Introduction: What are Behavioural Interview Questions and How Can They Help You Find the Right Candidate?
Did you know that 80% of employee turnover results from bad hiring decisions? Behavioural interview questions play a vital role in ensuring you hire the best candidates for your team.
In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at behavioural interview questions and how they can help you find the right candidate to elevate your organisation’s success.
Behavioural interview questions, also known as competency-based interview questions, are a valuable tool used within structured interviewing processes to assess candidates’ past experiences and predict future performance.
These questions delve into how an applicant has handled various situations in the past, shedding light on their skills, competencies, and overall fit for the role. Traditional interview methods may fall short because they often focus on hypothetical scenarios or generic enquiries about a candidate’s qualifications. This approach does not always reveal the true extent of a person’s ability to excel in a given role. By using behavioural interview techniques, hiring managers can significantly improve their chances of selecting the best potential employees for their teams.
How to Prepare for a Behavioural Interview Session: Top Tips for Success
- Familiarise yourself with essential behavioural interviewing principles: For example, learn about the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) used in answering questions about past experiences. This knowledge will enable you to dig deeper into an applicant’s character and potential fit.
- Establish a structured interviewing process: Stick to a format such as starting with an icebreaker question, followed by role-specific inquiries, and then delving into behavioural questions. This ensures fairness and consistency in evaluating candidates based on their cultural fit and responsibilities.
- Determine which behaviours are significant to the role: For example, if you’re hiring a customer service representative, prioritise interpersonal skills, communication and problem-solving abilities. Tailor your interview questions to uncover these attributes in each candidate.
- Collaborate with your team to devise insightful questions: Share ideas within your team on important role-specific qualities and values your company cherishes. For instance, discuss key skills required for a salesperson and come up with behaviour-based questions that assess those abilities in candidates.
- Conduct mock interviews and refine your technique: Partner with colleagues or friends to practise conducting interviews. For instance, ask open-ended questions about handling conflicts or multitasking under pressure. These practice sessions will help improve your questioning style and develop confidence for the real interview process.
5 Steps to Creating Effective & Comprehensive Behavioural Interview Questions
- Emphasising past experiences as valuable learning opportunities is essential because it offers insight into candidates’ real-life skills and their ability to handle challenges. This approach allows you to gauge how well a candidate can adapt to your company’s environment and their potential for growth.
- Formatting questions with the STAR method ensures that candidates provide comprehensive responses, detailing the context, intentions, strategies, and outcomes of their past experiences. This structure paints a clearer picture of how they have approached and resolved various situations, aiding in an accurate evaluation of their problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
- Developing scenarios based on job-specific challenges allows you to test candidates’ aptitude for the role with tailored questions that reveal relevant skills such as critical thinking, adaptability, and practical application of knowledge. This step ensures that you select candidates who are well-prepared for the challenges they would face in the position.
- Ensuring diversity in question topics provides a broader understanding of candidates’ capabilities across various aspects of the role. This approach allows you to evaluate their performance in different situations and their ability to manage multiple responsibilities effectively.
- Encouraging reflection and self-evaluation during behavioural interviews prompts candidates to assess their actions, highlighting opportunities for growth, lessons learned, and continuous self-improvement. This step demonstrates the candidate’s commitment to learning from past experiences and adapting positively to future challenges within your company.
The Benefits of Using Behavioural Interview Questions in Your Hiring Process
– Better Predictors of Performance: Using a behavioural-based approach in recruitment allows employers to evaluate candidates’ abilities to handle job responsibilities more effectively, ensuring better long-term performance.
– Gain Insight into Candidates’ Thinking Processes: Behavioural interview questions can help assess a candidate’s problem-solving capabilities and decision-making skills, which prove crucial for the team’s success.
– Improved Cultural Fit: By understanding how candidates react in specific situations, you can determine whether their values align with your organisation’s culture, supporting longer employee retention.
– Minimised Bias: Behaviour-based job interview advantages include eliminating subjective interpretations of suitability. By focusing on actual experiences, interviewers can make impartial decisions and promote greater diversity in the workplace.
– Create Realistic Expectations: Discussing real-life scenarios helps create a clear understanding of job expectations between employers and candidates, ensuring better job fit and a smoother onboarding process.
Best Practices for Conducting Behavioural Interviews
1.Plan Ahead and Set the Stage
Before conducting a behavioural interview, make sure to research the candidate’s background and prepare relevant questions. This lets you focus on the candidate’s past behaviour and gauge their suitability for the role. Creating a comfortable environment is also crucial for open and honest responses.
2.Adopt a Behavioural-Based Approach
To reveal a candidate’s true nature, use open-ended behavioural interview questions that prompt them to share past experiences. Probing deeper into these experiences can offer valuable insights into their problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.
3.Listen Attentively and Encourage Elaboration
Active listening is crucial during a behavioural interview. Give the candidate ample time to provide detailed responses, and encourage them to elaborate with follow-up questions or prompts. By displaying genuine interest, you support an engaging conversation that reveals their aptitude.
4.Use the STAR Method for Consistency
The Situation, Task, Action, and Result (STAR) method helps maintain consistency in your interviews. Encourage candidates to frame their responses within this structure and ensure that you’re making objective comparisons between applicants.
5.Document Responses and Evaluate them Later
Take thorough notes during the interview so you can accurately recall and assess details later. By thoroughly evaluating each candidate’s responses based on the outlined criteria rather than relying on memory, you’ll make better-informed hiring decisions.
Including these best practices in your interview process will increase your chances of identifying the best candidates for your team while utilising the advantages of behaviour-based job interviews.
Conclusion: Embrace Behavioural Interview Questions with NZ Recruit to Refine Your Hiring Process
In conclusion, behavioural interview questions play a crucial role in finding the right candidate for your organisation. By preparing appropriately, designing comprehensive questions, and following best practices during the interview process, you can ensure a higher degree of success in your hiring efforts. NZ Recruit is committed to helping you implement these effective techniques seamlessly into your recruitment strategy, resulting in a more vibrant and productive workforce. By partnering with NZ Recruit, you stay ahead in the competitive job market as we strive to elevate your hiring process and secure the outstanding talent for your organisation.
So gear up, streamline your recruitment process, and unlock the full potential of your workforce with NZ Recruit today!