Jay is scheduled to kick off the 2011 Image Conference with "The Greatness Zone" general session on Wednesday, July 13. Later in the day, Jay will present two additional sessions: “Will You Fit Here? The Talent Based Approach to Find and Hire the Right Employee” and “Intellectual Age Recruiter - Becoming a Strategic Business Partner”. Register for the Image Conference today to hear Jay!
The Five Best Interview Questions
Jay Forte, Humanetrics LLC
I love talent or behavioral-based interviewing because it allows me to take each candidate out for a “test ride” before I make an offer for a position.
Let me back up. Today’s employees are mostly hired for what they know and how they use what they know to make a difference in their workplace. This determines their effectiveness in a constantly changing service environment.
Brain biology studies help us understand that we are each hardwired in very particular ways – we have unique abilities (talents, strengths and passions) that are truly ours. We each see the world in our particular way based on our DNA and genetic history. And during the course of a day we make 20,000 3-second decisions, most of which are made not by formally thinking, but rather by responding based on our particular hardwiring. This means that how we first respond frequently tells a lot about how we process, think and evaluate. Great – I need this to hire effectively in an economy whose success is based on my ability to find employees who think in line with the success thinking in a job.
A talent-based interview question is a question that uses unique phrasing to get the candidate to share his immediate, top-of-mind reaction; this is representative of his brain hardwiring and is likely to be the reaction he would have in the workplace. Couple this with questions that involve actual workplace situations and a good interviewer will be able to see a job candidate’s thinking and response in action.
Here are my five favorite talent-based interview questions:
1. Define ordinary and extraordinary for me. How have you contributed to making your previous workplaces extraordinary? What could you do to make our workplace (customer service, etc) extraordinary?
2. Here’s a situation you’ll encounter in this role (workplace): _________________ How would you handle this?
3. When you are at your best, what are you doing? What do others applaud you for? How do you see using this attribute in this job?
4. How do you promote an idea or change to a manager? What have you done? What worked? What didn’t work?
5. Let’s say you decided to take the job here. It has been a year and you are driving home, thinking that taking this job was the best thing you have done. What has happened in this year to make you think this?
Notice the formats – they are ideally not typical questions because we are after a candidate’s top-of-mind reaction, not his planned and rehearsed answer. Also, we are interested in real life situations, ideally involving real situations the candidate will encounter in your workplace. Kick the tires. Go for a test drive. Get a feel for the thinking the candidate will bring to the workplace before you hire.
I’ll be reviewing this concept and how to craft these questions at 2011 Image Conference in Raleigh.
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You make a lot of good points on this blog..Really you have done a fabulous job!
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Some good questions! Behavioral questions and other assessments (such as talent assessments) among others should combine for a complete package in making a hiring decision. There are many tools out there, so companies should use ones that fit their staffing vision. I like talent-based questions because as the name implies, they draw from one's talents, whereas many other times interview questions (along with the resume/application) attempt to review one's skills. Some of the skills can be learned, but the talents are inherit.
ReplyDeleteLike the questions - it's interesting what you can learn from a prospective employee with these types of questions. I personally like the Behavioral interview format, it give me a sense of the candidates connection to my organization.
ReplyDeleteI use Behavioral based questions in all of my interviews. They explain how someone will behave in the future. I have heard the new thing is to do actual role-playing!
ReplyDeleteI printed the questions above to be able to use them for future referece and the blog made me want to attend the conference, just to hear more! Thank you
ReplyDeleteGreat post and I like the questions. Behavioral interviewing is one of my specific interests as a recruiter. I prefer questions that ask about candidates previous experience versus the hypothetical. I like your 5 questions.
ReplyDeleteHere is an alternative for question # 2:
Here’s a situation you’ll encounter in this role (workplace): _________________ Have you had a similar experience? Tell me about it.
Some good questions here..I've been having quite a few interviews lately so its always nice to see practice questions like these.
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I'm great to see different and useful 5 interview questions here. You did a great job. Thanks you so much.
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ReplyDeleteBehavioral interviewing is one of my specific interests as a recruiter..
ReplyDeleteYou have any interview doubts..pls follow this link
Job Interview Questions
Wonderful post made certainly about Interview Questions
ReplyDeleteWonderful full question you post here and its best,, and i also tell you , some question ,,
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What are the challenging facets of the job?
What are the challenging facets of the job?
How would you describe your organization's personality and management style?
Describe the work environment.
How will that help the organization?
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