Chapter 6 focused on important tools managers use to select employees. Now we’ll turn to one of these tools—interviewing candidates. The main topics we’ll cover include types of interviews, things that undermine interviewing’s usefulness, and designing and conducting effective selection interviews.

Learning Objectives

List and give examples of the main types of selection interviews.

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

7-2

After studying this chapter, you will be able to:

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

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

7-3

Learning Objectives

Define a structured situational interview and give examples of situational questions, behavioral questions, and background questions that provide structure.

What are the main points to know about developing and extending the actual job offer?

After studying this chapter, you will be able to:

3. Define a structured situational interview and give examples of situational questions, behavioral

questions, and background questions that provide structure.

4. What are the main points to know about developing and extending the actual job offer?

List and give examples of the main types of selection interviews.

7-4

An interview is a procedure designed to obtain information from a person through oral responses to oral inquiries. A selection interview (the focus of this chapter) is a selection procedure designed to predict future job performance based on applicants’ oral responses to oral inquiries.

Basic Types of Interviews

Structured vs. unstructured

Questions to ask

Situational

Behavioral

Job-related

Stress

Puzzle questions

7-5

In unstructured (or nondirective) interviews, the manager follows no set format. In structured (or directive) interviews, the employer lists the questions ahead of time. He or she also may even list and score possible answers for appropriateness. Structured interviews are generally superior. In structured interviews, all interviewers generally ask all applicants the same questions. It’s clear the courts will look at whether the interview process is structured and consistently applied.

In a situational interview, you ask the candidate what his or her behavior would be in a given situation. Behavioral interviews ask applicants to describe how they reacted to actual situations in the past. In a job-related interview, the applicants answer questions about relevant past experiences. In stress interviews, the applicant is made uncomfortable by a series of often rude questions. This technique helps identify hypersensitive applicants and those with low or high stress tolerance. Puzzle questions are popular. Recruiters like to use them to see how candidates think under pressure.

Administering Interviews

Panel

Phone

Video/web-assisted

Computerized

Second Life

Speed dating

Case interviews

7-6

Employers also administer interviews in various ways. These include one-on-one or by a panel of interviewers, sequentially or all at once, and computerized or personally. In an unstructured sequential interview, each interviewer generally just asks questions as they come to mind. In a structured sequential interview, each interviewer rates the candidates on a standard evaluation form, using standardized questions.

A panel interview is an interview conducted by a team of interviewers who interview each candidate and then combine their ratings into a final panel score. Employers do some interviews entirely by telephone. These can actually be more accurate than face-to-face interviews for judging an applicant’s conscientiousness, intelligence, and interpersonal skills.

Firms have long used the Web to do selection interviews. With iPad-type video functionalities and the widespread use of Skype™, their use is growing.

A computerized interview is one in which a job candidate’s oral and/or computerized replies are obtained in response to questions and/or situations.

Several employers such as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard use the online virtual community Second Life to conduct job interviews. Others have tried a “speed dating” model wherein candidates visit briefly with selected employees.

Finally, Bain & Company uses case interviews as part of its candidate selection process.

IMPROVING PERFORMANCE:

HR as a Profit Center

Great Western Bank uses a computerized job interview

Candidate responds via a touch screen and a microphone

Applicant can see what the job is really like

Those hired are reportedly 26% less likely to leave within 90 days

Turnover costs reduced

7-7

Discussion Question: You have to hire dozens of wait staff every year for a new restaurant on

Miami Beach. Explain how you would use a computerized interview, including questions and tasks for

candidates.

Three Ways to Make the Interview Useful

Structure the interview

Carefully select traits to assess

Beware of committing interviewing errors

7-8

Structured interviews are more valid than unstructured interviews for predicting job performance. This is especially true for structured interviews using situational questions

To reduce interview errors, limit yourself mostly to situational and job knowledge questions. This will help you assess how the candidate will actually respond to typical situations on that job.

Review

Structured vs. unstructured

Questions to ask

Situational

Behavioral

Job-related

Stress

Puzzle questions

Administration

Panel

Phone

Video/web- assisted

Computerized

7-9

In unstructured interviews, the manager follows no set format. In structured interviews, the employer lists the questions ahead of time. Possible answers also may be provided. The types of questions we have discussed include:

Situational

Behavioral

Job-related

Stress

Puzzle questions

Interviews may be conducted by a panel, on the phone, using video or web-assisted technology or via the computer.

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

7-10

One reason selection interviews are often less than useful is that managers make predictable, avoidable errors. We’ll look at these next.

Snap judgments

Job requirements not clear

Candidate-order & pressure to hire

Nonverbal behavior & impression management

Personal characteristics

Interviewer mistakes

Errors That Undermine Interviews

7-11

Perhaps the most consistent finding is that interviewers tend to jump to conclusions—make snap during the first few minutes of the interview. Sometimes this occurs before the interview starts, based on test scores or résumé data.

Interviewers may not have an accurate picture of the job requirements and what sort of candidate is best suited for it. If that’s the case, they may make their decisions based on incorrect impressions or stereotypes of what a good applicant is.

Candidate-order error means the order in which you see applicants affects how you rate them. There is some indication that the effects of primacy (who you interviewed first) or recency (most recently interviewed) can impact your decisions.

The applicant’s nonverbal behavior can also have a surprisingly large impact on his or her rating. Interviewers infer your personality from your nonverbal behaviors in the interview. Clever candidates capitalize on non-verbal behavior and impression management. One study found that some used ingratiation to persuade interviewers to like them. Psychologists call using techniques like ingratiation and self-promotion “impression management.”

Unfortunately, physical attributes such as applicants’ attractiveness, gender, disability, or race also may distort an interviewer’s assessments.

Interviewers may make numerous mistakes such as:

Having favorable pre-interview impressions

Playing district attorney or amateur psychologist

Asking improper questions

Being inept

IMPROVING PERFORMANCE:

HR Practices Around the Globe

Selection Practices Abroad

Traditional selection practices

Cultural demands

7-12

Traditional selection practices there are different from what one might expect in the United States. For example, “age is considered synonymous to wisdom.” Therefore, job advertisements for mid- and senior level positions often set a minimum age as a selection criteria, while “the entry level positions in public sector organizations, age limit is restricted up to 30 years of age.”

You are interviewing candidates in Bangladesh and you have a great candidate who unfortunately is 25 years old, when the job calls for someone at least 40. List three questions you would ask to see if the person is still qualified.

Review

7-13

Errors that undermine an interview’s usefulness include jumping to conclusions, not having accurate job requirements or the order in which candidates are interviewed. Non-verbal behavior, personal characteristics and physical attributes also create errors. Interviewers may make numerous mistakes such as playing district attorney or amateur psychologist or asking improper questions.

7-14

Define a structured situational interview and give examples of situational questions, behavioral questions, and background questions that provide structure.

There is little doubt that the structured situational interview—a series of job-relevant questions

with predetermined answers that interviewers ask of all applicants for the job—produces superior

results. Ideally, the basic idea is to (1) write situational (what would you do), behavioral (what

did you do), or job knowledge questions, and (2) have job experts (like those supervising the job)

also write several answers for each of these questions, rating the answers from good to poor.

How to Design and Conduct an Effective Interview

7-15

You may not have the time or inclination to create a structured situational interview. However, there is still much you can do to make your interviews more systematic and effective.

Design and Conduct an Effective Interview

Analyze the job

Rate main duties

Create questions

Create benchmark answers

Appoint interview panel and conduct interviews

7-16

There are five basic steps involved in designing and conducting structured interviews.

STEP 1: Write a job description with a list of job duties; required knowledge, skills, and abilities; and other worker qualifications.

STEP 2: Rate each job duty, say from 1 to 5, based on its importance to job success.

STEP 3: Create interview questions for each of the job duties, with more questions for the important duties.

STEP 4: Next, for each question, develop ideal (benchmark) answers for good (a 5 rating), marginal (a 3 rating), and poor (a 1 rating) answers.

STEP 5: Select a panel consisting of three to six members, preferably the same ones who wrote the questions and answers. It may also include the job’s supervisor and/or incumbent, and a human resources representative. The same panel interviews all candidates for the job.

IMPROVING PERFORMANCE: HR Tools for Line Managers and Entrepreneurs

How to Conduct an Effective Interview

Know the job

Structure the interview

Get organized

Establish rapport

Ask questions

Take brief notes

Close the interview

Review the interview

7-17

Step 1: First, make sure you know the job. Do not start the interview unless you understand the

job’s duties and what human skills you’re looking for. Study the job description.

Step 2: Structure the interview. Any structuring is better than none. If pressed for time, you can

still do several things to ask more consistent and job-relevant questions, without developing

a full-blown structured interview. They include:

• Base questions on actual job duties. This will minimize irrelevant questions.

• Use job knowledge, situational, or behavioral questions, and know enough about the

job to be able to evaluate the interviewee’s answers. Questions that simply ask for

opinions and attitudes, goals and aspirations, and self-descriptions and self-evaluations

allow candidates to present themselves in an overly favorable manner or avoid revealing

weaknesses. Figure 7-2 illustrates structured questions.

• Use the same questions with all candidates. This improves reliability. It also reduces bias

by giving all candidates the same opportunity.

• Perhaps use descriptive rating scales (excellent, fair, poor) to rate answers. For each

question, if possible, have several ideal answers and a score for each. Then rate each

candidate’s answers against this scale.

• If possible, use a standardized interview form.

Step 3: Get organized. Hold the interview in a private room to minimize interruptions (including

text messages). Prior to the interview, review the candidate’s application and résumé. Note

any areas that are vague or that may indicate strengths or weaknesses.

Step 4: Establish rapport. The main reason for the interview is to find out about the applicant.

Start by putting the person at ease. Greet the candidate and start the interview by asking a

noncontroversial question, perhaps about the weather that day.

Step 5: Ask questions. Try to follow the situational, behavioral, and job knowledge questions

you wrote out ahead of time. You’ll find a sampling of other technical questions (such as

“What did you most enjoy about your last job?”) in Figure 7-3. As a rule,

Don’t telegraph the desired answer.

Don’t interrogate the applicant as if the person is on trial.

Don’t monopolize the interview, nor let the applicant do so.

Do ask open-ended questions.

Do encourage the applicant to express thoughts fully.

Do draw out the applicant’s opinions and feelings by repeating the person’s last comment

as a question (e.g., “You didn’t like your last job?”).

Do ask for examples.

Do ask, “If I were to arrange for an interview with your boss, what would he or she say

are your strengths, weaker points, and overall performance?

Step 6: Take brief, unobtrusive notes during the interview. Doing so may help avoid

Making a snap decision early in the interview, and may also help jog your memory once

the interview is complete. Take notes, jotting down just the key points of what the

Interviewee says.

Step 7: Close the interview. Leave time to answer any questions the candidate may have and,

if appropriate, to advocate your firm to the candidate.

Try to end the interview on a positive note. Tell the applicant whether there is any interest

and, if so, what the next step will be. Make rejections diplomatically—“Although your

background is impressive, there are other candidates whose experience is closer to our

requirements.” Remember, as one recruiter says, “An interview experience should leave a

lasting, positive impression of the company, whether the candidate receives and accepts an

offer or not.” If the applicant is still under consideration but you can’t reach a decision

now, say so.

In rejecting a candidate, one perennial question is, should you provide an explanation

or not? In one study, rejected candidates who received an explanation detailing why

the employer rejected them felt that the rejection process was fairer. Unfortunately,

doing so may not be practical. Most employers say little, to avoid pushback and legal

problems.

Step 8: Review the interview. After the candidate leaves, review your interview notes, score the

interview answers (if you used a guide), and make a decision.

We’ll address what interviewees can do to apply these findings and to excel in the interview in

Appendix 2 to this chapter.

Discussion Question: Write a one-paragraph (single-spaced) memo to the people who do your

company’s recruiting on the topic, “The five most important things an interviewer can do to have a

useful selection interview.”

Talent Management: Profiles and Employee Interviews

Use the same job profile (competencies, traits, knowledge, and experience) for creating interview questions as for recruiting

Testing

Training

Appraising and

Paying the employee

7-18

To ensure an integrated, goal-oriented human resource effort, talent management adherents use

the same job profile (competencies, traits, knowledge, and experience) for creating interview

questions as for recruiting, testing, training, appraising, and paying the employee.

The manager can use the job’s profile to formulate job-related situational, behavioral, and

knowledge interview questions when selecting someone for a job or set of roles. For example,

Table 7-1 summarizes illustrative competency, knowledge, trait, and experience profile elements

for a chemical engineer candidate, along with sample interview questions. Selecting engineers

based on this profile focuses your questions precisely on those things someone must be proficient

at to do this job well.

Job analysis

Rating

Creating questions

Benchmark answers

Create a panel and conduct interviews

Review

7-19

The first step in designing and conducting proper structured interviews is to have a well-done job analysis. Rating the main duties of the job is next. Creating the actual questions and benchmark answers are important as well. Finally, assembling a panel of people and conducting the interviews is the final step in the process.

What are the main points to know about developing and extending the actual job offer?

7-20

After all the interviews, background checks, and tests, the employer decides to whom to make

an offer.

The job offer will include:

Pay rates

Benefits

Actual job duties

There may be some negotiations

When agreement is reached, the employer will extend a written job offer to the candidate

Developing and Extending the Job Offer

7-21

When the actual offer is made, for instance the job offer for the candidate’s apparent attractiveness as a prospective employee, the level of the position, and pay rates for similar positions will be reviewed. Next the employer extends an actual job offer to the candidate verbally. Here, the employer’s point person (who might be the person to whom the new employee will report, or the human resource director for instance) discusses the offer’s main parameters. These include, for instance, pay rates, benefits, and actual job duties. There may be some negotiations. Then, once agreement is reached, the employer will extend a written job offer to the candidate.

Issues to Consider with the Written Offer

A job offer letter has the:

Welcome sentence

Pay information

Benefits information

Paid leave information

Terms of employment

7-22

There are several issues to consider with the written offer. Perhaps most important, understand

the difference between a job offer letter and a contract. In a job offer letter, the employer

lists the offer’s basic information. This typically starts with a welcome sentence. It then includes

job-specific information (such as details on salary and pay), benefits information, paid leave

information, and terms of employment (including, for instance, successful completion of job

testing and physical exams).

There should be a strong statement that the employment relationship is “at will.” There is then

a closing statement. This again welcomes the employee, mentions who the employer’s point

person is if any questions arise, and instructs the candidate to sign the letter of offer if it is

Acceptable.

An employment contract includes:

Includes duration

Severance provisions

Nondisclosure requirements

Covenants not to compete

The Employment Contract

7-23

For many positions (such as executive) a contract is in order. In contrast to a letter of offer (which should always be “at will”), an employment contract may have a duration (such as 3 years). Therefore, the contract will also describe grounds for termination or resignation, and

severance provisions. The contract will almost always also include terms regarding confidentiality, nondisclosure requirements, and covenants not to compete (although some job offer letters for positions such as engineer many include such provisions as well).

See www.Shrm.org/ template-tools/toolkits for more information.

Review

Just as the job offer includes pay rates, benefits and job duties the letter of employment will also include these.

The employment contract will include the term 3 years etc.

7-24

There are stated differences in a letter of employment versus a employment contract. Depending upon the position, the employment contract (and, occasionally, the offer letter) may include a relocation provision. This lays out what the employer is willing to pay the new employee to relocate, for instance, in terms of moving expenses. State law generally governs enforcement of individual employment contracts. Assuming the offer is extended and accepted, the next step is to welcome the employee on board, to which we turn in Chapter 8.

Improving Performance at The Hotel Paris

The New Interviewing Program

For the jobs of security guard, and valet, develop five additional situational, five behavioral, and five job knowledge questions, with descriptive good/average/poor answers.

7-25

The New Interviewing Program

The Hotel Paris’s competitive strategy is “To use superior guest service to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, and to thereby increase the length of stay and return rate of guests, and thus boost revenues and profitability.” HR manager Lisa Cruz must now formulate functional policies and activities that support this competitive strategy, by eliciting the required employee behaviors and competencies.

Lisa receives budgetary approval to design a new employee interview system. She and her team start by reviewing the job descriptions and job specifications for the positions of front-desk clerk, assistant manager, security guard, car hop/door person, and housekeeper. Focusing on developing structured interviews for each position, the team sets about devising interview questions.

For example, for the front-desk clerk and assistant manager, they formulate several behavioral questions, including, “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an irate person, and what you did.” And, “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with several conflicting demands at once, such as having to study for several final exams at the same time, while working. How did you handle the situation?”

They also developed a number of situational questions, including “Suppose you have a very pushy incoming guest who insists on being checked in at once, while at the same time you’re trying to process the check-out for another guest who must be at the airport in 10 minutes. How would you handle the situation?”

For these and other positions, they also developed several job knowledge questions. For example, for security guard applicants, one question her team created was, “What are the local legal restrictions, if any, regarding using products like Mace if confronted by an unruly person on the hotel grounds?” The team combined the questions into structured interviews for each job, and turned to testing, fine-tuning, and finally using the new system.

Discussion Question: Combine your questions into a complete interview that you would give to someone who must interview candidates for these jobs.

7-26

Hotel Paris

Strategy

Chapter 7

Hotel Paris Strategy Chapter 7

7-27

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