Choosing the right people for a job is an onerous responsibility, because, if managers get it wrong, time and money are lost in wasted training, the unsatisfactory employee can disrupt other members of the staff and the cost in severance payments may be considerable. Understandably, for this reason, managers find the task daunting.
They go into the interview not quite sure what they should be looking for and, knowing that so much rests on their decision, they tend to be at least as uncomfortable and anxious as the candidates.
Personnel managers, who select staff on a regular basis, have the advantage over their colleagues who may only do it occasionally, because they have the benefit of both training and experience. There is no doubt that the more you do, the more proficient you get at it.
Interviewing is an artificial process. Selectors and candidates meet each other at the interview for the first time, usually only once and then for a relatively short period. Interviewers are expected to put aside their prejudices, their likes and dislikes that we all possess to some degree, and to choose the best candidate with complete objectivity.
Given such demands, it is little wonder that managers do not always succeed in making the right choice. Until now, however, nothing has been devised to replace the face-to-face interview as a way of selecting employees who not only fit the requirements of the job on paper, but are also of the right temperament to get on with their employers and fellow-workers with whom they will come into daily contact.
Panel Interviewing
Not all recruiting is done on a one-to-one basis. Much is conducted by boards or panels of interviewers, regarded by some writers as superior to the individual interviewer.
Panels allow more subjects to be covered in greater depth, because different interviewers can question the candidate on their own particular interests; and when deciding on the suitability of candidates more voices are added to the discussion and extreme views are balanced. On a practical point, panels allow for better note-taking, because when one interviewer is questioning, others can take down replies.
To many candidates, the panel interview is a nightmare, and unless they are very self-confident they feel defeated before they even start. In these circumstances it is difficult to establish a good working rapport, particularly if the panel is not being controlled effectively and members shoot questions at the candidate at random.
For a panel interview to work well, the team leader has to make sure that
- the team selected are compatible
- team members are each given a particular field to investigate
- they are allowed only a certain number of questions
- they keep strictly to a time limit Team leaders act as Chair, controlling the interview throughout. It is their responsibility to
- greet and introduce the candidate to the other members
- provide the link between each successive interviewer
- ask any supplementary questions
- sum up
- thank the candidate for attending the interview
We shall now see how the PQRSTU System works in recruitment interviews.
PREPARATION
- Decide what the job is. The more clearly you can define the requirements of the job, the easier it is to find the right person.
- Write yourself a job description which will include the following:
- the education, training and skills required to perform it
- the day-to-day responsibilities
- to whom the employee is responsible
- the overall purpose
- the standards expected
- the conditions of employment
- the promotional prospects
- Prepare a profile of the type of person you are looking for who will best fit the job. Essentially, you are looking for someone who can do the job, who wants to do the job and who will enjoy doing it well. Identify not only the training and capabilities, intellectual and technical, that the individual should possess, but also the kind of temperament best suited to the job.
- In addition, you should know in advance:
- how much of an individualist or a team member they should be
- whether they should be followers or leaders, creators or decision-makers and so on.
Again, the more accurately you can define who you are looking for, the easier they will be to recognize when you meet them.
If the new employee will be working for you or will be a member of your own team, it is also essential that you feel you can work with him or her and that he or she will fit into the team.
- Define the purpose of the interview. This is to gain sufficient information about each of the candidates through the answers to the questions that you will put to them to enable you to assess their suitability for the job. It is also to find out whether the most suitable individual is willing to work on the conditions agreed upon between you and that he or she will enjoy and find satisfaction in the job.
- Study the application forms or candidates' CVs, looking for information which will tell you which of them, on paper at least, is best suited to do the job.
- Carefully seek out any obvious gaps in their narrative (such as breaks in their employment record) as well as the evasions or hidden objectives that may make the difference between acceptance and refusal. For example, does it seem from what they write that they are applying only to encourage their present employers to raise their salary?
- Mark down any points that need to be explained, enlarged, or commented upon by the candidates. These points will make interesting and challenging questions to put to them.
- Work out the questions you want to ask the candidates. Think of the interview as completing a jigsaw puzzle. The information sent to you by the candidates together with any other details about the job form the basis of the puzzle, but there are still pieces that need to be filled in before the whole picture will emerge. The answers you hope will be given to your questions should give you those missing pieces.
- Apply, if necessary, to the candidates for documentary evidence of any of the crucial facts asserted in the application form. At the same time send out any available literature about your organization relevant to the job.
- Choose the date(s) and place for the interview(s).
- Invite the candidates, asking them to confirm their attendance. If you have not had a reply from a candidate, check why not, otherwise you may find yourself wasting time waiting for someone who has no intention of turning up.
- Make up your notes while your memory of the candidate is still fresh, getting down as many points - favorable and unfavorable - as you can. Keep them as a record of the interview.
- If you are using an assessment plan, complete it as soon as possible, otherwise you may confuse one candidate with another.
- If they did not precede the interview, set up any further tests for those candidates who are in the running, such as personality tests, technical examinations, a medical check-up, a critical review of previous work (as in the case of the creative professions such as advertising and design), presentations and so on.
- With the knowledge and consent of the candidate, take up references. References are usually sent by letter or telephone. (There is a problem with using fax, because references are always confidential, whereas fax machines, if sited in an office where anyone passing by can read them, are not, and confidentiality may be breached.)
