Summary: interview with a potential employee Report (Assessment)

Introduction

This paper is about an interview conducted with a potential employee for a job in an organization which core business is to serve children and families. The interview was conducted by two people, namely the human resource supervisor at the company, and another person who would act as an external reviewer for the process. The aim was to check how relevant the individual was to the organization.

Since the organization deals with children and family, the main focus is to be on the individual’s personality and how he or she carries out him or herself. The two interviewers would then share their notes on the same. The interview was carried out by the external assessor, while the human resource supervisor was also charged with making observations.

Patterns that have been noted by the human service supervisor

There was one thing that stood out, particularly the way that both the interviewer and the interviewee introduced themselves to one another. It was appropriate since it showed that the staff has the etiquette desirable for this kind of job. In as much as the interviewer was not all that confident, the interviewee also had a problem with the same thing.

This can however be excused for people who had not done this sort of things before, or had not done many of these things enough to overcome their nervousness. Something that is encouraging for this case is how both parties, the interviewer and the interviewee, did not come out as being too aggressive.

The interviewer and the interviewee gave one another time to articulate their issues and no one did interrupt the other during the interview process. Finally, the body language of the interviewer even though, can be classified as sufficient, needs a little improvement to instill the desired level of respect from the potential staff interviewee.

Among the verbal responses that can be said to form a pattern is the claim by every interviewee that they did some voluntary work during their high school and college days. The kind of research that was done by both the interviewer and interviewee for the process was above board. Another pattern is the desire of the interviewees to become administrators in the long term in their careers.

Patterns of response noted by guest –reviewers in the interview

The interviewee had no questions to ask the interviews during the interview. For both interviewers’, the interviewee appeared to be a good listener to whatever was asked and did not in any instance asked for any of the questions to be repeated.

It is critical to note that the interviewee was able to maintain his level of calmness even under the level of the pressure that he was subjected to during the process of interview. He was not overly aggressive when criticized about certain things, but instead sought to make the necessary corrections in case misunderstanding occurred during the process, which is a good thing especially for the position.

The difficult part for the human resource supervisor

Some parts of the interview were the most difficult for the interviewers; these parts mainly involved questions that were meant to find out the personality of the individual being interviewed. It excluded specific questions about where the interviewee had worked before.

Others included whether he had a question or not about the whole interview process. The interviewee was particularly dodgy on the issues concerning why the interviewee wanted to leave the current source of employment.

Another tricky one was why he wanted to work for that particular organization. Finally, it appears that the interviewee did not wish to disclose his weakness when asked. Probably it was because of his fear that he would lose this opportunity in case the answer was not good for the interviewers.

What the interviewers did not do to help in the interview process

The interviewers both seemed to anticipate the answer that the interviewee would give, which was not good. It could lead to a biased opinion which can easily disqualify an interviewee who is qualified. Secondly, the interviewers should have utilized questions which were more open to enable them to get the most they could from the interviewee on a subject about the interviewee that they were keen on investigating.

Before the interview, the interviewees did one commendable thing that really helped much during the process. They went through the interviewee’s resume which helped in the building of a rapport with him (the interviewee). The interviewers also had a list of questions that they were to ask with them.

This helped in maintaining their focus during the interview. Finally, there were a number of mistakes done by the people conducting the interview. They talked too much even when they had got the point that they had wanted. The other mistake that the interviewers did was to accept answers that were general in nature.

The body language by the interviewees could have passed the wrong messages to the interviewers, since they (the interviewees) were not as confident as it was expected of them during such a process. The interviewers were also not keen on the type of person or type of the performance expected of the interviewee.

They did not set the priorities that they were to look out for in this person. To come to the end of this part, they did not make a scorecard for the interview which did not give a precise way of gauging the performance of the interviewee.

What has been learnt from the interview and assessment that follows it?

There are certain things that can be learnt from this; one of them is that the interviewer also has to prepare for this process. The other is that both, the interviewer and the interviewee, would be in the spotlight as the interview would take place. The other is that not only the spoken or verbal communication of both will be assessed, but also the body language which could be of immense importance.

Conclusion

Interviews are crucial for an organization to get the right kind of staff. They however have to be carried out correctly and through ways that can be identified with the science of human labor. For this to be possible the right people in the selection process are necessary.

They will ensure the correct ways of identifying and analyzing potential staff. Furthermore, it is beneficial if there are other people who assess the abilities of these recruiters from time to time. In this way an organization is able to maintain the right staff.