How the Star Method Can Help You Find the Right Hire

The most critical phase in your hiring process is the in-person interview.

Mistakes in hiring can cost your company a lot of money. If you do not do a detailed evaluation or, worse, go with your gut during the interview, you are likely to pick a subpar or unsuitable candidate.

Examples of behavioural questions

• Can you offer an example of how you persuaded your supervisor to put your idea or notion into action? What was the outcome?

• Give me an example of a time when you assisted a colleague with a project.

• Give an example of a time when you had to learn something fast despite having no prior knowledge of the subject.

• Describe a situation in which you used data to accomplish your objectives.

• Could you tell me how you handled a conflict with your supervisor?

Candidates may practise or memorise answers to typical interview questions.

However, when utilizing the STAR technique to answer behavioural questions, a candidate must think, explore, and process their experience. They must present a verifiable linear narrative that gives enough evidence of their trustworthiness as a company asset by using situation, task, action, and result.

Furthermore, you can examine their work ethics, skill set, problem-solving capability, and learning ability through their efforts to finish a given task or responsibility.

The STAR technique is explained in detail, step by step, here.

Situation (S)

In this section, the candidate describes the task or challenge they faced. It could be from a previous job, a group project in college, or even a volunteer programme.

A candidate can discuss any past Situation to demonstrate their value as long as it is related to the job role.

A candidate might recollect the following situation, for example:

"In my prior position as a marketing manager, I was in charge of a small team that was responsible for completing marketing projects. The CEO and Head of Sales assigned us a lot of work with unreasonable timelines and objectives. This eventually resulted in a backlog of work, which harmed my team's morale and performance."

Task (T)

This section explains the candidate's part in resolving the Situation.

They might have been attempting to meet a performance objective, meet a project deadline, deal with unhappy clients, or transition their team to new software.

The candidate may go on to say something like this:

"As the manager, I accepted the duty of being open and honest with both the CEO and the Head of Sales, as well as communicating my team's capacity to take and fulfil responsibilities on a regular basis."

The Task allows you to learn about the candidate's job responsibilities, the results they expected, and any challenges they may have encountered.

Action (A)

This section of the STAR describes how the candidate completed a task or addressed a difficulty.

Candidates can describe their thought process, alternative tactics, time spent resolving the Situation, who was involved, and so on.

The candidate's actions could be described as follows:

"I created a Slack channel for the Sales & Marketing teams. Both departments freely discussed projects, priorities, and goals over the channel to better align their timelines and develop a cohesive brand image. I also set up a weekly stand-in meeting with the CEO and the Head of Sales to discuss project expectations, bandwidth, and updates."

Result (R)

Finally, the candidate describes the result they achieved. You get to see whether the candidate was able to solve the problem and achieve the desired outcome.

Additionally, you learn what transpired and how things improved for both the organisation and the candidate after achieving the tangible result.

The candidate may conclude their STAR response by saying:

"We were able to narrow down and re-prioritise our list of marketing objectives by establishing and maintaining an active conversation between Marketing, Sales, and the CEO. In addition, we changed marketing goal expectations and timelines, allowing my team to accomplish the backlog of work in only one quarter and focus on developing efficient processes to meet marketing goals."

Are there specific roles these questions work better for?

Although STAR interview questions can help you find and hire the best applicants for any job, from entry-level to C-suite, some roles may benefit more.

Given that behavioural questions generally fall into the following categories:

• Stress/pressure

• Communication/conflict

• Problem-solving

• Teamwork

• Leadership/ownership

The STAR interview approach can be used to find excellent candidates for roles and responsibilities that fall into one or more of the areas listed above. For instance, hiring candidates for product/DevOps, engineering, sales, marketing, and customer service departments using the STAR technique can be profitable, in terms of the resources and time you spend.

Benefits of the STAR method

Cost savings: When you utilise the STAR questions to interview candidates, the focus on their previous actions and behaviours leads to the selection of people who will succeed in their jobs, resulting in lower employee retention costs.

Better cultural fit: Using the interview responses, you may identify whether the candidate exhibits attributes such as leadership, proactivity, and accountability that thrive in your company culture and team dynamic.

Reduce turnover: The STAR interview questions can help you bring forward the most deserving candidates, regardless of their previous job title or years of experience, lowering mis-hire and employee turnover rates.

Efficient hiring: By using the STAR methodology to focus on key job qualities, you will be less likely to be distracted by irrelevant talents or work experience of other candidates.

Higher hiring accuracy: You can pick and hire persons who have offered validated instances using similar expertise in the past since you ask behavioural questions based on the talents you need.

Nurture the potential of employees: The STAR questions enable you to examine a candidate's conduct and reveal their true personality. This information can then be used by your colleagues to help new hires get the suitable tasks and responsibilities while also encouraging their professional growth.

Fair hiring practices: You also create a hiring system that uses the same STAR questions to treat and evaluate all applicants against a fixed skill set.

When it comes to using the STAR interview method, there are no right or wrong answers. What you do with these answers is far more valuable.

Source: Recruitment.com