Okay, you’ve done all the pre-screening and you are preparing for the face-to-face interview. But you have some doubts.
You know the interview is an artificial environment where the well-rehearsed applicant will try to say all the right things to win the job. And, although loath to admit it, you know that your gut-feel assessments are neither scientific nor reliable.
You are probably aware that behavioural interviewing can yield great insights, if done well, and a how-to guide is included at the end of this post.
You will be wanting to find out
- their strengths,
- their flexibility when their strengths don’t apply,
- how judiciously they apply those strengths, and
- what gaps they have in their strengths portfolio.
To achieve this, there are 4 secret personas that you should adopt during the interview.
Secret Persona 1: The Supporter
When you are asking ‘strength’ questions, you want to learn about the behaviours and strategies this person uses habitually and easily.
Your non-verbal communication should be supportive and encouraging.
The interviewee’s responses are an opportunity for them to expand on things they believe they do well and an opportunity for you to assess their behavioural flexibility and rigidity in advance of the following questions.
Secret Persona 2: The Sympathiser
‘Flexibility’ questions are deeper questions about the person’s strengths designed to test how they respond when this strategy fails.
Your non-verbal communication should be consistent with concern and empathy for the interviewee.
Be alert for denial (e.g. a response such as, “that never happens to me” … would not be good!), coping mechanisms (e.g. a response like, “well I can live with that, it doesn’t happen too often” … is much better!) and/or alternative strategies (e.g. when you hear something like, “sure but then I can …”, that’s better still!).
Secret Persona 3: The Believer
‘Probe’ questions are questions that seem to be asking for information about a strength but are actually probing to discover whether that strength is used excessively.
You should use non-verbal communication which indicates an expectation of a positive response.
For example: With someone who is highly managerial, the probe might be, “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with disobedience” which may invite a response like…
- “Well, you just have to insist they do as ordered and not tolerate disobedience” raising questions about an excessive authoritarianism,
as opposed to a response like…
- “Well, I set out to discover what was the reason behind the failure to follow instructions”, which would suggest a better balance of strategies.
Secret Persona 4 The Conversationalist
‘Vulnerability’ questions are questions about strategies this person finds hard to use.
You should use non-verbal communication which suggests that this is not such an important question and you expect the answer to come easily.
Be alert for hesitancy or puzzlement (indicating, ‘I never really do that’), denial or cover-up (e.g. ‘People shouldn’t do that’), or alternative strategies (e.g. ‘I prefer … , or, I usually …’) and if the latter, probe to discover if the alternatives actually work … (e.g. ‘how do you find that works out for you?’).
[Note that all possibilities are included – often some of these limitations will be advantageous to the role!]
A word on body language
Do not try to practice appropriate body language for the four personas, it really cannot be faked and will appear artificial and contrived. It is best to genuinely assume the persona and let the body language flow naturally.
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This is an extract from our new eBook “Hiring Winners“, showing how to identify, attract, screen and appoint candidates who have the right skills, the right attitudes and the right personalities for the role, for the organisation, and for candidate retention.
A Guide to Behavioural Interviewing
Purpose:
The purpose of a Behavioural Interview is to ask the applicant to describe actions they have actually taken in response to situations or events from their real past experience.
Most people prefer to describe what they believe they would do in an imagined or hypothetical scenario. But this is often very different from the actions they have actually taken in the past, and will likely take again in the future in similar circumstances, unless they have taken real and effective steps to change their habitual behaviours.
So an interviewer conducting a Behavioural Interview often has to gently insist that the applicant speaks only about real actions they have actually taken in the past.
Preparation
Effective interviewers will prepare their interview in advance, ensuring they cover all the required skills and attributes for the position.
Excellent interviewers will be prepared to modify their questions to suit the applicant’s competency with language, their educational standard and general level of intelligence. Be willing to deviate from your plan as required to really explore the applicant’s skills and personal attributes. And do make sure that you return to the plan to cover off all the areas you intended before closing the interview!
The Interview Itself
Naturally you will start with some general conversation to put the applicant at ease. Novice interviewers are quite comfortable with this sort of exchange and will tend to prolong it unnecessarily, avoiding unfamiliar territory. Not only does this waste the applicant’s time and your own, it signals to experienced applicants that they can control the interview, leaving the interviewer unable to explore the applicant’s skills, values and attributes fully. Move on to the substance of the interview promptly.
Start each question with a suitable introductory phrase that will guide the applicant to talk about their real actions in real situations from their past experience. This need not necessarily be work-related experience! It can be from any sphere of life, such as voluntary or community work or sporting activities.
Use phrases such as:
» Can you describe a time when you?…
» Are there times in your life when you?…
» Please will you recall a time in your life when you?…
» Tell me about a time when?…
» Have there been situations when you?…
» Was there ever a time when you?…
» I’m curious about times when you?…
For example you might ask
“Have there been situations when you took on more than you expected to have to?”
And you might want to listen for: Over-responsible nature, inability to set limits, over-commitment, perfectionism.
Last Word: Stay on Track!
The tendency for many applicants to lapse into speculation about what they would do or what might be the best course of action in some imagined situation cannot be underestimated. The effective interviewer will gently but purposefully redirect the applicant to talk about actual past experience.
Redirect applicants with statements such as:
“Regardless of what you might do in similar circumstances… please tell me about what you actually have done in a real situation like this…”
“Please stay focussed on real situations from your own past experience…”
“It’s certainly important to have clear ideas about what a person should do in a case like that… however, I’m interested in what actions you have actually taken in similar circumstances from your own past…”
Adapted from the Behavioural Interview Guide by Dr Glyn Brokensha which is included in the reports generated by the Checklist Survey® in RecruitPack®.
Free eBook ‘Hiring Winners’
This is an extract from our new eBook “Hiring Winners“, showing how to identify, attract, screen and appoint candidates who have the right skills, the right attitudes and the right personalities for the role, for the organisation, and for candidate retention.
Please feel free to share this, make a comment or ask questions.
All the best with your recruiting!
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