How Behavioral Interviews Improve Candidate Evaluation

How Behavioral Interviews Improve Candidate Evaluation

What is Behavioral Interviewing?

Behavioral interviewing is a style of interviewing developed in the 1970’s by industrial psychologists. The theory is that “the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in a similar situation.”

Fittingly, behavioral interviewing emphasizes past performance and behaviors. The questions do more than simply determine what a candidate says they will do (i.e. job activities). In contrast, gives the candidate an opportunity to share concrete examples of what they have done in their past work history that helped them to be successful.

Traditional Interview Questions

More traditional interview methods would include hypothetical, cognitive, and personality type questions such as:

  1. Tell me about yourself.
  2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
  3. Why are you interested in working for us?
  4. What would you do if you were having difficulties with another employee on your project?
  5. What would you do if someone asked you to overlook a problem with your project?
  6. Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
  7. How did you like your last job?

These more traditional interview methods have some shortfalls. Firstly, since they can be very closed-ended, they can limit further information. Secondly, they can elicit a hypothetical answer that may or may not reflect how they really behave. Finally, the interviewer’s personal bias can influence their evaluation.

Of course, hypothetical questions may be valuable in showing how the candidate thinks on his/her feet, but should not be the only basis of evaluation.

What are Cognitive Questions?

  • Cognitive questions are based on the theory that a candidate’s thinking, learning and memory functions are critical success factors.
  • This line of questioning often involves a series of scenarios where the interviewer describes practical problems
  • The interviewer evaluates the candidate’s methods used to solve these problems. These include evaluating how the candidate gathers and applies information, how they process data, and how they think through alternatives.
  • This type of interview question is best used for jobs with a high degree of intellectual content.

What are Personality Questions?

  • This type of question reveals more about who the person is rather than what they can deliver.
  • The answers are often characterized by trait words like reliable, hard working, quick learner, assertive, etc.
  • These questions save time in an interview but are not effective as an interview technique unless you ask for a real example of how the candidate used this trait.

In contrast, the sample behavioral questions below may result in more reliable answers.

Sample Behavioral Interview Questions

  • Give me an example of a time when you had to keep from speaking or making a decision because you did not have enough information.
  • Describe a time when you had to make a quick decision.
  • What is the toughest group that you have had to get cooperation from? How did you win them over?
  • Have you ever had difficulty getting others to accept your ideas? What was your approach? Did it work?
  • Give me an example of a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.
  • Describe a situation when you were able to have a positive influence on the action of others.
  • Tell me about a situation when you had to speak up (be assertive) in order to get a point across that was important to you.
  • Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers or group? How did you do it? Did they “buy” it?
  • What have you done in the past to contribute toward a teamwork environment?
  • How do you decide what gets top priority when scheduling your time?
  • What do you do when your schedule is suddenly interrupted? Give an example.
  • Give me an example of an important goal which you had set in the past and tell me about your success in reaching it.

behavioral interview

How to Prepare Questions for a Behavioral Interview

Companies that employ behavioral interviewing techniques can use the same analysis they use to develop the job description. This helps determine the skill sets required to be successful in the job. The hiring manager should consider the following questions:

  • What are the necessary skills to do this job?
  • And what makes a successful candidate?
  • Identify the deliverables we are expecting.
  • What would make an unsuccessful candidate?
  • Why have people left this position?
  • What is the most difficult part of this job?

A sample list of skills resulting from the job analysis may include the following:

  • Decision making and problem solving
  • Leadership, motivation
  • Ability to work independently with little supervision
  • Communication, interpersonal skills
  • Planning and organization, critical thinking skills
  • Team building and the ability to influence others

When asking a behavioral question, try using the “STAR” approach. Be sure the candidate’s answer includes:

  • Situation or Task
  • Actions
  • Result

Using the “STAR” approach, the interviewer might expect the sample answer below to the question; “What have you done in the past to contribute toward a teamwork environment?”

The candidate might recount a time when communication within their work group had broken down (situation). To resolve the problem, the candidate organized informal lunch meetings for people to discuss relevant issues (action). Morale then improved, as did the lines of communication (result).

Benefits of Behavioral Interviewing

To recap, let’s list the benefits of behavioral interviewing:

  • Helps determine if the candidate can prove that they’ve taken actions that have delivered results.
  • Makes the candidate recall real actions and results they have experienced and describe them in detail.
  • Can establish a pattern of behavior.
  • The safest for inexperienced interviewers because they don’t require the evaluation of a psychological or organizational professional.
  • Behavioral interviews make it difficult for the candidate to make up stories that are not based on real situations.
  • Companies that invest the time and energy in developing behavioral interviews often attract top candidates and top candidates make the company a more desirable place to work.

Work to Reduce Hiring Bias

As you work to create an equitable evaluation process, keep the following in mind:

  • Evaluate the candidate only on his/her ability to deliver.
  • Base your evaluation on specific facts, not a gut feeling or general impression.
  • Openly share your impressions and evaluations even if they are different than the rest of the team.
  • Feel comfortable with raising red flags.
  • Don’t rush to make a decision if you don’t have enough facts.
  • Avoid allowing the impressions of others to pressure you to change your evaluation.

Hiring Software Helps You Create and Manage Interview Scripts

Hiring software like ApplicantStack from Swipeclock allows you to create and manage interview scripts. Write scripts based on the job description and STAR method. In addition, manage your job descriptions and postings.

To learn more about candidate evaluation, get our free eBook The Interview: A Step-by-Step Guide to Exemplary Hiring Practices.

How to Conduct an Interview with a Job Candidate

How to Conduct an Interview with a Job Candidate

Every hiring manager needs to know how to conduct an interview with a job candidate. Elevating your interviewing skills will help you:

  1. Make faster and better hiring decisions
  2. Differentiate candidates with similar qualifications
  3. Highlight your culture
  4. Reduce unconscious bias
  5. Avoid costly hiring mistakes

Let’s discuss how to conduct an interview the right way. Like anything, good interviewing requires preparation. How should the interviewer prepare for an interview? Notice that many steps take place before the candidate arrives. If you follow the steps and prepare well, the actual interview will go smoothly.

The Benefits of a Good Interview

The job interview sets the tone for everything that comes after. It is also a compliance minefield. Let’s review the benefits of a good interview:

  • Allows the hiring manager to thoroughly vet the interviewee
  • Helps verify qualifications and skills on the applicant’s resume
  • Reveals the candidate’s expectations and understanding of the role and allows you to validate or clarify
  • Allows you to answer any of the candidate’s questions

Bottom line? Good interviews improve hiring outcomes.

The Challenges of Interviewing

Interviewing is an important skill for recruiters, in-house hiring teams and hiring managers to master. Without proper training, there are many pitfalls. Let’s discuss the most common:

  • Allowing bias to influence your decision
  • Ineffective questions
  • Asking illegal questions which increases the risk of a discrimination case
  • Inconsistencies that affect the process
  • Failure to put the candidate at ease

How to Prepare for an Interview

By all means, the things you do to prepare are just as important as what you do when you are conducting the interview.

Understand the Job Description

If you wrote the job description, you have a good idea what the position entails. But take it a step further by talking to managers. Ask them about soft skills. Also, talk to employees in the same (or similar) job role. When you have a deeper understanding, update the job description.

Write an Interview Script

Don’t ever go into an interview without a script–always prepare your questions ahead of time. Fortunately, it’s not hard to write structured interview scripts. We cover this in detail in: Why Structured Interviews Are Critical. Follow the steps to create structured interviews and questions to ask during an interview.

Questions to Ask During an Interview

It’s helpful to organize good interview questions into three categories: questions about job specifics (hard skills), soft skills (behavioral) and situational. Hard skills are also called technical skills and are job-specific capabilities or knowledge necessary for the job role. They are acquired through on-the-job training, experience or formal education. Therefore, hard skills can be quantified. For example, an ability to write code in JavaScript, measure blood pressure or speak Spanish.

Conversely, soft skills are behavioral attributes that help an employee succeed in their work. Working well with team members, problem-solving and effective time management are examples of soft skills that would help with any job. Soft skills are also called interpersonal skills, non-technical skills and essential skills. Situational questions relate to soft skills as well.

  • Job role-specific:  What experience and certifications do you have in the [INDUSTRY] field?
  • Soft skills or behavioral: What if you had to solve a difficult problem and your manager was away?
  • Situational questions: How would you respond to an angry customer?

Questions You Can’t Ask in an Interview

The Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEOA) is designed to prevent employment discrimination. An interviewer can unwittingly increase the potential for bias with illegal interview question. The EEOA prohibits interview questions on the following topics:

  • Age
  • Race
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender
  • Color
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender identity
  • Country of birth
  • Birthplace
  • Disability
  • Religion
  • Marital or family status
  • Pregnancy
  • Salary history (in some states)

How do you avoid illegal interview questions? Create a script with legal questions and don’t deviate!

Business owners, recruiting and hiring managers make mistakes all the time. Therefore, protect your company by learning the do’s and don’ts of legal hiring. Additionally, if you have legal counsel, have them sign off on your interview questions.

The Importance of Standardized Scoring

It’s key to understand that to improve interviewing, you need to improve evaluation. To do this, standardize candidate scoring. An interview scorecard is the easiest way to do this. Use the job qualifications to create the scorecard. It doesn’t need to be complex, but each person on the interview team must use it. When everyone is working from the same playbook, it’s easier to compare candidates. It also helps to remove “gut feelings” from the process.

Share Your Mission and Values

The job seeker has the power in today’s employment dynamic. Moreover,  it’s clear that job seekers care about what your company stands for. Certainly, the applicant is scrutinizing you as carefully as you are scrutinizing them. For this reason, write an Employment Value Proposition and practice sharing it. One of the best interview tips is to showcase your culture and values.

Interview Formats

Let’s discuss the most common types of interview formats.

  • Phone screen
    • Short, preliminary screening
  • Individual interview
    • One interviewer and one candidate
  • Group interview
    • One or more interviewers and two or more applicants
  • Panel interview
    • One applicant and two or more interviewers
  • Technical interview
    • Designed for technical positions including IT, data science, engineering
    • May include requiring the applicant to answer technical questions or demonstrate skills
  • Multiple-Round
    • A process of several interviews, often in a mix of formats
    • Used for extensive evaluation of higher level roles

(Source: Indeed.com)

The interview format will depend on the type of position and your hiring needs. If you’re doing high volume hiring, it may work to do a group interview. For example, if you need to quickly hire multiple candidates for the same job position, a group interview (in person or a virtual interview) may work for your company.

What is a group interview and when should you use them? SHRM gives these interviewing tips:

Group interviews are most effective when hiring for positions that require excellent people skills, especially when the job regularly deals with consumers or the public. Group interviews are also effective when teamwork is an integral part of the job. The group interview allows an employer to observe behaviors that are reflective of success on the job before the employer actually invests time and money into hiring a candidate. The Society for Human Resource Management

Review the Candidate’s Application

The more familiar you are with the candidate’s resume, the better. Firstly, it gives you important context. Secondly, it will help you maintain eye contact and put the candidate at ease.

Schedule the Interview Location in Advance

You don’t want to wander around looking for a conference room with the applicant in tow. If possible, use a private room with comfy chairs. A glass-windowed room can make an introverted candidate uncomfortable.

In the past two years, video interviews have become commonplace. If you conduct virtual interviews, ensure the tech is ready to go. Indeed, nothing lowers your confidence (and company image) like tech glitches.

Don’t Crowd Your Interview Calendar

Schedule enough time for the interviewee to elaborate where necessary. Add a 15-minute buffer between interviews so you never have to rush a candidate-or make the next one wait.

Managing the Interview

How to Start an Interview

Now that you’ve prepared well, it’s time for the actual interview. Here are some interviewing tips for recruiters, hiring managers and small business owners:

  1. Turn off your phone or have your assistant hold your calls
  2. Offer the applicant a beverage
  3. Speak slowly
  4. Listen intently
  5. Ask the candidate if they have any questions and answer them (if you don’t know the answers immediately, write down the questions so you get the information and call or email the candidate promptly with the answers)
  6. Before ending the interview, explain the timeline and next steps
  7. Thank the candidate for their time

What to Watch For

Be prepared for common issues so you can get prevent them:

  • Don’t overpromise–if the candidate asks for something you can’t guarantee, be honest and straightforward
  • Make sure you let the candidate do most of the talking
  • Resist the temptation to stray from the script

Post-Interview Steps

Create a post-interview process for documentation and follow-up. If you want to advance the candidate to the next stage, send an email right away. If you decide to eliminate the applicant from consideration, politely notify them as well. We mentioned candidate scorecards previously. Make sure you collect the scorecards from all interviewers. Encourage your team to fill them out during the interview or soon after while it is still fresh on their mind. Move the candidate to the next stage in your hiring workflow.

Recruiting Software Helps You Conduct Better Interviews

When considering how to conduct an interview, don’t forget the role of hiring software. ApplicantStack recruiting software helps you improve your interviews–and all of your hiring processes. Manage job descriptions, post to job boards, create structured interviews, and track applicants. The result? You will attract and hire quality employees faster.

You can try ApplicantStack for free. Visit ApplicantStack free trial.

This post is part of our hiring series which includes:

ApplicantStack Honored as Top Performer in Customer Success Report

ApplicantStack Honored as Top Performer in Customer Success Report

ApplicantStack has been recognized as a Top Performer in the Winter 2022 Applicant Tracking Software Customer Success Report by FeaturedCustomers.

FeaturedCustomers evaluated all the potential Applicant Tracking Software companies on its platform for possible inclusion in the report. Only 25 companies met the criteria needed for recognition in the Winter 2022 Applicant Tracking Software Customer Success Report. ApplicantStack earned a Top Performer award in the category.

The Customer Success Report is based on the curation of authenticated case studies, testimonials, and videos from across the web, telling a complete story of vendors in the Applicant Tracking Software space through real customer experiences. Rankings are determined by multiple factors including total number of customer success content, social media and market presence, vendor momentum based on web traffic and search trends, and additional data aggregated from online sources and media properties. FeaturedCustomers is the world’s leading customer reference platform for B2B business software and services.

ApplicantStack is Tailored to SMB Hiring Teams

ApplicantStack is a full-featured hiring and applicant management solution powered by Swipeclock. It was created specifically for the pressing hiring demands of small to mid-size businesses. With ApplicantStack, small business recruiting teams can:

  • Create, post and manage jobs from one system
  • Qualify candidates with prescreening applications and elimination questions
  • Communicate with emails and texting–right from the software
  • Find best fit hires with standardized feedback
  • Build hiring workflows with stage change triggers
  • Set task reminders to ensure effective collaboration
  • Provide a candidate-centric applicant journey

Overcome 2022 Hiring Challenges

Hiring has never been more difficult–especially for high turnover industries and frontline job roles. To succeed, SMB hiring teams must optimize their processes with intelligent automation. ApplicantStack is equal to the task, helping you find higher quality candidates faster and with less effort. Our solution enables small hiring teams to compete with companies of any size in today’s tight labor market.

ATS Texting is a Must-Have

ApplicantStack’s texting feature is essential for today’s hiring landscape. Small businesses need to communicate with candidates where they are–on their mobile devices. Texting with candidates is crucial for the candidate experience as well as improved productivity, reduced ghosting, and higher success to fill rate. In addition, texting helps you reach job seekers and passive candidates that may not otherwise engage.

With ApplicantStack, you can send and manage texts with multiple candidates. The system stores a record of the conversations so everyone on the hiring team knows what’s going on. Recruiters can text links to screening questionnaires and interview scheduling calendars. Texting is especially helpful during the interview process. Candidates who make it to this stage are the cream of the crop and you don’t want to lose them to a faster competitor. If you shorten the interview evaluation process, you are less likely to have candidates drop out or receive an offer from another company.

Interested in trying out ApplicantStack for free? Visit ApplicantStack Free Trial.

Check out some ApplicantStack reviews:

ApplicantStack Top Performer

About FeaturedCustomers

FeaturedCustomers is the world’s only customer reference platform for B2B business software and services. FeaturedCustomers helps B2B buyers research and discover business software through vendor validated customer reference content including customer testimonials, case studies, success stories, customer stories, and customer videos. Every day, their platform helps influence the purchasing decisions of thousands of B2B buyers in the final stages of their buying cycle from Fortune 500 companies to SMBs. Form more information, visit FeaturedCustomers.

 

How an ATS Improves the Applicant Journey

How an ATS Improves the Applicant Journey

Welcome to our How To Hire Your Next Employee Series. Whether you are a new or veteran hiring manager, our series can help you improve your recruiting processes. In so doing, you will find employees faster. And it will cost you less.

The Applicant Journey

In today’s post, we describe the process from the applicant’s point of view. This is called the applicant, or candidate, journey. Unfortunately, the applicant journey doesn’t always receive the attention it deserves. Yet the ApplicantStack candidate interface is key to our success. That means it’s key to your success as well.

ApplicantStack creates an exceptional applicant journey and your company deserves nothing less.

Branded Recruitment Marketing

With ApplicantStack, you can brand your recruitment marketing. Or use our default layouts.

In this article we’ll show you examples of both.

The Applicant Moves Through Stages Along The Applicant Journey

Before we continue, let’s talk about applicant stages because it’s important to understand how they work.

A stage refers to one specific step in the hiring process. For example, an applicant could be in the interview stage. Or they could be in the manager review stage.

As you move an applicant through the hiring process, you change their stage in the system. Stage changes can trigger actions. For example, if you change an applicant’s stage to Do Not Pursue, you can cause the system to send a ‘Thank you for applying but you’re not a fit for the position’ email. You create a template for the email and even personalize it with merge fields. ApplicantStack will insert the applicant’s name.

As we talk about each point of contact between the applicant and your company, keep in mind that you can tie the applicant’s stage to auto communications.

The Applicant Sees Your Job Posting

Your job posting is the first point of contact in the applicant journey. Candidates can find your job posting on your chosen job boards (such as Indeed, Google, JuJu, CareerBuilder, Monster, etc.), social media sites, or your careers page.

Here are ApplicantStack job postings on Indeed. See the listing for the SwipeClock jobs:

 

ApplicantStack applicant journey

 

Candidates look at these sites for jobs. Your ApplicantStack job postings start engaging candidates immediately. With branded postings, the applicant meets your employer brand at the first point of contact. Branded postings reflect the look and feel of your website.

Application

When the candidate sees your posting, they click a link which takes them to your application. (An application is called a ‘Questionnaire’ in the ApplicantStack system.)

Here is a questionnaire created in ApplicantStack:

 

How to Hire Your Perfect Next Employee

Notice how easy it is to upload a resume. Applicants can use Dropbox or Google Drive. ApplicantStack makes everything easy and natural.

ApplicantStack has flexible settings to fit your ideal candidate. You can set the resume upload to allow the applicant to write a cover letter. If that isn’t customary in your industry, leave that turned off.

ApplicantStack Eliminates Redundant Processes

When the applicant uploads their resume, ApplicantStack parses some of the contact information. The applicant won’t have to reenter all of their contact information going forward.

Repeating tasks unnecessarily is frustrating for everyone. It’s especially frustrating for a job candidate who is in the process of applying for jobs at multiple companies.

Reentering contact info again and again wastes their time. And it makes your company seem twenty years behind the technological curve.

Personalized Candidate Emails

When the candidate fills out the application, they immediately receive a personalized email that confirms you received their application. If they are a good fit, you can reach out to them immediately.

The applicant never wonders ‘Did they get my application and resume?’ They see that your company is prompt and professional. You respect their time and appreciate their interest in your company.

Candidate Screening

In ApplicantStack, you can use questionnaires for prescreening. Screening questionnaires can play a role in a great applicant journey.

Here is a screening questionnaire:

Screening Questionnaires

Prescreening questionnaires with knockout questions help eliminate unqualified candidates. This is how a questionnaire with knockout questions works:

You create a screening questionnaire with knockout questions. The knockout questions will depend on the job description.

The candidate completes the questionnaire. If they aren’t qualified, the knockout questions will filter them out.

You won’t waste any more of their time. If a candidate is eliminated, you can program ApplicantStack to send a ‘Thank you for applying but you aren’t a fit for the position’ email. You create an email template and ApplicantStack will use merge fields to enter the necessary information. (As mentioned previously, all candidates receive a ‘We have received your application,’ email immediately after applying.’)

If they pass the prescreen questionnaire, the system presents the more extensive questionnaire.

If you want your applicants to receive the full questionnaire initially, you can program it that way. You understand the recruiting standards of your industry and company type. The job position also influences how you want to craft the process for your applicant.

You customize ApplicantStack to create an applicant journey that’s most effective for your hiring pool.

No-Hassle Reference Checks

In your questionnaire, you can ask for references. Your applicant will enter them when they apply. ApplicantStack saves them in the candidate profile. If the applicant passes the prescreening and interviews, you can move them to the ‘Reference Check’ stage. When this happens, ApplicantStack will automatically email the references. This is called a Questionnaire Action in ApplicantStack.

This saves your applicant the trouble of re-entering their references. And you won’t have to ask them for their references again or find them on their resume. It keeps the process moving and eliminates a common bottleneck.

Interview Scheduling Reinvented

If the candidate passes the questionnaire screening, they are invited to schedule an interview. ApplicantStack interview self-scheduling is a game changer. ApplicantStack integrates with Google and Office365 for interview scheduling. Because of the integration, any non-available time slots will be hidden from the applicant.

 

How to Hire Your Perfect Next Employee

 

Let’s discuss this in detail.

Decide how many members of your team need to be in the interview. For this example, let’s say three team members need to be there.

ApplicantStack will pull information from Google Calendar or Office365 for each member of the interview team.

Let’s suppose there are four specific time slots where all interviewers are available. The applicant is only presented with these time slots. The applicant can choose the most convenient time slot.

Let’s suppose there is only one time slot for which all hiring members are available. If this is the case, ApplicantStack presents the applicant with one interview time.

Your Applicant Won’t Be Frustrated With Scheduling Hassles

Interview scheduling is a hiring process bottleneck for many companies. With slowdowns, you run the risk of abandoned applications. Interview self-scheduling keeps the process on track.

Job Offer

When the background and reference checks are complete, it’s time to offer the job. Here is an offer letter email:

 

How to Hire Your Perfect Next Employee

Notice the electronic signature. The applicant can sign and accept the offer immediately.

ApplicantStack ensures that you never lose an applicant because they are confused. ApplicantStack is always ready for each stage change. Candidates advance through hiring stages as quickly as your team chooses to process them. You will never have a slowdown because of the ApplicantStack platform. Your hiring team, the applicant, and their references control the timeline.

ApplicantStack can send hiring team members task reminders. Task reminders help your hiring team support a fluid, timely applicant journey.

ApplicantStack Reports

By running reports in ApplicantStack, you can identify bottlenecks in your hiring process. This allows you to continually refine your process and keep improving your company’s applicant journey.

How to Hire Your Next Employee

We hope you’ve found our How To Hire Employees series helpful. Here are the links to the posts on each step in the process.

ApplicantStack Welcomes Verified First as our Newest Partner!

ApplicantStack Welcomes Verified First as our Newest Partner!

ApplicantStack is pleased to announce our new partnership with background screening provider Verified First.

Verified First is known for their speedy turnaround times and excellent service from their U.S.-based client care staff. They have a 96% client satisfaction rate.

The team at Verified First is passionate about helping companies gain a competitive advantage by reducing time-to-hire.

Verified First is an Idaho-based company launched in 2012 by Devon Dickinson and Tommy Cheng. Verified First provides a variety of screening services including criminal background checks, drug testing, I-9 verification, civil records, driver records, and identity verification.

ApplicantStack helps small to mid-size businesses hire employees faster and keep them longer. ApplicantStack is the hiring solution in Swipeclock’s WorkforceHub HRMS.

More than 1,000 payroll and HR service providers partner with Swipeclock, empowering 35,000+ businesses and their 1,000,000+ employees to find top talent, reduce labor costs, comply with regulations, and maximize profits.