DK - Interviewing People

Dorling Kindersley Limited

The Penguin Group

Published by the Dorling Kindersley Limited,
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
LONDON, NEW YORK,
MUNICH, MELBOURNE, DELHI

Dorling Kindersley Limited, Registered Offices: 80 Strand,
London WC2R 0RL, England

www.dk.com

First Published in paperback in 2008 by Dorling Kindersley Limited. ISBN: 9780756655549
Copyright 2008 Dorling Kindersley
Text Copyright 2008 DeeDee Doke

This Digital Edition published 2010. ISBN: 9780756666101
Digital conversion by DK Digital Content, London and DK Digital Media, Delhi.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

The key to success for any organization is its people. Getting the right people depends on how an organization recruits, and a fundamental element of the recruitment process is interviewing.

As the business environment becomes more dynamic, organizations needs change, and so do the skills they require of their employees. Moreover, simply having the right skills does not guarantee that a candidate will benefit your organization. Todays most creative and progressive recruiters recognize that understanding the aptitudes, attitudes, and motivations of their employees is essential to ensuring that the people they hire represent the best possible fit for current vacancies. As a result, those who conduct job interviews on behalf of their organizations not only hold the present, but also the future of their employer squarely in their hands. That is a big responsibility.

The goal of Interviewing People is to guide you through the minefield of interviewing candidates: organizing interviews and other supplementary activities, helping you to ask the right questions, deciding which information sources you should consider in finding out who the person really is, and preparing the groundwork for successful partnerships between the new employees and your organization. The end result should be to make interviews rewarding for candidates and recruiters.

Interviewing a potential recruit is a long and complex process, but the reward is seeing the person you interviewed contributing to your organizations success and happy in their job. Achieving that success takes careful planning.

Developing a Checklist

Your checklist is your step-by-step guide to ensuring that you and your organization make the most of the candidate interviews. Create it at the very beginning of your recruitment process so that you can always visualize where you are at a given moment and what you need to do next.

Planning to plan

Preparing for and conducting an interview involves a number of steps. However, the actual interview is only one part of the process. Your checklist should cover the steps required before the interview, during the interview, and afterward. Your plan should also incorporate points along the way at which you assess progress to date and make any necessary amendments. Leave room to add extra stages, if necessary. Remember, it wont always be possible to execute each step perfectly. Concentrate on fulfilling each point and keep a record of what you do and the results.

Breaking it down into steps

First, analyze and understand the job itself and its significance in your organization. Next map out the steps of your strategy for filling it: where you will publicize the vacancy, what support you will need to screen and rank incoming resumes, how to define your shortlist, the kinds of questions to be asked of candidates at interview, and selecting any other measures that would be required to supplement the interviews. Then there will be logistics issues to be worked out, such as where the interviews will be held.

Budgeting for your strategy

Know what your budget is from the start; finances play a role in identifying top, secondary, and optional priorities on your checklist. One key spend is likely to be on recruitment advertising. Hiring a venue for interviews and getting expert help to assess candidates skills may also mean spending some money. Get estimates on every expenditure before you spend anything.

Pre-interview planning

• Do I understand the job and where it fits in my organization?

• Have I planned a recruitment/interview/assessment budget?

• Have I decided whether supplementary meetings such as assessment centers are necessary?

• Have I placed the recruitment advertisements in appropriate media?

• Have I considered meeting places and venues for interviews?

• Have I designed the questions?

• Have I decided on the interview format (panel or pair, for example)?

• Have I worked in reassessment times to look back at what I have accomplished to date and consider what needs to be done next?

Plan till the end

Include time in your plan to check references and make an offer once you have chosen a candidate.

Solicit employee referrals

Reward employees for recommending friends and relatives for jobs in your organization. The new employee gets recognition, and the organization gets a well-recommended new employee.

Creating the Job Description

The job profile starts by acting as a sort of recipe for the person you are looking for, but comes to define expectations of the job holder as well as aspects of your organizations purpose. The profile reveals one individual piece of how your organization sees its future.

Setting the rules of the game

A well thought out job description can help to attract candidates who are right for the job. It also serves as a foundation for appraisals and employee development plans, and it outlines for both job holder and manager the rules of the game in day-to-day activities and over the long term. The person specification, which is often part of the job description, defines the kinds of education, experience, skills, and personal characteristics that are likely to be necessary to succeed in the job.

Analyzing your needs

You may be filling an existing job that has just been vacated. A vacancy provides an opportunity to consider the continuing need for the job. If a need remains, then examine whether the role demands the inclusion of new responsibilities, competencies, and knowledge. Keep in mind that as organizations evolve, their needs and strategy change, and so must the dimensions of the work and the jobs created to carry out that work. Think about how your organization is changing and how changes impact the role.

What are the job requirements

• Why does this job exist?

• What must this job holder achieve for the organization?

• Which responsibilities could be reallocated to allow the addition of new ones?

• What changes are planned for the organization that could affect this job?