Make Better Hiring Decisions with Behavioral Interviewing

Limitations of Resumes and First Impressions

Resumes can look strong without revealing how someone actually performs under pressure or with teammates. Quick interview impressions are equally unreliable. When it comes to aligning people and roles in teams, past behavior offers a more honest signal than polished credentials alone.

Structured Behavioral Questions

Before interviews begin, you prepare specific questions tied to the skills the role requires, such as collaboration or problem-solving. A sample question is "Can you describe a time when you handled a tight deadline?" This structure keeps every interview focused on the same competencies, making candidate comparisons fair and consistent. Knowing the role well first, including clarifying roles with the RACI method, helps you choose the right skills to target.

The STAR Method for Evaluating Responses

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Actions, and Results. As a candidate answers, you mentally map their response to each of these four elements. This breaks a story down into its components, so you can assess what the candidate actually did rather than what they claim they are capable of doing.

Follow-Up Probing During Interviews

After a candidate answers, you ask follow-up questions to clarify both what they did and why they made those choices. This matters because initial answers can be vague or rehearsed. Probing deeper reveals the candidate's reasoning and judgment, not just the surface-level outcome they chose to share.

Candidate Scoring with a Structured Score Sheet

After each interview, you rate the candidate on a simple score sheet aligned to the key skills you set out to assess. Ratings reflect how clearly each skill appeared across the Situation, Task, Actions, and Results the candidate described. This method keeps evaluations objective and reduces bias, which also helps with eliminating role confusion by ensuring the hire genuinely fits the role.

Oliver is a first-time manager, and one of his responsibilities is hiring a team member. He wants to make better hiring decisions and avoid relying only on resumes or quick interview impressions. Oliver knows that resumes can look impressive, but may not always show how someone will perform at work. So, he decides to use behavioral interviewing, an approach that focuses on how candidates have handled past situations. Oliver begins by preparing structured behavioral questions to assess key skills for the role, such as collaboration and problem-solving. During the interview, he asks candidates questions like “Can you describe a time when you handled a tight deadline?” As they answer, he uses the STAR method to break their responses into the situation, the task assigned, the actions taken, and the results achieved. He also asks follow-up questions to understand what the candidate did and why. After each interview, Oliver rates each candidate on a simple score sheet based on how well each key skill is reflected through the situation, task, actions, and results they describe. By using a behavioral interviewing approach, Oliver makes better hiring decisions.