Selection Interviews

Read the text and discuss it.

Text 3.

Intern (summer), Credit Card Operations

- Implemented capacity plan to minimize Call Center workforce for fourth-largest bank in Hong Kong.

- Streamlined customer service by modifying 30 user guides, procedures, and instructions.

- Constructed model to compute service officers’ shift hours and compensation schemes under various CRM models.

- Entered and retrieved transactions in test-run of CardLink system using programs such as User Acceptance Test (UAT) and System Integration Test (SIT).

Additional Accomplishments: Student Resolution Panelist, LS&A Appointed Member~Troop Instructor for Girl Scouts of America

Much has been written about selection interviewing, but most of the points made can be condensed into the following guide to good practice (Figure 3). This highlights the sort of issues which busy managers need to know about if they are to make optimum use of their own and the candidates’ time in the short period available for the interview.

Be prepared     Welcome the candidate   Encourage candidate to talk   Control the interview   Supply necessary information     Close interview   Final steps

Obtain available information, e.g. job details, candidate specification & application form. Arrange interview room. Ensure no interruptions. Plan the interview.   After initial courtesies, thank candidate for coming. Explain briefly what procedure you propose to adopt for the interview. Commence by asking relatively easy and non-threatening questions.   Ask open-ended questions. Prompt where necessary. Indicate that you are listening. Briefly develop points of interest raised by candidate.   Direct your questions along the lines that achieve your objectives. Tactfully, but firmly, clamp down on the over-talkative candidate. Do not get too involved in particular issues just because of your own interests. Keep an eye on the time.   Briefly add to information already made available to candidate. Answer candidate’s questions. Inform candidate of the next steps in the selection procedure.   Thank candidate for his/her responses to your questions. Exchange final courtesies.   Write up your notes about the candidate. Grade or rank him/her for suitability. Operate administrative procedures regarding notifications etc.

Figure 3. Selection interviewing - guide to good practice.

There are a few points arising from the guide mentioned above which particularly ought to be stressed. The first is the question of preparation. As with so many tasks, the better the preparation, the better the final result. It is very important to be properly prepared before an interview. It enables the interviewer to feel confident in himself about his key role in the process, and enables him to exploit to the full the information provided by the candidate. It also helps to minimize embarrassment caused by constant interruptions, inadequate accommodation and other practical difficulties.

Questioning plays a vital role in a selection interview as it is the primary means by which information is obtained from the candidate at the time. Questions are most often categorized into closed questions and open ones. Closed questions require a specific answer or a Yes/No response. For example: ‘What course of study led to your qualification?’ (specific), ‘How many people were you responsible for in your previous job?’ (specific), ‘Were you personally authorized to sign purchase orders?’ (Yes/No), ‘Have you had experience of …?’ (Yes/No). Open questions require a person to elaborate on a particular point in his own way. Examples of open questions are: ‘What is that attracts you about this job?’, ‘Why did you leave the company? ’How would you tackle a problem of this kind if you were the manager?’ open questions invariably begin with What? or How? or Why?

It is usual to ask closed questions to check information which the candidate has already partly supplied on his application form, and to redirect the interview if the candidate is talking too much and /or getting off the point. Open questions tend to be employed once the interview has got under way, with the object of getting the candidate to demonstrate his knowledge and skills to the interviewer.

Controlling the interview is sometimes a problem for interviewers. However, they can help themselves to maintain control in a firm, but diplomatic way by:

- proper preparation, especially the preparation of key questions to be put to the candidate,

- returning to questions which they feel have not been adequately answered by the candidate, i.e. they are showing that they will not be fobbed off by a plausible non-answer,

- politely, but firmly cutting short a response which has gone on too long,

- taking an opportunity to supply information to the candidate, thus requiring him to listen,

- using the application form as a map of the interview, on which progress can be plotted.

Taken as a whole, interviews are most useful for assessing the personal qualities of an individual. They help to answer questions such as ‘Has this candidate any special personal characteristics which give him an advantage over his rivals?’ Interviews are not so useful for assessing technical ability or the value of past experience.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-26