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The Interviewing Process
Return to BlogsPublished: March 08, 2010 10:33 AM
The interviewing process can be very daunting for anyone who
needs to hire a new employee. Consider
the dynamics of needing to change focus from daily tasks of, for instance, developing
new business strategies, or attending to the urgent needs of a customer, and
switch over to the entirely different focus required for interviewing
candidates. This redirection of your attention can be a real challenge to the
human spirit.
Many companies harvest candidates from print media, job
boards, and social media outlets. The
Human Resource department usually selects candidates whose resumes contain the technical
skills required by the job description.
H R does the fact-finding phone interview, and has each candidate complete
applications and other tests or assessments.
The point of all this effort by HR is to offer the most qualified
candidates to the hiring managers.
When all the candidates have been selected, it is time to conduct
the dreaded interviews. Depending on the
position, many companies have the candidate individually interview with a
number of people so they can all come to a consensus about which candidate would
be the best for the position.
The next step is to inform the Interviewers about the
objectives of the interview i.e. the position and its expectations, the
environment the candidate will work in, and other issues specific to the
company and position. Interviewers need
to plan for the time to conduct the interviews, which as the day progresses is
going to change, keeping them from being as focused, as he or she needs to
be. These and other aspects of
interviewing are very costly to any organization.
One remedy is to conduct group interviews.
Group interviewing requires three interviewers: one whom the
candidate will report to if hired, and the other two people are those who will
be affected by performance of the position’s duties.
The interviewers need three tools for a highly effective
group interviews. They will need: a current job description, a set of key
accountabilities for the position, and a set of job related interview questions
that focus on the personal talents that candidates will need to do the job.
The hiring manager and others determine the date for the
interviews, and the amount of interviewing time, will be determined by the number of candidates
and the type of position. All the
candidates are to be interviewed individually on the pre-determined date and the
time slot assigned to them. The advantages to this process are the interviewers
have the opportunity to plan for this activity, and are able to focus on the task
for that day and the allotted time slots. It is a cost effective use of the
interviewer’s time.
Each of the three interviewers has one or two questions to
ask the candidates. The three interviewers
side by side on one side of the table, and the candidate is across from them. Each interviewer is provided with all the
information HR has gathered about the candidates, which they need to have
thoroughly reviewed it beforehand.
The first interviewer begins asking questions. The other two
interviewers listen to and observe the candidates as they respond to these
questions. Then the process is repeated with each of the other two interviewers. This process puts candidates under pressure, pressure
they will also experience from time to time on the job.
At the conclusion of the interview, the interviewers ask candidate
to step out so that they can compare their notes and make a consensus decision
about the candidate’s appropriateness for the position.
Group interviews yield great benefits. Interviewing candidates is always a team effort, and sharing the task makes a difficult
human activity easier. Moreover, managers focus on the task of interviewing for
a specific, allotted time period, not one interview today and another tomorrow.
Candidates need to go through the interview process only once. Finally, the company completes a difficult task in a
efficient cost saving manner that achieves good results.
Call me today at 610-458-3811 to ask me for help in bringing this efficient, rewarding group
interview process in to your company.
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