Why is hiring the right person so important? One reason is because turnover rates can be very costly for your business. It’s estimated that replacing a bad hire could cost you between 20% and 200% of the employee’s annual salary, depending on the employee’s level. Utilizing Behavioral interview strategies in your selection process is a highly effective approach to hiring the right people for your business. Studies took a close look at the effectiveness of behavioral interviews versus a non-structured interview. The validity of behavioral interviews was at 61% while the non-structured interviews only elicited an 8% success rate.
The goal here is to help you better understand why Behavioral Interviews will offer you the success you want when hiring new employees.
A behavioral interview is a probing interview that will determine whether or not the person is competent for the job and those soft skills essential to success. Behavioral Interviews are predicated on the belief that past behavior predicts future performance. There are several benefits to behavioral interviews.
Insight into the Candidate’s Personality
The candidate’s personality is essential to how they will work in your company. It will help if you have someone who will fit in with the workplace culture and works well with their peers. Through a behavioral interview, you can determine whether or not the candidate’s personality is conducive to a productive work environment.
Learn How a Candidate Can Respond to Specific Situations
The standard questions asked in an interview can help you understand their skills and work history, but it doesn’t give you an idea of how they would act in specific workplace situations. Looking for past examples can show you specifically how a candidate will behave in a similar situation in the future. For instance, “Have you ever been on a team where someone was not pulling their own weight? How did you handle it?” While people can grow from the past, this can give you insight into potential issues to determine whether you need to move onto the next candidate.
Better Engagement with the Candidate
The interview style utilized by behavioral interviews is uniquely able to help even the most introverted candidate come alive. This procedure allows them to be more engaging, giving you insight into who they are as individuals and how they will fit in with your company. They will feel more relaxed, and you will get to know the real candidate- not just who they want you to believe that are.
How to Interview for Success
When it comes time to conduct interviews, a specific format can help ensure that you get the most out of your time. Here is an example of a format:
· Structured Answer Format
You can start by saying something like: “At our company, we do a behavioral-based interview, which means that we will be asking you to recall specific situations from your past, and we want you to respond in a manner that tells the full story of the events, with a beginning, middle, and end.”
· Situation, Actions, and Results
Explain that when you ask a question, you are looking for the context or situation the candidate was in, the actions they took in response to this situation or context, and the results/how it ended. These are the three components of this story.
· Reassurance
Reassure the candidate that if they get off track when telling their story, you will politely try to steer them back to their account.
These are the 6 steps for an effective interview:
1. Clearly Define Roles and Responsibilities: You need to be sure you are interviewing the most qualified candidate. Make sure that your job posting clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of the position.
2. Explain the Interview Process: When you schedule the interview, let them know what to expect. This method includes telling them who else they will meet with, how long it will take, where they will interview, and the interview process. Transparency allows the candidate to prepare since they will be a little less nervous.
3. Ask Behaviorally based, Open-Ended and Follow-Up Questions: Remember that you only have limited time with each candidate and you want to find out the most relevant information about their experiences. Do some pre work and strategically choose your behavioral interview questions to focus on areas related to job function, as well as culture and values.
4. Organize your Interview Team: We have all sat through interviews where we answer the same questions multiple times. To learn the most from the candidate, divide up questions based upon the interviewer’s area of focus or interaction with the particular role. Or have each interviewer focus on a competency area.
5. Offer Follow-Up Instructions: After the interview is over, offer any instructions for other things you need from them, and when you intend to follow-up.
6. Rating Each Candidate: You are going to interview several candidates and typically there is some time in-between each. Additionally, you will need to come together with your interview team to assess together the qualifications of each candidate. Keeping solid notes from each is important. Most importantly, having created a rating scale that each interviewer has filled out after meeting each candidate is essential. This will keep you from the “recency bias” as well as creating a standardized way of comparing each candidate.
Common Mistakes in the Interview Process
There are common mistakes that companies make during the interview process. This section will help you avoid those common mistakes.
· Read through the candidate’s resume thoroughly.
· Don’t make a biased situation and don’t just hire in your own image!
· Be sure that you have structure, content, and a process for your interview.
· Follow the 90/10 Rule. (Listening: 90%/Asking Questions: 10%)
· Know what you are seeking. What are your “must haves” and what are your “nice to haves”
· Ask clarifying questions so that the candidate understands what you are asking them.
· Limit hypothetical questions so that you can better determine their actual skill set.
· Pay attention to and focus on the candidate. Don’t multi task!
· Don’t just focus on the pressure to fill the job position. You want to make sure that you select a candidate that you feel confident in and who will present themselves to management or clients in a way that reflects the quality if your business.
For more information on our Interview For Success Workshop, or other training programs, please visit www.HRIgnitellc.com