University of __________

Interviews: Importance and how to conduct them successfully

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Interviews and their relevance to HR

1.

Introduction

An incontrovertible fact that any HR professional would attest to is the importance of interviewing skills for a Human Resources manager. The crucial process of selecting an individual who would meet company requirements and be a valuable asset for the organization starts with an interview. To properly assess the strengths, weaknesses, latent talents and motivating factors, an HR professional must have certain interviewing skills that would assist him/her in furthering their analysis of the suitability of the candidate. There are many ways in which interviews can be structured and these different formats of interviews will be discussed in detail in this report. Also, to give structure to the main body of the report, the topic would be studied under the following heads:

Types of interviews Factors affecting interviews Designing, structuring and conducting interviews Common interview mistakes

Key Terms

Interview: For our purposes, an interview is a formal conversation undertaken with the purpose of evaluating a candidate for his/her suitability for the position applied for. Situational Interview: An interview that tests real-world problem solving skills by simulating, or narrating, a complex problem which the interviewee has to suggest solutions to. Behavioural Interview: Focused more towards eliciting the soft-skills that are required for a job, these interviews try and gauge the emotional and mental flexibility and stability of candidates. Candidate-Order Error: Essentially refers to how interviewing candidates in a certain order might change the outcome or decision taken. Negative Emphasis: Irrational rejection of a candidate based on a some negative perceptions that tend to cloud the positive aspects of the interviewee. Types of Interviews

2.

There are many different types of interviews and, depending upon the organization, one might face multiple types alternately in the course of a single interview. Moreover, in today's tough job scenario, it is not uncommon to face more than one interview while applying for a job. HR specialists tend to be extracautious when hiring for key positions.

Traditional face-to-face individual Interview

A standard interview that most candidates applying in MRC's (Mass Recruitment Companies) ,such as Infosys, would face. A candidate faces a lone HR professional for the interview and consists of a one-onone conversation. Rapport with the interviewer plays a big role here.

Stress Interview

Commonly seen in sales positions and some famed MBA colleges (IIM-A and IIM-C), this has become less relevant now. A calculated attempt to see how one handles pressure, the interviewer tries to unnerve the candidate.
3.

Factors affecting interviews and common interview mistakes

To understand how an interview can be conducted effectively, it is necessary to dwell on the factors that affect one.

First impressions The tendency of an interviewer to jump to conclusions is a weakness that must be avoided until all the relevant competencies and skills of the candidate have been assessed in a fair manner.

Misunderstanding the job Having an incomplete or inaccurate idea of what the job entails leads an interviewer to make incorrect assumptions which are generally based off stereotypes. Accurate and updated job descriptions translate into better interviews with more higher chances of success.

Halo effect A corollary to the negative emphasis effect discussed above, here the interviewer tends to allow one positive opinion to cloud his judgement as to the negative attributes of the candidate. This is equally dangerous in terms of the interview ending in a success (defined as selecting the right person for the job).

Non-verbal behaviour and impression management

While this may seem like common sense, non-verbal cues such as eye contact, smiling, a firm handshake and prompt, intelligible replies tend to take precedence over the content of the replies. Effect of personal characteristics Although ethically incorrect and morally debatable, it is a well-known fact that personal characteristics such as caste, creed, color, gender and disabilities tend to play a huge role in interviews and merit and suitability become hard to judge with so many extraneous factors being considered. 4. Literature Review One of the more interesting fields of inquiry in the interview process has been the impact of impression management tactics (IM) in this field. This is a double-edged sword as the successful use of IM implies that candidates can be coached into being effective in an interview and this can lead to a failure of the

whole process. Wei-Chi Tsai, Chien-Cheng Chen and Su-Fen Chiu examine the impact of impression management (IM) tactics by examining the moderating role of certain variables (such as interview structure and length) in their study titled Exploring Boundaries of the Effect of Applicant Impression Management Tactics in Job Interviews. Findings Their focus on three moderating variables, namely interview length, structure and customer contact requirement, allows for an in-depth pursue if causes and effects and how to minimize IM ramifications. The study, conducted in a field setting by interviewing over 150 people (many from the same organization) at an average length of 33 minutes, came to the following conclusions. Conclusions Customer contact requirement is positively correlated to IM as jobs which require selling might benefit from having employees that are able to generate positive impressions through IM. Interview structure has been found to be negatively correlated as the greater structure an interview has (scoring, weightages for different components, etc.) the lower will be the effect of IM tactics on the interviewer. Lastly, interview length is also negatively correlated to effective IM techniques in that the greater the lenght, less will be the effectiveness of IM tactics.
5.

Recommendations for conducting an effective interview

If some basic rules and procedures are followed, it becomes easy to conduct successful interviews where intangible, irrelevant factors do not come into play and selection happens on the right parameters. A venue that has little scope for distraction and is well-lit, provides ample space for the candidate to feel comfortable and assists in evaluation. A job analysis will give the interviewer a framework for testing the candidate as well as help him/her focus on the pertinent facets of the candidate. The purpose of the interview to be explained to the candidate such that he/she replies are in an appropriate context. The structure of the interview need not be explained of the candidate is to subjected to a stress round or his adaptiveness is to be measured. Explain the terms of confidentiality clearly before the process starts.

References
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