Behavioral interviews: what are they and tips for preparing them

Behavioral interviews are practical tools in the process of recruiting and attracting talent. In fact, they are considered by many experts to be among the best techniques for predicting job performance.   

The success of finding the ideal candidate for a job depends not only on whether they have the experience and skills necessary to assume their new responsibilities but also on whether they have the necessary potential to achieve and add up to outstanding achievements in the company throughout their professional development. 

Behavioral interviews help to be more effective in selection processes. Hence, it is interesting that you know exactly what they are, what models exist, and how you can do them correctly to get the most out of them.

What is a behavioral interview?

The behavioral interview is a type of assessment that can be applied in different areas and is based on a series of questions focused on the behavior of the interviewee concerning their experiences to reveal their potential or to detect problematic behaviors which they may incur. 

Thanks to this technique, you can learn about the candidate’s skills, potential, and their level of affinity with your company’s culture. 

The behavioral questions in a job interview essentially revolve around three aspects which, through contextualized behaviors described by the interviewee, it is intended to delve into: 

1. Technical or challenging skills. 
2. Interpersonal skills. 
3. Values. 

In these interviews, you can propose questions of the following type: 

• On what recent occasion have you felt satisfaction?
• How did you solve communication problems with someone who did not understand you?
• What method do you use to organize work on different projects simultaneously? 
• What do you do if you disagree with your boss?

In any case, the battery of questions should be determined before the interview to enhance the results, as we will see below. 

Why do employers use behavioral interviews?

Employers use behavioral interviews because of their high predictive value in assessing a candidate’s future performance. 

As we have just mentioned, by being able to observe how the person performs in real situations, it is possible to obtain a more accurate view of what can be expected of him or her in similar future contexts. 

In short, it is a way of assessing a candidate’s consistency in applying his or her skills in certain circumstances. 

This type of interview makes it possible to assess skills such as critical thinking, communication, teamwork and problem-solving, all of which are essential in today’s highly fluctuating markets. 

On the other hand, these interviews are particularly useful to detect whether or not the candidate will fit in with the company’s values. 

Common Behavioral Interview Topics

The topics that are usually covered in a behavioral interview are those that will allow us to detect whether the candidate has the necessary skills considered strategic for the position, beyond knowledge or technical preparation.

For this reason, the interview usually focuses on the following topics:

Leadership

Leadership skills are not only necessary for managing teams.

Evaluators analyze them because, as a general rule, a candidate with leadership has initiative and focuses on problem-solving in critical contexts.

In other words, this type of profile puts their interpersonal skills at the service of achieving the objectives set.

On the other hand, the questions on this subject make it easier to go deeper into what are the stimuli that motivate these people in adverse situations.

Teamwork and conflict resolution

Knowing how to work in a team is one of the great needs of today’s companies, especially those that must face volatile and changing markets.

This explains why some of the questions in a behavioral interview revolve around this issue with the aim of analyzing how the person has collaborated with colleagues or how he/she has resolved differences at specific moments.

He thinks that managing to overcome stressful situations without escalating them is a determining skill in crisis contexts at work.

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Problem solving

Another important dimension analyzed in the behavioral interviews is precisely the ability to solve problems.

To do so successfully, the candidate requires skills such as critical thinking, flexibility or the ability to remain calm even in times of great pressure.

Time management

Knowing how to organize oneself, prioritize tasks, or prioritize them simultaneously is a skill that is sought after in these interviews.

This is because having work teams that know how to manage the workload without compromising quality is necessary to increase competitiveness and meet the great challenges of today.

List of frequently asked questions for behavioral job interviews 

Now that you know the topics that are usually covered in a behavioral interview, we would like to give you some examples of questions that you can ask to evaluate specific skills of the candidate:

• Leadership.

To assess the candidate’s leadership ability and integrity, you can ask questions such as “Can you describe a situation in which you had to get consensus from your team?” or “Have you ever had to choose between ethics and meeting objectives?”.

• Teamwork.

If you want to go deeper into the person’s teamwork skills, you can ask him/her to tell you about how he/she acted in a moment of conflict with a colleague and what he/she learned from that experience.

• Problem-solving and creativity.

Here, you can ask the person to give you an example of a problem he/she had to solve in a high-pressure situation. Delve into how he or she managed the stress and how he or she found the solution.

Alternatively, ask, “Do you remember a time when you proposed an innovative solution and the impact it had on the company or a particular project?”

• Time management.

Time management can be assessed in this type of interview with questions such as “Can you describe a situation where you had to change your priorities because of an emergency? How did you manage it?” or “Have you had to extend a project deadline? What happened?”.

One of the measures you can take to avoid contrast bias in recruitment is to create an interview script with exactly the same questions for all candidates. In this way, you will facilitate a level playing field.

Types for behavioral interviews

The structure of behavioral interviews can be adapted to different models or methodologies, whose choice depends on the objectives to be achieved. 

Companies usually opt for structured selection processes. That is, their content is programmed and can be objectively evaluated in its entirety in a way that ensures a level playing field for all candidates.

We will talk about 2 of the behavioral models most commonly used by agencies and Human Resources (HR) departments. HH.

Behavioral Description Interview or Janz interview

These interviews, known as BDI -Behavior Description Interviews- or also as SBI -Structured Behavioral Interviews-, make it easier for the candidate to focus on past events. The expected responses follow the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method or the CAR (Context, Action, Result) method.

They can focus on a critical incident or a rewarding accomplishment from the candidate’s experience that allows you to intuit how the candidate will perform in the future. 

Situational or Latham Interviewing

The situational interview or SI focuses on proposing a hypothetical situation to the candidate in the present and observing how they respond to it to predict their behavior.

How to prepare for behavioral interviews like Structured Behavioral Interview?

The Structured Behavioral Interview (SBI) for personnel selection, on which we will focus, puts the focus on the candidate’s skills, attitude, and affinity with the organization’s culture. 

For the process to be a success, you must respect a series of rules that begin with a thorough analysis of your company’s needs and with the identification of their key experiences.

Here are 5 factors you should focus on in this type of interview. 

Behavioral interview questions

All questions must be able to be answered concretely and provide the necessary information to predict the candidate’s possible behavior. 

In order to be as effective as possible, you need to proceed to a detailed analysis of the skills and abilities, as well as the attitudes you are looking to complete based on the responsibilities of the position. 

Keep in mind that inexperienced candidates may apply, so you should plan a reformulation for those profiles. 

A level playing field for all candidates

You must ask the same questions in the same order to all the people who apply for the selection process; only then can you compare their answers without deviations from the beginning. 

Evaluation of the behavioral-based interviews

To evaluate the interview, you can use a performance evaluation measurement scale such as the one offered by the BARS scale -Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale- which allows you to identify different dimensions or specific skills like communication skills. 

In this way, you will be able to establish a scale for a series of expected behaviors at a precise level of performance. This makes it easier for you to place the behaviors described by the candidate and to score them. 

The need for trained interviewers

Behavioral interviews must be conducted by qualified professionals familiar with the interviewing technique and trained to analyze the results obtained. 

In an ideal context, there is only one interviewer to ensure the same conditions and the same treatments to the participants. 

If the same person cannot be used to conduct the interviews, you must create a script that all must strictly respect. 

It is essential that the interviewers do not exchange opinions about the candidates until the interview round is over. 

You can set up mock interview sessions where you simulate the real conditions of the interview, and you can work on communication in the presentation, the effectiveness of the questions and body language.

Decision-making

In order to limit subjective and hasty judgments, do not make any decisions until all steps of the evaluation process have been completed. Otherwise, you may be influenced by the circumstances of the moment instead of being guided by the study’s results.

Behavioral interviewing tips to avoid the most common pitfalls

 Finally, although we have been offering advice throughout the article, we would like to conclude by sharing 5 last recommendations with you:

1. Avoid vague questions. The better elaborated the questions are, the better you will be able to evaluate the candidate. If they are too vague, the answers will be just as vague.
2. Provide clear instructions. The evaluee must understand the type of answers that are being asked. You can explain, for example, what the STAR or CAR methods we mentioned a few lines ago consist of.
3. Do not focus only on negative or challenging episodes. Look for a balance between negative and positive situations. In this way, you will be able to get a more complete picture of their skills and behavioral tendencies.
4. Invite candidates to quantify their actions. Asking for concrete results in some of the initiatives in which the candidate has participated helps you understand the impact of their decisions in their previous positions. It also conveys other information about their skills such as analytical spirit.
5. Create secure environments for your remote assessments. Trust is necessary for a successful behavioral interview, so it is essential that, when it is remote, the candidate knows that his or her privacy is protected.

As you have seen in this article, the success of behavioral interviews lies in good initial preparation, having the right professionals and objectively analyzing the answers. 

Our proctoring products can help you achieve this while respecting your privacy and that of the candidates. 

Request a free demo to learn more about improving your recruitment processes and getting the most out of them.

Updated on 11/10/2024

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