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SHRM Home > HR News
1/28/08 4:00 PM
Behavioral Interviewing Popular, but Training in Use Urged
By Kathy Gurchiek
Use of behavioral interviewing is on the rise, according to a new survey, but employers are cautioned to identify and define crucial competencies and train interviewers in their use if they want positive results.
More than half (55.7 percent) of 2,556 senior HR professionals and training and development executives surveyed plan to continue using behavioral interviewing at the same frequency, and almost one-fourth (24.7 percent) plan to use it more often, according to a national survey the Novations Group conducted in December 2007.
Behavioral interviewing is a technique aimed at predicting a job candidate’s suitability for a position based on his or her past workplace behavior.
“The interviewer asks the candidate to describe, in detail, how he or she handled specific situations in the past,” Novations executive consultant Tim Vigue said in a press release.
“The answers enable the hiring manager to learn the candidates’ capacity to handle similar situations in the new position.”
The sharp rise in the hiring technique may be attributable in part to what Vigue says is “an increasingly diverse talent pool” that demands that organizations hire the best candidate “from the broadest possible pool.” That requires, he said, using “objective methods that won’t screen out qualified candidates due to bias.”
However, for behavioral interviewing to be effective, the employer must identify and define a short list of the competencies and behaviors considered crucial for the position, and have people who are trained in the technique administering the questions, Vigue noted.
What Is Behavioral Interviewing?
“Behavioral interviewing” is a term that is tossed around loosely, observed Mark Stewart, who has a Ph.D. in industrial psychology and sits on the Society for Human Resource Management’s Organizational Development Special Expertise Panel.
He was skeptical that the 55.7 percent who said they use behavioral interviewing all adhere to the same standards for conducting those interviews.
It’s a technique that goes beyond including some questions about how a job candidate handled various work situations at a former employer, he said. It requires the interviewer to have been trained in spotting the strong answers for the competencies in question and knowing how to score those answers, Stewart said.
“The key in behavioral interviewing is that it has to be structured, [with] set questions that are delivered to every candidate in the same wording, the same order and scored in the same way,” he said in a SHRM Online interview.
For example, the main interview question would be followed up with questions structured to elicit the candidate’s actions and thinking; the outcome of the action taken; what he or she learned from the experience; and how he or she applied the lessons learned at a later date.
The interviewer records any negative or positive themes evident from the candidate’s answers—such as a lack of timely response to customer issues, or handling difficult customers comfortably.
“Ideally, the head of HR works with operational executives to determine the competencies or knowledge, skills and abilities needed to [execute] corporate strategy,” Stewart said in a follow-up e-mail.
“After executives reach consensus, HR must create methods to measure these competencies, educate organizational members on the process and potential value, and work with these people to fully implement the process,” as well as maintain records on the interview program’s use and effectiveness, he wrote.
Stewart, a senior consultant for PCI Human Resource Consulting Inc., in Pittsburgh, advised employers interested in using behavioral interviews to:
• Train the interviewers in its use.
• Use a system that checks that the persons not only received the training but all displayed some degree of accuracy.
• Follow up with the employees after they completed training.
• Involve the hiring manager, who should be familiar with and trained in the process.
• Demonstrate that the interview questions used three or four years ago remain representative of those positions.
Behavioral interviewing can be used in any industry but might be too expensive a process for low-level applicants, Stewart said.
The best way to use the technique, he said, is further along in the selection process, after screening the resume and conducting some type of online inventory. Interviewers can conduct phone interviews that incorporate behavioral interview questions and can conduct in-person behavioral interviews with the final candidates. It’s a way to keep the cost down and the quality of hires up, he said.
“Improving the interview quality is a never-ending process. Predicting performance potential is an art; it’s always sketchy,” he said. The interview answers, he added, “should be viewed as a piece of the data, not the complete picture.”
Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News.
Remember your job search expenses may be tax deductible, see prior information from Tracy Lee Yates.
If your adjusted gross income was $54,000 or less in 2007, you can use Free File to prepare and e-file your taxes online. You will also receive your refund faster.
http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html
Excerpt from article:
The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new homes dropped by 26.4 percent last year to 774,000. That marked the worst sales year on record, surpassing the old mark of a 23.1 percent plunge in 1980.
The government reported that the median price of a new home barely budged last year, edging up a slight 0.2 percent to $246,900, the poorest showing since prices fell by 2.4 percent during the 1991 housing downturn.
The new report reinforced the view that housing is currently undergoing its worst downturn in more than two decades, with the slump threatening to surpass in some ways the severe housing recession of the early 1980s
Link to full article: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080128/economy.html?.v=10
There is information on the main blog page regarding Behavioral Interviewing. This article from WSJ highlights the rise in this approach to interviewing candidates. Please do additional research on the web to help identify role play questions and walk in prepared!
Today's News
Interview Trends
More than three-quarters of roughly 2,500 human-resources executives polled recently said their firms conduct behavioral interviews, using questions like: "Describe a time when you. dealt with a particularly difficult customer." The survey, from global consultancy Novations Group, also shows that nearly a quarter of respondents plan to use the technique more often.
Links from WSJ:
WSJ Virtual Career Fair
http://www.wsj-classified.com/vcf/
Networking
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118704955586296589.html?mod=CarJMain_howcanwehelp
Dear North Atlanta Family,
If you are experiencing job loss or a career transition, please join us as we kick-off our new North Atlanta Jobs Ministry! The initial meeting will be held Sunday, January 27, from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m in the Hebrews Coffee Shop in the Family Enrichment Center.
Our goal is to provide spiritual and emotional support as well as encouragement for those in need. Our initial topic will be dealing with the emotional aspects of job loss or a career transition. We are pleased to have Dr. Major Boglin, Director of the Genesis Center, as our presenter on the topic.
Subsequent meetings will be held on the 3rd Sunday of each month. Please plan to attend!
For more information, or to volunteer to assist in this ministry, please contact Steve Pratt at 770-814-9627 or Ken Vaughn at 770-597-9840.
http://www.nacofc.org/
Once again from Clark Howard:
Jan 17, 2008 -- Hints for appealing your property tax reappraisal
A lot of us got a lump of coal from our own government this past year. Your home may have gone down in value in 2007 and may continue to do so this year. But talk about rubbing salt into the wounds; people are getting property tax reappraisals that are way up from where they were before. The Washington Post reports that Maryland residents are seeing property tax increases of 33 percent, yet property values are down in much of the state. This scenario is being repeated all over the country. The appraisals are out of date and use faulty data from boom-year sales. The net effect is that your local government is ripping you off. There's no other way to say it. Do you have to take it? No, you can appeal your appraisal. The rules for appeal vary by jurisdiction. There may be an informal process before the formal one. Never gripe about the government during the process, just present the facts about recent sale prices of homes similar to yours. These figures, often called "comps" in real-estate lingo, are the smoking gun that will help you get an appraisal price rollback. Search out comps on the Internet or consult a local real-estate agent for help. If you can get comps for foreclosures in your neighborhood, that's like having extra ammunition. Clark suggests dressing business casual if you have to appear before a panel as part of the process. The idea is to dress nicely -- but not too well -- and people will respond to your appearance
Variety of cheap and free links, hope you find one that helps:
http://clarkhoward.com/topics/free_and_cheap.html
A lot of you have the skills to really help and get in some networking at the same time :).
http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/forms/habitat-volunteer-registration4/
This is a link to a Habitat Build through Clark Howard.
This link is to a Clark Howard article recommending legitimate work at home companies:
http://clarkhoward.com/topics/workathome_help.html
If you go to the bottom of the page and look at prior postings there is information pertaining to quite a few subjects that may be of interest. Tracy Lee Yates provided some information on the fact that job search expenses are tax deductible. There is information from DBM regarding assistance with re-working resumes and using their research and job search resources. If you have any questions, please post a response and I will be happy to help any way I can.
I hear that many of you are concerned another round of layoffs may be coming by the end of next month. Please know that if you are concerned about your position being eliminated and wish to contact me in advance of that occurring, you may email me and I will absolutely respect your confidentiality.
Good resources to assist you in determining salary ranges for positions are:
Salary.com
http://www.salary.com/
and a government website O*Net
http://online.onetcenter.org/
The O*Net website can be an excellent resource for resume verbiage as well.
Once again, a link from the Wall Street Journal, they have some good information on their Careers page.
http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/usingnet/
This link addresses online tools to assist with money management
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120036745653590459.html?mod=money_page_left_hs
This link concerns a new tax deduction:
"Homeowners with a new mortgage that is covered by insurance can claim a tax break on the insurance for the first time this year."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120045166939593341.html?mod=money_page_left_hs
http://www.employmentdigest.net/
After a quick review of the information posted here, it does appear as though there might be some good tips and helpful information. As an interviewer I do know that the first impression is crucial. If necessary, review some behavioral interviewing questions (information posted in links on left) and have someone go through them with you so you don't walk in cold.
