Welcome to the Behavioural Interviewers Resource Site.

Background
A behavioural interview is a type of structured interview in which the focus is on matching the skills, knowledge and abilities of the applicant and those required of the job. The behavioural interview is based on the key principle that the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour or performance in similar circumstances.

The PMCV structured behavioural interview (SBI) process was initially developed by a group of clinicians and HMO managers in the Victorian hospital system, as part of the Safe Assessment Project. The specific aim of this project was to assist HMO managers and clinicians interviewing international medical graduates (IMGs) for hospital positions. It has subsequently grown from this initial work, with the SBI training now an integral part of the Department of Human Service (DHS) funded initiatives to assist hospitals recruit appropriately skilled IMGs. The emphasis is on using the interview primarily for recruitment decisions and also as a way of providing an assessment of clinical or communication areas where the applicant might need support once they start work in a hospital position.

The aim of the structured behavioural interview is to provide a set of possible behavioural questions which can be used to gain information about an applicant's previous clinical training and experience and their behaviour in the common clinical situations that they are likely to encounter in the position they are applying for (as detailed in the Position Description).

The PMCV has developed a training workshop and manual for public hospital staff, guidelines for conducting a structured interview, a databank of interview questions and a standardised scoring template that allow assessment of an applicant.

The questions and scenarios are carefully designed to assess an applicant's: