Behavioral Interviewing

Could you explain a little about behavioral interviewing or provide some links to resources?

Behavioral interviewing takes the interview process to a new - focused level with the objective of obtaining the best understanding of the person you are interviewing. It not only will help prevent making hiring mistakes but will enable you to better evaluate strengths & areas that may need improvement. That is a VERY simple answer. These techniques have been used (by me also) for over 10+yrs, actually developed in the 70's and are extremely effective. Also, there are many different methodologies and selecting just one is tough - I follow alot of Dr. Blanchards works and he has produced numerous books about style behavior, which I would suggest checking into.
Check this out...
I did find a site that did a good job of explaining things in further detail with some examples in simple english at State University of New York College at Brockport
SUNY Brockport * 350 New Campus Drive * Brockport, NY 14420

www.brockport.edu/career/behave.htm

I hope that helps

A behavioral interview is one where you ask a candidate to provide you with an example of a specific behavior from their past experience. You create your behavioral questions based on the skills or abilities required for the job. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. So for example, you might ask a candidate for a customer service position "tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult customer." It is important to probe and get a specific example.

Worforce.com and about.com provide some great basic advice on behavioral interviewing (use as the search term). Formal training is also helpful. As I come across any interviewing training programs locally, will post here!

Keep in mind that behavior & personality are two different things - behavior can be modified, that is called "flexing". I like to design my questions(candidate) in a scenerio format using real life (job) examples such as: "how would you handle an upset customer or if 5 different people asked you to do 4 different things - how would you handle that? Measuring: how they react under pressure, communication skills, thinking out of the box and even organizational abilities.

I also like to get an understanding of the person outside of the work environment, this again helps me go beyind their skill sets and learn more about the person.

Because of teh internet, candidates have never been so "interview practiced" and traditional interviewing methods can be well rehearsed.

There are hundreds of web sites to help someone prepare for a variety of questions during an interview, including beahavioral. I found a web site that catters to the candidate but there is no reason you can't modify the same questions to specifically meet your situation. http://www.quintcareers.com/sample_behavioral.html

Taking the behavior testing/modeling a step further...are you aware of a program out there that can assess or test for the "mindset" of an individual? For instance, 'how willing and open are they to new ideas, how willing are they to work in a team vs. being independent, likes to be challenged, demonstrate dedication and commitment', etc.

There are many formal assessments on the market that evaluate candidates based on some of the attributes you mention. These personality assessments can provide a useful addition to your selection process. However, if you purchase an assessment from a test publisher, you must make sure that the test is valid and reliable. You should engage the help of an expert if you are not familiar with test validity/reliability information. A good resource to find personality tests is the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements. In addition to finding tests, you can also purchase test reviews by experts at a reasonable cost (http://www.unl.edu/buros/).

If you don't want to go with a formal assessment, you can also write interview questions to target attributes that are important. You can ask situational questions that give the applicant an idea of types of scenarios they might face, and find out how they would react.