One of the biggest conundrums we face in the hiring process is interviewing. While interviews are crucial for getting to know and vetting job candidates, they aren’t always great at showing us how people might perform in the workplace. Traditional interview questions that ask interviewees to state facts about themselves can help gauge experience. But we have to dig deeper with behavioral interviewing to find out how people interact with others and get their work done on a daily basis.
The key to behavioral interviewing is asking open-ended questions about past performance and accomplishments. If candidates answer these questions generally, you can follow up with more probing questions to identify the specifics of the situations. This also makes it difficult for candidates to provide you with canned responses, so the answers you get end up speaking more honestly to their work habits.
Behavioral questions can include:

  • How did you create a plan or lead this task/project?
  • How did you gain buy-in and support from others on this project?
  • What challenges did you face?
  • What did you learn from this? How did you grow/develop?

Watch Episode 07 of Transform Your Workplace

BONUS: See Behavioral interviewing in action