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When you’ve received all your applications, it’s time to screen them and make a shortlist of those you want to invite to interview. Remember, to keep the process fair, legal and non-discriminatory, you should use the same criteria for each candidate in order to make your decision. This is where the person specification comes in handy. Assess and compare applicants against the criteria specified in it. Always keep written records of your selection process so that you can justify your decisions if necessary. Remember that the interview is a two-way process – it’s as much for helping the candidate to decide whether they want the job as it is for you to decide whether to offer them the job. You therefore want to create a good impression and you’ll also want to put the candidate at ease in order to help them perform to their best during the interview. Thorough preparation is therefore crucial. Work out a plan of how you will conduct your interviews. This will help to ensure that they all run smoothly, that the candidate is put at ease, that you don’t miss anything crucial, and that your process is consistent and fair to everyone. Here’s an example of a good interview plan: Welcome – introduce yourself, show the candidate to the interview room, help them to get settled (take their coat, ask if they’d like a drink) and explain the format and duration of the interview so that they know what to expect. Background information – give some information on the company and the job. When outlining the job, always refer to the jobholder as ‘the successful candidate’, never ‘you’, to avoid misleading the interviewee or giving them the wrong impression. (For example, say ‘the successful candidate would be responsible for handling all customer orders’ rather than ‘you would be responsible for handling all customer orders’.) Candidate information – here’s where the candidate should do most of the talking. Engage them in discussion about their suitability for the job by asking a series of prepared questions, all of which should be specific, relevant to the job and aimed at establishing whether the candidate meets the required criteria as set out in the person specification. The next steps – explain whether there are any further selection interviews or tests or when the candidate will be informed of the outcome), the likely starting date for the successful candidate. Candidate questions – allow the candidate the opportunity to ask any questions or discuss anything else that they feel hasn’t been covered in the interview. Here are some tips on questioning: There are two main types of questioning. The first is CV-based questioning, where you use the candidate’s CV (or application form) as a structure for asking questions, normally done in chronological order starting with education and qualifications and then moving on to earliest to most recent work experience. The second is competency or behavioural based questioning, based on the principle that past performance is an indicator of future performance. You ask a series of questions (based on the criteria you are looking for in the person specification) about how the candidate has dealt with specific situations, problems or issues in the past, or how they would deal with them if faced with them now. Such questions often start ‘tell me about a time when you …’. Whatever form of questioning you use, your questions should always be relevant to the job and non-discriminatory. You should also use open questions (i.e. questions that elicit more than a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, to encourage discussion – open questions typically start with ‘what’, ‘how’ or ‘why’). If you didn’t get enough information from the candidate’s answer to your initial question, follow it up with further probing questions, e.g. ‘why did you do that?’, ‘what made this successful?’ or ‘what did you learn from this?’. Remember to avoid leading questions such as ‘you’re happy to travel as part of the job, aren’t you?’ – instead ask ‘how do you feel about the travelling that the job will entail?’. And don’t bombard the candidate with multiple questions – ask one question at a time and allow the candidate sufficient time to answer. This article is copyright protected and is not for republishing |
