Using the PI Interview Builder

PI Hire is equipped with a versatile, powerful, one-of-a-kind tool: The Interview Builder. 

To help users maximize its power and versatility, we’ll walk through its origins, some key features, and strategies for users looking to:

• Understand how the questions were crafted.
• Customize the interview process by candidate and/or role.
• Enhance the end-to-end hiring process.
• Improve the overall candidate experience.

The Interview Builder combines robust behavioral data with machine learning technology. It can equip hiring teams with countless new combinations of questions. This allows them to narrow their candidate criteria and get at the core behavioral attributes they want to see in a hire. The tool provides answers to real workplace questions—so users can understand how a person might perform under the specific circumstances of a given role.

Understand how the questions were crafted.

PI followed a structured process to develop the interview questions comprising the Interview Builder tool. The PI Science team partnered with the Content and Product teams to write the questions. They developed every possible combination of behavioral criteria.

In doing so, they accounted for:

• Behaviors in isolation
• Alignment/Misalignment
• Job Target
• Job competencies 
• Job, team, and organizational context  

PI developed more than 3,000 questions, training content creators on how to write a good interview question, then validating that each question matched the behavior it was intended to reflect.

In approving the questions, the PI Science Team conducted a study. At least three people independently reviewed each question, analyzing whether it:

• Accounted for an expected competency 
• Was related to the appropriate behavior
• Was related to the specific job, manager, organization, or team context 
• Was an adequate indicator of on-the-job performance 
• Could be answered, reasonably, by most candidates

If a question did not meet the above criteria, it was not considered scientifically valid—and ultimately did not make it into the PI Hire experience.

Customize the interview process to your needs.

The Interview Builder is designed to support the entire Hire experience. Its questions are rooted in the same behavioral science principles as the Behavioral Assessment. The tool can be applied alongside the Job Description and Behavioral Target. This allows interviewers to tailor their line of questioning accordingly.

With an understanding of the behaviors sought for a given role, users can ask questions that get to the core of the candidate’s most common behaviors. These questions consider how those behaviors manifest in the workplace. So users can either confirm or deny the candidate’s ability to align with your desired behaviors. They can also ask questions that gauge an individual’s ability to stretch beyond their natural behaviors, to accommodate specific circumstances or on-the-job scenarios.

Enhance the end-to-end hiring process.

PI Hire helps hiring managers and recruiters stay in lockstep. That way, everyone can stay on target with the primary objective: to hire the right candidate for a given role.

From phone screen to orientation, everyone has access to the same behavioral data. While user roles can vary according to an organization’s preferences, the Interview Builder works the same for anyone who wants to pull from its wealth of content. 

Users each have access to the same questions, according to the role they are trying to fill (and the candidate they’re considering). The machine learning permutations do much of the work, so the process can run much more efficiently. 

Improve the overall candidate experience.

Behavioral data should be applied like any other element of a hiring evaluation: as one point in a larger data set. Used in conjunction with other criteria, it helps inform not only good hiring decisions, but a fair and responsible hiring process. 

The Interview Builder also fosters a unique experience for each candidate—and for the interviewers as well. The questions work within a rigidly structured interview process, or a more loosely defined one. 

The power is in the hands of the user. They can pick what to focus on, based on the job, and the behavioral data already have on hand for that candidate.

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