Interview Procedure designed to obtain information from a person through oral responses to oral inquiries.
. Selection Interview Is a selection procedure designed to predict a future job performance on the basis of applicants oral responses to oral inquires. Appraisal Interview Is a discussion, following a performance appraisal, in which a supervisor and employee discuss the employees ratings and possible remedial actions. Exit interview Takes place when an employee leaves the firm. Its a method which aims at eliciting information that might provide some insight into whats right or wrong about the firm. Selection Interview Classification: Structures or Unstructured Their content types of questions Administration of the interviews.
Unstructured (or nondirective) Managers do not follow any set format. More or less like a general conversation and also there is no formal guide to specify the wrong or right answers. Structured (or directive) The questions to be asked are listed ahead of time, and also the scores for possible answers may be determined. Usually such interviews are restricted to carefully selected job oriented with predetermined answers only. Structured interviews are always considered superior. Since there is a fixed format of questions, these interviews are more reliable, valid and easily compared amongst candidates. Also standardized interviews increases consistency across candidates, enhances job relatedness, reduces overall subjectivity and thus the potential for bias.
Interview Content:
Situational Questions Ask questions on the basis of how his behavior would be given in certain situations. Behavioral Questions Ask questions relating to how they reacted to situations that happened in the past. Job related Here the questions dont revolve around hypothetical or actual situations but purely on the basis of past work experiences.
Administration of interviews:
Unstructured sequential interview: Each interviewer asks questions in accordance to what comes to their mind and then basically form an opinion about the candidate. Structured Sequential interview: Each interview rates the candidate on a standard evaluation form, using standardized questions. The hiring manager then reviews and evaluates these forms before making a decision. Panel interview: Also known as board interview is an interview conducted by a team of interviewers. At the end they combine their ratings into a final panel score. Mass interview: Unlike a panel interview where there is only one candidate being interviewed, under Mass interview, there are simultaneously many candidates. The panel poses a problem and then watches to see which candidate takes a lead in answering the question.
Computerized Selection Interview
Is one in which a job candidates oral and or computerized responses are obtained in response to computerized oral, visual or written questions or situations. Most of these present the applicant with questions relating to background, experience, education, skills, knowledge and work attitudes that relate to the job for which the person has applied. These interviews are usually in multiple choice format. These interviews are in rapid sequence and require the applicant to concentrate. The response time is usually measured to each question and delaying in answering certain such question can pose potential problems. Managers save time by not interviewing unacceptable candidates. People are usually more honest to computers Saves stress of employees by avoiding interpersonal interviews On the other hand, no response or reactions from the computer can also lead to dissatisfaction amongst applicants.
Selection interviews tend to be less useful, because managers end up making certain predictable mistakes:
1) First impressions Making judgments about the candidates in the first few moments of the interview. These can be essentially damaging when the prior information is negative. Such as in their CVs or any of their scores. Also interviewers are always more influenced by unfavorable information about a candidate.
2) Misunderstanding the job This happens when an interviewer does not know what kind of an applicant a particular job requires. Under such a scenario he would end up making wrong decisions based on stereotypes of what a good applicant is. What traits are required and why should always be clarified first. 3) Candidate order error This means the order in which you meet the candidates depends on how you will rate or evaluate them. For example: After interviewing several unfavorable candidates, when you meet an average one, you tend to give them higher rating, because they seem so much better than the ones met before. Most of the times, the interviewers do not rate the applicants on their actual potential but on the basis of where they stand compared to others. 4) Non verbal behavior and impression Management This includes making conclusions about the candidates personality on the basis of non verbal behavior. How the pitch of the voice goes, avoiding eye contact, smiling etc. Level of extraversion from candidates always made a better impression on interviewers. Impression Management Since candidates know this, clever candidates try to focus the interviewers attention on their similarities, on the other hand they may even compliment the interviewer or agree to his or her opinions. Some candidates may even end up doing self-promotion, that is promoting or selling their accomplishments and skills so as to seem more competent. 5) Effect of personal attributes: Attractiveness, gender, disabilities or race may distort assessments. 6) Interviewer Behavior Interviewers behavior can also affect a candidates ratings or performance. Some may talk so much that the applicant is barely given a chance to speak, some may give clues as to what answers are expected from the candidate. On the other hand, some interviewers may give so much time for the candidate to talk that at the end they are barely left time to ask all the questions. Some may act more favourably towards a particular applicant once they have formed a positive impression in their minds.
Designing and Conducting Effective Interview:
Structured situation interviews:
A series of job relevant questions with predetermined answers that interviewers ask all the applicants for the job Produces superior results. Questions are situational, behavioral or job related and the job experts write down answers for these questions rated from good to bad. Then the interviewers use these rating sheets along with the sample answers from job experts to rate the candidates.
1) Analyze the job Job description, with duties, required knowledge, skills, abilities and other qualifications. 2) Rate the jobs main duties Should be rated in accordance to its importance to job success and on the time required to perform it when compared to other tasks. 3) Create interview questions Questions should be based on actual job duties, with more questions for the important duties. 4) Create benchmark answers Each question should have a benchmark answer, good answers (5 rating), Marginal (3) and Poor (1) and rate accordingly the answers. 5) Appoint the interview panel and conduct interviews A panel is always better than oneto one interviews. May include the jobs supervisor or a HR representative, and the same panel will conduct the interview for all the candidates. One panel member may start with the introduction and hence continue doing so for all the candidates. Meanwhile the rest of the panel members are continuously recording and rating the applicants answers on the rating scale sheet.
