Behavioral Interview
How can it help you in your work
What is behavioral interview?
Behavioral interview is a type of structural interview that is used in the process of selection of right candidates. This type of interview is so called because it registers the behavior which is relevant for performance at work. Apart from this term, some other words are also used. Since in this type of interview we wish to register someone's performance, this type of interview is also called Performance-Based Interview, and since the behaviors crucially important for performance are called competences, we have yet another term, that is Competence-Based Interview.
Specifics of the behavioral interview
The basic concept on which the behavioral interview is based is that which says that previous behavior is the best predictor of the future behavior.
Behavioral questions have clear structure, shown in the pictures:
The given structure implies that the candidate is asked to describe a situation which comes from their work experience, and is a good indicator if the candidate posses the required competences.
Apart from describing the event itself, the candidate also describes their behavior, in terms of what they said, and did, but they also describe what they thought and how they felt about all that.
In the end, the candidate gives the information on the outcome, how it all ended, that is, what were the consequences of their actions.
Differences in relation to the traditional interview
Whereas in the traditional interview the accent is placed more on how strongly the candidate wants the job, i.e. the interviewer is, above all, concerned with the candidate's motivation and system of value in terms of what the candidate wants and what is important for them in work and live, in behavioral interview the interviewer is mostly interested in whether the candidate possesses the required competences that are crucial for the given job.
As opposed to the traditional interview which has the so called trick questions in which the interviewer's intentions are hidden in sense of what they wants to achieve with the given question, the behavioral interview is transparent and the interviewer is maximally helpful, so that the candidate can prepare for the interview and it is clear what the interviewer is interested in with respect to the candidate's answers.
Preparation and duration of a behavioral interview
Preparation for a behavioral interview does not imply just creating and choosing questions to be asked, but it also implies thinking of some kind of help and guidelines that will be given to candidates, so that they can prepare for the interview the best they can. What questions the interviewer is going to chose depends on the key competences for the given job. During an interview, not more than three, of maximum five competences are checked. An interview that is aimed at checking three of four competences usually lasts 45 minutes up to an hour.
How can behavioral interview help you?
Due to how long behavioral interview is, it is not a suitable method of selection in situations where you have high staff turnover. However, even then, you can use behavioral interview only for some, especially important jobs. If you are in a situation where you have to explain and justify your decisions, behavioral interview is much more helpful than a non-structural or traditional structural interview. What is most important is the fact that behavioral interview helps you reduce the number of wrong appraisals and decisions based on them to the minimum.