According to a published study, 66 percent of hires made through traditional interviewing methods are unsuccessful.
Every unsuccessful hire depletes company resources and hurts morale. Frequent turnover can be absolutely devastating for employers and remaining employees.
Many organizations are taking steps to change this situation and have enhanced their interviewing methods through the use of “behavioral-based” interviewing techniques, which focus on gaining a better understanding of how individuals react rather than just what skills they possess. Studies have shown that this shift in focus can result in an approximately 70 percent success rate for new hires, along with a greater likelihood that the new hires will become top performers in the organization. When you further consider that the costs of re-hiring are typically three times the position’s salary (including hard and soft costs), the preparation required by behavioral-based interviewing becomes worthwhile. Really worthwhile!
Recruiters, hiring managers and the interviewing team need to have a plan in place and be prepared for and conduct better interviews to make better hires. Through training, interviewers should possess the skills necessary to get the most out of applicant interviewing.
Identify Competencies:
Knowledge
Skills
Behaviors
Employers must define what competencies are desirable for the position being filled. These competencies can help to build behavioral profiles that form the basis of developing informative and revealing behavioral interview questions.
Knowledge and skills are generally shown on a resume and can be easily identified by the candidate’s education and employment history. To uncover the candidate’s behavioral profile, an employer must dig deeper with a specialized line of questioning that will reveal desirable and undesirable behavior. Behavioral-based questions allow the employer to learn about critical incidents to uncover behavior of candidates when faced with challenging situations and to determine if those behaviors fit the job being filled. Such questions include:
Questions that pertain to circumstance. These are questions that ask the candidate to describe a situation.
Questions pertaining to outcome.
Questions that focus on underlying behavior or behaviors demonstrated by the candidate in that circumstance.
Following are five behavioral-focused questions as a part of the interview process:
Describe the biggest challenge related to an [important job-activity] you have at your current position.
This question pertains to a circumstance and asks the candidate to describe a situation and start to think about and describe their behavior in that situation. This will help the employer identify the candidate’s behavioral profile and help to determine how the candidate might react in the position for which they are applying.
What was your role in the situation?
This gives the candidate the opportunity to detail the role they played in the situation.
What steps did you take to overcome the challenge?
This question focuses on the underlying behavior demonstrated by the candidate in that circumstance.
What was the outcome?
This question allows the candidate to describe the outcome. The interviewer can determine if the behavior and outcome are positive and could apply to similar situations faced in the position being filled.
Why do you consider this your biggest challenge?
This allows the interviewer to determine why the candidate came to this conclusion
Behavioral-based interviewing asks the job candidate about specific incidents in their past related to the skills and abilities for the position looking to be filled, unlike the traditional interview where candidates’ thoughts are focused only on answering questions about specific job requirements. While it does require a bit more up-front time and preparation than traditional interviewing, the advantages of behavioral-based interviewing are well worth the investment.
Every unsuccessful hire depletes company resources and hurts morale. Frequent turnover can be absolutely devastating for employers and remaining employees.
Many organizations are taking steps to change this situation and have enhanced their interviewing methods through the use of “behavioral-based” interviewing techniques, which focus on gaining a better understanding of how individuals react rather than just what skills they possess. Studies have shown that this shift in focus can result in an approximately 70 percent success rate for new hires, along with a greater likelihood that the new hires will become top performers in the organization. When you further consider that the costs of re-hiring are typically three times the position’s salary (including hard and soft costs), the preparation required by behavioral-based interviewing becomes worthwhile. Really worthwhile!
Recruiters, hiring managers and the interviewing team need to have a plan in place and be prepared for and conduct better interviews to make better hires. Through training, interviewers should possess the skills necessary to get the most out of applicant interviewing.
Identify Competencies:
Knowledge
Skills
Behaviors
Employers must define what competencies are desirable for the position being filled. These competencies can help to build behavioral profiles that form the basis of developing informative and revealing behavioral interview questions.
Knowledge and skills are generally shown on a resume and can be easily identified by the candidate’s education and employment history. To uncover the candidate’s behavioral profile, an employer must dig deeper with a specialized line of questioning that will reveal desirable and undesirable behavior. Behavioral-based questions allow the employer to learn about critical incidents to uncover behavior of candidates when faced with challenging situations and to determine if those behaviors fit the job being filled. Such questions include:
Questions that pertain to circumstance. These are questions that ask the candidate to describe a situation.
Questions pertaining to outcome.
Questions that focus on underlying behavior or behaviors demonstrated by the candidate in that circumstance.
Following are five behavioral-focused questions as a part of the interview process:
Describe the biggest challenge related to an [important job-activity] you have at your current position.
This question pertains to a circumstance and asks the candidate to describe a situation and start to think about and describe their behavior in that situation. This will help the employer identify the candidate’s behavioral profile and help to determine how the candidate might react in the position for which they are applying.
What was your role in the situation?
This gives the candidate the opportunity to detail the role they played in the situation.
What steps did you take to overcome the challenge?
This question focuses on the underlying behavior demonstrated by the candidate in that circumstance.
What was the outcome?
This question allows the candidate to describe the outcome. The interviewer can determine if the behavior and outcome are positive and could apply to similar situations faced in the position being filled.
Why do you consider this your biggest challenge?
This allows the interviewer to determine why the candidate came to this conclusion
Behavioral-based interviewing asks the job candidate about specific incidents in their past related to the skills and abilities for the position looking to be filled, unlike the traditional interview where candidates’ thoughts are focused only on answering questions about specific job requirements. While it does require a bit more up-front time and preparation than traditional interviewing, the advantages of behavioral-based interviewing are well worth the investment.