Tag: interviews

How Conducting a Behavior-Based Interview Can Help You Find the Right Candidate

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

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How Conducting a Behavior-Based Interview Can Help You Find the Right Candidate

As the economy makes leaps and strides past recession, employers are ramping up their hiring processes in response to the surge in talent. In order to find the best candidates, many hiring managers are using behavior-based interviews. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran’s affairs, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior[1]. Consider three reasons why this interviewing process can help you find the right candidate for each of your available positions.

Identifying Essential Experience

Because what has happened in the past is highly likely to happen again, asking interviewees about their previous experiences in particular situations will help you get a grasp on how they can handle stress, deadlines and other pertinent situations. You might ask questions such as what an applicant did when other team members didn’t hold up their end of the deal on a project or how they handled an irate customer. This helps you get a feel for the applicant’s personality as well as his or her mastery of customer care and teamwork.

Capturing Skill Sets

Every job has essential skills that must be mastered in order to achieve and maintain success. To get a behavior-based idea of an applicant’s relevant skills, you could ask a question such as, “How did you increase conversions on your most recent online marketing campaign?” This type of question gives you inside perspective on a worker’s mastery of specific types of skills, their flexibility to change what isn’t working and swap it out for something else, and their willingness to work toward and achieve a goal that benefits the organization.

Meshing with the Corporate Culture

In addition to finding candidates with the right experience and skill set for the job, you’ll also want to make sure they will fit into your corporate culture. This is a fantastic time to ask hypothetical behavior-based questions, such as “What would you do if there were no supervisors in the office for an entire week, and none could be reached by electronic means?” These types of questions help you figure out who will be the most likely to succeed in your organization.

[1] http://www.va.gov/PBI/index.asp

The Hiring Process: Interviewing Potential Job Candidates

Posted on by Buyer Advertising

image_012While vast amounts of resources exist, there is no perfect answer to selecting the right person for your organization. Nevertheless, the interview is a tremendous link in the hiring process. When used effectively, your hiring team can get more out of the interview to help you make better hiring decisions.

Interviewing potential job candidates is one of the last steps in the hiring process. There are actions that precede meeting with candidates to discuss a job opening. It is best to make sure that your recruiting team completes these actions, which will have a direct impact on the effectiveness of the interviews.

Objectives for Interviewing Candidates

Essentially, there are five objectives for every job interview. Accomplishing all five shows how well you are prepared to introduce your organization and position to people who have applied for the job.

1. Collect relevant information about the potential candidate
2. Describe position and expectations of the job
3. Assess how well the job candidate may fit into the position and corporate culture
4. Educate job candidate about the culture and purpose for the organization’s existence
5. Answer any of the candidate’s questions

Plan the Interview

Keep in mind that the interview begins before you sit down with a candidate. In preparation, make sure that you:

• Review the job description
• Prepare questions that focus on skills, abilities and past work performances
• Determine measurable criteria for comparing and analyzing each candidate
• Decide if a panel or one-on-one interview style is appropriate
• Review all documents from job candidates
• Prepare applicable tests that relate to job skills

During the Interview

Give the job candidate space to formulate answers that demonstrate a good fit for your company’s needs. Do this without offering too many details upfront and possibly putting words into the candidate’s mouth.

Ask questions that provide insight into the candidate’s past work performances. For example, if the open position demands organization skills, you might ask, “How do you keep track of desk work and schedules?” Pay attention to how the candidate listens and responds.

Arrange to conduct the interview in a private and reasonably comfortable room. With a solid list of questions and ample preparation time, you are in a stronger position to turn job candidates into productive employees.