Behavioral Based Interviewing Discriminates Against Your Target Market
By Michelle Malay Carter on November 26, 2007
Yes, behavioral based interviewing is an exceptional way to clarify a candidate?s experience and to gain a view into their values and preferences, and as such, it has a place in the interviewing process; however, it is not a tool for predicting potential.
The premise behind behavioral interviewing is that the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in similar situations. An understanding of work levels and problem solving capability disclaims this premise.
Behavioral Based Interviewing Discriminates Against Underutilized Employees
When candidates are restricted to talking about what they have done in the past, their ability to prove themselves is bounded by their past opportunities. We know 20% of employees are underutilized. Most people who have a job but are seeking another are likely from this underutilized population, as they are searching for a more challenging role, i.e. a role in the next higher level of work. Herein lies the catch-22, how can a candidate prove s/he can handle more complex work when s/he has never had an opportunity to do any, and your interviewing model will not allow to solve problems ?hypothetically??
Most Candidates Have a Script
With behavioral interviewing being the predominant interviewing model, most candidates come prepared with a script. I can?t imagine anyone interviewing without a script for explaining about a time when they solved a customer complaint, led a team, worked through a difficult situation with a co-worker, overcame an obstacle, failed, created a new way of doing things?.
The Key is Problem Solving – We Hire People To Think Not Recite
The result of the use of scripts is that you end up verifying that a candidate can create a script based on a past experience, but you may still not know if they problem solve at the level of complexity called for by the role. You don?t know how they solve emergent problems. I could recite the strategies that led to the victory of World War II, but could I have conceived of them?
How to be More Successful Matching Candidates to Roles
In addition to asking the behavioral-based questions you have been trained to ask, I urge you to include some future-oriented problem solving questions related to the most complex tasks of role and, quite simply, see if you are satisfied with the answer. In other words, do they have the potential to do the job? This is another, well-duh, piece of advice I know, but how many of you hiring managers are told you are NOT allowed to ask ?hypothetical? questions?
Yes, I know, saying you can do something and actually doing it are two different things, just as writing the plan is not proof one can execute the plan. However, you run the same risk in reverse with behavioral based interviewing. Saying you did something is not the same as doing all the thinking behind what was done. When someone was involved in a project and recites the history of the project, it is difficult to judge how many of the problems solved along the way were due to their thinking or another?s.
Do You Conduct Behavioral Interviewing and Then Choose with your Gut?
When it?s all said and done, you are making a judgment when you hire someone. Behavioral based interviewing is necessary but not sufficient to judge a candidate?s suitability for a role. Hence, I am proposing that you will be able to make the most informed judgment using a combination of behavioral-based and future-oriented problem-solving questions related to the role.
I suspect many managers follow their pre-determined behavioral interviewing process to satisfy HR, and then find a way to hire the candidate who their gut says can do the job, even if that candidate doesn?t have the requisite experience or the ?right? education.
Share Your Story
Have you ever manipulated a dysfunctional interviewing system in order to hire a candidate you knew could do the job? Have you ever had to hire an inferior candidate because your preferred candidate did not meet overly strict criteria? Please share. What were the results?
I?m OK. You?re OK. Let?s fix the system.
Filed Under Employee Engagement, High Potential, Managerial Leadership, Requisite Organization, Talent Management
Comments
9 Responses to “Behavioral Based Interviewing Discriminates Against Your Target Market”
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I agree with your points on scripted candidates, and the need to see problem solving skills not just people who can recite. What’s also needed for interviewers are skills to drill down and ask unewxpected, opportunistic questions.
Jim
I agree about the behavioral questions and their limitations. In my experience the hiring decision typically comes down to a “gut” decision.
I have found having candidates prepare a presentation that they bring to the interview adds valuable information and gives the interviewer another dimension of the candidate. In addition, having developed a presentation, the candidate is well prepared for the interview.
Jim – Yes, unexpected questions are the only way you can see a candidate “think on their feet.”
Eric – Yes, I think if the candidate has prepared something, it is a good sign not a negative.
Michelle
I was exposed to an interesting take on the issue of thinking on your feet versus pre-preperation. The source was an executive coach Mike Jay . He argued that the interverted intuitive does his or her work internally and doesn’t present that work publically till carefully scripted. While the extroverted intuitive, works out his or her position in the open. Mike’s thesis is that we may underassess the capacity of the introvert if we require spontanious input rather than input on a topic that is well thought out.
His argument seems credible, but we will need to collect data to test it.
Glenn,
Yes, it’s a hypothesis worth testing.
Michelle
Glenn,
It seems that an interview presentation could accomplish both by having a prepared presentation and then having the interviewer ask spontaneous questions about the content of the presentation.
Eric,
Agreed. On two occasions, where communication skill was a key component, we asked for a timed and limited length (48 hours, I recall 1,500 words) response to a relavent issue. With 13 candidates, the assessment of capability between the written respone was very close to the assessment gained from a face to face interview on different content.
Glenn
Hello Michelle, I can see how high schools and colleges can also fill a role to help students meet intellectual challenges which requires them to innovate, invent, create, design and problem solve.
For me this has been a life long activity since my parents were of low middle class means and we needed to stretch for everything. As a youngster, I built my own soap box car for instance to participate in a downhill race with my neighbors’ kids. I learned to make something out of nothing all my life. For children without these opportunities hopefully we can rely on high schools and universities to help nurture these skills before a young person enters business.
I can see where my post at Brain Based Biz on “Are You Up to Intellectual Challenges fits hand and glove with yours. Problem Solvers are made and not born and it takes time to develop that kind of mindset.
I’m glad you stopped by, Michelle because it allowed me to discover your very informational blog. Thanks.
Robyn,
Thank you for your comment and your kind words.
I believe systems drive behavior. I find it ironic that we say we want innovation and creativity, but most student testing involves filling in a bubble that reflects the right answer. This will not get you problem solving; it will get you memorization!
Regards,
Michelle