Behavioral Competency - Definition & Meaning

Published in Human Resources Terms by MBA Skool Team

What is Behavioral Competency?

Behavioral competency is personality trait/characteristic of a person that determines the success of the individual in his/her work. Employers generally look for competencies/characteristics in an individual. They may use standardized competencies to identify and communicate the criteria required by the organization to be competitive.


These competencies are used for varied purposes by employers like hiring individuals, evaluating performance of employees and for making better training decisions. Employee performance is often measure by benchmarking the individual performance against the desired competencies within a given period of time. These performance reviews are beneficial to the employers to objectify the rating and promotion of the employee and is beneficial to employee to help them understand their core competencies and also the areas of improvement to be successful.


A competency provides a framework for benchmarking and a model is adopted depending on the industry and growth measure. They also help determine the position of the individual based on the evaluation.


For e.g., a company ABC into strategic consulting may expect from its employees to be outspoken, sharp, intelligent and wise decision makers. If an employee falls short on noting down key driver of a situation and thus, is liable to error of judgment. Hence, after the performance evaluation, he may be given a feedback that he is not competent enough and this may help employers take better decision for training.


Hence, this concludes the definition of Behavioral Competency along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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