The purpose of conducting interviews is to determine if there is a match between the job seeker and the job itself. An interview can only be considered successful if the interviewer manages to establish the interviewee’s behavior, values, motivations, as well as qualifications. Interview process starts with planning by the interviewing firm. Job requirements, duties, and qualifications are defined during the planning phase. Interview questions are then prepared. These questions should comprise of behavioral based questions, role-plays and situational questions. an appropriate location from where to conduct the interview is then chosen after which screening is carried out to reduce the number of employees to a manageable number in order to save time and money. Interview methods include: Phone interview, face to face interview, group interview, panel interview, Unstructured technique, and structured interview. Conducting the interview is the next step in the interviewing process. It involves establishing rapport, explaining the purpose of the interview, communicating to the interviewee how you intend to carryout the interview, getting of behavioral information from the interviewee on mandatory success factors, explaining duties, responsibilities and deliverables that the position entails, and evaluating the applicants.
This paper seeks to explain interviewing best practices. Interviewing methods, skills and processes will be explained. Previously, employers have conducted interviews wrongly and this has led to the placement of the wrong personnel in different positions in the organization. For instance, many firms have customer care agents who cannot address customers while facing them which is what good communication skills require courtesy of a wrong interview technique. This is basically why this area is of interest to me.
Research methodology
To achieve the desired research objectives, both primary and secondary sources of information were made use of. The primary sources included questionnaires given to employers in the business fraternity quite conversant with the concept as well as professionals who do recruitment for big firms.. The secondary source of information was basically library research targeting books and articles touching on the subject.
Main body
The first step in the interview process is planning. The interviewer should understand the key elements of the particular job before the material day. Once the interviewer has known what the job entails, he/she should then come up with a simple outline that shows the job duties and the qualifications needed (Camp, 2001). After the interviewer has established the duties as well as the desired qualifications he/she should then prepare questions to be answered by the interviewees. Structured questions should be made use of since they help eliminate the possibility of biasness thereby giving all the interviewees a fair chance (Camp, 2001). To achieve this, the interviewer should use behavioral based questions, role-plays and situational questions. Behavioral based questions seek to evaluate the applicants past behavior, as well as experience and initiative. Situational questions on the other hand seek to gauge the interviewee’s ability to judge, as well as his/her knowledge (Arthur, 2006). To achieve this, the interviewer presents the interviewee with a hypothetical situation such as ” what action would you take if you were the manager and an employee of your firm reports theft of merchandise from the store by another employee?” (Arthur, 2006) . lastly, sample role plays serve as efficient ways to learn as well as practice new skills. They are basically used during the interview process to establish the interviewee’s personal charisma as well as the skill to handle a stressful condition. Stressful conditions may include a situation whereby the applicant is handling an irate customer (Arthur, 2006). To succeed in executing the role play bit of the interview, the interviewer should write the particular case on paper (Adams, 2001). After the interviewee is given the written situation to handle, he/she should be given adequate time to visualize and get into that character. The situation should be written with adequate and well explained guidelines so that the interviewee can thoroughly understand it (Adams, 2001). The interviewee should then be given an opportunity to ask questions incase anything was not well understood. The interviewee should then be given a feedback as far as his/her performance in the role play is concerned. Before the verdict of the interviewer is given, the interviewee should be given a chance to comment about how they think they carried out the role play (Adams, 2001).
The next step is to pick an appropriate location from where to conduct the interview. Although Carrying out the interview from the interviewee’s place may be very good for the applicant, its quite inconveniencing to the interviewer and it may also make the interviewee mistake the intention of the interviewer (Gillham, 2005). The interviewee may take it that the interviewer is invading his/her territory. The interviewer’s place may on the other hand make the interviewee fail to be at ease. A neutral ground such as a conference room, cafeteria or a starbuck is therefore the best place to carryout the interview (Gillham, 2005).
Once the appropriate venue for the interview is chosen, the next thing the interviewer should do is to choose the appropriate interview method. Screening is the first step in the interview process. Its done if the number of applicants is high (Gillham, 2005). Screening is done to reduce the number of applicants to a manageable number. Screening helps save time and money by doing away with unqualified candidates. Its normally a very short process that concentrates only on the required qualifications. The applicants who do not meet these qualifications are eliminated at this step (Gillham, 2005).
Phone interview is appropriate if the number of applicants is high. This kind of interview as the name suggests is carried out via a telephone. Its also appropriate if the interviewer and the applicant are separated by a large geographical distance (Arthur, 2006). For instance, if the two live in different countries, this method comes in handy. Phone interviews are normally carried out via landlines as opposed to mobile phones to ensure good reception irrespective of the interviewee’s location (Arthur, 2006).
Face to face interview is a one to one interview which is actually the most common of all interview methods (Arthur, 2006). Its carried out when both the interviewer and the interviewee are in a private room. Face to face interviews enable the interviewer capture unspoken communication presented through gestures and other body movements (Arthur, 2006). One major weakness with this method is that it is time consuming since applicants are required to go through several different interviews.
Group interview on the other hand involves all the applicants meeting in the same room during the interview process. This is especially common if the interview involves answering written questions on paper (Arthur, 2006).
Panel interview is one that involves the applicant meeting several members of the recruiting company at the same time. This method allows the company to pick a candidate who has very good listening skills as well as one who can single out questions and answer them categorically (Gillham, 2005).
Unstructured technique of interview as a method involves changing the interview questions to suit the intelligence and understanding of the particular applicant being interviewed. Structured technique on the other hand involves coming up with a standard set of questions to be answered by all the applicants (Gillham, 2005). A survey questionnaire is used in this method. Closed ended questions are used mostly in this method so as to make it easier for the interviewer to evaluate and compare the applicants being interviewed (Gillham, 2005).
Conducting the interview: – once in the chosen interview venue, the interviewer should first ensure that the environment is comfortable for the interviewees. This entails ensuring no distraction by things such as loud light and noise (Gillham, 2005). The next step is establishing rapport with the interviewee. This processes may take between five and seven minutes. To establish rapport, the interviewer should find a way of connecting with the interviewee in order to make him/her comfortable (Gillham, 2005). This is the only way one can ensure honest and thoughtful responses are given by the person being interviewed. Rapport can be established through asking questions that have more to do with life than the job. For instance the interviewer can choose to ask the interviewee about people he/she went to school with, people he/she grew up with etc (Gillham, 2005).
After establishing rapport, the interviewer should then explain the purpose of the interview after confirming from the interviewees that they are indeed comfortable with the environment (Camp, 2001). The next step is to communicate to the interviewee how you intend to carryout the interview. The interviewer may seek for instance to know how the interviewee will handle the job once he/she has it (Camp, 2001). The interviewer should avoid discouraging comments or questions irrespective of the responses the interviewee is giving. The interviewer should encourage the interviewee to ask questions since this goes a long way in building trust which enhances the interview processes (Camp, 2001).
The next step involves getting of behavioral information from the interviewee on mandatory success factors. To do this, the interviewer should ask directing questions so as to get an overview of the situation (Gillham, 2005). Next, the interviewer should describe the position. He/she should talk about the duties, responsibilities and deliverables that the position entails. Examples of the work involved should be explained to the interviewees and any questions from the interviewees pertaining this should be answered (Gillham, 2005). The interviewer should then sell the position as well as the company by explaining the positives about both. This may take about five minutes. The next step is to close the interview. To do this, the interviewer should determine if the candidate is interested and then explain the next steps like where to obtain the results of the interview etc (Camp, 2001). Finally, the interviewer should evaluate the applicants. This is done through gauging the candidate against the success factors which were being evaluated. The evaluation should then be documented after which a decision to hire or not is made (Camp, 2001).
Conclusion/ summary
This paper has discussed the steps, methods, processes as well as skills required in an interviewing exercise. Interview process starts with planning by the interviewing firm. Job requirements, duties, and qualifications are defined during the planning phase. Interview questions are then prepared. These questions should comprise of behavioral based questions, role-plays and situational questions. an appropriate location from where to conduct the interview is then chosen after which screening is carried out to reduce the number of employees to a manageable number in order to save time and money. Interview methods include: Phone interview, face to face interview, group interview, panel interview, Unstructured technique, and structured interview. Conducting the interview is the next step in the interviewing process. It involves establishing rapport, explaining the purpose of the interview, communicating to the interviewee how you intend to carryout the interview, getting of behavioral information from the interviewee on mandatory success factors, explaining duties, responsibilities and deliverables that the position entails, and evaluating the applicants.