Carter Cleaning Company – The Better Interview

7-20

1. If Jennifer wants to improve her employee interviewing practices, she should follow specific

steps to make the interviews more systematic and productive. The steps are:

o Know the job – study the job description/ know the job’s duties and what human skills

you’re looking for.

o Structure the interview – base questions on job duties, use job knowledge or situational or

behavioral questions, use the same questions with all candidates, have several answers for

each question and score/rank each answer, and if possible, use an interview form.

o Get organized – review the application and resume prior to the interview.

o Establish rapport – greet the candidate and start by asking a noncontroversial question.

o Ask questions – try to follow the situational, behavioral, and job knowledge questions

you’ve written out prior. Some deviation is allowed.

o Take notes during the interview – jot dot key points that the interviewee makes.

o Close the interview – allow the candidate to ask questions and provide answers.

o Review the interview – review notes and score the candidate, then make a decision.

2. Jennifer should create an interview form to use for management jobs. Non-management jobs can

be done with a semi-structural interview by deciding the questions beforehand. For management

positions, pre-determined questions should be formulated, and potential answers ranked. This

method can be used for non-management employees because it yields better interviews. An

interview form for a management position may include a knowledge or skills-based interview

with experience-based questions.

3. Right not a computer-based interview approach does not seem necessary, but she may find ease in

interviewing candidates via video messaging. Jennifer may also find it beneficial to have
 candidates applying for management positions to fill out a questionnaire on-line prior to

extending an interview.

7-21

1. Yes, Jennifer should implement a training program for managers. An interviewing training

program may include job analyses – understanding what each position is responsible for,

developing interview questions, deciding on benchmark answers, and then ranking those answers;

holding mock interviews, explaining what can and cannot be asked during an interview, etc.

2. If she decided to offer training for management personnel on how to conduct better interviews,

she would probably tell them about the different types of interviews and different types of

questions that can take place. If the company has decided to do sequential interviews, she should

explain what those are and how to properly conduct one. Then she should explain the different

types of questions to ask, such as situational, behavioral, and job-related. She might also want to

explain that stress interviews should not take place.