Performance Based Profiling/Interviews

Performance Based Profiling

The focus of this study is on the performance of stronger and weaker candidates on test items across differing question types. The underlying notion being that different question types might measure or signal a particular cognitive skill or competency level.

With this in mind one might reasonably expect weaker candidates to perform at the lower cognitive levels and that maybe this is reflected in their performance on certain question types, as compared to the performance of stronger candidates on the same test items. It has the potential to offer a transparent and effective means of measuring performance. It can be used for formative, summative, diagnostic and impassive measurements of performance.

Performance Based Interviews

Unfortunately, structured behavioral and competency interviews only prove that an applicant can talk the talk. The person hired may not be the top performer but rather the most successful "impression manager," and the most prepared. With structured behavioral and competency interviews, the more preparation applicants make, the more successful they will be (especially if they look up and practice suggested responses to typical questions). Performance-based interviews avoid many or all of the problems listed above and ensure you identify a top performer who meets or exceeds your expectations. Best of all, they are a seamless addition to your process if you are already using any type of structured interview.

Performance-based interview questions are specific to your vacancy, company problems and company culture. This specificity is critical as it enables you to identify the top performer from your applicant pool every time. Just as importantly, it exposes the strengths, weaknesses and organizational, personal and cultural fit of your preferred applicants. It takes only minimal effort to evolve from structured behavioral or competency interviews to performance-based interviews. It just requires human resources professionals who have long been comfortable with competency models and/or have invested thousands if not millions in these types of hiring models, to incorporate performance-based techniques into their current selection practices. Organizations who do so, have found the change to be painless and the results, dramatic (significant time and cost savings and improved hiring decisions that identifies a top performer every time).

Performance-based interviews are similar to structured interviews, in that each interviewee receives the same set of questions and is scored using suggested responses. A five-point performance-based rating scale is also used to evaluate candidates, but this scale begins at zero (why give a point for a wrong or unacceptable answer?). Furthermore, with the performance-based rating scale, the "correctness" and "completeness" of applicant responses is evaluated (note: top performers are easy to identify because they always give answers that are both fully complete and correct and often give answers that exceed expectations). Performance-based interviews are superior because instead of evaluating applicants on examples of work they provide, applicants are asked to do "work" and/or verbally resolve problems that would be typical of the new job. In other words, applicants are actually performing critical components of the job. This ensures you identify who can do the work and solve your problems, instead of identifying who can only tell you what they did somewhere else. And when you compare responses from different applicants, you will quickly see which applicants are top performers (i.e., those applicants that exceed expectations). Best of all, performance-based interview questions can be quickly developed because they come directly from the job.

Performance-based interviews also enjoy a long shelf life because they can be modified easily without impacting their effectiveness. By changing one or more of the critical dimensions of the background information or questions asked, an entirely different response is required. This prevents applicants from memorizing suggested responses (a major problem with behavioral and competency interviews) and allows the questions to keep pace with positions as they evolve. This means the only way applicants can successfully answer all of the questions is if they can truly perform all aspects of the actual job. If they're fully qualified, the interview will be a breeze. If they're not, no amount of preparation or practice will get them in the door.

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