Behavioral Interview Questions Reduce Expensive Employee Turnover
No decision is more crucial to the success of your business than the people you hire
, so consider carefully the challenge you face in your job interviews.
You talk with someone you've probably just met for an hour or two - maybe less. Your objective is to get the information you need for a decision that can have a major impact on the profitability of your business, your career and daily work life, the life of the applicant as well as your legal costs.
The unique demands of the behavioral job interview are that a lot of weight's riding on a relatively brief period of time. It's essential that you get the maximum relevant information during your hiring interviews in the minimum amount of time.
No decision is more crucial to the success of your business than the people you hire because hiring the wrong applicant is expensive - in both money and morale: The costs of expensive mistakes and repairing the damage before the problem's discovered. The costs of expensive personnel turnover, finding replacements, and bringing them up to speed. The costs of inefficiencies when people aren't truly working as a team.
More than any other single area of your business, hiring decisions mean the difference between controlling expenses or making costly mistakes.
You've probably had the experience of someone working for you who's not quite bad enough to fire, but their performance is far short of what your business needs to be successful. And they stay - sometimes for years - because the cost of finding and training a replacement's time consuming and expensive... and you're just too busy.
Or an employee who brings to your organization a toxic attitude that drains the morale of coworkers - an attitude that makes for bad teamwork costing time and energy for people to deal with. These are problems you can help stop before they start with the right type of interview techniques.
People who create good teams are first and foremost good behavioral interviewers, because the key to building your own career is to build your staff with quality people.
Behavioral Interviews Aren't Typical Work Settings
One of the big challenges you face is that hiring interviews aren't your usual work settings. Without planning and skill on the part of the interviewer, applicants tend to show how they do in an interview - not necessarily how they'll do on the job. Candidates also bring their own objective to the interview. Giving you the answers they think you want to hear.
Today's labor market is very sophisticated. There are hundreds of books and tapes on the market that teach people how to out-interview the interviewer. The best people you'll interview will have studied these books and practiced what they're going to tell you.
Be a Savvy Interviewer
Job candidates have become very savvy about interview skills - and you need to be as well! Studies have shown that between a quarter and a third of all job candidates misrepresent their work history.
You need good interview questions - behavioral questions that are penetrating and get past the candidate's rehearsed answers - together with an efficient interview strategy to sift fact from statements and judge the true level of their motivation.
In the unique circumstances of the job interview where so much money's riding on the short period of time you have to evaluate the applicant, you need to bring as much objectivity to the process as possible and interview in a manner that keeps you out of trouble with the law.
You Must Interview Legally
Many commonly asked hiring questions are illegal. It's essential that to know what you can ask and how to document the answers to avoid lawsuits.
Over seventy percent of discrimination complaints result from the hiring interview. Legal fees to defend yourself if a discrimination case goes to court start at $30,000 - even if you prevail!
In the new legal climate that exists around hiring, job interviews are no longer something you can just 'Do by the seat of your pants' without possibly leaving yourself open to expensive lawsuits . An inadvertently asked question that may have a friendly intent, such as "What's your husband's occupation?" can cost your company thousands of dollars.
The Three Goals of the Behavioral Job Interview
An experienced hiring interviewer knows an applicant's ability to do the job is only one of the goals of the interview. The second area you need to determine is their motivation - how dedicated they'll be.
There's a world of difference between being able to do the job, and being motivated and dedicated to doing an outstanding job. What does their motivation say about how long they'll stay with your company?
Most Workers Don't Underperform or Leave Jobs Because They Lack Ability
They lose motivation when the work environment or management style isn't a good fit for them. For a successful hire you need to determine manageability - how they'll accept your direction, criticism and feedback. So much of the day to day tension on the job revolves around this critically important area. A person can be willing and able, but if they're unmanageable you're going to have problems.
Meeting these three goals of the behavioral hiring interview - determining ability, motivation and manageability - requires preparation to get a balanced, systematic coverage of each candidate.
Ability, which includes skills and knowledge can generally be arrived at in the most straight forward manner. Motivation and manageability are more difficult to determine because everyone will tell you in a job interview they'll work hard and follow directions.
You need well crafted behavioral job interview questions and know how to use them to get past the job seeker's facade for the information you really want.
This is the first of a series of articles providing you proven behavioral job interview questions and hiring techniques that yield the maximum information in the shortest amount of time.
by: Steve Penny
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