Recruiters Can Gain Insight from Open-Ended Interview Technique
When interviewing job candidates, most recruiters focus on the past, asking questions like “What were your biggest accomplishments?” or “What did you learn from that experience?” But there’s another strategy that can help HR professionals determine whether a candidate will be a good fit for the organization, especially at the executive level.
The technique is called behavioral interviewing and it focuses on how a candidate reacts when faced with a hypothetical situation. For example, a recruiter might prepare a set of financial statements for a company in distress and ask a CFO candidate what steps she would take to address the problem. On the marketing side, a potential CMO might be asked how he would launch a new cloud-based IT service or a battery-powered car.
These types of interview questions pull the candidate “off script,” and provide important insight into an individual’s ability to think quickly and clearly. Equally important, this approach can also provide an indication of the candidate’s personal values, attitudes and problem-solving ability. For instance, one CFO candidate might try to address the issues facing the hypothetical company in distress all by herself, while another might pull together a team to discuss the situation.
If these scenarios are constructed carefully in advance of the interview, they can mirror important issues now facing the organization. A nonprofit, for example, might want to increase its donor base, while a bank might want to expand its commercial lending activities. It’s also important for the scenarios to reflect organizational core values, particularly when interviewing for the C-suite. If integrity and honesty are among those values, a scenario could be constructed around an ethical problem.
In any such scenario, it’s important to give the candidate plenty of room to respond, rather than present a problem with an obvious “right-or-wrong” solution. When used appropriately, this behavioral interview technique can be one of the best ways to determine if an executive candidate is a good match for the position.
Would you like to discuss this and other ways to minimize risk in your human resources organization?Contact us today.
