week 9 - interview

Recruitment and SelectionLearning Objectives – Chapter 9

Interviewing

• Understand the purposes and uses of employment interviews• Understand the multiple phases of the employment interview and

the factors affecting employment interview decisions• Appreciate the selection errors associated with traditional

approaches to employment interviewing• Understand the elements of employment interview structuring• Understand different structured interviewing techniques and their

relative advantages and disadvantages• Appreciate the legal and predictive advantages of structured

employment interviewing methods

Recruitment and SelectionLearning Objectives – Chapter 9

Interviewing

• Understand the purposes and uses of employment interviews• Understand the multiple phases of the employment interview and

the factors affecting employment interview decisions• Appreciate the selection errors associated with traditional

approaches to employment interviewing• Understand the elements of employment interview structuring• Understand different structured interviewing techniques and their

relative advantages and disadvantages• Appreciate the legal and predictive advantages of structured

employment interviewing methods

Recruitment and SelectionLearning Objectives – Chapter 9 (cont’d)

Interviewing

• Begin developing competence in the design of effective interview questions and scoring guides

• Appreciate innovations and future directions in interview research and practice

• Appreciate the role of employment interviews in the changing organizational environment

I/V Goals

Interview Goals:

• Gather information.

• Realistically describe position.

• Provide fair treatment for all

interviewees.

• Establish a record of the process

Preparing for the InterviewThe following should be considered:• Room lay-out.• Who will be present during theinterview.• Questions to be asked.• Expected timeframe for feedback tobe given to those interviewed.• Whether a second interview will beconducted.

Preparing for the I/V

• Whether the candidates would

bring a sample of their work

with them.

• Is there any information about

the company which should be given to the

candidates at or prior to the

interview.

Conducting the Interview

• Establish rapport – open with icebreakerremarks.• Set agenda/outline how interview willbe conducted.• Gather information.• Describe the job and the organization.• Answer questions and allow theapplicant to add information.• Conclude the interview.

Gathering the Information:

• Remember, past behavior is a likelypredictor of future behavior.• Ask open-ended and probing questions.• Listen carefully.• Avoid leading questions or giving personalopinions.• Use words such as “why”, “how”, “what”,“describe”, or “tell me about”.

Gathering the Information:

• Ask follow-up questions for more detail.

• Try to maintain eye contact while taking

notes.

• Jot down key words and phrases.

• Record job-related evaluations and

additional information immediately

following the interview.

Closing the Interview:

• Thank the candidate for his/her time and interest.

• Indicate the next steps (e.g.second interview).

• Advise when you anticipatethe decision will be made and how the candidate will be

informed of the decision.

Evaluate Information:

• Review the minimum qualifications, job description, and other items quoted in the

advertisement for the position

to determine who best matches

the job.

• Use only information that is job

related.

Recruitment and SelectionPurposes and Uses of Interviews

• The interview is used to collect information that has not been provided in the resume or application form

• Interviews are best suited to the assessment of noncognitive attributes such as interpersonal relations or social skills, initiative, conscientiousness, dependability, perseverance, teamwork, leadership skills, adaptability or flexibility and organizational citizenship behaviour

• Interviews are also used to sell the job to the applicant• Interviews have been used in the termination of employees

Recruitment and SelectionInformation Processing and Decision Making in the Interview

• Initial information on the applicant• Initial impressions of the applicant’s qualifications• Interviewer’s conduct in the interview• Applicant’s performance in the interview• Interviewer’s processing of data from the interview• Post-interview phase• Evaluation of the applicant’s qualifications• The interviewer’s final decision about the applicant

Recruitment and SelectionUnstructured Interviews

A traditional method of interviewing that involves no constraints on the

questions asked, no requirements for standardization and a subjective

assessment of the candidate.

In such interviews, the interviewer typically engages in a freewheeling

conversation with the interviewee.

Recruitment and SelectionCommonly Used Interview Questions

1. Why did you leave your last job? (Why do you want to leave your current job?

2. What do you consider to be your strengths? What are your weaknesses?

3. What were your strongest subjects at school? What were your weakest subjects?

4. How would other people describe you as an individual?

5. What is your greatest accomplishment?

Recruitment and SelectionCommonly Used Interview Questions (cont’d)

6. What were the most enjoyable aspects of your last job? What were the least enjoyable aspects?

7. Why do you want this job? What are you looking for from this job (or from us)?

8. Why should we hire you? What can you do for us?

9. What are your long-range plans or goals? (Where do you plan to be five year from now?)

10. Tell me about yourself.

Recruitment and SelectionImpression Management

Instead of hiring the best candidate, the interviewer is likely to hire the

most skillful interviewee.

Attempts by applicants to create a favourable impression of themselves

by monitoring interviewer reactions and responding accordingly.

Recruitment and SelectionStructured Interviews

An interview consisting of a standardized set of job-relevant questions

and a scoring guide.

Recruitment and SelectionSummary of Components

1. Interview questions are derived from a job analysis (they are job-related).

2. Interview questions are standardized (all applicants are asked the same questions).

3. Prompting, follow-up questioning, probing and/or elaboration on questions are limited.

4. Interview questions focus on behaviours or work samples rather than opinions or self-evaluations.

5. Interviewer access to ancillary information (e.g., resumes, letters of reference, test scores, transcripts) is controlled.

Recruitment and SelectionSummary of Components (cont’d)

6. Questions from candidate are not allowed until after the interview.

7. Each answer is rated during the interview using a rating scale tailored to the question (this is preferable to rating dimensions at the end of the interview and certainly preferable to making an overall rating or ranking at the end).

8. Rating scales are “anchored” with behavioural examples to illustrate scale points (e.g., examples of a “1”, “3” or “5” answer.

9. Total interview score is obtained by summing across scores for each of the questions.

Recruitment and SelectionPanel Interview

An interview conducted by two or more interviewers together at one

time.

Recruitment and SelectionSerial Interviews

A series of interviews where the applicant is interviewed separately by

each of two or more interviewers.

Recruitment and SelectionSummary

• Panel and serial interviews should reduce the impact of biases held by an individual interviewer because interviewers are accountable to each other and provide a check on each other to ensure irrelevant information does not enter the decision. Each interviewer contributes a different perspective that should increase accuracy and the aggregation of multiple judgments should cancel out random errors. The recall of information should also be better with multiple interviewers.

• The use of panel or serial interviews appears to be viewed favourably by courts and therefore, gives some measure of protection from discrimination suits. Interview panels can include representation from different gender or ethnic groups, thus contributing to perceptions of fairness.

Recruitment and SelectionStructured Employment Interview Techniques

Situational Interview

A highly structured interview in which hypothetical situations are

described and applicants are asked what they would do. The

interviewer then uses a scoring guide consisting of sample answers to

each question to evaluate and score the applicant’s answers.

Recruitment and SelectionExample of a Situational Interview Question

Recruitment and SelectionStructured Employment Interview Techniques (cont’d)

Comprehensive Structured Interview

A highly structured interview consisting of a combination of situational

interview, job knowledge, job simulation and worker characteristic or

willingness questions. The job knowledge questions assess the degree

to which the applicant possesses relevant job knowledge

Recruitment and SelectionStructured Employment Interview Techniques (cont’d)

Behaviour Description Interview

A structured interview in which the applicant is asked to describe what

he or she did in given situations in the past. The interviewer is asked to

predict the interviewee’s behaviours in a given job situation based on

the interviewee’s descriptions of his or her behaviours in similar

situations in the past.

Recruitment and SelectionStructured Employment Interview Techniques (cont’d)

Probes

Follow-up questions or prompts used by the interviewer to guide the

applicant’s descriptions of situations or events or to provide elaboration

of answers.

Recruitment and SelectionStructured Employment Interview Techniques (cont’d)

Note

Interviewers require a fair degree of skill in order to conduct the BDI

effectively.

If the BDI is to be used, a thorough training program is highly

recommended.

Recruitment and SelectionInterview Practice and the Law

• When interviews are standardized, applicants can be compared on the basis of the same criteria and the interviewer obtains a better picture of the merits of each applicant relative to other applicants

• Standardized treatments of applicants is perceived as being fairer than nonstandardized treatment in today’s society

• Structured interviews appear to have a strong impact on the organization’s ability to defend itself against litigation

• Structured interviews may have greater predictive validity, in part, because structuring an interview increases its reliability and accuracy in differentiating between applicant competencies on job-relevant dimensions

Recruitment and SelectionInterview Practice and the Law (cont’d)

• The use of a standardized, job-relevant scoring system for assessing and comparing candidates may also contribute to an effective defense against litigation. Courts have been concerned when there is evidence that applicants giving the same responses are treated differently on the basis of gender or race or any other grounds on which discrimination is forbidden

• Rather than evaluating behaviours, interviewers using such questions make subjective judgments with respect to each answer given

Recruitment and SelectionDesigning Interview Questions (cont’d)

• BDI questions are designed by examining each task or situation in order to identify the behavioural dimension underlying the situation (e.g., meeting deadlines). The dimensions are turned into BDI questions, which retain the essence rather than the details of the original situation

• Probes are developed by anticipating the kinds of responses that applicants from different backgrounds or with different levels of experience are likely to give to a BDI question

• Job knowledge or job simulation questions can also be derived from critical incidents. The situations that lead to ineffective or effective behaviours can be simulated during the interview

Recruitment and SelectionInterviewer Training

Training interviewers to administer a structured interview is a

considerably different endeavour than training them to avoid errors and

biases or develop good listening skills. Although rapport building is an

important skill, interviewers using structured interviews need to learn

how to evaluate answers and use scoring guides, as well as how to

take notes.

The training should provide interviewers with decision rules to use in

such circumstances. Interviewers using techniques that allow more

discretion, such as the BDI, might require more extensive training than

those using more standardized approaches such as the SI.

Recruitment and SelectionInterviewer Training (cont’d)

When there is discretion, interviewers need to learn how to select

questions or probes and when to probe. They need to learn how to use

probes effectively without giving away the ideal answer.

Training that focuses on the evaluation and scoring of applicant

answers has been found to contribute to higher interview reliability and

validity.

Recruitment and SelectionSummary

As job requirements change in response to the ever-changing

workplace, organizations are beginning to shift the focus of selection

from specific job skills to organizational fit, transferable skills and

personality attributes. Structured employment interviews are well

suited to assessing such attributes and will continue to play an

important role in selection for the workplace of tomorrow. New

approaches to interviewing involving the use of technology, such as

videoconferencing and internet interviews are also being adopted by

employers. However, considerable research remains to be done to

determine the effects of such technology on interview validity, as well

as on interviewer and applicant responses.

LETS PRACTICE• Make these Behavioural

1. What do you do if you disagree with your boss?

2. What does it mean to be a team player?

3. How would you prioritize your work?

4. What are your challenges?