Interviewing Candidates

Interviewing Candidates

ANNOTATED OUTLINE

I. Basic Types of Interviews

A. Types of Interviews include: appraisal interviews, exit interviews, and selection interviews. This chapter focuses on selection interviews.

1. Structured vs. Unstructured Interviews – Unstructured or nondirective interviews generally have no set format.  Structured or directive interviews generally identify questions and all applicants are asked the same questions. Sometimes acceptable responses are specified in advance and the responses are rated for appropriateness of content.  Examples of structured interview guides are provided in Figure 7-1.

Know Your Employment Law: Interviewing Candidates

This feature emphasizes that employment interviewers must exercise caution in which questions they ask, lest they expose their companies to accusations of discriminatory treatment. Questions regarding an applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, or disability trigger red flags.

     2.  Interview Content:  Types of Questions – Interviews can be classified according to the nature or content of their questions, such as situational interviews, job-related interviews, behavioral interviews, and stress interviews.  Puzzle questions are also popular today, and are used to see how candidates think under pressure.

B. How Should We Administer the Interview?

1. In-person Interviews – tend to be one-on-one where two people meet alone and one interviews the other by seeking oral responses to oral inquiries. Frequently, candidates are interviewed by several persons sequentially.

2. Panel Interviews – occur when a group (panel) of interviewers questions the candidate together.  A mass interview is where a panel interviews several candidates simultaneously.

3. Phone and Video Interviews – are often conducted entirely by phone.     Technology has also made interviewing by videoconferencing possible, saving time and travel costs.

4. Computerized Interviews – involve computers administering the interview.  Typically the questions are presented in a multiple-choice format, one at a time, and the applicant is expected to respond to the questions on the screen by pressing a key.

5. Web-Assisted Interviews – utilize PC video cameras to conduct interviews online via Webcasts.

Improving Productivity through HRIS – Automated video-based interview systems – This discussion box details examples of how several companies (Cisco, Treeba) integrate Web technology to streamline the interview process.

C.  Three Ways to Make Interviews Useful – Studies confirm that the validity of interviews is greater than previously thought. Structured interviews are more valid than unstructured interviews for predicting job performance. Some traits, however, are not able to be accurately assessed in an interview.

1. Structure the Interview – Structured interviews are more valid than unstructured interviews for predicting job performance.

2.  Be careful what sorts of traits you try to assess – Interviews are better for revealing some traits than others.

3.  Bewared of committing interviewing errors – Understand and avoid the various errors that can undermine any interview’s usefulness.

 NOTES Educational Materials to Use

II. What Can Undermine An Interview’s Usefulness?

A.  First Impressions – One of the most consistent findings is that interviewers tend to jump to conclusions about candidates during the first few minutes of the interview.

B.  Misunderstanding the Job – Interviewers who don’t know precisely what the job entails and what sort of candidate is best suited for it usually make their decisions based on incorrect or incomplete stereotypes of what a good applicant is.

C. Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error and Pressure to Hire – means that the order in which you see applicants affects how you rate them. Pressure to Hire can undermine an interview’s usefulness.

D. Nonverbal Behavior – can have a surprisingly large impact on an applicant’s rating.  Inexperienced interviewers may try to infer the interviewee’s personality from vocal and visual cues such as energy level, voice modulation, and level of extraversion.

E. Impression Management – Ingratiation, agreeing with the interviewer’s opinions, and self-promotion to create an impression of competence are used by clever interviewees to manage the impression they present.

F. Effect of Personal Characteristics: Attractiveness, Gender, Race – Interviewers have to guard against letting an applicant’s attractiveness, gender, and race play a role in their rating.

G. Interviewer Behavior – Telegraphing refers to the interviewer inadvertently evoking the expected answers.

The New Workforce:  Applicant Disability and the Employment Interview – Studies suggest that what the applicant voluntarily reveals about his disability influences the hire/no-hire decision.  Under the ADA, the interviewer must limit his or her questions to whether the applicant has any physical or mental impairment that may interfere with his or her ability to perform the job’s essential tasks.  Testers are individuals who apply for employment which they do not intend to accept, for the sole purpose of uncovering unlawful discriminatory hiring practices.  They have legal standing with the courts and the EEOC.

 NOTES Educational Materials to Use

III. How to Design and Conduct the Effective Interview

A. The Structured Situational Interview procedure is as follows: Step 1: Job Analysis; Step 2: Rate the Job’s Duty; Step 3: Create Interview Questions; Step 4: Create Benchmark Answers; and Step 5: Appoint the Interview Panel and Conduct Interviews. Web-based programs are available to help interviewers design and organize behavior-based selection interviews.

B.  How to Conduct a More Effective Interview

1. Structure Your Interview – a) base questions on job duties; b) use specific job-knowledge, situational, or behaviorally-oriented questions and objective criteria to evaluate the interviewee’s responses; c) train interviewers; d) use the same questions with all candidates; e) use rating scales to rate answers; f) use multiple interviewers or panel interviews; g) design questions that reduce subjectivity, inaccurate conclusions, and bias; h) use a structured interview form; i) control the interview; and j) take brief notes.

2. Prepare for the Interview – The interview should take place in a private room where interruptions can be minimized.  Prior to the interview, the interviewer should review the candidate’s application and resume, as well as the job duties and required skills and traits.

3. Establish Rapport – The interviewer should put the interviewee at ease so he/she can find out the necessary information about the interviewee. Studies show that people who feel more self-confident about their interviewing skills perform better in interviews.

4. Ask Questions – The interviewer should follow the interview guide.

5. Close the Interview – Leave time to answer any questions the candidate may have and, if appropriate, advocate your firm to the candidate.  Try to end the interview on a positive note.

6. Review the Interview – Once the candidate leaves, and while the interview is fresh on the interviewer’s mind, he/she should review his/her notes and fill in the structured interview guide.

When You’re On Your Own:  HR for Line Managers and Entrepreneurs – A streamlined procedure for crafting job-relevant questions and interviews is offered in this section for entrepreneurs.  It might be a good discussion point to talk about what the barriers to carrying out this plan would be for small business people.  Would they view it as too much work and too complicated?  What are the potential costs if they do not utilize the system?

Using a Streamlined Interview Process

A.       a) prepare for the interview; b) formulate questions to ask in the interview; c)            conduct the interview; d) match the candidate to the job

Guidelines for Interviewees

A. Hints for excelling in interviews – a) adequate preparation; b) uncover the interviewer’s needs; c) relate yourself to those needs; d) think before answering; e) remember that appearance and enthusiasm are important; f) make a good first impression; g) ask questions.

 NOTES Educational Materials to Use

Appendix for Chapter Seven

Teaching Tips: Students are frequently apprehensive about their own ability to be interviewed successfully. Emphasize that preparation is important. Class presentations or exercises that involve interviews can be used as an opportunity for students to get feedback about dressing appropriately for an interview, if students are told in advance that they should dress for the presentation as they would for an interview.  Local supervisors, HR managers, or personnel from Student Placement departments within the college/university can often be brought in as speakers to address this topic.

Students may also be assigned to choose several of the questions from Figures 7-2 and 7-3 to answer as they would in an interview, using their own experience. 

For classes with more experienced and working students, announce in advance that students should bring in their current resume, or a list of jobs they have held. Students may then interview each other in groups of two, using their actual experience.  This works best if the student is interviewed for an opening for the job they currently hold, or last held. The instructor can circulate, noting body language and other items of note with which to give general feedback following the exercise. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Explain and illustrate the basic ways in which you can classify selection interviews.  Interviews can be classified according to:  (1) degree of structure.  This is the extent to which interviews are, or are not, structured with previously designed questions so that each candidate must answer the same things.  (2) purpose.  Interviews may be designed to accomplish several purposes, including selection, performance appraisal feedback, etc.  (3) content.  The content of the questions may be situational, job-related, or psychological.  (4) the way the interview is administered.  Interviews might be conducted by a panel of interviewers, sequentially or all at once, computerized, or personally.  Students should also provide some illustrations of each.  

2. Briefly describe each of the following possible types of interviews:  unstructured panel interviews; structured sequential interviews; job-related structured interviews.  In the unstructured panel interview, the panel of interviewers asks questions as they come to mind.  They do not have a list of questions or points that need to be covered, but may follow many different directions.  The structured sequential interview consists of the candidate being interviewed one by one with several different interviewers.  Each interviewer conducts a structured interview that consists of pre-determined questions and a structured evaluation form to complete.  The job-related structured interview consists of pre-determined questions, all of which are designed to assess the applicant's past behaviors for job-related information. 

3. For what sorts of jobs do you think computerized interviews are most appropriate?  Why?  The computerized interview can be used as a screening device for virtually any type of position that may generate a large number of applicants.  It is less likely to be used for managerial positions.  However, if there are large numbers of applicants, it could certainly be just as useful there as in skilled, professional, and unskilled positions.

4. Why do you think situational interviews yield a higher mean validity than do job-related or behavioral interviews, which in turn yield a higher mean validity than do psychological interviews?  The situational interview allows the candidate to answer situational questions based on past experiences in which he or she might have made mistakes, but learned from them.  The job-related (or behavioral) interview focuses primarily on past situations, but does not allow for changes in the candidate due to the lessons that he or she might have learned from those experiences.  The psychological interview tends to be more speculative regarding traits that are difficult to really measure. 

5. Similarly, how do you explain the fact that structured interviews, regardless of content, are more valid than unstructured interviews for predicting job performance?  The structured interview helps to keep the interviewer focused on the types of behaviors, traits, or answers that are desired and have been determined to be good predictors of job performance.  Unstructured interviews allow interviewers to become sidetracked with things like common interests and other items that are not good predictors of job success.

6. Briefly discuss and give examples of at least five common interviewing mistakes.  What recommendations would you give for avoiding these interviewing mistakes?  

• Snap Judgments: This is where the interviewer jumps to a conclusion about the candidate during the first few minutes of the interview.  Using a structured interview is one way to help avoid this, as well as training of the interviewers.

• Negative Emphasis: When an interviewer has received negative information about the candidate, through references or other sources, he or she will almost always view the candidate negatively.  The best way to avoid this is to keep references or other information from the interviewer.  If possible, have different people do the reference checks and the interviews and not share the information until afterwards.

• Misunderstanding the Job: When interviewers do not have a good understanding of the job requirements, they do not make good selections of candidates.  All interviewers should clearly understand the jobs and know what is needed for success in those jobs.

• Pressure to Hire: Anytime an interviewer is told that they must hire a certain number of people within a short time frame, poor selection decisions may be made.  This type of pressure should be avoided whenever possible.

• Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error: When an adequate candidate is preceded by either an outstanding, or a poor candidate, by contrast he or she looks either less satisfactory or much better.  This can be countered through interviewer training, allowing time between interviews, and structured interviews with structured rating forms.

• Influence of Nonverbal Behavior: Candidates who exhibit stronger nonverbal behavior, such as eye contact and energy level, are perceived as stronger by the interviewers.  This can be minimized through interviewer training and structured interviews.

• Telegraphing: An interviewer might "give" the right answers to candidates they hope to hire.  This can be combated through structured interview questions, multiple interviewers, and interviewer training.

• Too Much / Too Little Talking: On either end of these extremes, the interviewer may not gather all the information that is really needed to make an appropriate selection decision.  Structured interviews help keep this from happening.

• Playing District Attorney or Psychologist: Some interviewers misuse their power by turning the interview into a game of "gotcha" or by probing for hidden meanings in everything the applicants say.  Structured interviews help keep this from happening.

7. Briefly discuss what an interviewer can do to improve his or her performance.  The students should refer to the section in the chapter on designing and conducting the effective interview to form his/her suggestions for how an interviewer can improve his/her perfomance.

INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP ACTIVITIES

1.  Prepare and give a short presentation titled, “How to Be Effective As an Interviewer.”  There are several things you can do to prepare to be an effective interviewer.  Some of the responses the students should give include: structure the interview; prepare for the interview; establish rapport; ask questions; close the interview; and review the interview.

2.  Use the Internet to find employers who now do preliminary selection interviews via the Web.  Print out and bring examples to class.  Do you think these interviews are useful? Why or why not? How would you improve them? The students should use the Internet to search the Web sites of various companies to find examples of companies that use the Web for preliminary selection interviews.  They should provide the pros and cons of using the Web for preliminary selection interviews.  Challenge students to identify ways to improve the examples they have presented based on what has been discussed in this chapter.

3.  In groups, discuss and compile examples of “the worst interview I ever had.”  What was it about these interviews that made them so bad?  If time permits, discuss as a class.  Based on their experiences, the students should come up with various examples.  They should also discuss what they would suggest to have improved the interview.

4. In groups, prepare an interview (including a sequence of at least 20 questions) you’ll use to interview candidates for the job teaching a course in Human Resources Management.  Each group should present theirs in class.  The students should use this opportunity to design their own interview questions using the suggestions given in the chapter.

5. Some firms swear by unorthodox interview methods.  For example, Tech Planet, of Menlo Park, CA, uses weekly lunches and “wacky follow-up sessions” as substitutes for first-round job interviews.  During the informal meals, potential staffers are expected to mingle, and they’re then reviewed by the Tech Planet employees they meet at the luncheons.  One Tech Planet employee asks candidates to ride a unicycle in her office to see if “they’ll bond with the corporate culture or not.”  Toward the end of the screening process, the surviving group of interviewees has to solve brainteasers, and then openly evaluate their fellow candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.  What do you think of a screening process like this?  Specifically, what do you think are its pros and cons?  Would you recommend a procedure like this?  If so, what changes, if any, would you recommend? The students should use the information they’ve learned in this chapter to make judgments about this screening process.

6. Several years ago, Lockheed Martin Corp. sued the Boeing Corp. in Orlando Florida, accusing it of using Lockheed’s trade secrets to help win a multibillion-dollar government contract. Among other things, Lockheed Martin claimed that Boeing had obtained those trade secrets from a former Lockheed Martin employee who switched to Boeing.  But in describing methods companies use to commit corporate espionage, one writer says that hiring away the competitor’s employees (or hiring people to go through its dumpster), are just the most obvious ways companies use to commit corporate espionage.  As he says, “one of the more unusual scams – sometimes referred to as “help wanted” – uses a person posing as a corporate headhunter who approaches an employee of the target company with a potentially lucrative job offer.  During the interview, the employee is quizzed about his responsibilities, accomplishments and current projects.  The goal is to extract important details without the employee realizing there is no job.” 

Assume that you are the owner of a small high-tech company that is worried about the 

possibility that one or more of your employees may be approached by one of these sinister “headhunters.”  What would you do (in terms of employee training, or a letter from you, for instance) to try to minimize the chance that one of your employees will fall into that kind of trap?  Also, compile a list of five or ten questions that you think such a corporate spy might ask one of your employees.

Students may suggest that the employer educate employees that tactics such as the ones described here are used by competitors, suggest an appropriate response, and encourage them to report any such contact to management.  Building trust and loyalty is clearly important in order for this strategy to be effective.  Brainstorm with the class a list of questions that may be asked, and perhaps conduct a role play to demonstrate how the conversation may play out, and facilitate a discussion on how the employee, and employer, could respond.

7.  The HRCI “Test Specifications” appendix at the end of this book lists the knowledge someone studying for the HRCI certification exam needs to know in each area of human resource management (such as Strategic Management, Workforce Planning, and Human Resource Development).  In groups of 4-5 students, do four things; (1) review that appendix now: (2) identify the material in this chapter that relates to the required knowledge the appendix lists; (3) write four multiple-choice exam questions on this material that you believe would be suitable for inclusion in the HRCI exam; and (4) if time permits, have someone from your team post your team’s questions in front of the class, so the students in other teams can take each other’s exam questions.

Material from this chapter that may be included in the HRCI certification exam includes interviewing procedures, federal, state, and local employment-related laws, and interviewing techniques.

     Some multiple-choice question examples:

1. The type of interview where candidates are asked to describe how they would react to a hypothetical situation is called a:

a. situational interview

b. behavioral interview (correct answer)

c. stress interview 

d. job-related interview

2. The type of interview where the interviewer asks candidates about what their behavior would be in a given situation is called a:

a. situational interview (correct answer)

b. behavioral interview

c. stress Interview

d. job-related interview

3. The type of interview where the interviewer tries to deduce what the applicant’s on-the-job performance will be based on his answers to questions about past experiences is called a:

a. situational interview

b. behavioral interview

c. stress interview

d. job-related interview (correct answer)

4. Factors that can undermine an interview’s usefulness include:

a. stress interviews

b. effect of personal characteristics (correct answer)

c. candidate disabilities

d. none of the above

EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES & CASES

Experiential Exercise: The Most Important Person You’ll Ever Hire 

This exercise is explained in step-by-step instructions in the text.  It gives students the opportunity to practice some of the interview techniques learned from this chapter.

Application Case: The Out-of-Control Interview

1. How would you explain the nature of the panel interview Maria had to endure?  Specifically, do you think it reflected a well-thought-out interviewing strategy on the part of the firm, or carelessness on the part of the firm's management?  If it was carelessness, what would you do to improve the interview process at Apex Environmental?  It is fairly clear that the panel interview was a stress interview designed to see how well she could handle difficult situations.  In this respect, it seems to have been a well-thought-out interviewing strategy, but there was a very clear element of carelessness on the part of the firm's management.  The panel was obviously not well-trained and was careless in the choice of questions that they used.  Many of the questions were clearly discriminatory and could be used against them in a gender-based discrimination suit.

2. Would you take the job offer if you were Maria?  If you're not sure, is there any additional information that would help you make your decision, and if so, what is it?  Maria needs additional information.  What she does know is the nature of the job and the clear fit with her training and skills.  The additional information that she should seek involves the number of women who work at Apex, the levels of management which they have attained, and the satisfaction of those women with their treatment by the Apex management.  The fact that the entire interview panel was composed of men and their choice of questions leaves us with reservations about how she would be treated once hired.

3. The job of applications engineer for which Maria was applying requires:  (1) excellent technical skills with respect to mechanical engineering; (2) a commitment to working in the area of pollution control; (3) the ability to deal well and confidently with customers who have engineering problems; (4) a willingness to travel worldwide; and (5) a very intelligent and well-balanced personality.  What questions would you ask when interviewing applicants for the job?  There are a wide variety of specific questions that could be posed to address these issues.  Questions need to be job-related, specifically to the requirements listed above.  They also need to clearly avoid any discriminatory areas. 

Continuing Case: Carter Cleaning Company; The Better Interview

1.  In general, what can Jennifer do to improve her employee interviewing practices?  Should she develop interview forms that list questions for management and non-management jobs, and if so what form should these take and what questions should be included?  Should she initiate a computer-based interview approach, and if so why and specifically, how?  Carter Cleaning Company has an inadequate, unstructured way of interviewing and hiring.  One solution students could suggest is to utilize a structured interview guide such as the one provided in Figure 7-1 as an example of a tool that managers could use to improve their interviewing practices.   Have students brainstorm a list of questions to be included in the structured interview guide. A computer-based approach is also a possibility; students should explore the pros and cons of this given the nature of the organization and weigh the cost/benefit of utilization of this technology.

2. Should she implement a training program for her managers, and if so, specifically what should be the content of such an interview training program?  In other words, if she did decide to start training her management people to be better interviewers, what should she tell them and how should she tell it to them?    The obvious answer to this question is yes, a training program should be designed and delivered.   Students should include suggestions from the section on designing and conducting effective interviews, including training in preparation, utilization of a structured interview process, and interviewing techniques discussed in this chapter.  She should educate managers in the potential pitfalls that come up in the interviewing process as outlined in the text, and provide opportunity for practice with mock interviews in the training session so that managers get an opportunity to use the skills they learn and become comfortable with the process.

Translating Strategy into HR Policies and Practice Case: The Hotel Paris 

 The New Interviewing Program – The continuing case study of Hotel Paris is discussed here. In this example, students develop a structured interview process for a position and formulate behavioral questions, situational questions, and job knowledge questions to identify the desired capabilities and behavior. 

1. For the jobs of security guard or car hop, develop 5 situational, 5 behavioral, and 5 job knowledge questions, with descriptive good/average/poor answers.

Examples may be found in Figures 7-2 and 7-3. Student answers will vary.  For the security guard, questions might focus on ascertaining the level of dependability, responsibility, initiative, and cool-headedness under pressure. The car hop position’s desired behaviors may include detail orientation, friendliness, and ability to follow directions.

2. Combine your questions into a complete interview process that you would give to someone who must interview candidates for these jobs. 

Students should follow the outline for interviewing in Figure 7-1 and in the Chapter Appendix.

KEY TERMS

unstructured or An unstructured conversational-style interview.  The interviewer nondirective interview pursues points of interest as they come up in response to questions.

structured or An interview following a set sequence of questions.

directive interview

situational interview A series of job-related questions which focus on how the candidate would behave in a given situation.

behavioral interviews A series of job-related questions that focus on how they reacted to actual situations in the past.

job-related interview A series of job-related questions which focuses on relevant past job-related behaviors.

unstructured sequential An interview in which each interviewer forms an independent opinion

interview after asking different questions.

stress interview An interview in which the applicant is made uncomfortable by a series of often rude questions.

structured sequential An interview in which the applicant is interviewed sequentially

interview by several supervisors and each rates the applicant on a standard form.

panel interview An interview in which a group of interviewers questions the applicant.

mass interview A panel interviews several candidates simultaneously.

candidate-order error An error of judgment on the part of the interviewer due to interviewing one or more very good or very bad candidates just before the interview in question.

structured situational A series of job-relevant questions with predetermined answers that                     interview interviewers ask of all applicants for the job.

VIDEO CASE  APPENDIX

Video 3: Recruitment and Placement

In this video, Paul, the vice president of human resources at BMG, faces the possibility that the wrong person was hired for a job. The senior director of music placement accuses Paul of sending her candidates that do not meet the criteria set by her department. A discussion takes place between the two, detailing information about the role of HR in the hiring process, and the recruitment process in general. And, the video delves into some of the technological aspects of recruiting. As Paul explains, when we get a “recruitment request, we ask for job specifications, we interview several candidates, and we provide the hiring department with a short list of candidates.” So, as Paul says, if the candidate turns out to be inadequate, it’s not HR’s problem, it’s “your fault, since your supervisors picked him.” She makes the point that “you only recruited in Rolling Stone magazine.” Paul agrees, but points out that they did get 60 candidates. Furthermore, recruiting more extensively would involve considerably more cost. Again, though, one of the main issues revolves around whether the job specifications (“criteria”) are correct, and whether there was an agreement on those job specs between HR and the hiring managers.

Video 4: Praendex

Using a proven, proprietary management tool called the Predictive Index (PI), Massachusetts-based Praendex, Inc. enables employers of all types to hire and retain the right people. Mentioned in our textbook, the PI is a personality survey consisting of a two-sided sheet with 86 adjectives on each side. One side asks people to check off any words they feel describe how others perceive them, and the other side asks them to check off any words they believe pertain to themselves (“how you see yourself”). As the company’s president says, “Our main purpose is to help clients make the best use of their employees’ talents.”

For video discussion questions, please visit the Instructor’s Resource Center at: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/dessler

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