How to Create Employee Behavioral Interview Surveys

Online Employee Performance Interview – HR Interviews - Behavioral Interviews

Purpose of Employee Behavioral Interviews

Behavioral interviews are designed to predict behavior or to explain the reasons for past behavior. A classic example of behavioral interviews is where an employee made a poor decision and then made a worse decision by lying or failing to report the mistake and repercussions of the initial decision:  a catering truck driver misjudges the distance between the truck and the airplane wing and just barely scrapes it… does he report it or not? 

During behavioral interviews, questions are presented about how the employee acted or reacted in a specific job-related situation.  In many situations, employees do not recognize the source of the behavioral problem and how decisions could or should have been made differently. 

Behavioral interviews can be instructive, diagnostic and insightful for both the interviewer, manager and the employee. 

Employee Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interview questions may be asked in personal interview, phone, or questionnaire form and focus on specific decisions or challenges that were faced. 

Employee Behavioral Interview questions that are general in nature may be used in employee job interview questionnaires.  These questions would provide insights about behavior in future employment situations.  In general behavioral situations, we might include questions like:

• Describe the a time that you were challenged or put under pressure.
• Tell me about a time when you took it upon yourself to accomplish a task on the job, without being asked.
• Which accomplishment on the job gave you more satisfaction than any other?
• How would you handle it if a coworker (or subordinate) was not pulling his or her fair share of the load?
• What was a major obstacle you had to overcome?

Depending on the initial questions and your answers, secondary behavioral interview questions might include:

• How did you deal with it?
• How did you go about achieving it?
• What was the outcome?
• What were you thinking at the time?
• How did it make you feel?
• What did you say or do?
• What are some examples?
• How did you know there was a problem?

Employee behavioral interview questions of a specific nature would focus on understanding past behavior.  In specific behavioral situations, we might include questions like:

• Describe the situation in which the challenge took place
• Describe your assessment of the situation and challenge
• What were the risks involved?
• What alternative courses of action could have been taken?
• How did you deal with it?
• What did you say or do?
• How did you go about achieving it?
• What was the outcome?
• What were you thinking at the time?
• How did it make you feel?
• What are some examples?
• How did you know there was a problem?
• What could have been done better?

The premise of employee behavioral interview questions is that experience and logic used in dealing with and solving past situations and problems will repeat itself in future situations and problems.  If behavior is to be modified, then the behavior must first be understood and then the employee is to be shown alternatives and they are to be explained in a step by step fashion.