I am interested in learning more about behavioral interviews. I have heard reference to Talent Plus, Top Talent, and would like to know more. I have read on this forum that hospitals such as the Mayo Clinic use this type of interview process. I will have some upcoming interviews at various hospitals and would love to hear from nurses who have experienced behavioral interviews or who work at facilities who use this type of interview process. Thank you in advance for your feedback, it is greatly appreciated.

Maddie:specs:

try googling them for more information. I've never been involved with this process, but perhaps looking it up would be helpful

Thank you for your quick reply MedSurgeMess, I appreciate it. I started out by searching on google and found websites but they were geared toward the interviewers, purchasing the product, etc. I then decided to post my questions because I am interested in personal experiences from those who have been interviewed using this process, or from interviewers who use this type of approach. It looks like this is becoming a more popular way to interview applicants. Although there are some wonderful posts about this subject here on this forum I am eager to learn more. I have never experienced a behavioral interview personally but may in the near future!

i loved the question "are you a clean person"

i answered, "yes, that is why i hire somebody to come to my home once a week and clean up after me"

some of the questions i just giggled through, by the end of the process, my interviewer was giggling too.

dont be nervous about it, the questions are pretty harmless its not a "test" per se.

If you are interviewing, I would just encourage you to be completely yourself. We are looking for your natural, spontaneous responses. The last reply is correct - it is not a test, but an analysis to gain a greater understanding of your talents.

Thanks!

Beth

Does Talent Plus ask behavioral questions about previous nursing experience? Or is it more along the lines of "Are you a clean person?" I have an interview coming up, but I have no idea how to prepare for it! Please help!

Hi BostonGirl86,

To answer your question, Talent Plus' interview questions are designed to understand your natural talents through behavior-based interviewing. Our interviews are structured (over the phone or online, depending on which interview the company you are applying to is utilizing) where the interviewer is talking 20% of the time and the interviewee (you) is talking 80% of the time. As I mentioned in the above post, we are looking for your spontaneous responses, so just be yourself! The types of questions we are asking are questions which have been selected by our research team after a long, rigorous process of creating the interview and determining the most statistically significant questions which came out of the research study. Each of our interviews is based on the talents (or themes) we know to be important in particular positions across industries. We believe the questions within our interview to be very thought-provoking, however, don't be surprised if you hear a question that seems "silly" as someone mentioned above - there is a reason behind every question we ask.

I hope this helps! Please let us know if you have other questions. Unfortunately, I cannot give away what our questions are in our interviews as that would be like giving away our secet sauce :) but I know you will enjoy the interview process and probably discover a lot about yourself through it.

Thanks!

Beth

Hi BostonGirl86,

To answer your question, Talent Plus' interview questions are designed to understand your natural talents through behavior-based interviewing. Our interviews are structured (over the phone or online, depending on which interview the company you are applying to is utilizing) where the interviewer is talking 20% of the time and the interviewee (you) is talking 80% of the time. As I mentioned in the above post, we are looking for your spontaneous responses, so just be yourself! The types of questions we are asking are questions which have been selected by our research team after a long, rigorous process of creating the interview and determining the most statistically significant questions which came out of the research study. Each of our interviews is based on the talents (or themes) we know to be important in particular positions across industries. We believe the questions within our interview to be very thought-provoking, however, don't be surprised if you hear a question that seems "silly" as someone mentioned above - there is a reason behind every question we ask.

I hope this helps! Please let us know if you have other questions. Unfortunately, I cannot give away what our questions are in our interviews as that would be like giving away our secet sauce :) but I know you will enjoy the interview process and probably discover a lot about yourself through it.

Thanks!

Beth

Hi,

I agreed with you. Any way, your ideal make me thinking about some thing for my project.

Please try to keep posting. Tks and best regards

Hi,

I agreed with you. Any way, your ideal make me thinking about some thing for my project.

Please try to keep posting. Tks and best regards

Apart from that, this link below may be useful: Purchasing interview questions

Talent Plus is damaging our hospital where I work at. Let me give you a couple of examples. I work at a large university teaching hospital where we have a very competitive nursing school. One of our very own nursing students that was at the very top of her class wanted to get a job at her alma mater. She took the talent plus questionnaire and she failed it. Since she failed it she can never get a job at our university hospital again. So essentially the hospital turned away a nurse that went to school there, did clinicals there, and was at the top of her graduating class! For nurses who already have a job in the hospital and want to move up they also have to take the talent plus. If THEY fail, they will NEVER be able to move up the ladder, EVER! Case in point: I work in the Trauma/Surgical Intensive Care Unit and there is a nurse on our shift that wanted the supervisor position. During her yearly evaluation, all her scores were "role model" right down the line. She is a superb nurse and extremely smart. We all unanimously wanted her to be our supervisor and even our manager wanted her to be a supervisor. Well, she took the talent plus and failed. Now she will NEVER be able to move up the ladder again. Since this is the case, she is leaving our hospital in a few months to find another place to work because she feels like if she can't move up then it is not worth working there anymore. So essentially we are loosing a nurse that ANY hospital would just bend over backwards to have.

In my opinion, I would rather have someone who has excellent clinical skills rather than an excellent personality because a personality can't pump on a chest and save someone's life.

I have read numerous posts of people failing this type of interview style. Can anyone elaborate on how you would fail this? Is it reasonable to say that if you are asked a "silly" question and they are looking for "natural" responses, are folks dinged for laughing or adding extra information into the question besides just a simple answer, such as yes/no?

Should the interviewee be very specific or more general to these questions? Less or more talkative?

Thanks!

I am so curious if this post comes from someone at my hospital, where we are fighting to change the exclusionary way the Talent Plus interview process is being utilized. If not, it is interesting to hear that the process is not being received well in other institutions, and perhaps this unfortunate coincidence could help support our cause. At our hospital, we have RNs talking about leaving who haven't even had to take the interview, but simply based on the fact that they don't want to work for an employer who would disrespect their employees and be unsupportive of their career development.

Hello,

In replying to CC04's message above, you are not "dinged" for adding additional information, laughter, etc to the answers to these questions. The Talent Plus interview encourages people to speak freely and be themselves. Whether you are more talkative or not, it doesn't matter. It's the content of what you are saying that the interviewer is looking for.

The talent interview is just one step in the selection process and not the only decision factor when a hiring manager is making a selection decision. Typically, there is an application someone fills out, an in person interview (which helps determine "fit") and other factors at play, including the talent interview. It is an aptitude test to help provide more insight into the candidate's strengths and how they will perform on the job. I hope that helps to answer some of the concern RN200 mentions above. The health care organizations who have used our science have seen statistically significant results within performance, turnover, retention, patient satisfaction and more. I think it's all about the way this step in the process is presented to employees/candidates, which ultimately makes them champions (or not) of this science. And how it is presented/implemented can change based on your culture's needs/situation. Most of our clients and their employees are very happy with the opportunity to learn more about their strengths in this manner, use it for development/career planning purposes with their team members, and experience great results/ROI once implemented. If either of you are able to share which organization you are with, I'd be happy to look into this further and see how we may help you specifically. Or, if you prefer to remain anonymous, I would also be happy to help answer some questions and determine if there are other ways this would be more accepted among your colleagues, so they feel more comfortable with it. Personally, I'd like to learn more about the specific concerns you may have, as these are things that we like to learn from and help our clients to consider as they begin using the talent interview in their selection process. So, I thank you in advance for your thoughts.

To learn more about Talent Plus and how we partner with health care organizations around the globe, I encourage you to visit our site at: www.talentplus.com/healthcare

Thank you!

Beth

Talent Plus Employee