Behavior-Based Interviewing and How it is Effective

If you have worked in a position in which you have been responsible for hiring new personnel, chances are very good that you had someone who gave a great interview then turned out to be a lackluster employee. Just because someone interviews well is no reflection on how they perform once they are hired. It is a hard lesson to learn and harder to resolve once the individual is brought onto your team. That being said, there is a way to help mitigate these situations from happening. Behavior-based interviewing is an approach that has been gaining popularity for some years now and has produced some excellent results. In fact, using this method generally results in a 50% better chance for finding the right match for your open position.

What is Behavior-Based Interviewing?

Essentially, behavior-based interviewing is an approach that looks toward past actions and looks to them as an indicator of future performance. While it may sound almost like common sense, you would be amazed how often this isn’t the case with interviews. The idea is to avoid asking hypothetical questions in which the interviewee will naturally give a favorable response to. Instead, the questioning looks for actual examples of a particular trait. Moreover, behavior-based interviewing means that you are looking for repeated examples of this trait. This requires asking different questions that relate to this particular quality and looking for multiple examples. If you see repeated cases in which this attribute it demonstrated, then you can be more confident that they will continue this trend when they are on your team.

What Makes a Behavior-Based Question?

When you are asking behavior-based questions, you are looking for three things. First, you are looking for some background on the situation in question. What were the circumstances, who was involved, where was it at, and so forth. Secondly, you want to look for what actions were taken. Make sure to clarify what the applicant’s actual role was in this situation. Were they a leader in this situation and actually took action or did they just help out a little? Thirdly, you want to look at results. Was the issue truly resolved? Did they get any sort of recognition for it? There should be tangible results.

Examples of Behavior-Based Questions

-Tell me about a time in which you went above and beyond for a customer/client. What was the result?

-Please share with me a time in which you had to work with a difficult co-worker to complete a project.

-Can you give me some examples of times in which you had to juggle multiple tasks? How did you cope?

-Give me a few examples of times in which you took care of something/took the initiative without being asked.

Image By: Alan Cleaver