Recruitment Article part 3
The Interview
A Recruitment Interview is an important part of the recruitment process and it provides information to the candidates as to what sort of organisation you are. Whether the candidate is successful or not they should enjoy the experience of an interview with your company. In the first part of this series we said that the recruitment process is a public relations exercise and interview is the meet and greet part of that exercise. It needs to be the same for each and every candidate regardless of your first impressions or opinions about their appearance.
Getting the interview right will save you a lot of time and money in the long run and get you the right candidate for the role.
How to prepare
There are a number of things that need to be done in order to design and prepare for an interview.
In order to design your interview you need several things
If you have written the Job Advert you should have an up to date Job Description that details what the job is and who the job holder reports to. If this is in place the Person Specification should also be in place.
Depending on your organisation you will either have a set of competencies or not. Competencies are areas that employees have to perform in and depending on their job level to a particular level. Below is an example of a set of competencies for a job
Employee Level Supervisor and Line Senior Manager
Manager Level and Above
Competency
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Communication
Good all round communication both oral and written. Easily understood.
Clear communication both oral and written and listening skills
Clear communication skills both oral and written with excellent listening skills combined with the ability to interpret company messages
Excellent Communication skills both oral and written with excellent listening skills combined with the ability to communicate company message and mission to all levels
Customer Service
Handle customers effectively and efficiently to company standards
Handle customers effectively and efficiently to company standards. Resolve customer complaints that are passed up to you.
Handle customers effectively and efficiently to company standards. Resolve customer complaints that are passed up to you and to act as a role model for customer service.
Handle customers effectively and efficiently to company standards. Resolve any customer complaints that are passed up to you. Have input into customer service policy and where needed decide customer service policy and act as a role model for customer service.
Health and Safety
Act in a Safe and responsible manner at all times. Report any accidents, hazards or dangerous practices. Wear and use suitable protective equipment in high risk areas.
Act in a Safe and responsible manner at all times. Report any accidents, hazards or dangerous practices. Wear and use suitable protective equipment in high risk areas. Be responsible for the employees that report you to.
Act in a Safe and responsible manner at all times. Report any accidents, hazards or dangerous practices. Wear and use suitable protective equipment in high risk areas. Be responsible for the employees that report you to. Carry out risk assessments as appropriate and maintain the accident book for your area.
Act in a Safe and responsible manner at all times. Report any accidents, hazards or dangerous practices. Wear and use suitable protective equipment in high risk areas. Be responsible for the employees that report you to. Carry out risk assessments as appropriate. Ensure that correct Health and Safety signage is in place. Contribute to and implement the safety policy.
Security
Maintain security of the site and report any suspicious activity to supervisors and managers.
Maintain security of the site and take appropriate action on suspicious activity
Maintain security of the site and take appropriate action on suspicious activity. Be a contact for out of hour's security issues. Maintain database security and ensure it is adhered to
Maintain security of the site and take appropriate action on suspicious activity. Be a contact for out of hour's security issues. Maintain database security and ensure it is adhered to. Be a registered Data Controller and be familiar with the Data Protection Act.
Motivation
Maintain your own motivation in everything you do.
Maintain your own motivation in everything you do. Have the ability to motivate your team and others to achieve goals and targets.
Maintain your own motivation in everything you do. Have the ability to motivate your team and others to achieve goals and targets. Understand what motivates others and use recognition systems regularly.
Maintain your own motivation in everything you do. Have the ability to motivate your team and others to achieve goals and targets. Understand motivation theory and us it to design recognition packages to maintain and advance the motivation of employees.
Diversity and Equality
Treat your colleagues and Customers with dignity and respect at all times regardless of Race, Gender, Religious Beliefs and life style.
Treat your colleagues and Customers with dignity and respect at all times regardless of Race, Gender, Religious Beliefs and life style. Promote Diversity in the workplace and manage Diversity issues appropriately.
Treat your colleagues and Customers with dignity and respect at all times regardless of Race, Gender, Religious Beliefs and life style. Promote Diversity in the workplace and manage Diversity issues appropriately and be a champion of Diversity and Equality issues.
Treat your colleagues and Customers with dignity and respect at all times regardless of Race, Gender, Religious Beliefs and life style. Promote Diversity in the workplace and manage Diversity issues appropriately and be a champion of Diversity and Equality issues. Contribute to the Diversity and Equality policy and its promotion.
Questions
With a competency list in place you can design your questions around each competency. There are certain rules for interview questions and you should aim to listen for most of the time. There are a variety of questions that we can use when we talk to other people
Out of these questions, some should NOT be used during an interview. These are
Critical questions are more about the tone that you use when you ask them ‘Why did you do that?' or ‘why did it take you so long?' These questions can be asked but you have you watch your tone of voice when asking them.
Hypothetical questions have little place in an interview as you are looking for experience and hypothetical questions ask the interviewee to guess what they would do in a certain situation. To ask an interviewee what they would do in your organisation about a situation without knowing procedure or policy is unfair. You can ask if they have experienced a situation and what they did about it to see if it is close to your company.
Rhetorical questions are pointless in an interview as they do not require an answer.
Leading questions only lead to an answer that you want and do not help you in deciding who the best candidate is if you have got them all to say the answer you are looking for!
Multiple questions are lots of questions in one. Jonathan Ross is the master of the multiple questions and they do nothing but baffle and confuse the interviewee and 9 times out of 10 they will only answer the last part. If you break these down into separate questions you will get a much better answer and possibly not need the remaining questions.
Open, Probing, Reflective and to some extent Closed questions are the ones that need to be in an interview. This is because, with the exception of closed questions, they provide the most information. Closed questions should be used to clarify your understanding of an answer or to get a direction for the interview.
Open questions usually start with What, Where, Who When, Why and How. You can use tell me, give me or explain to me. For example, ‘Tell me about your time at..' ‘Give me an example of when…', ‘Explain to me how that worked out'
Probing questions are another open question that builds on key words to gather more evidence and Reflective questions relate to a previous answer or comment. For example, ‘you said earlier that… How did that work?'
Closed questions usually provide a ‘yes' or ‘no' answer and can stop an interview dead if used too frequently. Trying to be too polite by putting ‘can you' before tell, give or explain creates a closed question as the interviewee has options to answer or not.
As an interview should be like a formal conversation, you do not need a great long list of questions. One question per competency to get you started and your second, third, forth and further questions are formed from the answer given by the interviewee. The more relaxed you are in your questioning, the better your questioning is. Listening is the key to a good interview and you should be listening 80% of the time.
With your competencies and questions in place you are ready for your interview.
A Recruitment Interview is an important part of the recruitment process and it provides information to the candidates as to what sort of organisation you are. Whether the candidate is successful or not they should enjoy the experience of an interview with your company. In the first part of this series we said that the recruitment process is a public relations exercise and interview is the meet and greet part of that exercise. It needs to be the same for each and every candidate regardless of your first impressions or opinions about their appearance.
Getting the interview right will save you a lot of time and money in the long run and get you the right candidate for the role.
How to prepare
There are a number of things that need to be done in order to design and prepare for an interview.
In order to design your interview you need several things
- Up to date Job Description
- Person Specification
- Competency list and description (if appropriate)
- Organisation Chart
If you have written the Job Advert you should have an up to date Job Description that details what the job is and who the job holder reports to. If this is in place the Person Specification should also be in place.
Depending on your organisation you will either have a set of competencies or not. Competencies are areas that employees have to perform in and depending on their job level to a particular level. Below is an example of a set of competencies for a job
Employee Level Supervisor and Line Senior Manager
Manager Level and Above
Competency
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Communication
Good all round communication both oral and written. Easily understood.
Clear communication both oral and written and listening skills
Clear communication skills both oral and written with excellent listening skills combined with the ability to interpret company messages
Excellent Communication skills both oral and written with excellent listening skills combined with the ability to communicate company message and mission to all levels
Customer Service
Handle customers effectively and efficiently to company standards
Handle customers effectively and efficiently to company standards. Resolve customer complaints that are passed up to you.
Handle customers effectively and efficiently to company standards. Resolve customer complaints that are passed up to you and to act as a role model for customer service.
Handle customers effectively and efficiently to company standards. Resolve any customer complaints that are passed up to you. Have input into customer service policy and where needed decide customer service policy and act as a role model for customer service.
Health and Safety
Act in a Safe and responsible manner at all times. Report any accidents, hazards or dangerous practices. Wear and use suitable protective equipment in high risk areas.
Act in a Safe and responsible manner at all times. Report any accidents, hazards or dangerous practices. Wear and use suitable protective equipment in high risk areas. Be responsible for the employees that report you to.
Act in a Safe and responsible manner at all times. Report any accidents, hazards or dangerous practices. Wear and use suitable protective equipment in high risk areas. Be responsible for the employees that report you to. Carry out risk assessments as appropriate and maintain the accident book for your area.
Act in a Safe and responsible manner at all times. Report any accidents, hazards or dangerous practices. Wear and use suitable protective equipment in high risk areas. Be responsible for the employees that report you to. Carry out risk assessments as appropriate. Ensure that correct Health and Safety signage is in place. Contribute to and implement the safety policy.
Security
Maintain security of the site and report any suspicious activity to supervisors and managers.
Maintain security of the site and take appropriate action on suspicious activity
Maintain security of the site and take appropriate action on suspicious activity. Be a contact for out of hour's security issues. Maintain database security and ensure it is adhered to
Maintain security of the site and take appropriate action on suspicious activity. Be a contact for out of hour's security issues. Maintain database security and ensure it is adhered to. Be a registered Data Controller and be familiar with the Data Protection Act.
Motivation
Maintain your own motivation in everything you do.
Maintain your own motivation in everything you do. Have the ability to motivate your team and others to achieve goals and targets.
Maintain your own motivation in everything you do. Have the ability to motivate your team and others to achieve goals and targets. Understand what motivates others and use recognition systems regularly.
Maintain your own motivation in everything you do. Have the ability to motivate your team and others to achieve goals and targets. Understand motivation theory and us it to design recognition packages to maintain and advance the motivation of employees.
Diversity and Equality
Treat your colleagues and Customers with dignity and respect at all times regardless of Race, Gender, Religious Beliefs and life style.
Treat your colleagues and Customers with dignity and respect at all times regardless of Race, Gender, Religious Beliefs and life style. Promote Diversity in the workplace and manage Diversity issues appropriately.
Treat your colleagues and Customers with dignity and respect at all times regardless of Race, Gender, Religious Beliefs and life style. Promote Diversity in the workplace and manage Diversity issues appropriately and be a champion of Diversity and Equality issues.
Treat your colleagues and Customers with dignity and respect at all times regardless of Race, Gender, Religious Beliefs and life style. Promote Diversity in the workplace and manage Diversity issues appropriately and be a champion of Diversity and Equality issues. Contribute to the Diversity and Equality policy and its promotion.
Questions
With a competency list in place you can design your questions around each competency. There are certain rules for interview questions and you should aim to listen for most of the time. There are a variety of questions that we can use when we talk to other people
- Open
- Closed
- Reflective
- Critical
- Hypothetical
- Rhetorical
- Probing
- Leading
- Multiple
Out of these questions, some should NOT be used during an interview. These are
- Critical
- Hypothetical
- Rhetorical
- Leading
- Multiple
Critical questions are more about the tone that you use when you ask them ‘Why did you do that?' or ‘why did it take you so long?' These questions can be asked but you have you watch your tone of voice when asking them.
Hypothetical questions have little place in an interview as you are looking for experience and hypothetical questions ask the interviewee to guess what they would do in a certain situation. To ask an interviewee what they would do in your organisation about a situation without knowing procedure or policy is unfair. You can ask if they have experienced a situation and what they did about it to see if it is close to your company.
Rhetorical questions are pointless in an interview as they do not require an answer.
Leading questions only lead to an answer that you want and do not help you in deciding who the best candidate is if you have got them all to say the answer you are looking for!
Multiple questions are lots of questions in one. Jonathan Ross is the master of the multiple questions and they do nothing but baffle and confuse the interviewee and 9 times out of 10 they will only answer the last part. If you break these down into separate questions you will get a much better answer and possibly not need the remaining questions.
Open, Probing, Reflective and to some extent Closed questions are the ones that need to be in an interview. This is because, with the exception of closed questions, they provide the most information. Closed questions should be used to clarify your understanding of an answer or to get a direction for the interview.
Open questions usually start with What, Where, Who When, Why and How. You can use tell me, give me or explain to me. For example, ‘Tell me about your time at..' ‘Give me an example of when…', ‘Explain to me how that worked out'
Probing questions are another open question that builds on key words to gather more evidence and Reflective questions relate to a previous answer or comment. For example, ‘you said earlier that… How did that work?'
Closed questions usually provide a ‘yes' or ‘no' answer and can stop an interview dead if used too frequently. Trying to be too polite by putting ‘can you' before tell, give or explain creates a closed question as the interviewee has options to answer or not.
As an interview should be like a formal conversation, you do not need a great long list of questions. One question per competency to get you started and your second, third, forth and further questions are formed from the answer given by the interviewee. The more relaxed you are in your questioning, the better your questioning is. Listening is the key to a good interview and you should be listening 80% of the time.
With your competencies and questions in place you are ready for your interview.
Source...