching it. due to the distance, and the reluctance of the staff, I decided they would need a professional to personal approach so I wrote a presentation and invited them to the introductory session, and at the session some appeared to either not understand or not want to do the 'thing' for various reasons. So I used the information gained at the presentation to design my personal approach and I booked to go to the individual offices to do some 1-2-1 work, and to get a handle on the issues directly which enabled me to have a set of reasonings that would get their buy in. After 3 months the new ways were implemented and it had an impact on the organisation which meant a reduction in waste and a 8% increase in output.'

In case you haven't come across it, use STAR in formulating your answers:

S - Situation. Describe the situation.
T - Task. What was it you had to achieve.
A - Action. What did you do.
R - Result. What was the outcome.

A common mistake is to talk about what "we" did, what "we" decided. That leaves the interviewer unclear as to your role. You need to be very clear as to your personal role.

If you can add reflection to get 'STARD', as above but D=different, reflect on what you would do differently if you were to do it again.

Bumping so it stays in my watch list as I'm on phone and this is useful