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How Vervoe Skills Questions are different to traditional behavioural questions

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AT A GLANCE

Skills Questions VS. Behavioural Questions

How often do you wish you could really know candidates’ skills versus guessing when you interview? Have candidates ‘show, not tell’ you about their abilities, so you can make the best hiring decisions. 

Vervoe by design, simulates a true day-in-the-life of a role and tests candidates application of their skills and knowledge through tasks, rather than answering standalone text based, multiple choice or ‘Tell me about a time’ questions that test their recall knowledge . Test action and doing rather than thinking and talking alone to turn candidate potential into clarity, at scale.

Vervoe Skills Assessments
Traditional Behavioural
Questions
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Approach to Questioning
  • Focus on work sample questions that simulate real job tasks.

  • Candidates demonstrate their skills in context, performing tasks they would encounter on the job.
  • Rely on candidates recounting past experiences with questions like “Tell me about a time when…”.

  • Assess candidates based on their descriptions of previous job performance.
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Assessment of Skills
  • Directly evaluate specific skills required for the role through practical tasks.

  • Test candidates’ abilities in real-time scenarios, ensuring they can handle job responsibilities.
  • Indirectly assess skills by asking about past behavior and how candidates handled situations.

  • Depend on candidates’ ability to recall and articulate past experiences, which may not fully reflect their current skill level.
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Types of Questions
  • Use a variety of question formats, including multiple choice, text, audio, and video responses.

  • Incorporate multimedia elements and realistic job simulations to engage candidates.
  • Primarily consist of open-ended questions requiring detailed responses about past experiences.

  • Less varied in format, usually conducted in an interview setting without interactive components.
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Evaluation Criteria
  • Focus on practical demonstration of skills, such as critical thinking, technical abilities, and communication.

  • Include example answers to aid AI in grading and allow for human review, ensuring consistency in evaluation.
  • Evaluate based on candidates’ storytelling ability, coherence, and relevance of past experiences to the role.

  • Relies heavily on the interviewer’s judgment and interpretation of responses.
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Candidate Experience
  • Provide a more interactive and engaging experience by simulating a day in the life of the job.

  • Use varied question formats to maintain interest and accurately reflect job tasks.
  • Can be more straightforward but may feel repetitive and less engaging for candidates.

  • Require candidates to draw from their memory, which can be challenging for those with less experience.
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Time and Length
  • Designed to be concise, typically focusing on 3-4 key skills with around 12 questions.

  • Aim to balance thorough evaluation with reasonable completion time to avoid candidate fatigue.
  • Can vary widely in length, often depending on the depth of the interview and the number of questions asked.

  • May result in longer interviews as candidates elaborate on past experiences.
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Placement in Recruitment Process
  • Flexible, can be used at different stages of the recruitment process based on needs (e.g., initial screening or final verification).

  • Tailored to be more succinct for early stages and more in-depth for later stages.
  • Typically used during the interview stage, after initial screening.

  • Serve as a key component of in-person or virtual interviews to assess fit and competency.

Practical Examples​

EXAMPLE 1
When presented with a large amount of information, how do you work through the information to find the important details?

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EXAMPLE 2


Tell me about a time where you had to solve a problem where the answer wasn’t initially obvious to you? What was the problem and what steps did you take to resolve it?

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EXAMPLE 3


How do you maintain accuracy when completing tasks that require high attention to detail?

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