What Is The Structured Behavioral Interview In Selection Processes?
Both from the Psychology of Organizations and from Human Resources in general, research is always being carried out to design the most effective strategies when carrying out personnel selection processes as efficient as possible
It is not just about saving time and money in the short term, but the chain of actions that goes from defining the position to be filled to the entry of the new worker must adjust to the needs and capabilities of both parties, so that the agreement is sustainable in the long term. Therefore, the process of collecting information about applicants and drawing conclusions based on it must be able to evaluate the most relevant aspects that show to what extent a person fits a job to remain in it beyond the phase onboarding and initial training.
In this sense, one of the main techniques used in personnel selection processes is the Structured Behavioral Interview, an interview modality that is capable of analyzing job skills and predicting the candidate’s performance in the specific job for which he is required.
Below we will explain What is the Structured Behavioral Interview? and what are its characteristics and functions when applied in the business world.
The Structured Behavioral Interview is one of the most useful techniques that psychologists and Human Resources technicians have in the areas of personnel selection and talent acquisition. Through it, a series of specific questions are asked, previously organized based on the company’s selection criteria and the skills, knowledge and aptitudes that are most relevant to filling a position.
Unlike others, this type of interview focuses both on the psychological aspect of the person when solving certain challenges or problems that may arise daily in their work, as well as on their behavior in the work context, their technical skills, ability to integrate into the company and their soft skills
Soft skills are one of the most important aspects that must be addressed in the Structured Behavioral Interview and these include all those own resources, abilities, attributes and social or emotional competencies that the person puts into practice when interacting and interact successfully with other people in your work environment.
Some of the most important soft skills are positive attitude, resilience, teamwork ability, flexibility and adaptation to change, responsibility, empathy, creativity, proactivity and motivation.
How do you prepare a Structured Behavioral Interview?
To obtain a greater probability of success when selecting the best candidates for a company, it is essential to prepare the Structured Behavioral Interview in advance, previously organizing the questions that we must put into practice during the selection process. There is no unitary formula well defined in advance; It must be adapted to each vacancy and company in which it is framed.
The highest level of preparation for the interview determines the degree of sophistication and adaptation to the selection criteria of the company for which we work, so this prior period of organization requires effort and time.
The questions that the professional asks in this process will help him or her to configure the job portrait of the applicant; makes sure that the questions are open enough so that the candidate can comfortably develop their answers
The Structured Behavioral Interview is based on the applicant’s capabilities at various levels of performance (technical, psychological, social, etc.), so it is advisable to start preparing for it by preparing a prior list of qualities that the candidate we are looking for must have.
We can group this list of essential qualities or competencies into categories to make it easier for us to create the most important questions, as we will see in the next section.
In addition to that, it is worth keeping in mind that the best recruiting psychologists are those who jointly use the Structured Behavioral Interview with other interview models that take into account both behavioral and situational elements (referring to hypothetical situations at work in which Ask the applicant how he or she would react.
Elements of the Structured Behavioral Interview
The Structured Behavioral Interview must meet a series of requirements and characteristics that make it a useful tool for selecting and identifying the best candidates for the company.
Below we will review the most important aspects on which the Structured Behavioral Interview is based and the main characteristics it should include.
A good HR expert interviewer is one who investigates behavior above all else, leaving aside moral considerations or considerations based on prejudices regarding the applicant’s way of being
The most important thing here is to gather information about the candidate’s objective behavior, current and past skills and competencies to study whether their profile will adapt to the company in the short term. In this process we must try, as far as possible, to make risky assumptions about the person’s internal psychological states: in this case the most relevant thing is their way of interacting with the environment in the work context.
One of the main objectives of the Structured Behavioral Interview is to seek evidence and evidence of the present and past work performance of the person we are interviewing and for this a methodical, in-depth and specific interrogation must be carried out about present events, past achievements or scenarios. hypothetical jobs.
To obtain this information the HR technician You should ask for real examples that demonstrate your knowledge, skills or technical abilities and attitudes or values focusing on specific experiences, as we will see below.
2. Focus on competencies
The search for the applicant’s competencies is the main basis of the Structured Behavioral Interview, and many of the questions deployed during the process aim to find evidence that confirms the applicant’s performance. The competencies are made up of all the technical knowledge and skills that the applicant has in relation to the demands of the job and what you can offer to the company for which you are applying.
Below we will briefly summarize the main competencies that exist and how they can be identified.
2.1. The knowledge
The applicant’s knowledge is made up of everything he or she has learned at a theoretical level through his or her training, that is, competencies related to knowledge at the level of abstract and concrete thinking
To know exactly the level of knowledge that the person we interview has, we must ask specific and open questions in which they can display everything they know about a topic or ask them to give real examples from their life that demonstrate that they know.
An example of questions to evaluate the level of knowledge could be “What can you tell us about X topic?” or “What is X?”
2.2. Technical skills
Technical skills are related to knowing how to deal with day-to-day problems and are all those skills that allow the applicant to practically solve any type of problem or setback linked to the job, applying the necessary knowledge.
Some examples of questions that help us know the level of technical skills could be “Could you give examples of the last time you had to do X activity?”
3. Shared values and culture
The Structured Behavioral Interview also serves to ensure, to the extent possible, that the candidate will adapt to corporate values and company culture and that their participation in the organization does not clash with its habits.
In this section, we ask about the applicant’s ability to fit into the company and ask them to tell us about their ability to relate to their colleagues or superiors.
4. Attitude and soft skills
The soft skills and attitude of the applicant are all those social and emotional self-regulation skills that are not expressed in a resume and make a candidate capable of functioning correctly in the company both when it comes to working and interacting.
Soft skills such as goal orientation, resilience, personal responsibility and self-motivation skills can make a difference and lead to a specific candidate in the event of a tie between candidates.
Are you interested in training in Personnel Selection?
If you want to specialize in the field of Personnel Selection for organizations or. In general, in Human Resources, you will be interested the University Master’s Degree in Talent Selection and Management offered by the University of Malaga (UMA). This training program addresses the two main pillars of HR: selection, on the one hand, and the training and retention of talent among employees, on the other. In addition, it has the collaboration of professionals from the main large companies operating in Spain, and gives the possibility of taking internships in several of them. To learn more about the Master, access this page.
