Banking giant uses technology, external consultants and behaviour-focused interviews to find the perfect fit
Since the early 1990s, BMO Financial Group has used behaviour-focused interviewing to help assess candidates and ensure the best fit in the hiring process.
Lesya Balych-Cooper, vice-president equity and employee engagement for BMO, said the bank has a good track record using the technique to staff its 34,000-employee-strong North American labour force. BMO has revised and revamped it a number of times and developed it into a solid predictive tool in the hiring process.
“The purpose of these tools is to predict the candidate’s success in certain roles and within the organization,” she said. “But I want to be really clear that it is not a guarantee, it’s just a prediction.”
BMO uses behaviour-focused interviewing for almost every position it fills, though it is most useful when dealing with external candidates since internal ones have already been through the process and hiring managers have the ability to talk to their current managers and look at performance reviews, said Balych-Cooper. The search for executives is slightly different, although behaviour-focused interviewing is usually used at some point in the process.
How the hiring process works
When a position is posted, and external resumés start pouring in, they are first entered into RecruitSoft, the system BMO uses to filter applications. RecruitSoft looks for keywords in the resumé. If BMO was looking for call-centre staff the system might scan for the phrase “cold calls.” The candidate pool the system spits out is then given to Hewitt, the consulting firm BMO uses as external recruiters.
Hewitt assesses the list to determine if the candidates are sufficient and whether or not all the critical information is there. Hewitt conducts an initial interview, including using the behaviour-focused interview techniques.
If the candidate passes muster with the recruiter, the next step is an interview with the hiring manager at BMO, who also uses behaviour-focused interview techniques. Hiring managers at the bank are trained in the technique and how to use it at BMO’s corporate university.
“We actually have a course for hiring managers to equip them to make thoughtful hiring decisions and to try to make them as consistently as possible,” said Balych-Cooper.
The training puts a lot of emphasis on preparing for the interview. A hiring manager who has done some legwork will be able to conduct a much better interview than one who just stops what she’s doing when the candidate comes in.
“That one element of the training is, I think, really stellar,” she said. “Managers in the past weren’t as prepared for interviews as we are now. After this course there’s a lot more onus on managers to effectively prepare the interview and to conduct the interview so the employee, or the potential employee, coming in are faced with someone who actually has done their homework. The feedback we have had from candidates is that this makes potential employees feel very valued right from the get go.”
Questions to ask: BMO’s interview questions
Here’s a list of some competencies and the questions used to evaluate them as part of BMO’s behaviour-focused interviewing technique.
Achievement orientation behaviours
•Tell me about the most challenging assignment you managed in the past year and what you did to meet this challenge.
•Give me an example of a situation in which you turned a potential problem into an opportunity and how you did it.
•Tell me about a time when you felt particularly effective in establishing or maintaining a business relationship with a client.
Analytical and systems thinking behaviours
•Tell me how you approached the most difficult or challenging project that you had to solve.
•Give me an example of a situation where you had to handle a project that was unlike anything you had ever had to do.
•Tell me about a time when your team had to complete a challenging project.
Business acumen behaviours
•Tell me about a time when you had to accomplish something that had a tight deadline and where you had to accomplish many things at once.
•Tell me about a challenging assignment that you had in the past year and how you handled this challenge.
•Describe a time when you had to decide what to do about a business situation where no guidelines existed or no precedents had been set.
Change leadership behaviours
•Tell me about a particularly frustrating individual or situation and how you handled it.
•Tell me about a challenging assignment that you had in the past year and how you handled this challenge.
•Tell me about a business situation where circumstances changed and you had to change your plans.
Courage and self-confidence behaviours
•Tell me about a crisis or an emergency and how you handled it.
•Describe to me a time when you had to make a critical decision in the absence of corporate guidelines or precedents and what you did.
•Tell me about a project that had a tight deadline and where you needed to multi-task.
Customer and client service focus behaviours
•Describe to me a time when you turned around a very angry client and how you did it.
•Give me an example of a particularly difficult situation involving an external client and how you handled it.
•Tell me about a time when you felt particularly effective in establishing or maintaining a business relationship with a client.
Lesya Balych-Cooper, vice-president equity and employee engagement for BMO, said the bank has a good track record using the technique to staff its 34,000-employee-strong North American labour force. BMO has revised and revamped it a number of times and developed it into a solid predictive tool in the hiring process.
“The purpose of these tools is to predict the candidate’s success in certain roles and within the organization,” she said. “But I want to be really clear that it is not a guarantee, it’s just a prediction.”
BMO uses behaviour-focused interviewing for almost every position it fills, though it is most useful when dealing with external candidates since internal ones have already been through the process and hiring managers have the ability to talk to their current managers and look at performance reviews, said Balych-Cooper. The search for executives is slightly different, although behaviour-focused interviewing is usually used at some point in the process.
How the hiring process works
When a position is posted, and external resumés start pouring in, they are first entered into RecruitSoft, the system BMO uses to filter applications. RecruitSoft looks for keywords in the resumé. If BMO was looking for call-centre staff the system might scan for the phrase “cold calls.” The candidate pool the system spits out is then given to Hewitt, the consulting firm BMO uses as external recruiters.
Hewitt assesses the list to determine if the candidates are sufficient and whether or not all the critical information is there. Hewitt conducts an initial interview, including using the behaviour-focused interview techniques.
If the candidate passes muster with the recruiter, the next step is an interview with the hiring manager at BMO, who also uses behaviour-focused interview techniques. Hiring managers at the bank are trained in the technique and how to use it at BMO’s corporate university.
“We actually have a course for hiring managers to equip them to make thoughtful hiring decisions and to try to make them as consistently as possible,” said Balych-Cooper.
The training puts a lot of emphasis on preparing for the interview. A hiring manager who has done some legwork will be able to conduct a much better interview than one who just stops what she’s doing when the candidate comes in.
“That one element of the training is, I think, really stellar,” she said. “Managers in the past weren’t as prepared for interviews as we are now. After this course there’s a lot more onus on managers to effectively prepare the interview and to conduct the interview so the employee, or the potential employee, coming in are faced with someone who actually has done their homework. The feedback we have had from candidates is that this makes potential employees feel very valued right from the get go.”
Questions to ask: BMO’s interview questions
Here’s a list of some competencies and the questions used to evaluate them as part of BMO’s behaviour-focused interviewing technique.
Achievement orientation behaviours
•Tell me about the most challenging assignment you managed in the past year and what you did to meet this challenge.
•Give me an example of a situation in which you turned a potential problem into an opportunity and how you did it.
•Tell me about a time when you felt particularly effective in establishing or maintaining a business relationship with a client.
Analytical and systems thinking behaviours
•Tell me how you approached the most difficult or challenging project that you had to solve.
•Give me an example of a situation where you had to handle a project that was unlike anything you had ever had to do.
•Tell me about a time when your team had to complete a challenging project.
Business acumen behaviours
•Tell me about a time when you had to accomplish something that had a tight deadline and where you had to accomplish many things at once.
•Tell me about a challenging assignment that you had in the past year and how you handled this challenge.
•Describe a time when you had to decide what to do about a business situation where no guidelines existed or no precedents had been set.
Change leadership behaviours
•Tell me about a particularly frustrating individual or situation and how you handled it.
•Tell me about a challenging assignment that you had in the past year and how you handled this challenge.
•Tell me about a business situation where circumstances changed and you had to change your plans.
Courage and self-confidence behaviours
•Tell me about a crisis or an emergency and how you handled it.
•Describe to me a time when you had to make a critical decision in the absence of corporate guidelines or precedents and what you did.
•Tell me about a project that had a tight deadline and where you needed to multi-task.
Customer and client service focus behaviours
•Describe to me a time when you turned around a very angry client and how you did it.
•Give me an example of a particularly difficult situation involving an external client and how you handled it.
•Tell me about a time when you felt particularly effective in establishing or maintaining a business relationship with a client.
