The Human Capital Challenge Series

The Value of Behavioral Interviews

December 11, 2012 | Deborah L. Kerr, Ph.D.

©2012 Affintus, LLC

OF NEW HIRES FAIL TO MEET TARGETS WITHIN 18 MONTHS48%

FEW NEW HIRES BECOME HIGH PERFORMERS

MANY RESUMES CONTAINERRONEOUS INFORMATION

Talent Challenges Finding the right candidate takes too long. Employers settle for “good enough”. Hiring = HR + managers. Job seekers are unhappy, too.

Social media information

46% Profiles out of date 10% Career info “enhanced” 30% Don’t know people in their network

What predicts success?

Source of candidate informationValidity

Cognitive Ability + Behavioral / Personality .67Cognitive Ability + Structured Interview .63Cognitive Ability + Work Sample .60

Work Sample Tests .54Cognitive tests .51Structured Interviews .51 Job Knowledge .48 Personality Test .40

0.1

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1.0

References .26

Unstructured Interviews .18Years of Job Experience .18 Years of Education .10Interests .10

0.2

DECISIONS BASED ON INTERVIEWS HAVE ABOUT

THE SAME SUCCESS RATE AS FLIPPING A COIN

Schmidt, Frank L. and Hunter, John E. 1998. The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin 12: 262-274. Cited in: Robertson, I. T. Smith, Mike. 2001. Personnel selection. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology 74(4): 441-472.

Interview Challenges

Interviews ≠ conversations

How many should we interview?

Is it ok to settle for “good enough”?

Behavioral Interviews

Structured discussion

Goal: learn about candidate’s past work behavior

Focus on critical aspects of job

First-impression management

Step 1 Understand the job

Review the job description

Decide what the job requires

Focus questions only on critical aspects

Step 2 Write behavioral questions

Describe a job-related example that relates to a critical aspect

Describe actual events that have occurred on the job

Describe in more general terms situations that routinely happen on the job

Typical Interview Question

Please tell me a little about how you would handle several projects at one time.

Behavioral Interview Question

This job requires the employee to manage several projects during the same time frame. Tell us about a time when you were required to complete multiple assignments in the same time period. How did you handle the situation?

Please be specific about the number of assignments, the actions you took, and the result.

Typical Interview Question

How do you handle conflict at work?

Behavioral Interview Question

As in most organizations, sometimes conflicts come up with a customer or with a co-worker. Please tell us about a time when you encountered a conflict at work and you helped to resolve it.

What was the conflict, how did you address it, and what was the outcome?

Step 3 Create a rating scale

1- 5 scale and define criteria for each rating

Rating of 5 The candidate’s response shows extensive ability to help resolve differences. Key behaviors :

Directed discussion toward identifying common interests and possible solutions

Involved all parties in development of alternatives that fulfilled their interests and needs

Helped all parties understand the key issues from others’ perspective; and,

Resolved the differences in a way that each person felt his or her concerns were respected and addressed.

Step 3 Create a rating scale

1- 5 scale and define criteria for each score

Rating of 3 The candidate’s response shows adequate ability for resolving differences. Key behaviors :

Listened to all parties and impartially re-stated and acknowledged all positions

Clearly identified areas of agreement and disagreement, and focused on those issues in need of resolution

Identified and collected all necessary information relevant to the differences, and

Identified circumstances necessary for a successful resolution to occur

Step 3 Create a rating scale

1- 5 scale and define criteria for each rating

Rating of 1 The candidate’s response shows little skill or success in resolving differences. Key behaviors:

Does not appear to have considered all positions equally; Made little attempt at unbiased mediation of the differences in

opinion; and/or Allowed differing parties to “work it out among themselves”

Behavioral Interview QuestionAs in most organizations, sometimes conflicts come up with a customer or with a co-worker. Please tell us about a time when you encountered a conflict at work and you helped resolve it.

What was the conflict, how did you address it, and what was the outcome?

1 3 5

Does not appear to have considered all positions equally

Made little attempt at unbiased mediation of the differences in opinion; and/or

Allowed differing parties to “work it out among themselves”

2 4

Listened to all parties and impartially re-stated and acknowledged all positions

Clearly identified areas of agreement and disagreement, and focused on those issues in need of resolution

Identified and collected all necessary info relevant to differences,

Identified circumstances necessary for a successful resolution to occur

Listened to all parties and impartially re-stated and acknowledged all positions

Clearly identified areas of agreement and disagreement, focused on issues in need of resolution

Identified and collected all necessary information relevant to the differences,

Identified circumstances necessary for a successful resolution to occur

Step 4 Educate Interviewers

Teach the advantages of behavioral questions

Use the same interviewers for all interviews

Make sure interviewers take notes

Compare candidates to a scale, not each other

Structure the Interview

Use behavioral interview questions Rate each answer using a scale Train interviewers to take notes Remember the limits of an interview

Better (and Faster) Hiring

Clarify requirements and needs of the job• Be clear on what the job is -don’t use a moving target or “figure it out

later” approach• A job description is useful!• Analyze your top performers

Collect objective data first, then subjective data later• Reduce reliance on the resume - self-reported, subjective• Understand limitations of resumes and interviews• Look for natural talents and abilities; skills can be taught

Structure interview• Behavioral questions – example of when candidate did the task• Take notes, rate responses using a scale• If there are personality “quirks”, don’t think you will change or “fix”

the person later – consider how important or unimportant - be honest

Better Hiring ImpactsBusiness Results

10%

50%

AffintusGreat people data. Great business results.

deborah@affintus.com | Deborah L. Kerr, Ph.D. | 866-429-4351

©2012 Affintus, LLC

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