The interview stage is arguably the most critical stage in the hiring process, where you’re hoping to find the perfect candidate who meets your skills and culture requirements. Until now, you might’ve only seen their resume and perhaps had a quick call with them.
As a hiring manager, you may feel uncertainty during this stage – “Is this candidate being honest with their previous experience?” “Am I really getting to know this candidate?” “Am I asking the right questions?” and “Will they be a good fit for the role?”
Well-thought-out behavioural questions play a pivotal role in hiring. The more probing your interview questions are, the more you’ll learn about your candidates. This blog post will explain why this approach matters, with examples and resources to help set you up for success.
What are behavioural questions?
Behavioural questions ask the candidate to share examples of specific situations they’ve been in. These questions often begin with “Tell me about a time when…” or “Describe a situation where…”
Behavioural questions are a powerful tool to encourage candidates to recall highly specific anecdotes and use past behaviours to predict future actions.
This technique has also been shown to reduce bias in interviews. For instance, a 2013 study by Julia Levashina et al., which compiled various studies on structured behavioural questions, found that structured interviews significantly reduce bias related to race, gender, and disabilities. When paired with a robust rating scale, interviews featuring behavioural questions become more accurate and consistent in predicting job performance.
How to ask and screen behavioural questions
To ensure the effectiveness of the behavioural questions, you’ll need to understand the key factors candidates need to succeed in this role. The introspective process can take longer to prepare these interview questions. Still, it ensures your questions are more relevant to the role — ultimately leading to a more successful hire.
Here are a few tips on crafting the right questions and what to pay attention to when listening to candidates’ answers:
Establish the ideal qualities
Review your job description and identify the most important qualities for the job. If the role is customer-facing, focus on questions about the candidate’s customer service, communication, and conflict resolution skills.
Ask about their initiative, integrity, and leadership abilities for roles involving team management.
Universal qualities such as prioritization, time management, collaboration, and organizational skills are crucial for any position.
You can tailor your behavioural questions to uncover these traits by identifying five to six key qualities in your open role.
Examples of behavioural questions and what they reveal:
“Tell me about when you had to shift priorities during your project. How did you manage?”
Reveals: The candidate’s ability to adapt and prioritize high-priority tasks while managing challenges under pressure.
“Describe a situation in which you had to compromise or help others find common ground. What was the result?”
Reveals: Teamwork abilities, willingness to collaborate, and leadership skills.
“Tell me about a time when a client or customer was dissatisfied with a service. How did you address their concerns and work towards a resolution?”
Reveals: Conflict resolution skills, professionalism, and ability to handle difficult conversations.
Get access to our free competency-based resource, which features 60+ behavioural questions for 15 essential hiring traits.
Create a scoring matrix
After identifying the ideal qualities in your new hire, the next step is to create a rating matrix to standardize your evaluation process, and to assist you in comparing different candidates’ answers while minimizing potential biases.
An example of a five-point rating system:
1 = No experience: Does not meet expectations and shows poor competence in the required qualities.
2 = Limited experience: Meets some expectations but demonstrates limited competence in the required qualities.
3 = Satisfactory experience: meets basic expectations and shows adequate competence in the required qualities.
4 = Good experience: Meets most expectations and shows strong competence in the required qualities.
5 = Excellent experience: Exceeds expectations and demonstrates outstanding competence in the required qualities.
Pay attention to the candidate’s responses
During the interview, be attentive to the anecdote and notice the candidate’s body language, communication style, and tone.
You can reference the START (Situation > Tasks > Action > Result > Takeaway) framework to evaluate the candidate’s communication and storytelling skills.
Observe how the candidate describes their actions, how they interacted with others, and whether they take accountability for their mistakes or shortcomings. These are all insights into how the individual will perform at your workplace.
Ask follow-up questions
After listening attentively and observing the candidate’s body language, follow up with probing questions to fill in gaps or address inconsistencies in their narrative, especially if the answer isn’t specific or lacks important details.
Examples of follow-up questions:
- What specific steps did you take to resolve the issue?
- How did you come up with that solution?
- What made you approach the issue from that direction?
- Looking back, is there anything you would’ve done differently?
- Have you faced similar challenges since then? How did you manage it?
By applying these strategies, you’ll be well-equipped to ask the right questions and make informed hiring decisions that align with your company’s needs and values!
Interview Red Flags
Even with the right questions, you should be aware of warning signs indicating a candidate may not be the best fit for your team. Here are some potential red flags:
🚩 Exaggeration or fabrication: Look for unrealistic claims in their story and verify the legitimacy of the claims through references when possible.
🚩 Vague, inconsistent or contradictory answers: May indicate that the candidate is dishonest about their past experiences.
🚩 Negative comments about previous employers or colleagues: Constant negative comments can indicate a lack of professionalism, poor interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.
🚩 Overconfidence or arrogance: this may indicate that this candidate would have difficulty working collaboratively with others and be resistant to feedback.
🚩 Exaggeration or fabrication: Look for unrealistic claims in their story and verify the legitimacy of the claims through references when possible.
🚩 Vague, inconsistent or contradictory answers: May indicate that the candidate is dishonest about their past experiences.
🚩 Negative comments about previous employers or colleagues: Constant negative comments can indicate a lack of professionalism, poor interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.
🚩 Overconfidence or arrogance: this may indicate that this candidate would have difficulty working collaboratively with others and be resistant to feedback.
Traditional vs. Situational vs. Behavioural Questions
What about the other interview questions? You may ask. Are they irrelevant?
No, not at all!
Each type of interview question has its benefits. Rather than using one specific type of interview questions, the most successful interviews include a combination of traditional, situational, and behavioural interview questions.
Traditional interview questions encompass some of the most common interview questions, such as “Do you have experience in using…”, “How many years of experience do you have in…” and “What do you like about…”
While these open-ended questions provide a general idea of the candidate’s experience and qualities, they only scratch the surface of their personalities and do not predict how they would react in a difficult or unpleasant situation.
However, due to their simplicity, traditional interview questions typically take less time to prepare than behavioural questions and are especially effective in early interview stages.
On the other hand, situational questions create a hypothetical scenario and evaluate how the candidate would react in the circumstance, such as “What would you do if…” and “How would you react if…”
Situational questions are most beneficial in entry-level positions where experience is limited. Since the questions are all hypothetical, they are less accurate in predicting future behaviours.
Hiring an individual who aligns with your company values and would thrive in your company culture is one of the most important qualifiers in hiring. Mastering the art of interviewing is an essential step for that alignment.
By incorporating behavioural questions and a rating system into your interviews, you can gain deeper insights into a candidate’s experience and values, leading to more accurate predictions of their future performance.
If you don’t know where to start, download our behavioural questions bank and gain access to 60+ behavioural questions tailored to your hiring needs.
If you have any questions or feedback, email us at marketing@taghr.com or find us on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Share the post: