CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS

AVOID HIRING MISTAKE TO SAVE COST

The cost of a bad hire is steep, and it's not just the wasted salary that's expensive. Severance payments, training time, potential customer problems, and recruiting a replacement are all items that you'd prefer to leave out of your budget. Many experts estimate that the cost of a bad hire exceeds the annual salary of a position.

To prevent your company from making an expensive hiring mistake, it's important to have an intentional process for conducting interviews.

HOW TO CONDUCT A JOB INTERVIEW

Before you start searching for the perfect candidate, you need to spend some time thinking about the job. Think about previous people who have held the position and what skills, knowledge, and personal qualities made them successful or unsuccessful. Make a list of these factors and make sure that everyone involved with the selection process agrees that this is the criteria they are looking for.

It is important that everyone on the team is on the same page with what the objective is and what the job entails, otherwise a candidate will come in to interview with one person and then be asked completely different questions by the second person because the second person thinks the job is about something else completely.

DIFFERENT APPROACHES FOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Fact-based or general questions "How many years did you work at [company x?]
Most interviews include some questions that clarify information listed on the candidate's resume.
“Why the candidate wants to pursue a job in a specific field or with your company” also fall into this category.

Situational or hypothetical questions "What would you do if you saw a coworker stealing from the company?"
Asking the candidate what he or she would do if placed in a certain situation is a situational question.

Stress questions "Why would we hire you? You have no experience."
Stress questions intentionally put the candidate in a stressful situation. The objective of these questions is to learn how the candidate reacts to stressful confrontation.

Behavioral questions "Tell me about a time when you initiated a project that resulted in increased productivity?"                 
The theory behind behavioral interviewing is that past performance is an excellent predictor of future performance. Instead of asking general questions, the interviewer asks for specific examples that demonstrate skills.