Techniques for Interviewing Applicants

Interviewing applicants for prospective employment is one of the most important parts of any manager’s job.  The purpose of interviewing is to identify people who have the right mix of qualifications, skills, personality, and attitude to make valuable contributions to your organisation in a particular job. 

The most common mistake that interviewers make is talking too much during the interview process.  When interviewing applicants, you need to give them a chance to talk, and as a manager your focus should be on listening.  Pay attention to what the candidate is saying, but also focus on their nonverbal cues, as well.  Often, the applicant’s tone and body language is much more telling than the words they use to answer your questions. 

To keep from talking too much when interviewing applicants, it is important to make sure that you are approaching the interview from the right perspective.  Many interviewers, particularly those who need to hire someone yesterday, tend to approach the interview as a sales meeting.  They spend time pitching the job to candidates who seem acceptable rather than letting the candidates talk. 

But selling the job isn’t the purpose of the interview. This approach to interviewing leads to bad hires and increased turnover. By “over selling” the job to a candidate, it’s likely that you will set up the perfect answer to a candidate’s question. Instead of giving you an accurate picture of who they are, candidates are likely to end up telling you what you want to hear.

As a manager, try and look at the interview process as an audition. The applicant is auditioning for an opportunity to work with your company.  You are the gatekeeper to the job, so it is the applicant’s job to “sell” you on his or her qualifications, not the other way around.  Your role is to pose questions to the applicant, and then let the applicant pitch you on why they are the perfect person for the job. Ask a question, and then sit back and really listen to the response. 

Asking the Right Kind of Questions
Make sure that you look at each candidate’s resume or job application before the interview. The interview is a great opportunity for the candidate to elaborate on their resume and discuss specific job functions performed at different levels of their career. But, be careful not to waste time in the interview having the candidate recite their resume. Instead, ask questions that are designed to tap into how suitable the candidate really is for the job.

The right kinds of interview questions are phrased in a manner that encourages applicants to reveal information about what they know, what they are able to do, and their attitudes toward work. Carefully crafted interview questions give managers an inside look at a candidate’s personality and career goals. Keep in mind that the best questions won’t do you any good if you don’t really listen to the answers. 

Starting the Interview
At the beginning of the interview, do your best to put the applicant at ease. Doing so will create an easier conversation that flows naturally between you and your prospective new employee.  According to Lisa Hylton Costa, HR consultant and trainer with Mobile Technical Institute, making sure that candidates know what to expect in the interview is an excellent technique for helping them get comfortable. 

Costa advises, “When interviewing, I start out by giving the candidate a rundown of what to expect during the interview.  I tell them that during the interview, we’ll go through their application first, then I’ll tell them about the job, and last I’ll ask questions to help me learn more about their past work experience.  People are less nervous when they know what is coming.”

Behaviour Based Questioning
It is very common for interviewers to ask general questions, such as “are you comfortable dealing with angry customers?” and then moving on to another question as soon the applicant answers with a “yes” or “no”.  However, you still really haven’t really learned anything about how the applicant is likely to respond to an irate customer. 

Using the behaviour based questioning technique will give you an idea of how a potential employee might react in a difficult situation. The premise behind behaviour based interviewing is the idea that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour.   The goal is to get applicants to tell you about (1) a situation they faced in the past, (2) how they handled the situation, and (3) the outcome. 

Sample Behaviour Based Question: 
1.  I know that you have spent some time working in retail.  Can you give me an example of a situation where you had to deal with an angry customer?  Wait for a response. 
2.  That really is an interesting situation.  How did you handle it?  Wait for a response. 
3.  I see.  What was the outcome?  Wait for a response. 

By structuring your questions in this manner, you get a strong sense of an applicant’s behavioural tendencies and approach to dealing with a specific type of problem he or she is likely to face on the job.  This technique can be used with virtually any type of question.  Many managers find it beneficial to take the behaviour based questioning technique a step farther. 

“I like to follow up the outcome question by asking the candidate what they would do differently if faced with the same situation again,” said Costa.

Concluding the Interview
At the end of the interview, it is important for managers to feel confident that they’ve covered all necessary information with the applicant. Take a moment at the end of the interview to recap your thoughts and questions for the candidate. George Wright, owner of WrightOne Consulting, recommends asking a “throwaway question.” This question gives you time to reflect about the interview while the candidate is still with you. He says, “By asking a question, such as ‘where do you see yourself going in five years’, that will require the candidate to think for a few minutes, you can buy yourself some time to look back through your notes and see if you have overlooked anything. 

Wright advises that managers also give candidates an opportunity to ask questions at the conclusion of an interview. The best candidates are going to do their homework before their interview and come in prepared to ask good questions.  According to Wright, “If they don’t ask questions, maybe this isn’t the best place for them.”


Additional Sources:
quintcareers.com

For more information on getting the employees you want, view Kelly Services Hiring Techniques.

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