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Hire the Best Staff - Part Two 'Selection'

Written by: Jerry Hemmerling

Article Overview: "Hire the Best Staff" is Part Two 'Selection' in an integrated approach to human resources management. Behavioral interviewing will help identify qualified candidates that 'fit' your organization. People that fit well are more productive. Part Three 'Involvement'. Part Four 'Development'. Part Five 'Compensation'.

Hire the Best Staff - Part Two 'Selection'

Use behavioral interviewing in hiring ...

The premise of behavioral interviewing is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Behavioral interviews are well supported. I read at CareerJournal.com, the Wall Street Journal Executive Career Site, that “consultants estimate that at least one-fourth of interviewers are using the approach, and the numbers are increasing.”

One interview tool is the SkilAnalyzer from Behavioral Technology Inc, Memphis TN. It’s a two-step process for each position title. First you determine the top job performance skills and then select among interview questions [probes] that test those skills. It may take four hours to write an interview for your first position, much less after that. There are other resources available, however this method offers an integrated approach and relative ease of use.

Here’s How

Partner one half-hour with someone familiar with the position to evaluate the job. Your evaluation will rank twenty-one job performance skills. Order the skills and likely there's a cluster at the top. Each performance skill has eight sample probe questions and evaluation criteria. A one-hour interview could hold four questions; a longer interview or screening interview may be useful.

Some say it's their hardest interview. I give instructions and ask my least important probe first to get it going. Then I’m quiet as candidates tell what feels right to them. A candidate may skip a question, but eventually every question must be answered in a story; describing who, when, where and so on, such as this selection for ‘Coping’:

Q: 'Tell me about a high stress situation when it was desirable for you to keep a positive attitude. What happened?'

A: "The TelMat buyer surprised the Service Line with a big order Saturday, but only if we could ship it before Thursday. I couldn't commit on my own, so ...."

The response is evaluated down to the question. Behavioral Technology Inc facilitates the evaluation with guides to specific language in the response. Many internet resources suggest interviewers and candidates both focus on STAR; namely Situation or Task, Action Taken, and Result or Outcome. At the Mississippi State Personnel Board this means, “the interviewer expects an answer to a behavioral question to specifically describe a situation or task relevant to the question, to clearly express the action taken, and to succinctly summarize a result or outcome. The STAR process provides a useful frame for considering the worth of an answer.”

These evaluations tie the candidate back to the job skills. I believe the best method to pick the best candidates is also the easiest and most objective; a table with the candidates down the side and job skill evaluations across the top. The methods we reviewed had this in common.

Summary

Behavioral interviews will match candidate and corporate expectations.
Candidate answers should demonstrate aptitude for the position.
People that 'fit' well and develop their tools are more productive.

Behavioral interviews will help identify qualified candidates that 'fit' your organization. An integrated approach to behavioral interviews creates a hiring atmosphere encouraging objective evaluation to the job skills, an HR prerequisite.

Coaching

Here's another good article about behavioral interviewing:
http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/interviewing/19980129-vogt.html

Visit Novations, now merged with Behavioral Technology, Inc, or the Mississippi State Personnel Board guide:
http://www.bt.novations.com/
http://www.spb.state.ms.us/_rootlnk/behavin.pdf

~o~

Copyright © 2002-2008 OP!DEV ®, All Rights Reserved

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Article Tags: behavioral interviewing, behavioral interviews, behavioral technology, evaluation criteria, executive career, first position, half hour, interview questions, interviewers, performance skill, performance skills, position title, positive attitude, premise, probe questions, probes, screening interview, technology inc, top job, wall street journal



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