Chapter #5

Interviewing
Purposes and Uses of the Interview
• Purpose: the interview is often used to confirm or explore information
provided in résumés or application forms. However, when used later in
the selection process, the interview is best used to obtain information
that has not been provided in the résumé or application form.
• In many organizations, applicants are interviewed by several
interviewers, either simultaneously as part of panel or board interviews
or in sequential or serial interviews.
• Uses: Although interviews can be and have been used to assess job
knowledge and cognitive ability, they are probably best suited to the
assessment of non-cognitive attributes such as interpersonal relationships or
social skills, initiative, dependability, perseverance, teamwork, leadership
skills, adaptability or flexibility, organizational citizenship behaviour, and
organizational fit.
• Interviews have also been used in the termination of employees. As
organizations restructure, downsize, or “right size” and jobs are eliminated,
employees must compete for a smaller number of redesigned jobs.
• The interview serves to assist in identifying employees who have the
necessary KSAOs to perform well or are able to meet the new standards in
the redesigned jobs.
• Interviews are commonly used to determine who is best qualified when
several employees are being considered for a promotion. Often internal
applicants(employees) compete with external applicants for such
positions.
Types of interview
• Unstructured interview
• Structure interview
1. Unstructured interview
• 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 an open ended
conversation with the interviewee.
• 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?
• 5. What is your greatest accomplishment [most meaningful work
experience]?
• at impression management, that is, creating a favourable impression
of themselves by picking up cues from the interviewer concerning
what answers the interviewer wishes to hear. They are able to monitor
and change their own responses and behaviours in order to align them
with those they perceive to be desired by the interviewer.
• Another characteristic typical of unstructured interviews is that no
systematic rating procedure is used. Interviewers are free to interpret
interviewee responses in any manner they choose, as there are no
guidelines for evaluating the responses.
2. Structured interview
• An interview consisting of a standardized set of job-relevant
questions; a scoring guide is used.
• Fixed format interview in which all questions are prepared beforehand
and are put in the same order to each interviewee. Also called
Standardized and directive interview.
Some Research Findings on the Unstructured Interview

Interview Decisions
• Interviewers tend to make a hire/not hire decision before completing the
interview (i.e., before all the information has been collected).
• Unfavourable information provided by the applicant tends to have greater
impact on interview ratings than favourable information.
Order Effects
• Interviewers tend to remember information provided at the beginning of the
interview better than information provided in the middle (primacy effect).
• Information provided at the end of the interview tends to be remembered
better than information provided in the middle (recency effect).
Effects of Information
• Impressions formed by the interviewer as a result of information obtained
about the applicant prior to the interview (e.g., by reading the résumé) affect
how the applicant is treated and rated in the interview.
• Interviewers who have more information about the job tend to have a more
accurate perception (template) of what the “ideal” applicant should look
like.
Demographic Characteristics
• Minority applicants tend to receive lower interview ratings than
nonminority applicants.
• Interviewers tend to give higher ratings to applicants who are most like
themselves (similar-to-me effect) in terms of demographic characteristics or
in terms of attitudes.
Verbal/Nonverbal Behaviour
• An applicant’s verbal skills and expressiveness and attractiveness of
voice can affect interview ratings.
• An applicant’s mannerisms can affect interview ratings.
• An applicant’s appearance (e.g., physical attractiveness, posture, age,
clothing) can affect interview ratings.
Reliability and Validity
• Agreement on ratings among interviewers interviewing the same
applicants tends to be quite low (low reliability).
• Correlations between interview scores and job performance ratings
(for those hired) tend to be fairly low (low criterion validity).
Components of interview structure
• 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 (questions are designed in such a way as to stimulate and
provoke people's memories by creating a meaningful context), follow-up
questioning, probing (when answers are vague or ambiguous or when we
want to obtain more specific or in-depth information), 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., résumés, letters of
reference, test scores, transcripts) is controlled.
• 6. Questions from the candidate are not allowed until after the
interview.
• 7. Each answer is rated during the interview using a rating scale
tailored to the question .
• 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.
• 10. Detailed notes are taken during the interview .
The Structured Interviewing Process
• 1. Preparing for the Interview
• 1. Determine the amount of time available for the interview and how many
questions you will be able to ask, without rushing, in that length of time.
• 2. Make a standardized list of interview questions so that all applicants are
asked the same questions, in the same order.
• 3. Develop a scoring guide with benchmark or sample answers. Ideally,
these answers should come from a job analysis. If that is not possible, meet
with relevant subject-matter experts (i.e., employees, supervisors, managers
etc)
• 4. Use an office or arrange for an interview room where you can have
privacy, freedom from distractions, and quiet.
• 5. Schedule the interviews with sufficient time for a brief break between
interviews.
2. Conducting the Interview
• 1. Spend a few minutes at the beginning of the interview putting the
applicant at ease. Greet the applicant by name. Introduce yourself and other
interview panel members (if there are others).
• 2. Ask each question in turn without omitting or skipping any. Let the
candidate know he/she has lots of time to answer and you don’t mind
his/her taking time to think.
• 3. Take detailed notes of the applicant’s responses, focusing on recording
what the applicant says.
• 4. Allow the applicant to ask questions at the end of the interview and
answer them to the best of your ability without committing to a decision or
indicating any kind of preference.
• 5. Follow the same procedures for each applicant and retain interview
documentation for future reference.
3. Closing the Interview
• 1. Tell the candidate when he/she should expect to hear from you, or
someone else in your organization, and how you will communicate
your decision (e.g., telephone, e-mail, letter).
• 2. If you are likely to contact references or call the applicant back for a
second interview, inform the applicant.
• 3. Thank the applicant for coming in for the interview.
• 4. Review your notes and make your ratings (if you have not already
done so). If the interview was conducted by a panel, briefly meet with
the panel and compare your ratings.
• 5. Make sure you inform all candidates of your decision when you
have made it.
Structured Employment Interview Techniques
1. The Situational Interview
• The interviewer describes to the applicant important or decisive situations
that are likely to be encountered on the job and asks the applicant what he
would do in the situations. Importantly, SI questions should be posed in the
form of dilemmas (i.e., the applicant is placed in the position of choosing
between two competing alternatives that appear equally desirable or
undesirable).
• The interviewer then uses a scoring guide consisting of sample answers to
each question to evaluate and score the applicant’s answers. The scoring
guide is designed using the critical incidents technique, in which examples
of actual job-related behaviours that varied in effectiveness in particular
situations are collected and refined to serve as sample answers.
2. The Behaviour Description Interview
• The broad nature of BDI questions and probable responses makes it
likely that the interviewer will need to clarify the applicant’s answers
in order to allow them to be scored accurately. Follow-up questions or
probes are used to guide the applicant’s descriptions of situations or
events until sufficient information is obtained to permit scoring.
• Probes: What efforts did you make to contact this person? How long
did you keep trying? Were you successful? What happened? If you
were not successful, what did you do? What was the outcome?
3. The Experience-Based Interview
• Experience-based interviews assess applicant qualifications such as
work experience and education by asking questions about job
knowledge or using work sample questions. Job knowledge questions
assess the degree to which the applicant possesses relevant job
knowledge
• e.g., “When putting a piece of machinery back together after repairing
it, why would you clean all the parts first?”.
Interview Practice and Human Rights
• standardization of interview questions: 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.
• Standardization therefore gives the interviewer and organization some
measure of protection from discrimination suits.
• Questions that probe areas not directly relevant to the job run the risk
of being interpreted as having discriminatory intent by the applicant
and by the courts.
• “Do you plan to have children?”
Interviewer Training
• interviewer training has tended to focus on reducing common sources of
bias and inaccuracy such as halo error, similar-to-me effects, contrast
effects, and leniency and severity errors.
• Interviewers are also taught to put the applicant at ease, ask openended
questions, develop good listening skills, maintain control of the interview,
take appropriate notes, and ignore or interpret correctly the nonverbal
behaviours occurring in the interview.
• that interviewer training designed to eliminate halo and other rating biases
has minimal effect on interviewer behaviour and interview outcomes
particularly when shorter training programs are examined.
• For example, interviewers require training on how to score an answer when
it does not match the examples in the scoring guide. The training should
pro-vide interviewers with decision rules to use in such circumstances.
• Frame-of-Reference (FOR) training, which involves helping
interviewers understand the performance dimensions they are
assessing, defines and describes behavioural examples of different
performance levels for each dimension or interview question, and
provides opportunity for practice and feedback, has been found to
contribute significantly to inter-rater reliability and rating accuracy.
Other Approaches to Interviewing
1. Long Distance Interviews: Interviews conducted over a long
distance, including telephone interviews, video conference interviews,
Internet interviews, or computerized interviews, which serve as
alternatives to face-to-face interviews.
2. Puzzle interviews: Ask applicants to solve puzzles or unusual
problems. These interviews require applicants to use their creativity and
problem-solving skills, demonstrate quick thinking, and even show a
sense of humour. Puzzle interviews are usually administered in an
unstructured format.
• e.g., “Why are manhole covers round?”, “How would you weigh an
elephant without a scale?”