Are you willing to spend more than four minutes to hire the best people for your company? Research indicates that untrained interviewers take four minutes to reach a hiring decision about a candidate. As you might guess, these decisions are often based on the firmness of a handshake, the directness of eye contact, or just liking the way a candidate looks. Simply put, interviewers are making a decision based on their first impressions or gut reactions to a candidate. While these factors can be important to success on the job, many factors related to job success are left unexplored.

The good news is that interviewers can be easily trained to improve their skills! Behavioral-based interviewing provides a blueprint for hiring the best people.

Past Behavior Is the Best Predictor of Future Behavior

Interviewing is the most frequently used method organizations employ to make selection decisions. Because interviewing is so common, many people believe that it’s easy and that there’s no special training required to be a good interviewer. Traditional interviewing often asks hypothetical, situational questions focusing on what the candidate might do rather than what they have done. Many organizations allow interviewers to improvise, asking favorite questions that may or may not relate to job success.

Behavioral-based interviewing is derived from the principle that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. First, it focuses on those behaviors that are most important to success on the job; then, questions are created that probe for specific examples of when the candidate did or did not display these behaviors. The behavioral-based interviewing technique pinpoints the exact qualities needed for a job and focuses questions on those critical behaviors. Consequently, decision making is based on data directly related to success on the job rather than first impressions. Multiple research studies have found that behavioral interviewing is much more effective than traditional interviewing techniques — people who use behavioral-based interviewing techniques tend to hire better employees, and better employees mean a more successful company.

What Is Behavioral-Based Interviewing Skills Training?

The behavioral-based interviewing skills training process involves five steps. First, participants are taught to identify key behaviors necessary for job success. Second, participants learn to develop specific questions related to these behavioral success factors. These questions also take into consideration the organizational culture and the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities important to succeed in specific jobs. Third, participants receive training on how to avoid common interviewing errors. Fourth, participants receive training on effective interviewing techniques. This includes asking probing follow-up questions, controlling the pace of the interview, and setting the tone for an effective interview. Finally, participants practice what they’ve learned via role-playing and receive feedback on their interviewing skills.

Return on Investment: 20:1 for Each Training Dollar Spent

The return on investment for organizations that apply behavioral-based interviewing training skills has been estimated to be as high as 20:1 for each training dollar spent, depending on the number of people hired by your organization each year. These estimates are based on: a) savings related to avoiding bad hires and b) increased revenues based on hiring top performers that are a good fit for the job and the organization. With that kind of return on investment, how can your organization not afford to invest in behavioral-based interviewing training?

Worst Practices in Traditional Interviewing:

• The interviewer talks more than the candidate, wasting valuable time.
• Hiring decisions are based on first impressions, which can result in a bad hire.
• The interviewer asks inappropriate (or potentially illegal) questions.
• The same general questions are used for every position, making it difficult to judge if a candidate is right for a specific job.
• Interviewers strongly disagree on which candidate to hire because they cannot agree on which characteristics are most important for job success.

Benefits of Behavioral-Based Interviewing:

• Questions target specific behaviors needed to be successful in the job.
• It’s more difficult for candidates to “fake” their responses.
• The interview process is more legally defensible.
• Candidates feel like the interview has given them a fair chance to discuss their skills.
• Interviewers use the same criteria to make hiring decisions.
• Interviewers’ final decisions are based on important job-related data.

The Organizational Development & Personnel Assessment team can provide training to your organization on behavioral-based interviewing. For more information, please contact Darlene Stark or Lori LePla.