You’ve heard of behavioral interviewing. You may have heard of the STAR interview technique. But what do you know about SOARA? And should you be using it to improve your hiring process?

Both STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and SOARA (Situation, Objective, Actions, Results, Aftermath) are types of behavioral interviewing. The purpose behind both is to prompt the candidate to recount specific details about their past involvement in relevant business situations. If you execute this technique successfully, you’ll encourage the candidate to share details related to objectives, actions, and results.

What’s the difference?

Both SOARA-or STAR-based interview questions are supposed to help a candidate give you a complete picture of how they have conducted themselves in the past. But SOARA incorporates the candidate sharing what he or she learned from the experience as part of their answer.

How do you ask a SOARA question?

• You present it as a specific situation: What was a problem, challenge, or situation you faced (you can make this more specific based on the role you are interviewing for, or the background of the person you are interviewing).
• Then ask about their objective: “What did you try to achieve to fix the situation, and how did you determine that this should be your objective?”
• This leads into the action question: “Based on your objective, what did you do?” You can also add or rephrase, such as “Did you evaluate different possible alternatives? What course of action did you take?” (Here, you’re hoping to determine that the candidate exercised such skills as leadership, teamwork or written communication.)
• Obviously, if the candidate doesn’t offer information about the results he or she achieved, ask “What was the outcome? Did you achieve your objective as you had defined it?”
• And then there’s the aftermath. Ask the candidate, “What did you learn from this experience, and how did you apply what you learned going forward?” You can also ask whether they taught others something new based on what they learned, or whether they were able to make positive changes to a department policy, or help their team align better with the strategic objectives of their company.

The idea behind SOARA interviewing is that past performance is a good predictor of future performance. When candidates tell stories, you’ll get a better understanding of how they’ll handle themselves within your company culture.

Any questions? Just ask the interview experts at Staffers. As the leading staffing agency in Jackson, Mississippi, we’ve asked every type of question and know how to find the answers you need. Contact us today to learn more!