In last month’s issue, we
touched upon a topic—behavioral-based interviewing—that’s
designed to help ensure more targeted and more successful
hires. Although
the resume is what initially catches the eye, it’s the
characteristics and behaviors the candidate possesses that
should ultimately dictate whether or not they’re
hired.
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.)
