CREATING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
- Clarifier – Allow the interviewer to clarify information in the resume, fill in gaps and obtain other necessary information. (e.g. I noticed a three-year gap between two of your jobs. Could you tell me about that?)
- Disqualifier – These are questions that must be answered in a particular way otherwise the candidate is disqualified. (e.g. Can you work on weekends? If candidate says no, disqualified)
- Skill Level Determiner – These questions tap into an interviewee’s level of expertise. Ask questions related to the skill. (e.g. Several months after installing a computer network, the client calls and says that nothing will print on the printer. What could be going wrong?)
- Past-Focused - Specific questions that determine how an applicant demonstrated job-related skills in previous jobs. (e.g. When you are dealing with customers, it is inevitable that you are going to get someone angry. Tell us about a time a customer was angry with you. What did you do to fix the situation?)
- Future-Focused – Situational questions based on critical incidents and answered using the applicant’s current knowledge (e.g. Imagine you were told a client would be there at 10AM but it’s now 11AM and there is no way you could finish by 12NN. You are supposed to meet with another client at 12NN. How could you handle the situation?)
- Organizational Fit – Questions that tap the extent to which an applicant will fit into the culture of the organization or with the leadership style of a particular supervisor. (e.g. What type of work place is best for you? Describe your experience working with a diverse group of people.)
BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEW
Why is it important?
Interviewing is an important step in the employee selection and succession planning processes for most organizations
- Serving as an employer’s initial opportunity to meet with job candidates.
- Providing time for HR, hiring managers and others to interact with candidates to gain insights into their experience, skills, knowledge, behaviors, and more, beyond what can be found in a recommendation, resume or application.
- Enabling the employer to determine if a candidate’s skills, experience and personality meet the job's requirements.
- Helping the employer to assess whether an applicant would likely fit in with the corporate and/or team culture.
Behavioral interviewing focuses on a candidate’s past experiences by asking candidates to provide specific examples of how they have demonstrated certain behaviors, knowledge, skills and abilities.
THE STAR MODEL
The STAR model helps candidates frame their response to behavioral questions by encouraging them to respond with a story about a past behavior.
USING THE STAR MODEL
S - Situation: What was the situation the candidate was in?
e.g., "Tell me about a time..."
T - Task: What was the task the candidate needed to accomplish?
e.g. "where you faced with multiple competing deadlines."
A - Action: What were the actions the took to accomplish?
e.g. "What did you do and..."
R - Results: What were the results of these actions?
e.g., "how did it turn out?"
RATE INTERVIEW RESPONSES
Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales
BARS differs from more generic rating scales in that they focus on the behaviors that are determined to be key to performing the job properly rather than evaluating more general candidate characteristics, such as personality or experience.
Sample of a BEHAVIORALLY ANCHORED RATING SCALE
source: Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
“PAST BEHAVIOR IS A GOOD PREDICTOR OF FUTURE BEHAVIOR”