The accuracy of applicant evaluation and the hiring decision is based on the interviewer's ability to collect useful behavioral information. Collecting useful information about an applicant's past experience and accomplishments involves much more than just gathering reports of actions taken or not taken by an individual. Knowing an applicant's actions is of little use to an interviewer if he or she does not understand the circumstances surrounding the actions and the results produced by the actions. 

The goal of every interview is to collect job-related behavior from an applicant's past history. To achieve this goal, interviewers should gather three types of information around each event reported by an applicant. Interviewers gather the Situation preceding an applicant's Action, the specific Action taken or not taken, and the Results or consequences of the Action. Together these features make up a behavioral example. 

The letters "SAR" are used as a convenient way of remembering the key components of a behavioral example: 

S = Situation or 
1. The Situation (responsibilities) leading to the applicant's Actions; 

A = Action
2. The specific Actions taken or not taken by the applicant; 

R = Result
3. The Results or changes caused by these Actions. 

As an interviewer, your job is to make sure behavioral examples (complete SARS) are collected for each dimension. 

Having a complete understanding of a particular event in the applicant's past puts the interviewer in an excellent position to judge whether an applicant's Actions were favorable or unfavorable. 

Situation

At Posso Corporation, a precision custom injection molder, I was rehired in 1995. Due to serious cash flow problems, I was asked to spend most of my time in a sales management capacity. We needed to dramatically increase our sales without adding any additional sales staff. 

Action

I immediately identified our major customers, those with whom we had greatest volume and profit margins. I set up personal meetings with 6 of those customers and provided them with quotations that suited each client's individual needs and concerns. 

Result

This resulted in an increase in sales of 600% over the prior year with a 10% pre-tax profit. 

Call us today at (609) 918-9183 about this tried and true data collecting approach. Train your executives to get the hiring data they need to make the best possible hiring decision.