Running head: THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 1

The Telephone-Administered Behavior-Based Interview Tool

Sandra Gainey

Columbia Southern University

THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 2

The Telephone-Administered Behavior-Based Interview Tool

Summary

In the article, “A Review of a Telephone-Administered Behavior-Based Interview

Technique” by Oliphant, Hansen, and Oliphant (2008), the authors discuss the employment

interview, the methods by which employers may proceed with an interview, and how a telephone

interview helps employers weed out candidates that may not be desirable through the use of

behavior-based questions. These open-ended questions are designed to generate answers from

candidates that show how they may think and behave in on-the-job situations. The article further

discusses whether structure is necessary for an interview, and how behavior-based questions can

be determined for the interview from discussion with managers and from current employees who

work in those positions. Further, the article gives prospective employers a good example of how

one business developed a four-step structured process for telephone interviews and includes

comments to indicate how this type interview provides for “equal treatment for each respondent”

(para. 7). The results generated from the study included in the article were shown to be a

positive predictor for employers to save money on employee exodus.

Analysis

The authors’ intent for conducting their study was to discuss why employers use the

interview to hire for open positions and to examine an interview technique which has provided

good results for helping employers find the best candidate. Oliphant et al. (2008) implies that the

reasons employers continue to use the employment interview for filling open positions are based

on four reasons. The first two reasons being that interviews give value to the process of filling a

position outside of things such as “recruitment, public relations, and feedback” (para. 2) and that

face-to-face interviews allow interviewers the ability to judge human behaviors and
THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 3

communication skills. The third reason and likely the most common is that company policies

require personal interviews as part of the hiring process and lastly, employment interviews may

have not been validly reflected in studies which conclude interviews are not a positive predictor

of a good employee.

The authors discuss that academic research has found the interview tool is not an accurate

predictor of a good employee, but because employers choose to use the interview process, that an

interview which is structured rather than unstructured is not only gaining popularity among

employers but is the better choice. The type of structured interview in the selection process that

is discussed in this article is the behavior-based interview, which presents scenario questions that

might occur on the job and requires a candidate to answer how he/she has handled such

situations in the past. With those answers, an employer may predict future performance of a

selected employee based on past behaviors. Ultimately, the authors predict that “the firm that

finds the right tool in the selection process will have major advantages among its competitors”

(Oliphant et al., 2008, para.5).

Upon evaluating the tool of behavior-based telephone interviews, it is found by the

authors that one successful employer used four steps to structure the interview process. Those

steps include discussion with upper management for assessment of appropriate behaviors for

performance, interviewing top performers and low performers to determine what drives success

and failure, formulating questions for the telephone interview that would demonstrate behaviors

of a candidate in specific scenarios, and lastly, during the interview the questions are posed to

each candidate in the same structured manner to safeguard equal treatment. The authors found

that after this structure was followed, the recorded interviews could be reviewed and candidate’s

responses evaluated to eliminate undesirable candidates. It is shown that the findings of this
THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 4

study proved over time that those scoring higher in a behavior-based telephone interview were

less likely to leave a company thus saving turnover costs.

I agree with the authors that the face-to-face interview adds value to the process, as it

adds a personal touch, gives a “face” to the person you have met on paper, and allows a manger

to judge social and communication skills. However, I do not believe this is always predictive of

future performance of an individual as the candidate is operating in a stressful situation with

unknown individuals with a negative consequence if performance in the interview is not seen as

favorable. “Interviews are terrible predictors of job performance” (Grant, 2013). Because of

interviewer perceptions or predispositions, good candidates can be eliminated. According to

Grant, a complete analysis of 32,000 applicants over 85 years indicated that about eight in every

100 were placed in the right spot after the interview process. Personally, I agree after being in

the job force and searching for work that I have experienced the same type of prejudices for

positions. I’m sure I would have been a performer for the company. There is no guarantee that a

candidate will share information that will predict their future performance and furthermore past

performance may generate knowledge and learning that changes future performances.

I do agree that due to previously established policies, employers continue to do

interviews to fill positions, especially larger companies, because most have established policies

for every department in the business, including human resource procedures. Interviews have

become the norm for all businesses and most managers probably don’t give a thought to filling

positions in any other manner. I do not agree with the authors that employers do interviews

based on studies conducted by academic research on interviews because most business are not

willing to spend the time, money, or effort to gain this type information. In my opinion,
THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 5

businesses do interviews to fill open positions because that’s just the way it has always been

done.

Regarding whether an interview is best structured or unstructured, I believe structured is

always best. Even Grant (2013) agrees with Oliphant et.al., in that he states, “A structured

interview involves asking every applicant the same questions and evaluating the responses using

a standardized scoring system” (para 10). If an interviewer can interview candidates without

inserting their own biases, then the best candidate among the choices may be more likely chosen.

Additionally, unstructured interviews become chaotic interviews without organization and

without an equal comparison of candidates to each other. Certainly, businesses who can find a

tool to use which brings positive results among their chosen employees becomes more effective

and even more competitive in the business world and the behavior-based telephone administered

interview may be such a tool; however, it can have flaws as well.

The authors studied the process that one successful firm employed for telephonic

interviews, which began by interviewing of persons within the organization to find what were

desired behaviors sought for filling a position. This seems to be a good practice, as who better

knows what type person is needed within a department than those who supervise them and those

who have filled that position previously? Care should be given though, to drafting the questions

for the telephone interview so that the answer is not divulged within the questions. This is part

of what is meant by open-ended questioning as a candidate answers with his or her own

knowledge and can give more than a yes or no answer. Mark Murphy (2014) agrees with the

authors in this article in that he believes the past behavior usually is a “decent predictor of future

behavior” (para. 1) but states that interviewers often ruin the questions by giving a hint to what

kind of answer is desired and prevents a candidate from making statements which would show
THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 6

true character and eliminate them from the pool of candidates, or promote them to the top of the

list of choices. So, whether this telephone-administered behavior-based interview process is an

effective tool for organizations to use in hiring decisions for open positions remains to be seen

and certainly depends on the effectiveness of the questions produced for candidates.

The authors address in steps three and four of their study that the firm developed

questions for the behavior-based telephone-administered interview by asking for examples,

which in the candidates’ answers would show if the candidate was a “problem solver,

competitive, persistent, and optimistic” (Oliphant et al., 2008, para. 7). These questions, of

course, were based on the information provided from within as to the requirements of the job

position or circumstances which might be addressed in the position. None of the questions

addressed things of a personal or discriminatory nature to any candidate but rather ensured equal

treatment for all. This is a commendable and appropriate manner to administer the interview

questions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a government agency

created to ensure that equal employment opportunity laws are enforced. Such federal laws

address that an applicant may not be discriminated against due to race, color, religion, sex,

national origin, age, and even disability or genetic information (Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission [EEOC], n.d.). Although in the article, there was not a focus on any of the laws

included in and governed by the EEOC, it was inferred in step four that “this structured

interviewing process ensured equal treatment for each respondent” (Oliphant et al., 2008, para.

7).

Conclusion

In this article, I have learned that there are a few reasons that employers continue to use

an interview to fill open positions with candidates from their pool of choices. While these
THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 7

reasons are valid ones, I personally do not agree that they are all meaningful or applicable to

most employers, but rather many use interviews because that is just how tradition has set forth a

habit. The telephone-administered behavior-based interview is a newer form of interview tool

that employers have begun to use with structured open-ended questions posed to candidates to

allow for equal treatment among all applicants - at least during the first phase of interviewing.

Because of what has been demonstrated in the article and from the video scenario used in the

Unit 1 discussion, which showed the results of an unstructured and unorganized applicant

interview, and further based on my own interview experience, I have formatted the following

open-ended questions which might be used in an equal opportunity employment environment:

1. Can you tell me about a time when you suggested to your supervisor how to complete a

task and what were the results?

2. Can you tell me about a time when you had conflict with a co-worker and how you

handled it?

3. Can you tell me about a time when you observed a co-worker committing illegal or

unethical activities and how did you respond?

4. You have multiple assignments due in the same week. How do you decide the order in

which to complete them?

5. What is the biggest problem you’ve had to overcome in the workplace and how did you

handle it?

6. Can you describe a time when you took initiative to complete a task and how it worked

out?

7. Can you give me a situation where you did not agree with your boss about a task and how

did that task get completed?

THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 8

8. Can you tell me about a time when you had to deal with an unhappy

client/customer/parent?
THE TELEPHONE-ADMINISTERED INTERVIEW 9

References

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Overview. Retrieved from

https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/index.cfm

Grant, A. (2013, June 11). What’s wrong with job interviews, and how to fix them [Blog post].

Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-grant/whats-wrong-with-job-

inte_b_3420380.html

Murphy, M. (2014, December 3). The hidden flaw in behavioral interview questions. Forbes.

Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2014/12/03/the-hidden-flaw-

in-behavioral-interview-questions/#416f42bb1b15

Oliphant, G., Hansen, K., & Oliphant, B., (2008, September), A review of a telephone-

administered behavior-based interview technique. Business Communication Quarterly,

71(3), 383-386. Retrieved from Business Source Complete.