Behavioural Interviews: What Every Hiring Manager Must Consider

The way job interviews are conducted has continually evolved over the years.?Organisations?and hiring managers are continually looking at new ways to increase the predictability of hiring the right candidate within the context of their vision, mission, culture and the job’s requirement.?

Candidates?have a tendency to?lie during interviews to position themselves as the best person for the job, and this situation is not lost on most?organisations?and hiring managers. According to a study conducted by?Brent Weiss and Robert S. Feldman of the University of?Massachusetts,?81% of people in a study lied about themselves during job interviews, with the more extroverted being more apt to?lie.??

The results from the report further showed that when the job requirements were more technical, deception increased, probably because applicants were trying to compensate for their lack of job-required skills.

For a?15-minute?interview, participants told an average of 2.19 lies in total.?

Shocking, right? A whopping 4 out of 5 people lying at interviews means that every hiring manager should deploy every tool at their disposal to ensure the candidates they make an offer is the right one.?

One of such tools is?behavioural?interviews; it is a structured interviewing approach built on research that past?behaviour?predicts a candidate’s future?behaviour. The idea behind this type of interview is that past?behaviour,?experience?and performance of the candidate in a scenario indicate their future performance.?

Given this background, there are several things you must consider when?adopting?a?behavioural?interview technique as a hiring manager?to make your candidate screening more effective.?Let us look at?some of?them.?

1.?Examine How?Context-Relevant?Your?Behavioural?Questions?Are:?While adopting a?behavioural?interviewing technique can help you make the best of your interview?process;?it is important to align your questions to your?organisations'?context-relevant?needs. You can achieve this by matching questions to the success profile, required skills and also job description.?

2.?Beware?of Human Bias:?It's?true that sometimes, candidates get carried away when it seems that an?interview?process is going well but this is also true of interviewers. When creating or asking?behavioural?interview questions, always be aware of your human bias or that of the interview panel. Most interviewers would gravitate towards candidates with certain mannerisms or abilities they admire for the role and this might?blindside?them from making the best decision throughout the process.?

?3. Use the STAR Model?to Develop Interview Questions:?The?STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result)?model of interviewing,?helps hiring managers to capture a candidate’s complete abilities based on how they?have?performed in?the past in a similar situation.?Using a?model?like this?would help you combat?some?biases?and ensure you?are able to elicit relevant?behavioural?evidence that will help you do a proper evaluation of the candidate.??

?4.?Consider the Rating Scale:?A?rating scale?is a tool used?by hiring managers?for?assessing?the performance, skill levels or qualities?displayed by candidates during a recruitment process.?They?are similar to checklists but are different because they show the candidates?degree?of accomplishment?rather than a yes or no answer.?You have a?choice of a rating scale could?between choosing a?simple rating scale or a more complex one.?The simple scale?could contain only two options such as “satisfactory or unsatisfactory”. The complex one generally has more options and is preferable when you want to?scrutinise?the candidate?further.?

?5. Consider Your Interviewers’ Knowledge of the Role:?When?choosing interviewers to conduct your behavioural interview, it is imperative that they understand the role perfectly, down to the nitty-gritties of it all.?In addition, you must ensure that they can assess the most important behavioural?competencies,?organisation?culture fit?and technical competencies. They should also have a?track record of conducting successful behavioural interviews and can effectively rate the candidates.?

?When the interview is over you should ensure that?the interviewers hold a meeting where they discuss their ratings. This will help them come to a consensus on each candidate?they rated. This will help you come to a decision on the most suitable candidate(s) to hire based on the ratings.

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