Havre Job Service Employers'
Committee Employer Resource Guide
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Havre Job Service Employers'
Committee Employer Resource Guide
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Interview - -
Preparation
As
appropriate, consider questions that elicit the following: motivation; related
job experience; team player; ability to learn; technical skills; sales ability;
supervisory and management skills; re1ated job experience; attitude;
availability; flexibility; ability to communicate; and cooperation. Once you
have decided on 10-15 general and specific job-related questions you plan to use
in the interview transfer these questions to an interview form. This assures
that all candidates are asked the same questions and provides you a means of
rating candidates and taking notes. Before
interviewing—identify any problems you have had with the position and develop
screening tools to address those concerns. If certain aspects of the job cause
people to leave, mention them during the interview, as it’s better the person
refuse the job than to start and quit. Set your
minimum limits and then consider them carefully. For example: Is high school
education mandatory for satisfactory completion of duties? Will you consider
similar job experience or training instead?
Be sure your minimums standards are bused on true need. . . not bias....
otherwise you may lose the opportunity for a qualified, stable employee. THE INTERVIEW The
interviewer’s job is to maintain subtle control of the interview while: 1.
eliciting the
behavior that will help make a hiring decision; 2.
carefully
observing that behavior; 3.
interpreting
how the behavior relates to the requirements of the job. Assessing
the applicant’s ability to do the job is the most important objective of the
interview. However, the successful interview should also give the applicant
information about the job and working conditions in the company. It should
create goodwill in the applicant toward the job and the company, even if the
applicant is not hired. CAUTIONS: ·
Interviewing
is hard work! Watch out for “halo effects.” This happens when you make an immediate, overall judgment
about an applicant that results in the applicant getting about the same rating
core on every aspect of the interview. To avoid this, pay close attention to
everything the applicant says and then make careful, independent ratings of the
applicant’s response to each question. ·
Don’t dwell on the negative. Placing greater emphasis on negative information than on
positive information defeats the purpose of the interview and again often
results in a snap decision or judgment. ·
It is your
responsibility and in your own best interest to keep
the applicant from volunteering
information which has no bearing on the selection process. So if an applicant volunteer’s information about husband,
kids, religion, etc., STOP the flow of information and courteously explain your
reason for interrupting and assure the applicant that your company does not base
its hiring practices on that particular subject area. BECAUSE if this person
does not get the job he/she can file a complaint saying that you learned during
the interview, for example, that she was divorced and has children and you
refused to hire her for that reason. If discriminatory information is
inadvertently revealed during the interview, do not tell others or enter this
information anywhere on your application or evaluation forms.
·
Avoid leading questions such as “You left school to go to work?” It is easy for
the applicant to answer, “Yes,” even though the real reason might have been
expulsion. ·
Consider having more than one
person interview your applicants. People often
tend to hire people like themselves because they feel comfortable with them. In
reality businesses thrive more on diversity because different skills, ideas and
points of view strengthen an organization, Another option is “group
interviews” in which several people interview each applicant at the same time,
taking turns asking questions. ·
Be attentive and try not to show
feelings to responses given other than to acknowledge. Try the mirror technique where you restate the last part of the answer
as though it were a question (example: “and then they told you were
fired?”). Mirroring is especially useful because it asks a question without
revealing the interviewer’s bias regarding the answer. Look interested as
though you would
like to hear more. If that doesn’t work,
simply request more information by saying something such as
“tell me more about or what happened then,” When you are unclear what the
applicant is saying, try rephrasing what you think you heard to make sure
communications are clear. |
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