Friday, March 6, 2009

Recruitment & Retention- Behavioural Interviews

Recruiting is a crucial task for any Human Resource department. Especially for the senior management positions, unless an appropriate succession planning is implemented, HR will need to screen a number of prospective candidates before short-listing the appropriate ones. Understanding a candidate's attitude and behaviour is very important, as it determines his approach to the organisation.

An interview is the only means of investigating and finding valuable information about a candidate. No other process of assessment can give a better insight than the interview process. An effective interview is a process of understanding the unspoken and requires the skill of deciphering verbal signs of deception to gain vital information. The best method of gaining information is when the prospect is unaware of the process, since the scope of tampering is minimal here.

A structured and methodical interview helps uncover the known and - obvious aspects of a prospect's personality. To gain deeper insight into the unknown and understand the candidate completely, HR relies on behavioural interviews.

Behavioural interviewing is a technique that uses a structured set of questions aimed and designed to determine a candidate's attitude. This interview technique is based on the paradigm that, when a person makes a conscious effort to act against his natural instinct to respond to the situation, an increased tension and anxiety is displayed. As connecting situations are posed, he loses control due to increased anxiety and fails to keep track of his answers, thus bringing out his true behaviour. More importantly the interviewer understands the body language of the candidate. Such a technique is particularly useful to determine if a candidate is editing information or fabricating responses. This technique of interviewing is generally applied while selecting candidates for crucial management positions in the organisation.

Ref: TheManageMentor

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