A job vacancy needs to be filled.  An ad is placed, resumes received, a short list of candidates created.  What happens next?  An interview.

However, unless it is well designed, the interview can be one of the least reliable and valid methods for predicting how a person will perform in a specific job, team and organisational culture.

One of the reasons for the limited effectiveness of some interviews is that they are generally unstructured.  For example, it is often the case that a number of candidates for the same role may all be asked different questions by the interviewer resulting in very little comparable data between candidates.  Also, as an interviewer, it is very easy to allow our subconscious to influence our perception of candidates based upon how they look, what they say, what they are wearing, and our own stereotypes.

As you probably know, the implications of making poor hiring decisions are numerous and include the recruitment and training costs of hiring a replacement, reduced employee motivation and morale, and disruption to colleagues and customer relationships.  All the more reason for ensuring that the method(s) used in recruitment is reliable, valid, and will help predict performance on the job.

What can you do?

Research has consistently shown that putting some structure around the interview can significantly maximise its predictive power.  Developing a structured behavioural interview overcomes the weaknesses inherent in unstructured interviews and therefore improves the accuracy of predictions being made about the person being hired.

What is behavioural interviewing?

Behavioural interviewing (also referred to as competency-based interviewing) is a structured interviewing technique used to objectively assess a candidate’s level of competency in relation to particular skills required for the position.  It helps establish the extent to which the candidate possesses the baseline capabilities and experiences for the position.  It also provides an initial evaluation of the candidate’s style or level of cultural and behavioural “fit” with an organisation and the role.

The aim of the behavioural interview is:

• To identify evidence of desired, job-related behaviours by asking about a candidate’s past experiences.
  • For example, instead of asking a hypothetical question such as “How would you go about managing a new team?”, you would ask a candidate to “Tell me about a recent experience in which you had to manage a new team of people.”
  • The interviewer would then probe for information regarding what the candidate actually did, how successful their approach was, etc.

Advantages of Structural Behavioural Interviewing

• Focuses on job-related behaviours
• Comparable information is collected across all applicants
• Questions and conditions are standardised across interviews
• Responses are verifiable (via reference checking, etc.)
• Questions, and therefore answers, are based directly on the competencies associated with the job
• Helps overcome the impact of first impressions and other inaccurate stereotypes

Allworth Juniper partners with its clients to help minimise the risk of making a poor hiring decision.  Training hiring managers in how to plan, conduct and evaluate a structured behavioural interview is one way in which we achieve this.  Our interviewing workshops are experiential, providing participants with ample opportunities to practise the skills learnt through the theory components of the workshop.

For further information, please contact us on 02 9223 2774.