Peter Hipkiss, Consultant at Peninsula, talks about how to get the best out of an interview and how to choose the right candidate.
Interviewing can take place for a number of different reasons, selection interviewing for employment, for promotion, for disciplinary reasons, for capability reasons, for health reasons, as exit interviews, etc. This article will concentrate primarily on interviewing for employment, although many of the points will apply to most forms of interview.Presumably the applications have flooded in! Presumably there are many more than could possibly be interviewed, especially with the current economic situation! Therefore, some form of initial screening has to take place. Ideally, this should be carried out by the person(s) who will actually conduct the interviews. It is preferable, if possible, to have more than one person conduct the short-listing and interviewing as it helps to minimise personal bias and it spreads the load – however there may not be sufficient management in SME’s to achieve this!
Compare the information contained in the application to the job description and personnel specification to identify those with the potential to do the job. (Do not set out with a pre-conceived idea of how many should be on the short-list). That “potential” should be in respect of job related criteria only and should be applied consistently across all applicants. Under no circumstances should account be taken of race, sex, disability, trade union membership, religion (Northern Ireland) or age as that would be discriminatory apart from the few genuine exceptions allowed, i.e. it is permissible to audition women only to play the part of a woman in a film. It may be useful, or even essential in some circumstances, to produce a short-list matrix with qualifications/experience recorded against applicants and those scoring more than ‘X’ are short-listed.
Those not invited to interview should be sent a polite “thanks, but no thanks” letter, a copy of which should be kept with their application, and all such letters, in one file for that particular job advert. Each should contain a note as to why the applicant was not invited to interview (keep especially the matrix chart as it is not unheard of for rejected applicants to complain about not being invited to interview and it is enormously helpful to the employer (and to the applicant!) if the process can be seen to be fair and non-discriminatory.
This file of unsuccessful applicants should be kept for at least 12 months, but no longer, unless special circumstances apply. (Although the Information Commission advises in the Employment Practices Data Protection Code for Recruitment and Selection, that such data should be destroyed after four months, many claims for sex or race discrimination can be made up to six or eight months after the act complained of, and even those periods can be extended to 8 and 10 months if Equality and Human Rights commission is assisting the applicant in their claim. Therefore four months is too short a time).
Send a letter/e-mail to the short-list personnel inviting them to interview. Make sure it clearly states where, when, to whom to report and whether this is a preliminary interview or the only one in the process. There is one further requirement that needs to be met at this stage. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 requires that disabled people be provided with a level playing field for interview with other applicants. Some applications may reveal that the applicant is disabled. Others will not. To ensure therefore fairness, at the interview stage, the potential employer needs to find out if any special procedures need to be adopted, e.g. wheelchair access, sign language interpreter, so that the disabled applicant receives treatment on a par with that accorded to a non-disabled person. Ask, in the letter inviting to interview, if any special arrangements need to be made and if the applicant indicates they do, arrange them.
Most people consider that there are two purposes to an interview; for the employer to find out all they (properly) can about the applicant and for the applicant to find out all they can about the employer/employment. There is a third. Usually more people are rejected than are appointed. It is a wise employer who recognises that increasing numbers of rejected applicants, who have been badly, unprofessionally or lackadaisically interviewed, will build up in the surrounding areas creating a poor reputation for the organisation locally. Properly, professionally, interviewed people will probably still go away feeling upset but hopefully they will be feeling regrets that they were unsuccessful in joining what was obviously a great set-up rather than disappointment and relief that they have been unsuccessful!
Prepare before the interview to ensure that they start on time, that there are no interruptions and a structure is decided on and followed in the same manner for each interviewee. Consider carefully job descriptions, personnel specifications and applications to identify what questions need to be asked. Again, where possible, the interview should be conducted by more than one person if resources allow.
At the interview put the applicant at ease, outline the organisation and its future plans. Ask the applicant open questions to expand on the information in the application and concentrate on those issues which will influence the decision to offer employment or not. Open questions are those which cannot be answered yes or no. For example ask “why did you leave your last job?”, rather than “have you left your last job?”, since it will produce a more useful response. Take notes – ensure especially that important comments, ones which might be decisive, are in some way noted.
Do not ask any questions of a discriminatory nature. It is unacceptable to ask women if they plan to have children? Who will look after your children if you come back to work?, etc.
Some questions must be asked of those destined to work with children, or vulnerable adults, regarding them not having any convictions, or record, which would affect their employability in such sensitive roles. There are also questions which need to be asked regarding the Immigration and Asylum rules. These are so detailed there is no room to deal with them here, but be aware that they exist and that they might apply to you, so find out!
Allow the applicant to ask questions and answer them honestly. Answers given in the interview could be relied on by the individual as forming part of his/her contract of employment!
Tell the applicant when he/she can expect to hear the outcome. If there is a second round of interviews those not invited should receive a letter “thanks but no thanks” and those for final interview a letter, as before explaining, where, when, with whom, etc.
Final interviews should concentrate on the requirements of the job and the candidates’ suitability for it. From objective criteria rank the candidates. Offer the job to the first choice candidate, hold in reserve second and third and send “thanks but no thanks” letter to the others. If preferred choice accepts send “thanks but no thanks” letters to number two and three. If preferred choice rejects offer, offer then to number two, etc., assuming that they are acceptable of course!
Details of rejected applicants following interview should be treated in the same manner as those rejected without being offered an interview.
Remember starting the wrong person can be disastrously expensive. Take time and care to do it properly so that risks are minimised. To minimise risks even further do not write inappropriate comments on interview notes – they just may come back and haunt you!
For more information please contact Peter Hipkiss on 07966 112075 or via e-mail, Peter.Hipkiss@peninsula-uk.com.
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