In my first Insight, I introduced you to behavioral-based interviewing as a way of reducing employee turnover.
The best way to use behavioral-based interviewing techniques, however, is further along in the candidate selection process. You probably would not want to start out with this immediately. You would want to use behavioral-based interviewing techniques after the recruiter screens resumes, does some research and determines which candidates are qualified for a phone interview.
Once on the phone, the interviewer can pose some behavioral-based questions and let the candidate answer. If they pass at that stage in the interview process, the interviewer can invite the candidate to the office to conduct an in-person behavioral-based interview.
It’s very helpful to have a variety of questions prepared ahead of time. If there’s more than one interviewer talking to the candidate, there should be some pre-set questions to gain basic information. Then the other interviewers can ask the behavioral-based questions in order to secure considerable knowledge about the candidate’s experience.
Incorporating Behavioral-Based Interviewing
To begin the behavioral-interview process, a company should ensure that they have accurate job descriptions in place.
Once criteria for effective job performance has been determined, then questions should be designed that will elicit answers that relate to specific work performance from the candidate’s previous experience. Their answers will then serve as predictors of how the applicant will perform in your work environment.
Having consistent questions for each position makes it easier for the interviewers to listen to the candidate’s responses and take notes they can refer back to later.
Examples
To help illustrate some behavioral-based interview questions, here is an example.
If you need to hire an Inside Sales Representative, you should first take a look at the job description. Lets assume your job description says, “Sells corporate products to business and industrial establishments or individuals over the telephone by performing the following duties: Overcomes technical and business objections of prospective customers, works effectively under pressure, tracks stock levels, handles inbound sales lead calls to convert calls into sales, etc.”
You would look at the duties, and then work backwards to come up with behavioral interview questions to ask prospective candidates. Based on this job description for an Inside Sales Representative, you could ask:
- Describe for me a time when you asked for customer feedback and used it to improve service.
- Give me an example of a time when you faced obstacles that were keeping you from meeting a goal. What did you do?
- What is the greatest risk you've taken in the last three years and what motivated you to take it?
- Tell me about a situation where a customer posed some difficult technical questions and how you responded to close the sale?
Asking these kinds of questions will help interviewers to determine if the candidate is the right fit for the position.
In the long-run, the effective use of behavioral-based interview questions, along with the traditional interviewing approach, can help companies improve their selection process by hiring the right employees, as well as reducing turnover costs.