To many firms, the interviewing process has always been a challenge to most of the human resource personnel in charge of this section in the employee recruitment process. As a result most of the organizations try to take the initiative of improving employees by taking their human resource personnel through the appraisal process.
This process is aimed at improving the employee’s ability and efficiency in carrying out an interview that enables the organization to recruit the desired individual with the desired skills.
In this appraisal session, the trainer uses speeches to communicate with his/her audience, giving out brochures and video clips were necessary to explain his points (Laakmann, 2011).
It is first of all necessary for the interviewer to be prepared before the actual interview is started in order to ensure that the best candidate is selected with minimum errors. To start with the interviewer should be on the right track, he/she must be able to identify the goals of the interview and understand them clearly.
This may be formulated through the identification of the present state of the firm, its needs in terms of the manpower, the quality and integrity of the preferred personnel. The interviewer should further be able to estimate the expected expenditure in the process, and expressly specify the estimated cost to be incurred on the employed personnel by the firm.
This should be estimated based on what the firm can be able to afford at the time as salary to the additional employees, and the anticipated productivity of the individual to the output of the organization (Laakmann, 2011).
After the preparation of this information, it should be passed to other colleagues in order to improve the performance and coordination of the team of interviewers.
As the team of interviewers, we should be able to review the material presented by the applicants taking note that a resume will always give more information about the applicant than an application letter.
The next step includes the systematic classification of all the application letters and resumes initially received from the prospective interviewees, following the posting of the job in an advertisement (Glasser, 2007). The material should be screened for consistency of information between the application letter and the resume.
At this stage of the process, the personnel should be able to avoid generalization errors like the qualifying of unnecessary courses done by the some of the candidates.
To create some level of order in the whole process, the documents of the candidates are then classified in to three groups. Group A (qualified), Group B (meet minimum requirements) and Group C (does not meet qualifications).
The collection of documents that are categorized as qualified are then re-reviewed to determine the best candidates that should be taken through an interview. While the rest are kept as contingency applications that may be used in case the person initially selected fails to turn out as expected.
Several other methods may be used by the interviewer in the selection process of the preferred candidate, for example, a telephone interview (Cosentino, 2011).
This may be done with utmost discretion by avoiding asking irrelevant questions that may not be related to the job, to minimize on the risk that may arise for example, the discrimination acts that may be due to asking questions about the interviewee’s race.
The next process is the actual interviewing process between the representative of the company or the employer himself with the candidate.
To begin with, the human resource department of the firm may call the applicants directly themselves, or schedule the interviews through the use of recruitment specialists.
However, there are some general guidelines that may be used by the firm to ensure good results are achieved (Cosentino, 2011).
- In the scheduling of the interviewing process, the interviewees should be allotted equal time for the process without any form of discrimination. This ensures that the process is fair and just to the interviewees.
- Adequate time should be allowed between two consecutive interviews, this will help the interviewers to get enough time to arrange the details of the completed interviewee. Simultaneously, sufficient time should be allocated for candidates going and coming to the office to do so freely.
- The candidates should be informed before they come for the interview about the venue, the specific time and the day of the interview. This will enable the interviewee to plan their activities and allocate adequate time for the interview.
- The applicants should be well informed about the company before they come for the interview, this will be a sign of interest in the company and its activities. In return they will understand company activities and what to expect from the employment.
- The candidates may further be instructed to bring job related documentations such as, the work models or recommendation letters where applicable.
Several methods may be used by the firm to get more information from the candidate that can help in the selection process like the use of questionnaires, or direct questions asked by the interviewer. At this point fliers of some of the questions are distributed to the audience.
In most of the companies, the interviewing process is done through question and answer sessions between the interviewer and the candidate; however, these questions must be well devised for them to retrieve the desired information from the candidate on his/her abilities (Cosentino, 2011).
Using direct questions like those that require a yes or no answer should be limited as they restrict information obtained from the candidate. The interviewer should use open ended questions like; tell me about your worst experience?
These types of questions are the best to be used as they challenge the candidate to tell what he/she thinks is important and necessary in the prevailing circumstances. The answers are then used by the interviewer to judge the credibility and potential of the interviewee.
He/she may also make use of the situational questions that help to imply the type of reactions to expect from the applicant. These give the candidate the challenging context of the job like situation.
The answers offered by the candidate are then used to assess their ability to identify the imperative circumstances in the job, analyze them, and provide reasonable solutions (Darling, 2009).
Besides, some of the questions may be applied with the intention of getting general information about the candidates; these are recommended for use for a start up organization or first interviews before the final one is done (Posegate, 2008). Several of the questions may include;
Questions used to identify previous work experience, for example.
- What are some of your key functions and responsibilities in your current job?
- Identify a time in your employment that you worked and achieved all you could?
Questions used to establish the expectations of the interviewee on the Job being applied.
What are the reasons that made you to apply for this position?
Why do you think you should be hired for this position?
Questions used to identify the candidate’s attitude towards management.
What do you think are the most significant roles of a manager?
Describe the type of directions that you prefer from a supervisor?
Identification of the employee’s interpersonal skills, with reference to what the firm needs.
- How do you convince others to do what you want? Have you ever had conflict with the boss? How did you approach her/him and what solutions did you get? Were you satisfied with the solution?
- We need for you to describe a situation where you have a project in mind and you lack the necessary cash, how will you persuade your employer to grant you the cash.
In some of the jobs, the firm may need someone who is creative and the only way to identify if for sure that person is creative is the use of questions whose answers require a creative mind. For instance, asking the candidate to explain what he has done to improve the level of efficiency, effectiveness and ways to make work easier in his/her initial occupation (Glasser, 2007).
Furthermore, in the assessment of whether the interviewer has a vision or not and his ability to understand the needs of the company, the interviewer may use questions like; have you ever been offered the position of leading a project? Explain how you were able to create and introduce direction in the team?
Some positions in the firm may need an individual with good leadership abilities and the necessary influence on other people through inspiration of others, charisma and spurring. This kind of person may be identified through the use of well formulated questions, that lead to well thought out answers, for example, describe your approach to decision making and problem solving that make you unique?
Or if you were to recommend for the transfer of certain functions from one department to another, what are some of the main factors that you will consider? These questions give the interviewee the chance to display his ability to make quick and creative solutions to the normal challenges that arise in the day to day work environment (Darling, 2009).
After all the interviews have been done and the desired individuals have been identified. The personnel are supposed to develop a list of job related questions that should be used to verify the referees of all the candidates.
Departments should carry out their own checks where necessary and if external help is required, one should conduct the staff recruitment specialists. We verify the interviewee’s referees for the following three reasons;
- To confirm employment;
- To substantiate new skills learned during the interview.
- To obtain employment recommendation.
On the completion of the above procedures, a formal job offer is presented to the candidates. This is done later in form of an engagement letter and contract of employment based on the terms of the specific industry in which the firm operates (Posegate, 2008).
References
Cosentino, M. (2011). Complete Case Interview Organization. New York: Pre-press Publishers.
Darling, T. (2009). How to Get Into Consulting Firms: A Surefire Case Interview Method. Boston: Person publishers.
Glasser, C. (2007). Complete Case Interviewing Preparation. Chicago: Linder schrelber-Genster.
Laakmann, G. M. (2011). Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions and Solutions. San Francisco: Brooks Cole publishers.
Posegate, A. (2008). Climbing The Corporate Ladder. London: Front Row Press.