Interview Preparation
Owners Employers > Interviews
As a person responsible for interviewing you need to realize that while the applicant is "selling themself" the business is also "selling itself". Both sides want to make a good impression.
One helpful tool to conducting great interviews is to have an interview guide. An interview guide makes a structured and fair process for values-hiring easy to implement, not to mention almost fool-proof. It also makes it possible to concentrate on selecting the best prospective employees while minimizing the impact of “gut feelings” in hiring.
Ann Rhoades president of People Ink, a culture-change consulting firm suggests the following sections for your Interview Guide:
- Background questions: To confirm that the applicant’s technical skills meet minimum standards.
- Complete stories: Behavioral questions aimed at eliciting specific examples and stories about key attributes of the position. If a person can’t get beyond generalities, the person is not a good fit.
- Organizational match: Behavioral questions designed to help you discern if the person exhibits the behaviors that reflect your corporate values.
- Saying goodbye: Instructions on how to close the interview while conveying the values of the organization.
- Interviewer rating worksheet: How well did the candidate fit the key attributes of this position? Because there will be three interviewers, ratings can be averaged and made more objective. Discrepancies in perception can then be debated and discussed.
For more tips and guidance for interviewing visit Ann's Site
While most organizations use interviews in employment decision making, many have not maximized the effectiveness of their interviewing process. What distinguishes an effective interview from an ineffective one ? Research has been fairly conclusive in showing that structuring an interview, making sure that the characteristics to be evaluated are clearly identified, that all interviewers ask the same questions of all candidates, that interviewers are well trained, and that interviewee performance is evaluated using well-developed rating scales leads to a more effective interview process.