Evidence-Based Interviewing: A Guide for Managers

In my last post I outlined the evidence for effective employee interviews. Utilizing evidence-based, structured interviewing techniques is proven to help hire better employees. Unstructured interviews on the other hand, typically include many questions that are not directly related to the job, allow for different questions to be asked from candidate to candidate, and cause disagreements among interviewers because they are not aligned on what a poor vs. great response is. Taken together, these weaknesses result in an interview that is no better than chance for selecting the best hire.

Hiring teams can ask candidates about their past behavior in job related situations to gain an understanding of how they would behave in the job at hand.

In this post, I’ll provide a guide to conducting a specific kind of evidence-based interview, behavioral-based interviews (BBI). BBI is based on the well supported idea that individuals’ past behavior is a good predictor of their future behavior. Thus, hiring teams can ask candidates about their past behavior in job related situations to gain an understanding of how they would behave in the job at hand. Here is a step-by-step guide for implementing BBI at your own organization.

1. Assess the job. First, you need to determine what the job involves, that is, what are the duties and tasks of the job. Ideally, this would be based off a thorough job analysis which details the duties and requirements of a specific job. Often times, however, a job analysis is not available and managers do not have time to conduct one before making a hire. In these situations, managers can still determine the duties and tasks of the job with a bit of research. O*NET is a great source for gathering detailed information about thousands of different jobs, including their required duties and tasks. Simply type the job title into the search box on O*NET’s website to get started. For example, if you were hiring for a sales manager position, you would likely find that some of the job tasks include resolving customer complaints and reviewing reports to project sales and determine profitability. If there are currently employees in the position, it is highly recommended that you get their input. They likely have the greatest insight to what is needed for the job. You can use interviews, observations, and even surveys to collect this information from them.

2. Determine the competencies needed for the job. Next, you’ll need to determine what competencies (also known as knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs)) are needed to successfully complete the duties and tasks you identified in step one. A simple Google search of ‘job competencies list’ will turn up some great resources to get you started. Check out the ones here and here. Using the sales manager example, in this step you might determine that problem solving and persuasion competencies are needed to be successful in the position. As you are researching, try to keep your competencies focused by choosing somewhere around 8 and 10. These should primarily include competencies that are needed on day one of the job versus skills that can be trained.

3. Write behavior-based interview questions. After you have determined the competencies needed for the position, you will write behavioral-based interview questions based on them. Because BBI is based on the premise that past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior, BBI questions ask interviewees to describe their past behavior pertaining to the competencies needed for the job. For example, if persuasion was determined to be an important competency for the job you might ask interviewees to, Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way. Or if problem solving skills were deemed necessary, a manager might ask interviewees to, Give a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem. There are endless resources online with great BBI questions that can be found with another quick Google search. Different BBI questions based on the same job-specific competencies should be written for each interviewer. it is essential however, that the same questions be asked across all candidates. Interviews can be conducted individually, in pairs, or in a small panel. Having at least three interviewers as part of the hiring team is recommended to ensure diversity of opinion.

4. Develop scoring scale. After you have written BBI interview questions for each of the competencies, you will need to develop a scoring scale to rate candidates’ answers. This helps to ensure alignment between interviewers and consistency across candidates. A 5-point scale is recommended as it allows anchors to be tied to each scale point. For example, you could use the following scale anchors to rate candidates’ answers: 1 – Unacceptable, 2 – Needs development, 3 – Acceptable, 4 – Advanced, 5 – Expert. Notice that the 3rd scale point represents an answer that is acceptable and indicates the candidate would be qualified for the job.   

5. Develop interview guide. Interviews can be somewhat stressful for members of the hiring team at times. They want to gather as much information as possible while making a good impression on the candidate. To smooth this interaction, ensure consistency, and that all of the necessary information is gathered, you will next want to develop an interview guide for the interviewers. An interview guide provides interviewers with information on greeting the candidate, providing them with an overview of the interview process, the BBI questions to be asked, the rating scale, and space to write the candidates’ answers. Having this guide also helps to ensure that interviewers ask questions consistently across candidates which is critical to a sound interview process. As part of this guide, you may also consider including a list of specific questions not to ask, such as those that may be discriminatory.

6. Conduct and score the interviews. Now, conduct the interviews! Let candidates know you will be asking them questions about their past behavior. It can be very helpful to ask them to use the STAR approach to answering the questions. That means to ask them to structure their answers by first telling you the situation or task (S/T), then to describe their action (A), and finally to tell you the result of their action (R). If they fail to provide you with all of the STAR steps, prompt them with additional questions to gather all of the information needed (e.g., Can you tell me more about what the result of your action was?). Asking candidates to structure their answers in this way will ensure that interviewers are able to gather the information they need to make a judgement about each candidate. Interviewers should first score the candidates independently and then come together to share their perceptions of the candidates, and finally, to come to a decision about who to extend an offer to.

If you're looking to bring an evidence-based approach to the selection process in your organization, I recommend starting with employee interviews and taking a BBI approach. They don’t take much more time or preparation than unstructured interviews and they are far more effective for identifying and hiring the best employees. If you’re looking for help developing an evidence-based interview process, feel free to reach out!