Behavioral Interview for Staffing Companies

Introduction

Behavioural interview questions is a style of interviewing that rests on the theory that past work behaviours are good predictors of future job performance. To assess past behaviour interviewers using this method ask for examples where candidates demonstrated a certain job related behaviour. In this post, we will discuss how you can use behavioural interviewing to better assess your candidates. A sound and reliable interview method will help you ensure that you are sending quality candidates to your clients.

STAR Technique

Before we get into the details of behavioral interviews and evaluating your candidate’s interview responses, let’s take a moment to talk about the STAR method. STAR is a technique commonly taught by professional recruiters, career counselors and job interview coaches to help candidates structure their answer to a behavioral interview question. STAR is an acronym that stands for situation, task, action and result. While it is an excellent technique for candidates, interviewers can use it too.

When listening to a candidate’s answer sometimes you can get lost in the details. To help you navigate the details, listen for each STAR component when your candidate responds to help you hone in on the most important elements of each answer. Also when using this structure when taking notes, it will help keep them organized and easy to compare one response to another.

Example Of Interviewer’s Using STAR Method

“Tell me a time when you were on a team and you didn’t see eye to eye with a team member, what did you do?

S Situation- Listen for a particular situation to provide context to the answer.

Candidate: “In my last job with Global Telecom, I was assigned to the Y25 project team with 10 other members to rollout and implement the new software system-testing tool within a 4-week period. ”

T Task- Listen for a detailed task that your candidate clearly responsible for and had to complete. Even though your candidate worked as part of a team, it is important that you are clear on what his or her own responsibilities were.

Candidate: “I was responsible for all n-tier application testing for all systems within the Lower Mainland with one other team member. We had to ensure there wouldn’t be any problems with the application once we started to rollout the systems to other parts of the Province. Problem was this team member and I could not see eye to eye when coming up with a testing process/methodology.”

A Action- Listen for the specific action that your candidate took to complete the task or solve a problem.

Candidate: “Since this team member was more senior then I, I respected his knowledge but I didn’t agree with his testing process and vice versa he didn’t agree with my ideas. I decided the only way we were going to work effectively is to meet up 1 on 1 during lunch (in a comfortable environment). I explained my frustration and went over both our process plans in detail. I told him if we were going to work effectively, we both have to be on the same page. Basically we discussed everything out in the open.”

R Results- Listen for the results and outcomes of your Candidate’s action. Did your Candidate demonstrate achieve successful results? What was the final outcome?

Example: In the end, the testing process was rolled-out without delays. We both compromised on a single process and everything worked out perfectly. We gained more respect for one another and we continue to keep in touch. Most importantly, the testing was rolled-out on time and on budget.

False Stars

False STARS are responses by applicants that are difficult to interpret by the interviewer. While these responses may be acceptable in everyday conversation, they don’t allow you to isolate the candidate’s role through a specific example of an actual previous behavior. False STARS are typically statements of feelings and opinions, or statements of what an applicant “would do” or “would like to do” or vague statements.

Feeling As Fact - watch for candidates who reply using statements of opinion or feeling. For example:

“I was really great at planning”
“I thought I was the best manager and deserved more responsibility”
“I showed a lot of initiative in making my sales calls”

The Use Of “We” - watch for candidates who use “we” to demonstrate that they are team players. Unfortunately, you cannot be sure what the candidate’s role was in this situation. Listen for we and clarify by asking, “What was your specific role in this task, team, etc.”

“We developed a strategic plan and software”

Would Haves - watch for candidates who use conditional statements. For example:

“I would have achieved the targets”
“In this situation, I would call the customer”

Again, remember that behavioral questions rely on the theory of past behavior. As an interviewer you are looking for a specific example where your candidate demonstrated a certain behavior. When listening to the response, the candidate’s role, that is what they actually did do, how they actually did handle a situation must be clear. In the above examples of false STARs, you can see that each statement does not provide the information required for an accurate evaluation.

Whether you use the STAR method to evaluate your candidates or to prep them for their interviews, it is important to understand the prevalence of this method. That is, it would be a good idea to incorporate this technique into your staffing process since most major employers are using some form of behavioural interviewing in their screening process.

Well this concludes our post on behavioural interviews and the STAR technique. In our next post, we will explore the methods of evaluating and scoring your candidate’s responses. Until then, we wish you continued success in your recruitment and staffing agency.

___________________________________________________________________________

Send better prepared candidates to your clients. Click on continue in demo below to find out how EmployPrep can help you.