After spending close to 30 years in human resources and organizational development, and participating  in  countless  retention and succession planning initiatives, I’ve  come to the conclusion that employees are not primarily fired or promoted because of their education, skills, or even amount of experience. Of course, those things are important in their own ways; you are expected to be informed, up-to-date, and capable of doing the job, whatever that might be. However, it’s often the intangibles that define an outstanding employee (or conversely, the less-than-outstanding employee).

Companies increasingly understand this shift, and have implemented behavior-based interview techniques during the candidate evaluation and selection process. This approach aims to match the key behavioral and / or trait competencies of an applicant to those that define success in  a  particular job – or in a broader sense, in the larger organization.