Critical Job Interview Techniques for Creating Safe Organizations
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“We don’t give someone a driving license because they can talk about driving. So why do we often hire staff without checking how they might actually perform their jobs?—Paige Bagwell, Redwoods’ Chief Experience Officer, from Critical Job Interview Techniques for Creating Safe Organizations
Job interviews are a critical part of the hiring process—especially in a tight labor market. They are also central to making sure your organization stays safe. That’s why it’s important that the interview process reflects the actual realities of the job you are hiring for. Fortunately, there are tools we can use to make sure that the hiring process results in a clearer, more accurate picture of a candidate’s suitability for a job:
Behavioral Interviewing
This technique uses questions about past behavior as a way to gauge a candidate’s ability to think critically and apply guidelines in real-world situations.
Situational Interviewing
In addition to behavioral interviewing, it’s important to also ask questions that do relate to specific situations that can or will arise at your organization. This allows you to get a better sense of how willing and able a candidate is to adjust their behavior based on your protocols and programming.
Active Interviewing
This method involves taking part of the interview outside of the office, walking the environment in which the job will actually be performed. This allows you to gauge how a candidate actually interacts with children, staff and parents.
Paige Bagwell, our Chief Experience Office, wrote an article on how these innovative interview techniques can help improve the safety and effectiveness of your organization. The techniques outlined in this article have also been summarized in a fact sheet.