In a job market where candidates can exhaustively research how to best present themselves and script the answers to often-asked questions, it pays for employers to push jobseekers to think on their feet.
The payoff can be immediate as the average cost of hiring a candidate is estimated to be about $4,700. The value of making a good hire can also unfold over time if employers evaluate how prospects would respond to real-world situations that they are likely to encounter on the job.
Hiring techniques that collect detailed information about how a candidate is likely to perform in a specific role or situation, especially when utilizing methods that cannot be easily prepared for prior to the interview, are increasingly valuable.
Asking behavioral questions during an interview, for instance, is a way to take candidates off-script and into dynamic situations with opportunities that showcase their ability to think quickly and creatively.
There are many questions employers can ask to get potential employees’ gears moving, but there are other ways to ensure a hiring conversation with a job prospect focuses on behaviors, as well. Below, we offer a fresh look at common questions, methods for developing questions or discussion prompts for interviews, and approaches to dig deeper when conducting a behavioral interview.
5 New Spins on Behavioral Questions
- Would you tell me about a time you felt frustrated with your team, and how you responded or moved forward?
- Have there been any situations when you were asked to perform a task that went against your professional values? If so, how did you proceed?
- Please describe an aspect of your current or previous job that you are/were grateful for.
- Tell me about a situation or project in your current or past job that was demotivating, and why.
- Have you worked on a project that was short on the resources or personnel needed? If so, was yours completed successfully? What did you do differently during that project? How did you impact the outcome?
The STAR Method
There are widely available lists of questions like those listed above. There are also strategies on how to answer such queries available on internet job boards and websites that advise jobseekers.
Employers can develop candidate questions specific to their industry, the job type, and their company using the STAR acronym as a guide. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result.
A question formed using this approach allows interviewers to set the stage where a challenge emerges (Situation). This ensures that the question will not be a general query that triggers a scripted answer, but a unique scenario that requires the candidate to think on their feet.
From the specific Situation, the interviewer can develop a Task and ask the candidate to describe what Action they would take, followed by what result they would hope to achieve.
Digging Deeper
Creating a question structure that places the candidate in a workday situation can demonstrate how that person would fit in and meet a specific challenge. Developing questions that force candidates to place themselves in different roles that require a wide variety of approaches to solving problems helps interviewers determine where an individual fits and when their skills are not right for the situation.
Here are some areas that well-crafted questions can explore:
- Problem Solving
- Teamwork & Collaboration
- Customer Service
- Communication Skills
- Project Management
- Adaptability
- Working Under Pressure
- Leadership
- Initiative
- Crisis Management
Part of a Well-Integrated Approach
Behavioral interviewing using the approaches shown above can counteract the rehearsed, scripted veneer that accompanies many candidates to interviews, serving to increase the odds of making a good hire. For even more predictive power when trying to determine best fit, pre-employment personality testing is a great complement to behaviorally based interviews, especially when administered before the interview.
While personality testing helps employers better predict how an individual will behave on the job, they can also be valuable tools to guide interview questions. Taking the time to explore perceived strengths and weaknesses uncovered in the personality test results can improve the interview process by providing direction and focus to the questions being asked. For your next pre-hire screening, consider combining a targeted pre-employment personality test with well-thought-out, behaviorally based interview questions for the best possible outcomes.
