How to Conduct Great Interviews and Select the Best Employees - Assignment Example

The paper "How to Conduct Great Interviews and Select the Best Employees" is a great example of an assignment on human resources. Sheila Stephens is the production manager of Thompson manufacturing. She has the final authority of approving the recruitment of any new staff working for her. Pete Peterson, the human resource (HR) manager, screens the prospective candidates. One recruit was posted to Sheila for interviewing. The interview faulted since Sheila was committed to other workplace issues.

Statement of the problem: amidst her busy schedule Sheila accepts to interview the potential employee, but it turns out to be unsuccessful.

Question 1

So as to avoid unfruitful interviews, Sheila needs to ensure that interviews need to do in a quiet and serene environment free from interruptions. This can be attained by the recruitment personnel setting a particular date when the interviews will be conducted (Dale, 2009).

Next, she also needs to prepare a list of questions that will assist her focus on the crucial aspects of the job. Sheila ought to have reviewed the resumes of the candidate before he arrived. She should also give herself enough time for the interview. By being involved in other activities during the interview period, there are higher chances that the interview would not attain its set objectives. During the interview, Dale (2009) notes that she should start off with the job descriptions including the key duties and responsibilities of the position. 

She also needs to prepare herself to answer questions from the applicant. The value of the interview usually comes out of what the person says. When conducting the interview, Sheila needs to develop active listening. This implies that she needs to have an understanding of what is being said by the interviewee.

Verbal communication is very crucial in face-to-face communication. She needs to maintain eye contact and to be aware of the applicant’s body language. During the conduction of the interview, Sheila needs to develop a rapport with the interviewee. Dale (2009) argues that she needs to establish something of mutual interest and discuss it briefly before commencing the interview.

She also needs to use open-ended questions so as to get as much information as possible from the applicant. For example, “What was your last job title?” After the interview, Sheila needs to develop a rating system that she will use to judge the applicants. Lastly, as cited by Lucas (2014), the interviewer needs to take notes that can be used for judging the applicant.

Question 2

Elearn (2009) defines recruitment as the process of establishing that the firm requires employing qualified people through a competitive application. On the other hand, selection entails the processes of selecting the applicant(s) who is/are a suitable candidate(s) to fill a post.

Even though Pete is the human resource manager tasked with recruiting and selecting potential staff, it is Sheila who has the final approval of the selection process. Therefore, it is quite reasonable that Sheila needs to be the one that offers the selection decisions for the candidates and not Pete.

Pete usually conducts the initial screening of the prospective candidates and sends the most probable candidates to Sheila Stephens for interviews. This is because she has the final authority of approving the successful candidates. Besides, she is the one that weighs the pros and cons of hiring the person. Sheila also needs to take into consideration the constraints of the fluctuating job market.