Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

When you ask candidates how they will do something using today’s tools vs. how they did it years ago, you quickly discover that behavioral interviews only reveal the tools that the candidate used in the past. However, in an ever-changing world, what you really need to know is which tools a candidate will use and how they will act starting their first day on the job.

And it’s important to note that understanding which technology tools a candidate will use to identify and solve problems is becoming more critical every day. This is simply because the number of effective workplace technology solutions (i.e., AI, robotics, software, and vendor-supplied solutions) seems to be growing exponentially.

So, if you want to learn how a new hire will act and what technology tools they will use after being hired, I recommend a change. In addition to behavioral interview questions (which only cover the past), you should begin providing finalists with “How you will act (in this job)” scenarios during their final interview.

What Is A “How You Will Act” (HYWA) Scenario Interview Question?

The primary goal of a “HYWA scenario” is to reveal how a candidate will act when they are faced with a current or emerging problem/opportunity in the job they applied for. I call them “How will you act” (in this job) scenarios, but others might refer to them as “What-Ifs”, situational interview questions, or If–Then scenarios. And because each one takes time to answer, no more than three are usually given to each finalist as part of their last interview.

These scenarios begin with an introductory sentence that explains to the candidate what you are looking for (e.g., how you identify problems). The second element of the scenario is an introductory phrase that covers what the interviewer is requesting, such as: “walk me through the steps,” “how would you handle this,” “what would you do when faced with X,” or “how would you approach this situation.”

Often, the effectiveness of an answer is assessed based not only on what the candidate included (e.g., “I used metrics”) but also on any important elements that should not have been omitted (e.g., consulting with the customer).

An Example Of A “How You Will Act (In This Job)” Scenario Question

For example, if your goal is to hire a team lead who has a working knowledge of modern productivity tools, consider this scenario question. 

Because we expect you to learn and use a broad range of modern workforce productivity tools.

Please walk us through the major action steps that you will take in order to determine which of the many new and emerging productivity tools would be best for this team. And when needed, please explain why this critical step is necessary.

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Understanding How Interview Problems Hurt Your Recruiting Results

Throughout my decades in talent management, I have consistently found that managers at all levels are reluctant to change anything in talent management without first fully understanding its negative recruiting and business impacts.

In the past, I’ve written about the numerous problems with traditional interviews, and specifically, what’s wrong with behavioral interviews. Because taken together, interview problems and flaws unfortunately have a significant impact on recruiting’s ridiculously high 46% failure rate of recent hires.

Interview weaknesses also contribute to the painful fact that traditional interviews currently fail to identify the best candidate a whopping 91% of the time. And to me, these numbers mean that every recruiter needs to reconsider each and every aspect of their current interview process.

BTW – It is important to remember that while some best practices have been successful in the past, in today’s rapidly changing business environment, these best practices seldom remain the best way to act for more than 18 months.

The Many Benefits Of “How You Will Act” Scenarios (HYWA)

I’ve found that these “HWYA” scenario questions produce superior results for multiple reasons, including:

• They cover today’s real problems – although many scenarios are hypothetical in nature. I recommend that you instead provide job-based scenarios that cover the actual problems that the new-hire will likely face. Real-life HYWA scenarios are superior primarily because the candidate is more likely to take your real job scenarios more seriously. But real scenarios add more value because the hiring manager may be able to eventually use some of the previously unknown “methods and tools” that the different finalists highlighted in their answers. 

• HYWAs highlight modern tools – in our rapidly changing world where new and better talent management solutions literally arrive every day. These HYWA scenario questions reveal to what extent each finalist is knowledgeable about the most modern technology tools (especially AI). In addition, the scenario approach allows managers to compile a complete list of the productivity tools that candidates have recommended, so that later they can explore any tools that they were previously not familiar with. As an added bonus, not only do these scenarios provide the interviewer with the candidate’s final answer, but they also help interviewers understand how a candidate thinks, decides, and executes.

• Their answers are tailored – because only real problems from the company are used as a basis for a HYWA scenario questions. These scenarios require each candidate to provide only the solutions and/or answers that fit the company’s culture and way of doing business. And this customization requirement also helps by discouraging candidates from covering methods, tools and solutions that don’t fit the company.

• The scenario questions can be answered quickly – because these scenarios only require the candidate to provide a broad “walk me through the steps” level of detail in their answer. This means that most scenario questions can be answered in 3 to 5 minutes.

• HYWA scenarios can cover solutions that the candidate has yet to implement – answering behavioral interview questions requires that the work being discussed has already been completed. In contrast, these HYWA scenario questions allow a candidate to provide information covering solutions that they have yet to implement in their current job. 

• You can add these scenarios to behavioral questions – if you still desire to ask behavioral questions. After the candidate completes their answer, you can immediately pose a follow-up question: “Good, can you now show us how you would solve this same problem today using the very latest current tools?”

• Managers get to retain the best solutions – and perhaps the most powerful result of all is the fact that after hearing how multiple candidates would solve a particular problem. The manager will get to keep and use all of the valuable solutions that the candidates provided.

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Topic Areas For Developing “How You Will Act” Scenarios

In order to limit the number of HYWA scenario questions that you ask, it’s important to prioritize the critical areas, problems, or skills that have historically been the most essential for success in this job.

From within that initial priority list of topics, you should then choose the 3-5 areas where the hiring manager has indicated that they need the deepest insights before they make a hiring decision. Below you will find the most common topics that have been covered by HYWAs (listed in descending order of impact). 

• The use of new technologies.
• Problem identification and problem-solving.
• How you will innovate.
• How you will learn.
• Handling productivity problems.
• Adaptability and the ability to deal with ambiguity.
• Forecasting the evolution of this job and/or our industry.
• How you make decisions.
• Forecasting and planning.
• Teamwork.
• Collaboration.
• Conflict resolution.
• Dealing with unhappy customers.
• Meeting deadlines.
• How you will handle it after making a major error.
• How you will communicate.
• Leadership and initiative.
• Your first month’s plan for starting this new job.

Note: You can also improve interviews with these 5 easy additions that can be found here 

Final Thoughts

How rapidly things change in talent management and business can be illustrated by the fact that research has revealed the surprising fact that 33% of the skills that workers needed just three years ago are now obsolete!

At least in my view, in our continuously changing world, it’s time for all smart talent leaders and hiring managers to realize that their current use of interview questions needs to shift away from how and what a candidate has done in previous years. And towards what each candidate will actually do if they are hired into the open job they applied for.

Thanks for finding the time to read and share this article.

Notes for the reader

This is the latest article from Dr. Sullivan, who was called “the Michael Jordan of Hiring” by Fast Company.
You can subscribe to his Aggressive Talent Management newsletter (which focuses on recruiting tools, current recruiting opportunities, and recruiting trends). Either here or by following him on LinkedIn.