Breaking The Ice In The Behavioral Interview: Motivating Job Applicants To Speak Candidly

Hiring the best people means attracting the best, and people will form long lasting impressions of you from this first important meeting. From the very beginning of your relationship you want to create an environment that motivates the job applicant to speak openly and honestly.

Never forget that you're being evaluated too! A thoughtful interview establishes professional rapport and convinces the applicant you're someone they should work for. Secretaries and staff should be told to greet the applicant like a guest, and tell them upon their arrival that they were expected.

No Interruptions

Make clear to your staff before the interview that there should be no interruptions. Interruptions make it much harder to evaluate what you're hearing, and diminishes the effectiveness of your questions.

Recap the applicant's resume and cover letter ten minutes before they arrive and have it in front of you when they come in.

Casual Conversation Relieves The Applicant's Tension

If you want to get candid information, you must relieve the applicant's tension to motivate them to speak candidly. Remember, the stress they feel is as much of a problem for you as it is for them. If you don't relieve their tension, you won't get a good interview. There's a number of easy ways of doing this.

Spend the first few minutes of the interview in casual conversation showing a sincere interest in them as a person. The interview should feel like a smooth flowing conversation, and this is where you establish that tone. Get them verbalizing - talking tends to reduce tension in most people.

Humor

If you can do it, laughing's even better. Nothing cuts tension like humor. American business, unfortunately, often suffers from a serious sense of humor failure.

You definitely want to hire people with a sense of humor because it's the best anecdote to stress in the workplace. "What do you mean I want to hire someone with a sense of humor? Who needs a funny accountant? Ask them if the books balance..." "Oh, pretty close".

Studies show even accountants would rather work with people with a sense of humor, and at some point of the interview you really do want to see how they laugh.

When you think about it, interviews are funny! Kinda like a first date. Has anything funny ever happened to you when you were being interviewed?

A woman who's now personnel director of a major corporation tells about the time she crossed her legs so tightly through an interview that when it came time to leave, she stood up to shake hands - and fell flat on her face because one of her legs had fallen asleep!

It makes it easier for the applicant to admit shortcomings if they feel the person conducting the interview's human too. You want to make the applicant feel accepted and comfortable enough to reveal information, even if it's of an unfavorable nature. An interview that doesn't reveal negative information doesn't give you the information you need to make a sound hiring decision.

Humor Needs To Be Spontaneous

To be effective, humor in the interview needs to rise naturally from the subject matter, not rehearsed jokes. Remember, at some point in the interview you definitely want to see how an applicant laughs. You know what they say about those companies where everyone's uptight and you dread doing business with them... "Well they sure don't hire people at that outfit for their sense of humor!" Don't let your interview suffer from a sense of humor failure!

Opening the interview with a few minutes of casual conversation that creates an accepting atmosphere also gives you the chance to check their enthusiasm and energy level, as well as see how articulate and thoughtful they are.

Remember to be careful during this small talk to avoid any discussion of topics of a personal nature - such as marriage status or national origin - that could result in a lawsuit if they're not hired.

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