How to Interview: Behavioural Interviewing II

There is another approach too....

Instead of the same old traditional questions, well-crafted behavioral-based questions can give you a much more accurate 'printout' or 'portrait' of a candidate's true character and ability.

Remember again, behavioral-based interviewing is highly effective because it examines the past behavior of a job candidate, which is considered the most accurate indicator of future behavior.

Here's how it works:

Let's say that you want to find out more about, say the candidate's skills of diplomacy. How she might deal with people? In the past, you might have asked: ''Would you say you are very diplomatic with people?'

'Yes, I am'.  

Full stop.

Look, you have asked her a close-ended question leading to a similar response.

'Anu, have you ever felt irritated or frustrated while dealing with a customer? How did you respond when customers became demanding beyond an acceptable level? 

The 'Behavior-based question' questions how she behaved in the past in very specific situations relating to diplomacy.

It allows the candidate to give you a fuller answer - and it gives you a more accurate and truer picture of the candidate. 

You see how the candidate reacted in the past and that is always the best predictor of future performance. 

But that is not enough.

As an  interviewer, you need to obtain repeated examples of behavior to confirm they really exist.

So you need to ask a number of related behavior-based questions all designed to reveal how proficient the candidate really is in this competency.

How to use this approach in your interviewing

So when you're interviewing now.....the first step is to define the essential competencies you want in a good receptionist: 

Don't rush this.

Go through each one and pick out the ones that you would like in a  good receptionist:

Also, make this a team effort. 

Get essential feedback and opinions from at at least several people who know the job well, covering a variety of perspectives (manager, supervisor, incumbents etc.)

As you're compiling this list of essential competencies, make sure you consider not only  the obvious competencies  (such as, Attention to detail, Customer Focus) but also the more subtle competencies, such as  Integrity and teamwork 

You'll need to address technical skills (using relevant equipment, for example) and non-technical skills (Teamwork, for example). 

Now discuss these with your team. 

The more thorough and systematic your approach to identifying job competency requirements, the better. 

2. Ask Questions That Closely Match Real Job competency  Requirements: 

If you’ve identified exactly what you want someone to be able to do well on the job, ask questions about exactly that. The more vague the question, the greater the chances that the answer will be about something irrelevant. Be very clear and specific 

.

You want to find out how customer-focused she will be?

Don't just ask:  

'Describe something you’ve done that illustrates high customer focus'.

Be MORE specific - MORE definite:

'Describe a time when you went out of your way to do whatever was reasonably possible to ensure that a customer was satisfied with your service.'  

3.Obtain In-Depth Answers: This is possibly the most challenging aspect of the process, because it is hard to quantify exactly how much information is enough. Though there are different ways of guiding the collection of such information, here are some criteria for judging whether you have obtained enough.

a. Do you know the situation the candidate was in, what key actions he or she took, and the results?

b. Did you obtain at least several specifics, such as approximate dates, relevant quantities, people involved, etc.?

c. Can you visualize what the candidate did?

d. Can you visualize what the candidate did well enough to know whether and how well he/she took the actions your hiring criteria call for?

This is not just about volume. The candidate can go on for fifteen minutes, and claim to be a great team player, smart, hard working, personable, motivated, creative, innovative, great under pressure, etc., but if he or she hasn’t provided an adequately detailed example of having demonstrated the skill a certain question addressed, he or she hasn’t provided anything useful at all.