Behavioural Interview

‘Past performance is predictor of future behaviour’ believing this we can evaluate the potential of candidate for Leadership, Initiative, Communication Skills, Problem Solving Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Adaptability etc which we can call behavioural interview.

The interview format is not different. Interviewer will still meet with candidate and asks the questions. The difference is in the type of interview questions that will be asked which are mostly open ended questions with no specific answers and which candidates should relate to his/her past experience and answer.

The questions would be something like:

Tell me about a difficult decision you've made in the last year.

Give me an example of a time when something you tried to accomplish and failed.

Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead.

Have you worked with someone you didn't like? If so, how did you handle it?

These all are open ended questions so there will not be any specific answer to them even there might be additional follow up questions based on the answer/ scenario and based on candidates response you can evaluate how suitable the candidate is for the position you are looking for

Start with a Positive Event. Most people find it easier to tell about their high points or successes, times they felt effective. Telling how he or she has done something well tends to empower a person, making him or her feel more confident and ready to talk.

Get the story in proper sequence. Try to get the candidate to begin at the beginning and take you through the story as it unfolded. Otherwise you may get confused about what happened and who did what. This may be difficult, because the candidate will usually start by remembering the outcome of an event. Think of a time line running from a starting point to a conclusion point. Do not proceed until you are clear about those two. Probe for Thoughts behind Actions. 

The most important step in behavioural interview is to understand the job requirement and find out the exact characteristics required for the position like team effectiveness, leadership and vision, building relationship, risk taking etc list down them and come up with your behavioural question set and continue the discussion focusing the related areas and try to collect the evidences of skills present, don’t jump to any conclusion continue till you get some pattern of the candidates background.  Consider all the aspects of discussion and all your required criteria, keep away the bias points like first impression, one strong area, similar to me effect etc and come up with the unbiased ratings.

Appreciate the candidate for good incidents, detailed descriptions of behaviour. Avoid Questions That Shift the candidate into Abstractions.

In this entire discussion focus on STAR

Specific situation

Task to be done

Action by candidate

Result.