The quality and standard of your organization's productivity and revenue starts at the earliest of the refinement process of employee selection. Interviews play a major role in the entire employee onboarding process, i.e., from day 1 when the employee is shortlisted till the day he becomes a permanent member of the organization. 

Different approaches is practiced by many organizations differently. Some organization tend to focus more on the interview part of the entire onboarding process and gives it more preference to judge a candidate's skill, while others consider the interview as the shortlisting criteria and focus more on the training part of the process and decide whether the candidate needs to stay based on his/her performance. 

While most of the companies that focus on the interview part to shortlist candidates prefer the traditional way of taking the interviews. Traditional interviews are believed to be of a more structured format and have been carried out since the beginning of time. It is believed that traditional interviews give a more general idea about the candidature and gives an overall background such as education, work experience, etc., of a candidate appearing for an interview. However, most recently, some companies proved other methods of interviews have worked just fine in increasing productivity and enhancing work culture that has developed trust amongst employees. 

Behavioral interviews are one such type of interview that has proven a better alternative to the traditional way of interviewing. Behavioral interviews focus more on the behavioral perspectives, or rather say, a practical approach that a candidate adapts at times rather than focusing more on their educational background, skills, and professional experience, which stands second in the behavioral interviewing process. 

Where traditional interview tries to draw out an overall picture on the candidate and analysis whether he/she is a right fit for the job, behavioral interviews introspect candidates on the level of their practical knowledge and how they utilize their skills to solve any problem practically.

Below are some examples of questions that are frequently asked in Behavioral Interview and Traditional Interview

Traditional Questions

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why did you leave your last company? Did you get fired?
• What have you been doing since May 2018?
• Where do you see your career in 5 years? How about 20 years?
• What’s your biggest weakness?
• Why should we hire you?
• How did you like your last job?

These more traditional interview methods have some shortfalls since they can be very closed-ended, limit further information without prodding further or elicit a hypothetical answer that may or may not reflect how they really behave

Behavioral Interview Questions

• Give me an example of a time when you had to keep from speaking or making a decision because you did not have enough information.
• Give me an example of a time when you had to be quick in coming to a decision.
• What is the toughest group that you have had to get cooperation from? How did you win them over?
• Have you ever had difficulty getting others to accept your ideas? What was your approach? Did it work?
• Give me an example of a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.
• Describe a situation when you were able to have a positive influence on the action of others.
• Tell me about a situation when you had to speak up (be assertive) to get a point across that was important to you.
• Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers or group? How did you do it? Did they “buy” it?
• What have you done in the past to contribute toward a teamwork environment?
• How do you decide what gets top priority when scheduling your time?
• What do you do when your schedule is suddenly interrupted? Give an example.
• Give me an example of an important goal which you had set in the past and tell me about your success in reaching it.

The above questions do more than simply determine what a candidate says they will do (i.e. job activities) but give the candidate an opportunity to give concrete examples of what they have done in their past work history that helped them to be successful in their job. To know more on the topic attend one of live webinars.

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