You have probably read a lot about interviewing and how important it is to “get to know” the candidate face-to-face. The problem is that most interviews turn out to be a conversation rather than a fact-gathering activity. In this session, learn how to create questions that really get to the heart of what you need to know to make a hiring decision.

1. Affintus
The Value of Behavioral Interviews
October 19, 2012 | Paula A. Soileau, CPA
©2012 Affintus, LLC

2. The Lunch and Learn Talent Series
 The Value of Talent – Costs of Hiring
 The Limits of Education and
Experience
 The Value of Behavioral Interviews

3. Challenges
 Most interviews are conversations
 Many companies interview too many
people
 Many interviews are too long, hard to
manage
 Managers often not trained on behavioral
interviews
 Managers settle for “good enough”
 Process is long, hard to differentiate between “good” and “great”
 People have biases
 we are drawn to what is most familiar, what is most like us which does
not always reflect what is best in certain jobs
 Often rely on subjective “data” (i.e., resume, LinkedIn profile)

4. Behavioral Interviews
 A dynamic approach to the interview
 An interview process to learn about
candidate’s past behavior at work
 Understand what they “did” not “would do”
 Specific questions for specific jobs
 Focus on important aspects in this job
 First-impression management

5. Step 1 Understand the job
 Review the job description
 Decide what the job requires
 Focus the interview questions only on
critical aspects of the work

6. Step 2 Write behavioral questions
 Describe a job-related scenario that
relates to a critical aspect of the work.
 Describe in detail actual events that have
occurred on the job, or
 Describe in more general terms situations
that routinely happen on the job.

7. Step 2 Typical Interview Question
Please tell me a little about how you
would handle several projects at one
time.

8. Step 2
Behavioral Interview Question
This job requires the employee to manage
several projects during the same time frame.
Tell us about a time when you were required
to complete multiple assignments in the
same time period. How did you handle the
situation?
Please be specific about the number of
assignments, the actions you took, and the
result.

9. Step 2 Typical Interview Question
How do you handle conflict at work?

10. Step 2
Behavioral Interview Question
As in most organizations, sometimes
conflicts come up with a customer or
with a co-worker. Please tell us about a
time when you encountered a conflict at
work and you helped to resolve it. What
was the conflict, how did you address
it, and what was the outcome?

11. Step 3 Create a rating scale
1- 5 scale and define criteria for each rating
Rating of 5 assigned when candidate’s response shows
extensive aptitude for resolving differences.
Key behaviors included should include:
 Directed discussion toward identifying common interests
and possible solutions;
 Involved all parties in development of alternatives that
fulfilled their interests and needs;
 Helped all parties understand the key issues from others’
perspective; and,
 Resolved the differences in a way that each person felt his
or her concerns were respected and addressed.

12. Step 3 Create a rating scale
1- 5 scale and define criteria for each rating
Rating of 3 assigned when candidate’s response shows
adequate aptitude for resolving differences. Key behaviors
demonstrated should include:
 Listened to all parties and impartially re-stated and
acknowledged all positions,
 Clearly identified areas of agreement and
disagreement, and focused on those issues in need of
resolution,
 Identified and collected all necessary information relevant
to the differences, and
 Identified circumstances necessary for a successful
resolution to occur.

13. Step 3 Create a rating scale
1- 5 scale and define criteria for each rating
Rating of 1 assigned when candidate’s response shows little
skill or success in resolving differences. Key behaviors
demonstrated may include:
 Does not appear to have considered all positions equally;
 Made little attempt at unbiased mediation of the
differences in opinion; and/or,
 Allowed differing parties to “work it out among
themselves.”

14. Step 4 Educate Interviewers
 Teach the interviewers about the
advantages of behavioral interviewing
 Use the same interviewers for all
interviews in a job
 Make sure the interviewers take notes
 Compare candidates to the scale, not to
each other

15. Structure the Interview
 Use behavioral interview questions
 Rate each answer using a scale
 Train interviewers to take notes
 Remember the limits of an interview

16. Week 1 - High Costs of Hiring –
Pressure to “get it right”
SAMPLE CALCULATION
a) Number of Employees 2011 100
b) Estimated placements in 2011
# of hires or placements 15
c) Average Turnover Rate 15%
=b/a
d) Average Annual Salary $ 40,000
e) Average cost per placement 25%
% of salary
f) Cost of Placements 2011 $150,000
= (.25 X d) X b

17. TRUE or FALSE?
48% OF NEW HIRES FAIL TO MEET
TARGETS WITHIN 18 MONTHS

18. Week 1 – Costs of Hiring
impact business results
 Turnover rate
 Number of hires in a year
 Time to learn job / ramp up
 Time to hire / time positions vacant
 The hiring process itself (efficient vs.
inefficient)
 Average salary

19. Hiring is hard!
FEW NEW HIRES BECOME HIGH
PERFORMERS

20. Don’t Believe Everything
You Read!
MANY RESUMES CONTAIN
ERRONEOUS INFORMATION

21. … even on LinkedIn!
 46% Profiles out of date
 10% Career info embellished
 30% Don’t know people in their network

22. TRUE or FALSE?
DECISIONS BASED ON Validity Source of candidate information
INTERVIEWS HAVE
1.0
ABOUT THE SAME
0.9
SUCCESS RATE AS
0.8
FLIPPING A COIN
0.7 Cognitive Ability + Behavioral / Personality .67
Cognitive Ability + Structured Interview .63
0.6 Cognitive Ability + Work Sample .60
Work Sample Tests .54
0.5
Cognitive tests .51
Structured Interviews .51
Job Knowledge .48
0.4
Personality Test .40
0.3 References .26
Unstructured Interviews .18
0.2
Years of Job Experience .18
0.1 Years of Education .10
Interests .10

23. Week 2
Trust me…
Experience ≠ Success on the Job

24. Better (and Faster) Hiring
 Clarify requirements and needs of the job
 Be clear on what the job is and is not
(don’t use a moving target or “figure it out later” approach)
 A Job Description is useful!
 Analyze top performers
 Apply objective process first, then more
subjective criteria later
 Reduce reliance on the resume - self-reported, subjective
 Understand limitations of resumes and interviews
 Look for “natural” talents and abilities; skills can be taught
 Structure interview
 Behaviorally-based questions – example of when candidate did X
 Take notes, rate responses
 If there are personality “quirks”, don’t think you will change or “fix” the person later –
consider how important or unimportant - be honest
** Bonus – when hiring, help managers plan entire process (schedule upfront)
– use key human capital metrics to improve results

25. Think like Southwest and Apple…
even if you are small.
Figure out what makes your stars shine
Select people with star skills and abilities
Train employees
Companies with formal training programs
financially outperform their competitors
Create an “agile” workforce

26. Instead of experience…
 Use technology to save time and money
 Add science to the process
 Pay attention if your gut says, “No!”
 Dig deeper if your gut says, “Best ever!”
 Use data, not self-reports

27. Week 3
Structure the Interview
 Use behavioral interview questions
 Rate each answer using a scale
 Train interviewers to take notes
 Remember the limits of an interview

28. Better Hiring Impacts
Business Results
50%
10%

29. Affintus
Great people data. Great business results.
paula@affintus.com | Paula A. Soileau, CPA | 866-429-4351
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©2012 Affintus, LLC