Interview Techniques Focusing on Personality: A Blueprint for Recruiting Elite Candidates
In the realm of recruitment, a shift towards a more effective method is underway. Behavioral interviewing, a technique that focuses on asking candidates to share real-life stories and experiences, has been proven to be 55% better at predicting job performance than traditional interviews.
This method, which emphasises on telling candidates they'll be asked about real situations they've encountered, encouraging them to think before answering, taking good notes, asking follow-ups, and maintaining a conversational tone, offers several key advantages.
Firstly, structured behavioural assessments provide up to 30% higher predictive validity for job performance compared to traditional methods. This is due to the focus on past behaviour, which is more effective at identifying true skills and experiences than hypothetical or general questions.
Secondly, behavioural interviewing is effective in assessing both hard and soft skills. By exploring real-world examples, it helps uncover candidates’ adaptability and growth potential, as well as their problem-solving abilities, thinking process, and actual accomplishments.
Thirdly, the structured format of behavioural interviewing enables more objective evaluation and reduces interviewer bias. This is because it uses standardised questions and scoring, unlike traditional interviews which often lack consistency.
Fourthly, because responses are based on specific past behaviours, behavioural interviews allow hiring teams to fairly compare candidates using concrete evidence, rather than impressions or resumes alone.
While behavioural interviews offer significant benefits, it's important to avoid common pitfalls such as leading questions, accepting vague responses, and ignoring negative examples. Pre-interview preparation, such as skimming the resume, highlighting any moments that scream, "Ask me about this!", picking core competencies for the role, and prepping STAR-style questions, is essential.
Post-interview evaluation involves going over notes right away, using a rating scale to score each competency, comparing scores to spot where a candidate shines or flops, and chatting with other interviewers for a better perspective.
It's worth noting that while behavioural interviews improve prediction of job success, the latest research and tools involving predictive talent assessment—including cognitive tests, personality measures, and situational judgment tests—can be even more statistically powerful predictors of performance. Nonetheless, behavioural interviews remain valuable for evaluating nuanced soft skills and contextual factors.
In contrast, traditional interviews often mix hypothetical questions with general inquiries, which are less reliable in forecasting actual job performance and more susceptible to biases and variability among interviewers.
In summary, behavioural interviewing, particularly when structured and combined with probing follow-up questions, provides a more valid and reliable method than traditional interviewing for predicting job performance. It is especially strong in evaluating past actions and soft skills consistently, though it may be complemented or enhanced by scientifically validated predictive assessment tools for even better accuracy.
A focus on a mindset that emphasizes telling candidates about real-life situations, encouraging candidates to think before answering, and maintaining a conversational tone during the interview can lead to higher predictive validity for job performance (education-and-self-development and career-development) when compared to traditional methods. The structured format of behavioral interviewing, which includes standardized questions and scoring, allows for more objective evaluation, reducing interviewer bias, and allows hiring teams to fairly compare candidates using concrete evidence.
