NEWSLETTER - DEVELOPING INTERVIEW GUIDES - AN EFFECTIVE WAY FOR SELECTION

The following are best practices to consider when organizations develop Interview Guides for key positions within the organization. Interview guides are built from the competencies of the position. Because they focus on what knowledge, skills, and abilities are needed in the position, a better hiring decision is made.

• Use Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify the competencies of the position
• Remember that competencies are future oriented, so think of the position one to two years out
• Use a structured competency modeling program, or use the job description as a base to begin understanding the position and its demands
• Get agreement from the SMEs as to the most important competencies. Try to focus on less than 15. In this process, the fewer the better.
• Since competencies tend to be conceptual, develop the characteristic behaviors for this list of competencies that are practical and easy to evaluate. The idea is to identify what behaviors would be present if this competency existed within the individual.
• From this list of characteristic behaviors, develop the behavioral interview questions
• Behavioral interview questions ask for specific examples of knowledge, skill or ability. Frame your questions by using "front words" like: "Tell me a time when …", "Give me an example of …", etc. Behavioral interviewing questions never use the word "Why…" or the concept of "What if …" The key is to understand if they have done this activity in the past and how good was the results.
• Review the characteristic behaviors and the interview questions with the SMEs to be sure that they are accurate and would elicit the behavior response desired.
• Pick the most important questions to be part of the Interview Guide for this position. However, select no more than 5 interview questions for each competency.
• Rank order the competencies so that the questions for the most important competency are asked first
• Train your interviewers how to use the Interview Guide, as well as train them in Behavioral Interviewing techniques