Improving the Selection Process: Training Selecting Officials to Use BehaviorBased Interviews

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Improving the Selection ProcessTraining
Selecting Officials to Use Behavior-Based
Interviews

• Nancy E. Abrams, Ph.D.
• The Partnering Group, Inc.

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Improving the Selection ProcessTraining
Selecting Officials to Use Behavior-Based
Interviews

• Introductions
• The Selection Process
• The Development Process
• Competencies
• Gathering background information prior to
  interview
• Developing job-related questions
• Rating criteria
• Interviewer Training
• Legal concerns
• Rater Errors and Observing Behaviors
• Note taking
• Conducting the interview
• Evaluating the applicant

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Selection Process
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Validity of the Entire Selection Process

• Content Oriented Validation
• Based on job analysis
• Definition of the content domain
• Coverage of the content domain by the process
• Civil service tests often do not cover some
  portions of the content domain
• Validity can be improved by covering more of the
  content domain with a job-related interview
  process

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Why are job-related behavior-based interviews not
done?

• Disconnect between interviewers and test
  developers
• Lack of job analysis information for interviewers
• Interviewers do not know how
• Interviewers do not understand the importance of
  what they do or fail to see it as a priority
• Other thoughts?

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Creating Improved Interviews

• Job analysis should be provided to those
  developing interview.
• Ideally the test plan should also be provided
• Interview focus
• Most critical competencies
• Areas which cannot be developed after the person
  is hired
• Competencies not already assessed by the testing
  process
• 5-7 competencies is optimal, with a maximum of 10
• Competencies should be behaviorally defined
  across several levels of proficiency.

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Focusing on Competencies
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Some Sample Competencies for Success in Financial
Management

• Financial and Business Acumen - Applying
  knowledge of customer and company business
  practices and concepts to produce mutually
  successful results.
• Fiduciary Control and Safeguarding - Applying
  knowledge of the transaction process to detect
  and prevent errors or fraud through the embedding
  of safeguarding processes and controls.
• Problem Solving - Identifying and solving
  problems, using and adjusting tactics as
  appropriate to the situation.
• Interpersonal Communication - Communicates
  effectively both orally and in writing to ensure
  complete support and understanding

Example
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Sample Competency Financial Business Acumen
Applying knowledge of customer and company
business practices and concepts to produce
mutually successful results.

Example

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Job Competency Linkage Example
Example
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Human Resource Management Revolves Around
Competencies
Organizational Competency Development
JOB
Competencies
Reward Recognition
Recruitment Selection
Performance Management
Succession Planning
Training Development
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Interview Development
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Interview Research

• Usefulness and accuracy of interviews can be
  improved with
• Structure
• Job-relatedness
• Limitations on prompting, follow-up and
  elaboration
• Questions which are situational, behavioral,
  concerning the applicants background and job
  knowledge
• Increased length 40 minutes and 16.5 questions
  is optimal
• Control of ancillary information
• Reserving questions from the applicant until the
  conclusion

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Background Information Collected Prior to the
Interview

• Prior to interview
• Information available
• Applications - vary in quality and quantity of
  information
• Resumes - vary greatly in terms of format
• Test scores - contain limited information
• Better interviews are based on job-related
  information reviewed prior to interview.
• Interviewers are better prepared for the
  interview
• More focused questions during the interview.
• The interviewers time is used more efficiently.
• Information gathered of similar detail.

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Talent Identification and Matching
QuestionnaireSample Competency

• PROBLEM SOLVING
• Many jobs require the ability to identify and
  solve problems, using and adjusting tactics as
  appropriate to the situation. Describe a
  situation that you have experienced which best
  demonstrates your problem solving skills. Your
  answer should be completed in the space provided
  below.
• Problem or Objective
• What was done, your role and when (approximate
  dates)
• What the outcome was

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Developing Job Related Questions

• Questions should enable interviewer to evaluate
  competencies
• Questions should be
• Developed prior to conducting the interview
• Based on job analysis/selected competencies
• Open-ended
• Brief, unambiguous and focused
• If multipart, plan how they will be asked
• Not leading
• Appropriate language, avoiding unfamiliar jargon
  and/or company-specific terms
• With pre-planned follow-ups

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Question Types

• Develop several questions for each competency
  being assessed.
• Use appropriate question types
• Situational
• Behavioral description or consistency
• Job knowledge
• Self-Assessment of competency
• Background questions
• Opinions or philosophies

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Situational Questions

• Based on the premise that how a person says
  he/she would act is how he/she will act.
• Example
• For the past week, you have been consistently
  getting the most work on your team. You know
  that it is no ones fault. Your supervisor has
  just given you a new project to do with a very
  short timeline. What would you do?

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Behavioral Description and Behavioral
Consistency Questions

• Based on the premise that past behavior is the
  best predictor of future behavior.
• Example
• The questions on the Talent Questionnaire elicit
  descriptions of past accomplishments.
• You may ask individuals to elaborate on what they
  provided in writing or describe other examples.

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Job Knowledge and Self-Assessment Questions

• Job knowledge questions are based on the premise
  that job knowledge is the primary basis for
  effective job performance.
• Example
• You will be using a number of computer systems on
  this job, including most of the Microsoft Office
  Suite. Describe in what situations you would use
  Word, Powerpoint and Excel and why?
• Self assessment questions are based on the
  premise that individuals can accurately assess
  their own capability.
• Example
• You will be using a number of computer systems on
  this job, including most of the Microsoft Office
  Suite. How would you rate your ability to use MS
  WordPowerpointExcel?

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Background and Philosophical Questions

• Background questions are based on the premise
  that an individuals job and training has
  provided job knowledge is the primary basis for
  effective job performance.
• Example
• Based on your resume, I see that you have been a
  Sales Representative for ABD Manufacturing for
  five years, please describe the kind of training
  you received there that helped you learn to do
  your job more effectively.
• Philosophical questions are based on the premise
  that individuals will behave in a manner
  consistent with professed philosophy.
• Example
• How would you describe you philosophy of managing
  people?

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Potential Topics of Legal Concern

• Name
• Lineage, National Origin Thats an interesting
  name. Is it Italian?
• Discussion of Relatives Are you related to Joe
  Smith?
• Inquiries concerning previous name Are you
  married?
• Marital Status
• Asking if married, single, divorced or engaged
• Number and/or ages of children
• Current or planned pregnancy
• Age
• Asking how old the interviewee is
• Asking how long until retirement
• Sex
• Race or color

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Potential Topics of Legal Concern (Continued)

• Residence
• Persons with whom the interviewee resides
• Whether the individual rents or owns his/her home
• Education
• Religious affiliation of the school
• Arrests
• Organizational membership
• Clubs, societies, etc.
• Membership in a church or other religious
  institution
• Disabilities
• Only can be framed in terms of ability to do the
  job with or without accommodation

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Rating Criteria

• Must be developed in advance of the interviews
• Ratings can be done by competency or by question
• Be sure raters avoid a global or wholistic rating
  for the entire interview this invites error

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Rating Criteria

• Question-based
• Interview developers need to think about what
  makes one answer better than another
• Ensure that all interviewers agree

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Rating Criteria

• Competency-based
• Interview developers need to think about what
  behaviors they are looking for each competency
• This should be developed in conjunction with
  question writing
• If the competencies have been behaviorally
  defined at multiple proficiency levels, rating
  criteria can flow from them

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Rating Criteria

• Keep any rating scale simple
• Generally interviews are used to make in or out
  decisions
• Not fine rank-order distinctions
• 3 points are probably sufficient
• Highly acceptable
• Acceptable
• Unacceptable
• Ensure that all interviewers agree on the
  criteria they will be using

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Training Interviews on Conducting Interviews
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Errors to Avoid

• Halo
• The tendency to generalize an overall impression
  of the candidate to all factors (exaggeration of
  the homogeneity of an applicants traits)
• Leniency/harshness
• The tendency to rate everyone high or low
• Everyone is average
• Ratings limited to the middle range for everyone
• First/last impression
• The tendency to reach final decision early in the
  process (within the first four minutes) or to
  emphasize what happened at the end of the exercise

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Errors to Avoid(continued)

• Contrast
• The tendency to compare individuals rather than
  rate each against the established standard
• Similar to me
• The tendency to rate someone similar to self
  higher
• Stereotypes
• The tendency to rate based on group membership
• Unfavorable impression
• Weighting of negative information more heavily
  than positive information
• Emphasis on non-verbal cues
• Excessive weight on non-verbal behaviors

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Interviewers

• Multiple interviewers are desirable
• Get multiple points of view
• See how interviewee interacts with different
  types of people
• More efficient to have a panel of interviewers
• Three is probably the optimal number
• Not always possible

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Note Taking

• During the interview, concentrate on observing
  behaviors.
• Write those behaviors down.
• Use a note taking form.
• At the end of the interview, you should have a
  detailed set of behavioral notes.
• You will use those observed behaviors to do your
  ratings.

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TRAINING EXERCISE DISTINGUISHING
BEHAVIORS FROM RATER JUDGEMENTS

• When recording observations of behavior, it is
  very easy to interject your own interpretation or
  evaluation of what you see.
• What is actually needed is a documented recording
  of what took place so that you can later attach
  your evaluation of the behavior, and have
  documented the evidence to support that
  evaluation.
• This exercise is designed to help you learn the
  difference between statements, which record
  actual behavior versus judgments or conclusions.

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TRAINING EXERCISE DISTINGUISHING
BEHAVIORS FROM RATER JUDGEMENTS

• 1. She organized her presentation well.
• 2. He demonstrated little self-confidence during
  the interview.
• 3. She suggested a very creative solution to the
  problem she encountered on her job.
• 4. In the interview, he became very nervous when
  he was asked about his past experience.
• 5. In the interview she described a negotiation
  she conducted.
• 6. She answered the questions she was asked in
  the group exercise in one-word sentences

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TRAINING EXERCISE DISTINGUISHING
BEHAVIORS FROM RATER JUDGEMENTS

• 7. He walked into the interview and looked
  directly at each panel member.
• 8. In the interview, she suggested that each of
  her customers were critical to the business.
• 9. She began by listing the strengths of each of
  her customers.
• 10. He analyzed each of the problems thoroughly.
• 11. She displayed poor judgment in the first
  question.
• 12. His answers were very organized.

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Plan the Structure of the Interview

• Build rapport (be careful not to stray into
  potential legal problems)
• Clarify information on application and on resume
• Use questions to assess competencies, building on
  information provided on Talent Questionnaire as a
  starting point
• Provide a realistic job preview
• Provide administrative information including
  timeline
• Invite applicant questions
• Conclude interview
• Rate based on notes and competency definitions of
  proficiency levels

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The Evaluation Process for Interviews

• In order to remain objective
• Record behaviors observed in detailed notes
• After completion of the interview review record
  of behaviors observed and determine how they
  relate to the competencies of interest
• Compare observations to behavioral indicators
• Record the proficiency level for each competency
• Compare ratings with other observers
• Discuss and attempt to resolve differences