Crafting Great Behavioral Interview Questions for Candidates in the Chemical Industry

The value of behavioral interviewing is beyond dispute. You can predict future success by recognizing innate behaviors far beyond what you can ascertain from applicant skill sets and experience levels. Great behavioral interview questions can help you identify the right behaviors for a job candidate to be successful in a position. At Key Corporate Services, our behavioral interviewing process significantly reduces the likelihood of your organization hiring the wrong person. In the high-stakes chemicals industry, understanding how past performance and behaviors help predict future success is even more critical.

Behavioral interview questions should elicit responses using STAR:

• Situation
• Task
• Action
• Result

Your goal is to direct candidates to tell you stories about their past experiences that highlight their behaviors and ability to solve problems. You want them to tell you about a situation relevant to the job requirements, explain the tasks they needed to accomplish to address the problem, describe what actions they took to deliver solutions, and then clarify how these steps led to positive results.

Begin with, “Tell me about a time . . .” or “Walk me through an example” and let the candidates provide the answers.

After you frame your questions using this format, and receive the initial answers, the next step is to continue the conversation with open-ended follow-ups. These include:

“Tell me more about . . .”

“I’d love to hear another example about . . .”

Your intent is to keep the candidate talking so you can get a full picture of their behaviors and how they handle challenges. In an industry as precise as chemicals, your hiring practices must be especially sharp.

Key Corporate Services can help your organization maximize the behavioral interview process so you find the best candidates for your open positions in the chemicals industry. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.