The first part of the
behavioral-based interviewing process, as we discussed last month,
is to thoroughly evaluate the position you’re seeking to fill. This is important, since you
need to know what specific behaviors to look for. The next step is the actual
interviewing of the candidates, and when it comes to
behavioral-based techniques, the questions you ask them are quite
divergent from standard interview questions.
‘Tell me about . . .’
The main difference regarding
behavioral-based interviewing questions is that they’re designed to
probe deeper and to uncover more information about the
candidate. The key is
to ask questions that will elicit detailed responses revealing not
only the candidate’s skills, but also how they utilize those skills
and in what manner they facilitate their problem-solving strategies
and their character.
Some call this approach
STAR interviewing.
The acronym stands for Situation, Task, Action, &
Result. You present
the background and the objective and then ask the candidate what
action(s) they would take to achieve certain results. Another option is to ask the
candidate to provide an example of a situation from their career and
then walk through how they dealt with it.
The bulk of your questions will
be situational in nature, either addressing a real situation from
the past or a fictitious one that you’re posing to the
candidate. You can ask
a combination of both, or they can all be real situations from the
past. However, it’s not
recommended that they all be hypothetical. And it’s not enough to ask
an initial question or two and leave it at that. Follow-up questions are
essential to discovering how the candidate will think and act
in a given situation—in short, how they’ll behave as a member of
your team.
For example, instead of asking
“Tell me about yourself,” you might say, “Tell me about a situation
where you had to overcome a conflict, either between you and another
co-worker or between two other co-workers, in order to accomplish a
common goal.” And while
the candidate tells their story, you can ask additional questions,
such as “What were you thinking at that point” or “What led you to
make that particular decision?” These questions will help
you to uncover the candidate’s behaviors, characteristics, and
interpersonal skills.
In addition, this type of
interviewing technique is more difficult for the candidate to
navigate. It requires
them to answer questions they didn’t foresee and helps to evaluate
their ability to think and respond quickly. Almost anybody can answer
questions well that they’re prepared for. Behavioral-based
interviewing and the STAR approach will not only reveal a
candidate’s problem-solving characteristics based upon situational
questions, they’ll also reveal something about his or her behavior
based upon the way they answer the questions themselves.
It’s all about ‘who they are’
Behavioral-based interviewing
requires a slightly different perspective and frame of mind. However, that difference can
help you to not only avoid a potentially bad hire, but also zero in
on the candidate who can help take your company to the next
level. That’s a win-win
situation—and you win both times. While it’s true that
behavioral-based interviewing is more time-consuming from beginning
to end, it can be much more effective at finding a candidate who’s a
fit all the way around.
According to one of the trainers
in the recruiting industry, “People are hired for what they
do, and they’re fired for who they are.” If you hire people both for
who they are and what they do, you’ll find they might be
stars at your company for a long, long time.
(Okay—you’ve hired your
star candidates both for what they do and who they are. What’s the next step? The answer may surprise you:
retention. That’s
right. Retention of key
employees is a process that begins the moment the candidate accepts
your offer and becomes an employee. In next month’s issue, we’ll
discuss some steps you can take to not only ensure that your next
star employee hits the ground running, but also reaffirm in that
employee’s mind that they made the right decision to join your
team.)
