How to Conduct Great Hiring Interviews

I often hear leaders from all types of organizations ask questions about hiring the right person. Their questions usually sound like these:

• What if their resume looks great but they have a bad attitude?


• What if they put on a good act and then don't work hard?


• How can I tell how they will perform after I hire them?

A great way to answer these questions starts with a well-defined interview process. I have heard the procedure called many things. I first learned it as the Behavioral Event interview process. The guiding thought behind this system is that "while it is no guarantee of success, past performance is the best indicator of future performance."

Here is the main idea...

Develop an interview system that forces the candidate to tell you, in direct and specific terms, how they have worked in the past.

You want the candidate to do more than recount where they have worked and what experience they have. You can read their resume to get that information. You want the candidate to tell you: how they think, how they work, and how they relate to other people.

Actual implementation can get a little involved, but the basic process goes like this:

1. Identify the core competencies for the job.

Core competencies are key skills (attributes, attitudes, etc) for success in your organization. In a big company, you might develop the list by interviewing successful people in the organization. In a smaller company, you could brainstorm with the owner(s) about what they want to see in an employee.

2. Rank the core competencies.

Separate the "must-have" traits from the "would be nice" traits. I suggest that you write the list in the form of a "Core Competency Checklist" that you can use during interviews.

3. Develop a series of interview questions.

Create questions that get people to tell you specifics about their experience. The best series start with broad, open-ended questions and lead to follow-up with questions that dig for specifics.

For example, the first question might be one of these:

• "Tell me about a time in your high school (college, internship, last job, etc.) when you had to convince another student (co-worker, etc.) to help you?" or


• "Tell me about a time from your last job (internship, college, etc.) that you had to make a sudden change in plans?"


• "Tell me about a time from your college experience (last job, church work, etc.) when you had to persuade someone to cooperate with you."

Let them pick the scenario; you probe for the specifics.

After they describe the scenario, begin the process of "peeling the onion" with your follow-up questions. Depending on what they tell you, you could follow-up with questions like:

• "When that happened, what was the first thing you did?"


• "After they failed to deliver their part of the project, what did you do or who did you go to?"


• "What was the first thing you did when you were assigned that project?"

As you dig deeper, you can move from their behaviors to their thoughts and feelings to get a feel for how they perceive things. You might follow with questions like:

• "How did you feel about that?"


• "What did you think of the results?"


• "When everything was said and done, how did you feel about what happened?"

The idea is to get the candidate talking about how they handled a specific situation (their feelings, actions, and responses). By addressing a specific situation rather than a hypothetical scenario, you get a better feel for how they might handle a similar situation in the future.

4. Look for evidence of the core competencies.

Listen for them to give you key phrases or to explain their experiences in a way that demonstrates the core compentencies you identified in Step 1. Use your "Core Competency Checklist" to help you keep track of your observations during the interview.

5. Have several people conduct interviews.

Always have more than one person involved in the process. I suggest having several people interview the candidate. Ideally, each interviewer will ask about a different part of the person's life and work experience (school, work, volunteer work, etc).

6. Collect interviewer observations.

Bring the interviewers together to compare notes. If the candidate demonstrates the key skills you are seeking across several areas and times of their life, they are likely to bring those skills into your business. Now you have a good basis for deciding whether this person fits you and your organization.

I have been through this type of interview on both sides of the table. I find that it works very well and creates a win-win scenario for both parties. For the qualified candidate, the process feels good because there are no "trick" questions. For the interviewer, it gives you concrete information that you can use to make an informed decision about the candidate's fit in your organization. Only the unqualified candidate loses. For them, the process is uncomfortable. They must give specifics; there is little room for "shading the truth" to get the job.