Behavioral-Based Interview Questioning and Analysis

As seen on channelconnect.com

If you want to ensure your long term successful, you have to surround yourself with the right people. I hope these interviewing techniques help you a little bit the next time you are looking for your next All Star!

Behavioral-based questions allow you to examine an applicant’s work style and skills. These questions illustrate the applicant’s ability to resolve conflicts, lead teams, and build consensus. To ensure complete answers and make good hiring decisions, you must learn how to compose behavioral-based questions and analyze the candidate’s responses.

Composing Behavioral-Based Questions
Behavioral-based questions should be founded on the requirements of the job. If a job requires good organization, the interviewer should ask questions which reveal the candidate’s skill in this area.

The best way to do this is to compose a mock situation which requires the applicant to demonstrate the skill in question. The situation should show how the candidate resolved or would resolve the issue. This allows you to examine the candidate’s problem-solving skills and shows you how the candidate may have used his skills in the past. Past behavior is the best predictor of future performance.

Effective behavioral-based questions start with a request, such as: “Describe for me a time when…” or “Give me an example of how you …”. These questions seek to examine what actually happened in each situation.

Analyzing the Candidate’s Responses
Behavioral-based questions are not about a candidate’s education or technical expertise. These questions illustrate how people apply their knowledge and skills to real-life situations. For example, a telecommunications account representative needs to have the ability to build team work and consensus between many different departments within the company. In this situation, you might ask the following:

“Tell me about a time when you had to work with a person you didn’t like.”
“Give me a specific example of how you made a quick decision.”
“Give me an example of how you led a team when you were not the person in charge.”
“Describe a situation where you were required to go beyond your job description to get your job done.”
“Tell me how you dealt with a policy you disagreed with.”

The answers to these questions should be firmly based in real-life situations. As you listen to the candidate, you should pick-up on the candidate’s skills and approaches to problem-solving. But to properly assess the applicant, you need to make sure the candidate’s answers are complete. A complete answer should include:
A situation or problem requiring that specific skill.
The actions taken to handle the situation.
The eventual outcome of those actions.

Effective behavioral-based questions reveal the essential skills and work style of the candidate. To provide you with relevant information, your questions should be based on the job requirements and should reveal a candidate’s real-life problem-solving skills. By learning how to compose and analyze behavioral-based questions, you will be able to make a complete and accurate appraisal of each candidate’s suitability for the job.