How do I make sure I hire the right person? Behavioural Based Interviews
1. What's the Job?
1. What's the Job?
Firstly you need to know the requirements of the job i.e. what knowledge, skills and experience are required to successfully perform the role. You need to specify those areas in a Position Description.
Knowledge The information you need someone to know about e.g. general understanding of your industry
Consider whether qualifications are required
Skills The abilities required e.g. computer skills
Experience Be careful to make this relevant to the job. Experience in customer service may be essential but don't say you want someone with 2 years customer service experience just because that sounds appealing.
2. Documentation
You then need to translate those requirements into an interview questionnaire. A lot of people don't keep adequate records. You don't just need the person's name with a tick or cross. You need to include what questions you asked, their answers and any questions they asked you and your answers.
If you do this properly it will:
Cover you if there are any claims of discrimination about who you hired and who you declined because you can show that the person you chose had the best skills, knowledge and experience.
Ensure that you asked ALL applicants the same questions which means you can make a decision based on ALL relevant information
Help you remember the details of the interview and exactly what was said by each person
Help you work out what you need to confirm in a reference check
Help you decide upon the best person
Help you work out areas you may need to focus on in their training
3. Interview Logistics
Another key area that is often overlooked is the location and tone of the interview. Gone are the days where a drink down the local and a handshake equal good hiring practices. Even if you have been a Sole Trader working from home and you are hiring your first person, you need to set the scene that you mean business, ensure you ask ALL necessary questions and don't make decisions based on "I liked them". Being able to get along with an employee is important, but just because they have a similar sense of humour to you or went to the same high school does not equal being the best performer in the job. You may interview them in your home or a local coffee shop because you don't have an office, but you still need to have done your prep, complete a full interview and treat the interview as an "interview" not a coffee and chat.
4. Style of Interview Behavioural Based
A behavioural based interview is not a highly technical method requiring years of training. It just requires you to understand the reasoning behind it.
Simply put, it means that our past behaviour in a given situation is the best predictor of our future behaviour in the same situation.
So, if I was a customer service representative and I had a difficult customer ring with a complaint and I was able to listen to their concerns, acknowledge their frustration, identify a solution and appease the customer I would most likely be able to do it again.
Alternatively, if I constantly interrupted the customer, told them we couldn't do anything to help them and hung up as soon as I could, I am likely to behave the same way again when I am dealing with a difficult customer.
Why are behavioural based interviews recommended?
Behavioural based interviews are highly effective because it means the applicant has to give you examples of their skills.
Think about this way. If you wanted to assess someone's ability to provide good customer service you could ask them "What do you think good customer service involves?" Let's be honest, most people know what they should say and will tell you what you want to hear, after all they are at an interview trying to get the job so they'll give you a textbook theory on customer service.
If you wanted to see if they can actually apply the knowledge they have about customer service you should ask something like "Can you tell me about a time when you delivered exceptional customer service?" This means you will quickly see whether they can do what they say they can do. It also allows you to see what they think "good or exceptional" customer service is. It can mean different things to different people. They may think giving a disgruntled customer a freebie to make them go away is good customer service whereas you may think understanding the customer's concerns and addressing those issues is good customer service.
5. Get The Info!
A lot of the time people do not give you actual information you need to assess them properly. They either tend to talk generally and don't tell you exactly what they did and may even use terms such as "we" rather than "I", so you can't tell whether they did it or it was a team effort or their supervisor took over.
The other thing to remember is that people get nervous in interviews and tend to tell the story with lots of emphasis on explaining the situation and letting you know it turned out OK and forget to give you the details on their contribution to the good outcome.
Think of your questions covering this structure:
S Situation
A Action, what they did
O Outcome
You want a brief situation and outcome explanation, with lots of action detail.
6. Question Structure
This means most of the questions you ask in an interview should have 4 documented parts to them.
a) The overall question i.e. "Can you tell me about a time when you delivered exceptional customer service?"
b) Then specifically "What was the situation?" = S
c) "What did you do?" = A
d) "How did it turn out?" = O
As mentioned earlier you need to document the questions you asked and their answers. You can have an interview template prepared with all these questions and leave space for their answers. Use it with each applicant you interview.
7. Drill down
Even when you make sure you ask questions in this structure you may still need to drill down further into the detail of the action section. Use questions like:
So what did you specifically say?
What did the customer say?
How did you respond?
How did you say it?
Can you give me a script of the conversation you had?
What exactly did you do?
When you get this sort of detail you can be sure you are able to assess whether someone has the ability to provide good customer service.
It may seem like a lot of effort when you could just have a chat with a few people and go with your gut feeling but considering an incorrect choice can cost up to 1.5 times the salary of that role.
Think about what is involved in hiring someone. There's the money and time involved in advertising, reading applications, interviewing, reference checking, training and then if there's problems you will not only spend time trying to address those issues, it may impact directly on your business when it comes to customers, service, products, delivery etc.
And if you get it wrong, you go through it all over again! So is it worth doing a little prep before launching into seeing people? Absolutely!
Kylie Dickman
Owner
Virtual Bliss Your Virtual Assistant
PS. You should also consider what values or attitudes are essential in order to work with you successfully. For example think about your company's image, whether you need someone who is innovative or traditional in their thinking and approach to working. If this is in conflict you could be in store for problems.
How do I make sure I hire the right person? Behavioural Based Interviews
By: Kylie Dickman
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