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Del J. Still, of the Coeur d' Alene, Idaho-based Management Development Systems, has a background in engineering and manufacturing management, as well as in education, training, and organization development. His book High Impact Hiring: How to Interview and Select Outstanding Employees, is based on 20-plus years of research and practical experience in interviewing hundreds of job candidates and training more than 50,000 interviewers. He recently conducted a Kiplinger audio conference on How to Spot Poor Performers Before You Hire Them.
In our results-oriented business climate, the drive for productivity is at the forefront of our thinking. The inherent danger is the temptation to take shortcuts in order to achieve the end result. I personally plead guilty to this charge in one of the most crucial areas of management. As a young engineering manager, I stunted my early professional development because I was shortchanging the hiring process to meet the other demands of my company.
If you think about it, hiring the wrong person, or hiring a marginal performer, is not a onetime mistake. It's the mistake that keeps on giving, perhaps for decades. A wrong hire can swallow your time and effort and keep you from focusing on the more-critical aspects of your responsibilities. Under pressure to get things done, it’s tempting to fill a position with the first job applicant who seems to be qualified.
So, the question is: “How can you avoid hiring the wrong person in the first place?”
One surefire way is to take advantage of a well-known and effective method of conducting interviews that eliminates most hiring mistakes: "Behavior-based Interviewing". Behavior-based Interviewing is founded on this key principle: “The best predictor of future job behavior is past job behavior.”
Here’s how it works: Identify the key technical skills and personal characteristics (aka “work habits”) that are needed for a job. For each technical skill and personal characteristic, develop questions that require a candidate to recall specific experiences that indicate the presence or absence of a technical skill or personal characteristic.
The questions you develop must be in writing. It’s almost impossible to attempt to create them during the interview itself. Your written record ensures consistency and also reminds you to collect data for each technical skill and personal characteristic that is required for a job.
As you conduct the interview, read each question exactly as you have previously prepared it. Compare the results of the interview with the job requirements. Based on your analysis, select the best candidate for the job.
Here are some examples:
Example 1
Technical Skill – Using “QuickBooks” as a bookkeeping tool. Question – Tell me about one of the most complex transactions you did using “QuickBooks.”Example 2
Personal Characteristic – Ability to handle customer service inquiries. Question – Describe a situation where a dissatisfied customer tried your patience. How did you deal with this and what was the final outcome? What other examples can you give me?Example 3
Technical Skill – Radiation therapy. Question – What procedures have you used in the past to ensure that your patients receive correct dosages?Example 4
Personal Characteristic – Ability to make decisions without complete information. Question – Tell me about a time you had to make a decision without adequate information. When and where did this happen, and what steps did you take to arrive at the decision? How often in your career have you had to face such a dilemma?Example 5
Technical Skill – Inert gas welding. Question – What inert gas welding systems have you used in the past? Tell me about a time when you tackled a very technically challenging welding job. What problems did you face and how did you solve them?Example 6
Personal Characteristic – Ability to empathize. Question – What incident most comes to mind when you had to completely feel the emotional pain that another person was experiencing? What impact did this have on you and how did you deal with this situation?For second-round interviews with the most promising prospects, or for a more thorough interview, include these additional steps:
• Prepare a document listing the first-year goals and objectives for the job.
• Develop a series of questions that challenge the job candidate to recall specific accomplishments related to these goals and objectives.
• Add your evaluation of this component to your hiring decision.
Now you have an interview process that identifies both the long-term and short- term elements necessary for success. You will be better equipped to make your hiring decision with confidence, having a surer sense that the person you select will be able to hit the ground running and will become a valued contributor within a short period of time.
This article introduces the basics of Behavior-based Interviewing. It details a small portion of the entire selection and interviewing process. I encourage you to seek out additional resources in order to supplement this introduction.
To read more about Behavior-based Interviewing, click here.
POSTED BY: DEL J STILL (April 02, 2007 11:57 AM)
It sounds like Steve is referencing the "Assessment Center" system of employee selection. This methodology was popular about 25 years ago.
The center is set up either off-site in a special facility run by a consulting firm or within your company. The assessment resembles a simulation except that it has a more complex structure and the evaluation is completed by a team of trained evaluators.
For example:
A candidate might spend a full day in an office with a telephone, computer, fax machine, desk, etc. Periodically, the phone rings, people come into the office with various requests, papers and reports are dropped into an in-basket, etc. The candidate must respond to all of these situations, make decisions and take appropriate action. They can be required to prepare and give a presentation to a simulated board of directors or to a hostile customer. All the while, the person is being observed and evaluated.
A special feature of assessment centers is their capability to evaluate a number of candidates simultaneously. They are able to set up leadership and teamwork situations and observe the interaction among job candidates.
The biggest drawback is cost. For some senior positions the investment is justified, but for most jobs the assessment center method is too complex and too time consuming.
Steve also correctly points out that people do change over time. That's why it's important to get the most recent examples of how candidates have handled job-related situations that provide data about their skills and abilities.
From reader comments, it seems that Behavior-Based Interviewing is receiving a bad rap either because the process is being used in an incomplete fashion or by untrained interviewers. On the surface BBI seems simple enough, but, in truth, it is a difficult process to administer and requires special techniques to be used successfully.
One last comment: The best predictor of future behavior is still past behavior and Steve's comment about "change" requires that we carefully examine and verify the data we gather during selection interviews.
POSTED BY: Orlando (April 02, 2007 12:04 PM)
Hiring the right person assumes that the hiring authority has the firm's best interest at heart (ie., that hiring the "best" person for the job = (1) the most competent (2) is affordable (3) best cultural fit...this is not always the interviewer's desire- given the popularity of the Peter Principle, etc.. Most of us know from experience of working for jerks, and interviewing with jerks, and seeing what gets left in a firm after layoffs that most hiring authorities have little interest in objective hiring approaches. If more firms were honest and transparent about the positions description, the pay, the boss, the culture, the resources, working hours, job security, etc...maybe more interviewees might reciprocate the honesty for a better match.
POSTED BY: Sean (April 03, 2007 10:32 AM)
Steve, you don't have a clue. Orlando, I would agree with you that that is true within large companies, but in small companies when people don't work out it's easy to determine who screwed up. If it happens repeatedly, that mgr. of hiring is history in a good company.
I would add to this article, that you need to ask questions which make the interviewee recall good and bad situations. It's not so much the answer you're looking for it's also to see what emotions are demostrated by their eyes if not their voices.
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