In a hiring environment where speed, scale and automation are increasingly expected, ensuring quality and fairness is more important than ever. Competency-Based Interviewing (CBI) provides a structured way to evaluate candidates based on how they’ve demonstrated key skills in real-world situations. Done well, it brings consistency, objectivity and alignment with business needs, especially when hiring volume is high or line managers are under pressure to move fast.

This article outlines how HR can play a transformative role by introducing and championing CBI, driving measurable improvements in both the candidate experience and hiring outcomes.

What Is Competency-Based Interviewing?

CBI focuses on how candidates have behaved in past scenarios, using those examples to predict future performance. The STAR model is typically used to structure responses:

Situation — What was the context?

Task — What was the specific challenge or responsibility?

Action — What did the candidate do?

Result — What was the outcome?

By requiring candidates to give clear, structured responses, interviews become more consistent and relevant to actual job performance.

HR’s Strategic Role in Rolling Out CBI

One of the most practical ways HR can elevate the quality of hiring is by implementing a structured CBI framework, especially when hiring is decentralised or scaling quickly.

When line managers are expected to ramp up activity, interviews often become inconsistent. Some ask the right questions. Some go with gut feel. Some forget to probe altogether. That’s where HR steps in.

HR can equip teams with consistent interview templates, provide practical training on behavioural techniques and introduce scorecards that help quantify answers. Managers suddenly have a playbook. Everyone interviews to the same standard. Candidates are assessed based on evidence, not instinct.

DigitalOcean, for example, trained hundreds of internal interviewers on behavioural methods. Not only did it improve internal capability, it created consistency across panels, boosted confidence and reduced reliance on individual interpretations.

CBI Reduces Bias and Improves Fairness

Unstructured interviews often leave too much room for unconscious bias. CBI helps eliminate this by using consistent, repeatable questions that focus on evidence rather than impressions.

All candidates are assessed against the same role-specific competencies. Interviewers use a shared framework. No moving goalposts, no gut feel dominating the process.

Structured interviews are up to twice as predictive of job performance compared to informal chats. They’re also proven to help increase diversity in hiring by focusing less on pedigree and more on capability.

CBI is a powerful way to tackle affinity bias and credential bias. Instead of screening out candidates based on where they studied or how well they clicked in a casual chat, CBI asks whether they can actually do the job.

Scaling Hiring Without Losing Control

CBI offers a repeatable, scalable approach that works across departments and geographies. It’s not just for niche or senior roles. This framework thrives under volume.

HR can create a bank of competency questions, align them with key roles and roll them out across teams. Platforms can store templates and scoring guides so hiring managers anywhere in the business can access them instantly.

Whether you’re hiring ten people or a hundred, the standard doesn’t drop.

Unilever adopted a global CBI framework supported by digital assessment tools. The results were clear. Time to hire was reduced, candidate quality improved and consistency across regions increased. The system didn’t slow them down. It scaled with them.

Companies using structured interviews in high-volume settings have reported up to 90 percent fewer mis-hires and a 91 percent improvement in retention. That’s not just a hiring win. It’s a business win.

Why CBI Works for Today’s Hiring Reality

CBI is built for today’s challenges. Fast growth. Cross-border teams. Rising expectations for objectivity. It helps employers stay consistent, mitigate risk and scale with confidence.

It brings fairness to the forefront. Everyone gets a fair chance, regardless of background, education or connections. What matters is how someone responds to real-life situations. That levels the playing field.

It also creates stronger interview conversations. Managers get real insight into how a candidate thinks, behaves and delivers results, not just what they claim on a CV.

And when backed by a clear scoring system, those insights are easier to compare, measure and act on.

Real-World Results

IBM built its hiring model around competencies rather than traditional credentials, leading to stronger outcomes and broader talent reach. The company’s Asia-Pacific hiring functions are now well embedded in this approach, with measurable impact on diversity and candidate quality across markets.

Unilever implemented a consistent global CBI process, paired with digital assessments, across its regional and country operations including Southeast Asia. It reported faster hiring cycles and stronger alignment between candidate profiles and organisational needs.

DigitalOcean rolled out interviewer training at scale, resulting in greater internal consistency and capability. Hiring panels became more confident and structured, with significantly improved feedback quality and candidate experience.

Final Thoughts

Competency-Based Interviewing is more than a framework. It’s a practical solution for modern hiring. It brings clarity. It reduces risk. It helps employers scale with purpose.

HR plays a vital role in bringing this to life, from setting up interview kits and training managers to maintaining consistency and ensuring alignment across the business.

If you’re looking to introduce CBI or want to strengthen what you already have in place, talk to us. We’ve helped teams build structured interview models that scale, align with values and improve hiring outcomes across the board.

We’re happy to share what works, what doesn’t and help you take the next step.