Behavioral Interviews
Behavioral Interviewing Explained
More and more employers are using behavioral interview methods. it is also referred to as competency-based selection and has become reasonably well-known, yet these methods are often misunderstood by candidates, even those with some exposure to the process.
A company that uses this interview technique focuses on the outcome of your work accomplishments vs. just solely on a list of your skills that might be found in a traditional job description.
As part of my responsibilities, I teach a method that is known as Performance Based Hiring – PbH. While PbH is certainly a behavior-based method, what I am going to describe below is a more generic version of competency based selection. The following is a brief overview of the concepts and some of the logic behind this method.[private]
There are several Key Advantages being touted by Competency-based Selection
- Improved objectivity, leading to more accurate talent acquisition
- Consistency in all hiring decisions across the breath of the employer population
- Legal protection for the employer, especially with EEO type issues
- Improved consensus on hires across multiple associates, although I’ve often seen this misapplied
Needless to say, preparing for the interview is critical and you can read my complete ebook on this subject: Interview Preparation here.
How Behavioral Interviews Work
The intention of a competency-based assessment is to move employment hiring decisions away from the classic intuition-led (gut level) process (i.e. away from: “I feel that this person would be a great hire”). Instead, behavioral interviewing is intended to bring more objectivity, thus replacing much of the subjectivity of traditional interview methods. The behavioral interview method probes much deeper than an overview of your job experiences.
As a candidates you are not primarily evaluated based upon your aspirations, opinions, or similar criteria. Rather, the underlying premise is that the employer can anticipate how you will behave in a specific role and how you will likely solve problems in the future through an assessment of your behavior in the past.
In competency-based interviews, you will be asked questions that require reference to very specific events (e.g. “Tell us about a time when you missed your project completion target and described what happened”). Behavioral job interview questions are more difficult to answer if you’re note prepared. They are most often proceeded by phrases such as:
- Give me an example of
- Give me an example of a time when
- Give me an example of a time when you used
- How did you go about
- Describe a time when
- Describe a situation in which
In every case, the interviewer is looking for a specific example when utilizing this style of behavioral questions. This moves away from skill based interviewing methods because the interview knows that whatever level of job skill is required, it comes out in how you answer behavioral interview questions.
You are discouraged from giving general answers and asked to focus on specific incidents. By understanding how you actually approached real situations in the past – situations that are very similar to what the job opportunities requires – the employer expects to more accurately judge how you will act again in similar circumstances.
Defining the interview competencies
In order for the employer to be better make a judgment on your capability, they have to develop a frame of reference to measure you against. Competencies for similar jobs at different employers may be similar, but rarely are exactly the same. This naturally leads to somewhat different expectations. You can expect to be evaluated against defined competency traits that an employers believes are appropriate to the job opportunity for which you are being considered. Typically these competencies are developed from a large global framework, in combinations that are different for each business unit as well as different departments within each business unit, even though a job may be similar.
Some companies have defined literally hundreds of competencies and it is from this database that different combinations are chosen to use for interviewing against a specific position.
Competencies examples would include behaviors such as Adaptability, Working under pressure, Customer management, and so on. As a candidate, your interview performance will be evaluated against each competency the employer has defined as belonging to the trait being evaluated.
Giving you an interview rating (score)
By asking you a series of specific questions and rating the your answers against the benchmark the employer is looking for regarding a specific competency you will have provided the interviewer with the information they need to begin the process of making a final decision on your candidacy.
When you finish interviewing with all members of the interview team, they will come together (virtually, where required) to discuss their findings. Each interviewer provides the team with their individual ratings (scores) they have each given to you as the candidate. These ratings are then compared and discussed, until an agreement for an overall score is reached for each competency. The employer then uses these competency scores to decide whether to further pursue you as candidate or not.
A new strategy for how you answer behavioral interview questions is required
Since competency-based interviewing is a process, how you answer these questions should also be a specific process. In other words, when you answering questions your answers should use the STAR interview answering method. This is not the place for canned answers that are more appropriate for classical interview questions. To do so almost certainly will mean that you will not be offered the job.
This also means that interview preparation and how you handle interview questions and answers is much more important than it ever was. You will need to think through key accomplishments and note the competencies that you used for each accomplishment and be prepared to illustrate with a concise answer how you used that competency. Generalized, rambling answers to these questions are also an absolute certainty that you won’t be offered the job. That is why the STAR method is critical to learn and arrive at a better understanding of this method. [/private]
