Business Tools Blog

History often repeats itself and the best candidates are often those who can show concrete evidence that they know how to handle the types of situations they will encounter on the job.  It’s far easier to be fooled by someone who offers the perfect hypothetical answer, than by someone who is asked to provide specific concrete examples.  I attended an ADP TotalSource University class on Friday that focused on Behavioral Interviewing.   There were a few key take-aways that are good additions to your interviewing toolkit.

Preparation:

1. Identify the top 5 core competencies/proficiencies required for a candidate to be successful in the job your are trying to fill
2. Develop the Behavioral Interview Questions: A behavioral interview question asks how you did behave when faced with a situation in the past.  This is different than the traditional interview question that asks how you would behave in a given situation.  Behavioral questions typically start with ”Tell me about a time when you …”; “Give an example of a situation you found yourself in and what did you do …”, “Describe a situation which caused you problems and how you resolved it …”

• Tell me about a time when you were unable to respond to a customer on the spot.  How did you handle that situation?  What was the customer’s response?
• Tell me about the most difficult vendor experience you’ve had and how were you able to maintain a win-win relationship?
• Tell me about a time when you had to escalate a situation to your manager.  When did you decide that it was appropriate to escalate?
• Tell me about a situation when you determined that you could not complete a project on time.  How was this received?
• Some people consider themselves “big picture” while others are “tactical” Which are you? Give an example of a time when you displayed this
• Describe a time when you effectively communicated a difficult or unpleasant idea to a superior.

During the interview:

1. Make sure that the candidate gives specific examples and does not revert to a hypothetical answer, ie “this is how I would handle the situation.”
2. Do not ask leading questions or put words into the candidate’s mouth
3. Take thorough notes, so later you can compare how multiple candidates answered the same questions