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One of the leading executive job search firms and job placement agencies in Thane, India
Here are seven top tips when conducting job interviews: 1. Put the employee at ease. 2. Explain how the interviewee and organization can benefit from an open interview. 3. Explain areas that will be covered during evaluation review. 4. Ask evaluation questions that elicit answers to the dimensions in each area. 5. Describe the job function and its contribution to departmental and organizational success. 6. Ask the interviewee if he or shehas any questions. 7. Close the interview. Put the interviewee at ease · Ensure privacy and congenial atmosphere · Opening comments should be friendly · Avoid irrelevant small talk on weather and news, it tends to be artificial. Explain how the interviewee and the organization can benefit from an open interview · Mention that the interview is a two-way decision. The applicant must decide if the job is to his liking as much as the interviewer must assess the suitability of the applicant. This can only be achieved through openness and trust which is mutually beneficial. Explain areas that will be covered in during the job interview · Tell the applicant the areas that you will cover during the interview, job history, education current life etc. · Explain that he will be allowed to ask questions during or at the end of the interview, as the case may be. · Put applicant at ease by indicating what to expect. Ask questions that elicit answers to the job constructs in each area · Refer to the questions on constructs you have structured. · Apply construct questions. · Avoid asking questions routinely. · Display interest in the answers Describe the job and the organization · Describe the job description. · Discuss company history. · Discuss development opportunties · Discuss methods of performance appraisal. · Discuss salary and benefits. Ask the interviewee if there are any questions · Answer openly and truthfully any questions. Close interview · Summarize conversation. · Inform applicant of next stage, i.e. phone call or letter. · Thank applicant for coming. Job interview questioning techniques The way you approach and open the interview is important to its overall success. The types of questions you ask and the way you ask them are of prime importance. There are two types of questions. · Directive · Non directive Both can be used effectively in the interview to gain the information you require from the job applicant. Directive Questions A directive question leads the applicant onto making a specific response by limiting him to a choice of a yes or no answer. · "Do you prefer early morning or late afternoon schedules?" · "Did you hear about us through an employment agency?" Directive questions can often be effective in gaining precise answers or exact information, but, because they limit the applicant to a choice or yes or no answer, they often discourage free response and result in very little information. Questions that provide for little information are generally those that can be answered in one or two words. A definite answer will be offered, but the applicant probably will volunteer any additional information. Also, the applicant may give the answer he thinks you are looking for, Poorly phrased questions may actually give away the answer. Give away questions are those which tell the applicant the answer the interviewer thinks he should give. Non directive Questions Non directional questions allow the applicant to respond freely without being forced to make a choice or respond with a yes or no answer. · "What type of work schedule do you prefer?" · "How did you happen to hear about our company?" They may be used to direct the conversation to an area of the interviewer's interest, but do not control the applicants response. The applicant is free to express his thoughts without being forced to make a choice, or respond with a yes or no. Non directive questions are prefixed by the following: · how · why · what · when · where Job interview -do's and don'ts The employee evaluation interview situation Do · Have as much privacy as possible · Call applicant by name when calling him into the office · Ensure the applicant knows your name · Greet applicant courteously and sincerely · Make the applicant feel that you are pleased with his interest in the position · Establish an informal but business like atmosphere · Make the applicant feel important · Talk to the applicant as though you were the only contact he would ever have with the company · Compliment a good employment record · Interrupt the conversation to keep interview on track · Use active listening · Relax and the applicant will relax · Keep information given, confidential · Remember the applicant's time is valuable · Investigate applicant's work record / performance thoroughly · Watch for gaps in work record · Check job records and references · Use application blanks and other data in planning the interview · Make an outline in advance, of the main items of information you want to obtain during the interview · Plan the time required for the interview Don't · Interview when worried, upset, ill or under stress · Hold an interview in a noisy place · Keep applicants waiting unnecessarily · Give the impression of being abrupt or harsh · Allow outside interruptions · Seek information you already have · Antagonize the applicant · Show emotion at any physical handicap · Hurt the applicant's feelings or destroy his faith in himself · Forget applicant is sensitive to every word the interviewer speaks · Appear to lose interest in the interview · Dominate the interview · Pry into personal lives · Break or delay an appointment · Fall into a set pattern of interviewing · Waste time on a long interview if the applicant is clearly not suitable · Conduct the interview in a haphazard manner Opening the evaluation process Do · Open the interview with handshake and clear introduction · Smile and be pleasant · Open the interview with some topic of common interest · Create atmosphere in which the applicant feels confident and at ease Don't · Flounder for a cue when opening the conversation · Appear ill at ease · Give an impression of being harried or brusque Obtaining information and assisting the employee / applicant Do · Give the interviewee time to think · Give the interviewee time to answer one question before asking another · Stimulate interviewee to do most of the talking · Encourage interviewee to talk about his work experiences · Try to bring out attitudes, experience capacities and opinions · Elicit facts about abilities, interests, health and motivation · Use simple why, what, where, and how questions Don't · Make the interviewee speak up to you Compiling a chronological employee evaluation The chronological evaluation takes from 15 to 30 minutes to construct, with one being developed for each candidate. It is best used when there are not a large number of applicants for the target position, and / or the evaluator/ interviewer desires a guide, which is very specific to an applicant's background and the position to be filled. The chronological employee evaluation guide organizes planned evaluation / interview questions to the unique education and job experience of each applicant. In this format, the questions are asked in chronological sequence, starting with the applicant's earliest job related experiences and working through to the present. Follow these steps when planning, and later to conduct, your evaluation / interview sessions. · Have handy a pad of lined paper and the list of target constructs you are responsible for covering in the interview. · Study the candidates application material and any other relevant material. · Follow the job interview guide · Write the applicant's name on top of a sheet of paper and note the steps you will follow in opening the interview. · On top of other sheets of paper, write the names of the applicants major career segments, i.e. from, to, position and company. Use a separate sheet of paper for each career segment. Cover all time periods and any other unexplained time periods. · Label a sheet of paper 'Job Interview Close' and note the steps you will follow in closing the evaluation nterview. · Leaving space for answers, develop questions arising from your review of the applicant's application materials. Write each question on the page devoted to the career segment that question is designed to explore. Review the constructs you are responsible for covering in the interview. · Consider the time available to cover each construct (allow 5 to 10 minutes to cover each construct). · Plan more time to cover the most important constructs. · Plan to ask more evaluation interview questions about the applicant's most recent jobs / experience. · Select planned interview questions, which can be tailored to the unique background of the applicant. · Develop your own planned questions for the interview. · Consider which career segment is most likely to yield behavioral examples under a given dimension. · Which planned questions are most likely to get those behavioral examples. The interviewer should select a minimum of three planned questions for each construct. The interviewer should not attempt to tap all target construct within a single career segment. The interviewer may use the same planned question to bring out behavior in all of the applicant's career segments. Some constructs, such as creativity, should only be tapped under career segments that allowed the possibility of showing creativity. Constructs that are best observed during the actual interview (oral communication, impact, listening) should be recorded in the upper right corner of the selected career segment pages. Leave a blank space below the dimension name for notes. · Record the evaluation interview questions you have selected / developed on the appropriate career segment page. To the left of each question, note the name of the construct sought. This will serve as an aid in checking your coverage of each construct and when reviewing information obtained in the interview. Questions about a given segment of the applicant's career should be inserted on the page in an appropriate sequence. For example, if the interview question is asked at the beginning of a discussion of a given job / experience, the question should be positioned at the top of the page devoted to that job / experience; if in the middle of the discussion the middle of the page; if at the end of the discussion the bottom of the page. Number the interview questions on each career segment page in the order in which they should be asked. Ideally, the questions now appear in proper sequence but a more effective sequence may occur to you after you have written the questions down, If this occurs, simply change the number to the left of the question to reflect its new position in the job interview sequence. |
