Behaviour Based Interview Checklist

Behavioural based interviewing is the scientific way of interviewing that more and more companies and organisations are using in their hiring process. The basic premise behind behavioural interviewing is that the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in a similar situation. It provides a more objective set of facts to make employment decisions than other interviewing methods. Traditional interview questions ask you general questions such as “Tell me about yourself.” The process of behavioural interviewing is much more probing, realistic, objective driven and works very differently with high efficiency.

Most often, the interviewers seldom prepare and the thought is that it is for the candidate to prepare and not me. The Behaviour interview starts with preparation.
· Prepare by understanding the job role and responsibilities
· Prepare by understanding the work environmental challenges in that team or department
· Prepare by understanding the other people with whom this candidate is expected to work closely
· Prepare by understanding the possible career path that the candidate can expect to grow
· Prepare by understanding the application and resume of the candidate
· Prepare by understanding the personality of the candidate in terms of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours (you surely need psychometric help in order to be objective and to remove individual bias)
· Prepare by understanding the active and inactive competencies in the individual
· Prepare by understanding the environmental influences on the individual due to his past conditioning
· Prepare a candidates competency SWOT before you start to interview if you wish to be objective and remove any subjective bias
· Now prepare a set of questions specific to this individual candidate so as to enable a better understanding of this candidate with respect to what is expected in that job role
· Prepare not to ask the same question like a parrot to every candidate unless you have valid reason
· Prepare not to get carried away by natural masks people wear to make impressions (psychometrics help in the unmasking process)

Right person for the right job is a difficult choice without getting to know the inner mind of the candidates. People mask their behaviour all the time and more so during interviews. Selecting people for technical skills or knowledge alone does not guarantee success. Use the latest cutting tools in behavioural sciences to get a thorough understanding of the attitudes, thinking styles, core competencies and personality patterns before you make the costly decision to hire. To improve performance and reduce attrition, you need to tackle the cause, the root-cause – the selection.