People First HR Solutions - Article - Better Job Interviews: Getting it Right the First Time

The single most widely used recruitment and selection technique is the job interview. Ironically, next to pure guesswork, the job interview is also the most unreliable predictor of future job performance if it not approached in a formally structured way.

However, there are a number of ways you can make your interviews work for you – the employer – to help you make the right decision the first time. Remember I said in my first article that “a job interview is like meeting your future in-laws for the first time. As a candidate, you dress appropriately, you say all the right things and ask all the right questions. You have well rehearsed spiels for all the ‘tough’ questions and you try and win the interviewer over.” The key to conducting a good job interview is to be able to see past the performance and uncover your applicant’s true skills and abilities.

The most effective way to do this is to ask appropriate questions. Start your questioning by going over the applicant’s work experience. You should have a copy of their resume with you … clarify any discrepancies or queries you have regarding the information they have provided. If the applicant stated they were ‘involved’ in a particular project, clarify the level of that involvement. Be on guard for any inconsistencies in responses – this could indicate that the applicant has ‘talked up’ their experience (as approximately 95% of resumes do!). Briefly discuss:
·duties and responsibilities,
·skills required,
·public contact and service,
·likes and dislikes,
·difficult situations,
·reason for leaving (probe for data and useful information).

The next part is where we get to the guts of the interview – the point where you ask questions in order to establish the candidate’s fit with the role you are attempting to fill. You should have established the relevance of their experience, but you want to find out now if they have the required abilities, skills and knowledge that you need. This is difficult to assess because if you ask the applicant a direct question, you are likely to get the response they think you want to hear. You need to word your question in such a way that you can draw on the applicant’s past experiences to try to gauge how they might act in the role. Following are some examples of questions you might ask to obtain information about the topic in brackets:
·How will this job get you what you want? (motivation/priorities)
·Tell about a time you have felt like giving up on a task? (initiative/persistence)
·Provide an example of when your persistence paid off in achieving your goal, or when it did not work out. (persistence/achievement)
·At what point do you conclude that a particular work objective has been completed? (achievement)
·Give me an idea of how you spend a typical day. (organization and planning)
·If you were boss, how would you run your present (or most recent) job? (strategic thinking/planning)
·What did you do to prepare for this interview? (initiative)

Probe until you are completely satisfied with the answer by using some of the following leading questions:
     ·Why do you feel that way?
     ·Anything else?
     ·Why do you say that?
     ·What do you think causes that?
     ·Can you give me another example?
     ·What did you learn from that experience?
     ·In hindsight, how would you handle the situation differently?

Now is a good time in the interview to describe in detail the position you have vacant. Give the candidate a realistic preview of the type of work they will be doing and the environment in which they will be working. Sometimes, in order to be realistic to others, we need to be somewhat pessimistic in our approach. Don’t tuck away the dirty laundry, air it out (appropriately!) so that the candidate knows exactly what they are getting into. Otherwise, you are likely to find that your new hire soon leaves because the conditions were not what they were expecting. One important reason to discuss the details of the job and type of person you need now, rather than at the beginning of the interview, is so that this information will not influence your candidate’s responses to your questions. During one interview, the motel operator spent the first 25-30 minutes (too long by the way) telling the candidate exactly the type of person she was looking for to fill the role. She wanted initiative, energy, and ‘can-do’ attitude, and so on. No prizes for guessing how the candidate responded to all subsequent questions. It was almost impossible to get through the façade because the candidate knew what he needed to say and angled all his responses to suit. He was subsequently hired, and walked out of the job a week later!

When closing your interview, ask the candidate if they have any more questions. Hopefully, however, you have been open to questioning from the candidate throughout the entire interview. This is important for a number of reasons. First, your candidate is more likely to ask a question if they have the option to do it spontaneously. If a candidate must wait until the end, they will probably filter their questions down to the few they feel are most important. Second, the type of questions the candidate asks will provide you with some insight into their motivations, level of insight and the extent to which they have thought about what you have asked and discussed with them.

Once questions are finished, let the candidate know what the next steps will be and the time frame in which you expect it all to happen. Be sure to ascertain the level of interest the candidate has in the position to determine whether it even warrants further discussion. After all, the candidate may have already decided they do not want the job! Thank the candidate and see them to the door (at least!).

Finally, you need to evaluate the candidate you have interviewed. A common way to do this is to rate the responses to specific questions. Some people use a Low-Average-High scale, some use a scale of 1 to 10. No matter which way you choose, you are evaluating the candidate’s responses against your job criteria, NOT other candidates. Did the response to a specific question show that the candidate has the knowledge, skill or ability to satisfactorily meet the job criteria you have detailed in your Position Description (e.g. “Skill in using computerized cash registers to record transactions, including sales types, refunds and quantities, in order to maintain accurate and up-to-date transaction records” ) ? Once you have completed your ratings for each question, you can then compare the rating across candidates. This will provide you with a much more objective evaluation of the candidates – and help separate ability from likeability!