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Behavioural interviewing is a common technique that recruiters use to evaluate a potential candidate. The basic premise of behavioural interviewing is that the best predictor of future results is past behaviour in similar situations.

Examples of behavioural interview questions are:

Describe a time when you had to follow a policy you didn't agree with. What did you do?
Give me a specific example of a time you used good judgement to solve a problem.
Tell me about a time you had to go above and beyond the call of duty to get a job done.

You may already be using behavioural interviewing quite effectively when talking to candidates. But are you also using the techniques to their fullest potential while checking candidate references?

Take a look at your reference checking questions and see where you can add or improve behavioural elements. Do you ask for examples of specific situations that the candidate was involved in? Do you probe for details of these situations? Doing so will give you more powerful and more accurate references.

2003 Paul Dodd is the CEO of Head2Head, the in-house recruitment experts. For more information about improving your company's recruitment productivity while spending less, contact Paul at 416.440.0097 or paul@head2head.ca. Or for more quick recruiting tips, visit www.head2head.ca/newsletter.php