978-0134235455 Chapter 7 Lecture Note

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Part Two

Recruitment, Placement, and Talent Management

Chapter 7

Interviewing Candidates

Lecture Outline:

Basic Types of Interviews

Structured Versus Unstructured Interviews

Interview Content (What Types of Questions to Ask)

How Should We Conduct the Interview?

Trends Shaping HR: Digital and Social Media

Improving Performance: The Strategic Context

Avoiding Errors That Can Undermine an Interview’s Usefulness

First Impressions (Snap Judgments)

Not Clarifying What the Job Requires

Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error and Pressure to Hire

Nonverbal Behavior and Impression Management

Effect of Personal Characteristics: Attractiveness, Gender, Race

Diversity Counts: Applicants Disability and the Employment Interview

Improving Performance: HR Practices Around the Globe

Interviewer Behavior

How to Design and Conduct the Effective Interview

Designing the Structured Situational Interview

Improving Performance: HR Tools for Line Managers and Small Businesses

Profiles and Employee Interviews

Employee Engagement Guide for Managers

Building Engagement: A Total Selection Program

The Toyota Way

Trends Shaping HR: Science in Talent Management

Developing and Extending the Job Offer

Chapter Review

Where Are We Now…

The main topics we’ll cover in this chapter include types of interviews, things that undermine

interviewing, things that undermine interviewing’s usefulness, designing and conducting

effective selection interviews, using a total selection process to improve employee engagement,

and making the offer.

Chapter 7: Interviewing Candidates 7-2

Interesting Issues:

When it comes to hiring, Urban Outfitters knows just what it’s looking for. The lifestyle retailer,

with over 200 stores in the United States, Canada, and Europe, built its strategy around fostering

a culture of creativity and individuality within its stores. That means that maintaining its unique

store environment requires employees that match its core values of community, pride, creativity,

and respect. The question is, how do you find and attract such applicants, while controlling

hiring costs in the competitive retail industry?

Learning Objectives:

7-1. List and give examples of the main types of selection interviews.

7-2. List and explain the main errors that can undermine an interview’s usefulness.

7-3. Define a structured situational interview and explain how to design and conduct effective

selection interviews.

7-4. Discuss how to use employee selection methods to improve employee engagement.

7-5. List the main points to know about developing and extending the actual job offer.

Annotated Outline:

I. Basic Types of Interviews

A. Structured versus Unstructured Interviews – unstructured or nondirective interviews

generally have no set format. Structured or directive interviews generally identify

questions ahead of time and may even weigh possible alternative answers for

appropriateness.

B. Interview Content (What Types of Questions to Ask) – interviews can be

classified according to the nature or content of their questions, such as

situational interviews, behavioral, and job-related. In a situational interview,

you ask a candidate what his or her behavior would be in a given situation.

Behavioral interviews ask applicants how they reacted to actual situations in the

past. In job-related interviews, the interviewer asks applicants questions about

job-relevant past experiences.

1. Other Types of Questions – there are other, lesser-used types of questions.

In a stress interview, the interviewer seeks to make the applicant

uncomfortable with occasionally rude questions. Puzzle questions are also

popular.

C. How Should We Conduct the Interview? – employers administer interviews in various

ways: one-on-one, by a panel of interviewers, sequentially or all at once, computerized

or personally, or online.

1. Phone Interviews – can be more useful than face-to-face interviews for

judging one’s conscientiousness, intelligence, and interpersonal skills.

2. Computer-Based Job Interviews – is one in which the job candidate’s oral

and/or keyed replies are obtained in response to computerized oral, visual,

or written questions and/or situations.

Chapter 7: Interviewing Candidates 7-3

3. Web-Based Video Interviews – with phone and tablet video functionalities

and FaceTime and Skype, Web-based “in-person” interviews are widely

used.

D. Trends Shaping HR: Digital and Social Media

E. Improving Performance: The Strategic Context

II. Avoiding Errors That Can Undermine an Interview’s Usefulness – keep three things in

mind: use structured interviews, know what to ask, and avoid the common interviewing

errors.

A. First Impressions (Snap Judgments) – one of the most widespread errors is

that interviewers tend to jump to conclusions about candidates during the first

few minutes of the interview.

B. Not Clarifying What the Job Requires – interviewers who don’t have an

accurate picture of what the job entails and what sort of candidate is best

suited for it usually make their decisions based on incorrect impressions or

incomplete stereotypes of what a good applicant is.

C. Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error and Pressure to Hire – the order in which

you see applicants affects how you rate them. Pressure to hire can undermine

an interview’s usefulness.

D. Nonverbal Behavior and Impression Management – the applicant’s nonverbal

behavior (smiling, avoiding your gaze, and so on) can have a surprisingly

large impact on an applicant’s rating. Impression management includes

ingratiation, agreeing with the interviewer’s opinions, and self-promotion to

create an impression of competence are used by clever interviewees to

manage the impression they present.

E. Effect of Personal Characteristics: Attractiveness, Gender, Race –

interviewers have to guard against letting an applicant’s attractiveness,

gender, and race play a role in candidate ratings.

F. Diversity Counts: Applicant Disability and the Employment Interview – what

the disabled people prefer is a discussion that lets the employer address his or

her concerns and reach a knowledgeable conclusion.

G. Improving Performance: HR Practices Around the Globe

III. How to Design and Conduct the Effective Interview

A. Designing the Structured Situational Interview

Step 1: Analyze the job.

Step 2: Rate the job’s main duties.

Step 3: Create interview questions.

Step 4: Create benchmark answers.

Step 5: Appoint the interview panel and conduct interviews.

B. Improving Performance: HR Tools for Line Managers and Small Businesses

How to Conduct an Effective Interview

1. Know the Job – do not conduct an interview unless you know what KSAs

you are looking for.

2. Structure your Interview – a) base questions on actual job duties; b) use

specific job-knowledge, situational, or behaviorally-oriented questions and

Chapter 7: Interviewing Candidates 7-4

objective criteria to evaluate the interviewee’s responses; c) use the same

questions with all candidates; d) use rating scales to rate answers; and e)

use a structured interview form.

3. Get Organized – the interview should take place in a private room where

interruptions can be minimized. Prior to the interview, the interviewer

should review the candidate’s application and resume, as well as the job

duties and required skills and traits.

4. Establish Rapport – the interviewer should put the interviewee at ease so

he/she can find out the necessary information about the interviewee.

Studies show that people who feel more self-confident about their

interviewing skills perform better in interviews.

5. Ask Questions – the interviewer should follow the interview guide.

6. Take Brief, Unobtrusive Notes – notes will help the interviewer avoid

snap judgments and remember more clearly what was discussed in the

interview.

7. Close the Interview – leave time to answer any questions the candidate

may have and, if appropriate, advocate your firm to the candidate. Try to

end the interview on a positive note.

8. Review the Interview – once the candidate leaves, and while the interview

is fresh on the interviewer’s mind, he/she should review his/her notes and

fill in the structured interview guide.

C. Profiles and Employees Interviews – employers using competency models or

profiles (which list required skills, knowledge, behaviors, and other

competencies) can use these for formulating job-related situational,

behavioral, and knowledge interview questions. Table 7-1 illustrates it.

IV. Employee Engagement Guide for Managers

A. Building Engagement: A Total Selection Program – this type of program aims at

selecting candidates whose totality of attributes best fits the employer’s total

requirements.

B. The Toyota Way – this hiring process aims to identify such assembler candidates. The

process takes about 20 hours and six phases over several days:

Step 1: an in-depth online application (20-30 minutes)

Step 2: a 2-5 hour computer-baseds assessment

Step 3: a 6-8 hour work simulation assessment

Step 4: a face-to-face interview

Step 5: a background check, drug screen, and medical check

Step 6: job offer

C. Trends Shaping HR: Science in Talent Management

V. Developing and Extending the Job Offer – after all the interviews, background checks,

and other tests, the employer decides who to make an offer to using one or more

approach. The judgmental approach subjectively weighs all the evidence about the

candidate. The statistical approach quantifies all the evidence and perhaps uses a formula

to predict job success.