What interview questions to test a candidate's behavior?

In the recruitment interview process, reliability and effectiveness are crucial factors. The credibility of information provided by candidates significantly influences the hiring decisions of HR personnel or managers. An effective method to achieve this is by using Behavioral Event Interviewing (BEI), where interviewers ask questions based on stories, guiding candidates to provide clear and transparent descriptions of their past experiences.

To ensure a successful recruitment interview, the most important aspect is that questions must be precise and reliable to enhance confidence in the final decision. Additionally, applying a structured interview process and steps is essential for maintaining the high performance of the process.

Facing these challenges, Aniday introduces two main management tools to address each issue, serving as the key to optimizing the interview process.

1. Behavioral Event Interviewing (BEI)

Research indicates that using this method increases reliability from 14% in traditional interview methods to 55% in BEI. (This will be explained and detailed in the article).

2. Structured Interview

Interviewers follow a similar structured interview model to evaluate each job seeker for the same position, doubling the effectiveness compared to unstructured interviews. (This section will be detailed in the next article).

What is Behavioral Event Interviewing (BEI)?

In the recruitment interview process, finding suitable talent primarily focuses on recruiting goals based on "performance." To assess whether candidates meet performance requirements, the reliability of the information they provide needs verification. Using tools like Behavioral Event Interviewing in a business context can increase the reliability of predicting a job seeker's "performance" (increasing from 14% to 55% compared to traditional interview methods).

For example: There is a person, Truong, who has consistently been late for twenty years. When asking questions about participation in an event, such as a monthly meeting, interviewers often rely on past behavioral patterns to predict. This method emphasizes the "reliability" of Behavioral Event Interviewing, with an increase from 14% to 55%.

Further analysis revolves around the relationship between "action" and job performance. In Behavioral Event Interviewing, focusing on "action" helps predict performance better than other factors like "thinking" or "speaking." Attention to event behavior, as in questions about business meetings, creates more reliable predictions (55% compared to 14% in traditional interviews). This highlights the fairness and authenticity of the Behavioral Event Interviewing method.

Collecting Important Performance Behaviors

Behavioral Event Interviewing, originally a tool for psychological experts to assess and test psychology, has been applied in business reality by using a series of questions to gather detailed information about candidates' behavior in real situations.

Questions are organized in the 5W1H structure, helping determine the time, place, people involved, and how candidates handled the situation. The goal is to test the relevance of past behavior to specific job requirements.

Specific examples include:

- When: When did the event take place?

- Where: What was the location and main process?

- Why: What was your main task?

- Who: Who was involved? Customers? Colleagues? Managers?

- How: What actions did you take? Did you take any measures?

- What: What was the final result?

During the interview process, asking accurate and clear questions about experiences is crucial. Before the interview, both the interviewer and the job seeker should prepare questions by identifying necessary skills for the job, estimating important behavior, and designing relevant questions.

Include additional questions such as:

- Did you succeed? Why or why not?

- What was the biggest challenge you faced, and how did you overcome it?

- What did you learn from that experience?

- If given a chance to redo, how would you handle it?

- How did your manager evaluate the situation?

Posing "positive," "negative," and "clarifying" questions helps better understand the candidate's past behavior. In summary, this method requires thorough preparation from both sides to create a highly effective interview.

How Bach Lu Chooses a Horse for a Thousand Miles

In recent years, optimizing the business recruitment interview process through collecting Important Performance Behaviors has become increasingly important, not only for Foxconn but also for McDonald's and Google. During the recruitment for the position of "Deputy General Manager," Foxconn presented a series of crucial questions:

1. Knowledge about Foxconn:

   Explain your knowledge about Foxconn.

2. Motivation to Join the "Deputy General Manager" Team

   Clearly state your motivation for wanting to join the "Deputy General Manager" team.

3. Experience and Achievements in the Past:

   How has your academic/work process and achievements influenced your development in the "Deputy General Manager" team?

4. Career Development Plan

   If given the opportunity to join the "Deputy General Manager" team, how do you plan to develop your career?

5. Achievements and Certifications

   If you have outstanding achievements or professional certifications, please summarize or provide relevant information.

6. Positive Member Image in the Team

   In your opinion, what factors should a positive team member in the "Deputy General Manager" team have to maximize performance? Why?

7. Advice for Chairman Terry Gou

   If given the chance to meet Chairman Terry Gou, what "advice" would you give?

8. Management Experience and Learning from Failure

   In the past, in managing businesses or executing projects, have you faced any failures or unsuccessful experiences? What have you learned from those experiences?

9. Successful Leadership Experience in Business Development

   Summarize the most successful experience in leading business development. Highlight positive aspects of Important Performance Behavior to understand how the candidate contributed to business development and verify against the requirements of the "Deputy General Manager."

McDonald's and Google also focus on the Behavioral method in the hiring process. Here are some important questions:

• Have you worked or participated in any field before? Why did you decide to end that work relationship?

• Have you ever faced responsibilities of independent work? What field are you specialized in?

• In the process of performing similar tasks over an extended period, have you felt comfortable? What is your strength compared to others?

• In projects or activities you have participated in, is there a particular task you liked or left a deep impression?

• In your previous job, if faced with the need to perform different tasks or travel suddenly, how did you demonstrate coordination? How did you handle that situation?

• Have you had experience working in a team?

Additionally, when assessing candidate capabilities at Google, the most important factor is the Behavioral method. The main questions for candidates are: "What experiences have you had in the past?" - "In the future, what do you want to achieve?" - "Only when there is no experience do we consider your academic background."

Hope this article from Aniday is helpful to you!