What Makes for Effective Interviews - Essay Example

? What Makes for Effective Interviews Number: Outline For effective interviewing, the interviewer is required to make use of effective communication skills as without good communication skills, a person cannot be interviewed successfully. Interviews are a source of judgment of interviewees and this judgment can be faulty if the interviewer is unable to analyze the appropriateness of the candidate regarding a job. Good listening skills accompanied with planning of interviewing help the interviewer to take interviews effectively. Good listening skills are the key to good communication and play an effective role in understanding the job requirements and applicants’ proficiencies related to the job. The interviewing process can be divided into three steps that are planning, the interview itself and recording of results. All these steps are crucial to make an interview effective. The interviewee should not be threatened and a relaxed environment should be created in order to receive positive feedback from the interviewee. Training should be provided for teaching the interviewers to take care of all stages of interview. The interview questions are required to be planned directly related to the knowledge, skills, and abilities required in a selection process. In addition, the interviewer should ask himself about a number of questions related to conducting an interview session such as “how long is it going to last?”, “When?”, “How many people are to be interviewed?”, “What should be recorded?” and so on. Following the welcome courtesies, the interviewer should inform the candidate something about the organization, the job and how the two fit together. Questions should not be only from the interviewer’s side but also from the interviewee’s side in order to have a productive discussion. While conducting an interview, there should be no discrimination of any kind as it makes the interviewer to decide incorrectly about the job and the candidate. The interviewer should be neutral and should show an unbiased approach towards all candidates of the interview. His attitude should be encouraging so that both, the interviewer and interview can talk in a comfortable environment. It can be said that for conducting effective interviews, the interviewers require training, they should make use of good communication skills, they should do planning, they must be accommodative and should be unprejudiced. What Makes for Effective Interviews? Interviews are required at a number of occasions such as selection procedure of applicants for a specific job, for training of specific personnel, for appraising someone for promotion and much more. In all kinds of interviewing, the interviewer works as the authority and his job is to conduct such an interview that results in some outcome and is not just an activity without any output. The decision of a process is based on an effective interview. Communication is essential in all formal and informal professional gatherings, as without communication, there can be no success (Schockley-Zalabak, 2011). Similarly, communication is also required in interviewing, as interview is a communicative activity. For effective interviewing, the interviewer is required to make use of effective communication skills as without good communication skills, a person cannot be interviewed successfully. Interviews are a source of judgment of interviewees and this judgment can be faulty if the interviewer is unable to analyze the appropriateness of the candidate regarding a job. Communication is essential, as it is because of communication that an interviewer gets the chance to evaluate a person’s suitability for the advertised job (Dipboye, et al., 2010). The communication process that is part of an interview should not be restricted and complex. The interview should be facilitated with opportunities to express himself and his thoughts regarding a question asked by the interviewer. In addition, the interviewee should be given a chance to clear his doubts and concerns regarding any specific situation or problem. For judging the interviewees, the interviewer is not only required to understand their words through communicating with them but also their expressions and bodily movements that have a strong part in defining the personality of the speaker (Dipboye, et al., 2010). There are many kinds of bodily movements such as making use of emblematic signs through hands or fingers, making use of hands or legs to stress on or illustrate something, by regulating spoken or listened words and sentences, expression of feelings through bodily movements and gestures and by making use of some adapter to indicate towards a meaningful situation. Along with bodily movements, all the emotions and feelings can be easily indicated through facial expressions. Facial expressions include the contribution of eyes, lips, mouth, cheeks, nose, chin and teeth. The interviewer is required to comprehend all the bodily movements and facial expressions, as they are also part of communication in order to decide accurately about an interviewee. While communicating with the interviewee, the interviewer should listen to the non-vocal messages. Tone of voice and the fluency of speech will prove valuable indicators of the comfort of the person to whom the interviewer is listening. Hesitation may indicate concern to interviewer’s likely reaction, uncertainty as to the accuracy of the information being communicated or reservations about the course of action being recommended (Macan, 2009). Listen to the sub-text such as collection of hesitancies, expression and body language that can be the most important part of communicative interview. Good listening skills accompanied with planning of interviewing help the interviewer to take interviews effectively. Good listening skills are the key to good communication and play an effective role in understanding the job requirements and applicants’ proficiencies related to the job. Nevertheless, being a good listener brings many benefits, over and above the obvious one of receiving information that is more accurate. Good listening helps to build relationships, as it is a vital part of appraisal and selection (Schockley-Zalabak, 2011). The interviewing process can be divided into three steps that are planning, the interview itself and recording of results. All these steps are crucial to make an interview effective. The interviewee should not be threatened and a relaxed environment should be created in order to receive positive feedback from the interviewee. Training should be provided for teaching the interviewers to take care of all stages of interview. The planning stage is very crucial for the interviewing procedure. The simple mechanics of the interview are very important. The interviewer should be fully knowledgeable about the place of interviewing. He should be aware of the timing as to how long the interview is going to last. It is very disconcerting for a candidate to come for an interview in an extended lunch hour and find that the interviewer has planned a full afternoon for tests and interviews (Gordon & Fleisher, 2006). The interview questions are required to be planned directly related to the knowledge, skills, and abilities required in a selection process. The interviewer should find the answers to the arranged questions in advance so as to conduct an effective interview (Macan, 2009). The questions can be: how many people is he going to interview? What is he going to record about each of the candidates? Has he allowed sufficient time between interviews to document his impressions? Is he going to interview by himself or as part of a panel? Will this be a single interview after which a decision will be made? Has he agreed a timescale for the selected person to start work? As well as planning the interview is concerned, it is only courteous for the interviewer to have done his homework on the application form or curriculum vitae presented by the applicant. Every interview is a public relations opportunity for the interviewer and his organization and any discourteous treatment is likely to be widely reported (Dipboye, et al., 2010). An interviewer who stumbles his way through the interview, constantly referring to the documentation is likely to deter any quality applicant from taking the job. The candidate should be welcomed and put at ease, which is a well tried and tested format for the interview. This is not only a matter of courtesy. The purpose of an interview is to discover if two people want to work together. The future relationship may vary between two colleagues, boss, or junior, but it is not part of the interview situation to intimidate or terrorize a prospective employee (Gordon & Fleisher, 2006). The interviewer may wish to introduce some pressure to discover the reaction of his interviewee but there are other better ways of doing this. Following the welcome courtesies, the interviewer should inform the candidate something about the organization, the job and how the two fit together. Questions should not be only from the interviewer’s side but also from the interviewee’s side in order to have a productive discussion. The candidate should be asked about his previous experience and his understanding about his placement and suitability for the post under discussion. The interviewee can present his clarification about what he has been told regarding the job and organization (Dipboye, et al., 2010). Ideally, a conversation should develop. Any conversation will reveal more about the participants than a question and answer session. The interviewer should be listening to the sub-text, the hesitancies when a particular episode in the past is discussed and the uncertainties when discussing a particular technical point. The interviewer should be mentally matching the interviewee with existing personnel in the department and considering how he would fit in (Macan, 2009). With all this necessary observation, it is all too easy to forget the key questions that the interviewer may have prepared from reading the application form and CV. For solving this issue, a written list of questions should be prepared to refer to. At the end of the interview, the interviewer should thank the interviewee for his time and inform him about the prospective action expected from him together with the planned timetable. Unless the interviewer has left himself with sufficient time to record the results of an interview, he will have wasted a large proportion of his own and the candidate’s time. By all means, record your immediate impressions but make sure that you make some motes throughout the interview. The written questions listed on a writing pad can be written on left hand side and the space for their answers can be left on the right hand side. Whilst note taking may seem potentially intimidating, most people are glad to see that the interviewer considers their comments and views worth recording (Gordon & Fleisher, 2006). According to Kennedy (1994), “managers and any other employees who will be involved in conducting interviews should be given special in-depth training concerning all aspects of the interview process” (p. 110). To make the interviews effective, the administration of an organization should conduct training courses for the interviewers so that they can conduct interviews successfully. Decisions are based on conducted interviews due to which, importance of interviews and the training required cannot be negated. Kennedy (1994) emphasizes, “A considerable amount of training should be devoted to ensuring that interviewers understand the dynamics of the interview decision making process” (p. 111). Training process of interviewing can be divided into a number of steps such as comprehensive investigation for the job requirements, structuring of interview process, listing of interview questions, recording of information received from interviewees and avoidance of any biases (Kennedy, 1994). Training of the interviewers in terms of conducting interviews is essential as it accommodates them with all skills required to be a good interviewer. The trained interviewer is able to evaluate the persona of an interviewee through the verbal and non-verbal communicative process in terms of his appropriateness for the required job. The interviewers should also be trained about how to remain neutral while interviewing an interviewee. The interviewer should not be a discriminator and he should be trained for it. Overall, a guide should be created for the interviewers so that they can access it and gain knowledge about the rules and regulations for conducting a successful interview (Kennedy, 1994). While conducting an interview, there should be no discrimination of any kind as it makes the interviewer to decide incorrectly about the job and the candidate. The interviewer should be neutral and should show an unbiased approach towards all candidates of the interview (Marshall, 2007). His attitude should be encouraging so that both, the interviewer and interview can talk in a comfortable environment. For an effective interview, the interviewer should be aware of certain rules and regulations regarding discrimination as there are strict rules for dealing with people showing unfairness at a workplace. It is a legal offense to show any kind of bigotry during interviewing towards a potential employee. Questions that are related to race, age, gender, nuptial status, psychological or bodily fitness and past condition, ethnicity, sexual predilection, family standing, country to which one belongs and any other question that is not related to job specification, all come under the category of illegitimate questions and take towards discrimination (Marshall, 2007). Any employer involved in evaluating a candidate on the basis of favoritism is liable for a crime and can be put on trial. Favoritism or discrimination is a crime while interviewing a person for evaluating his suitability for a job as it restricts a person to decide fairly for a suitable candidate (Marshall, 2007). An effective interview is that, which results in positive results and is based on neutral decision based on merit and qualifications. The interviewee should be put at ease and he should be appraised on the basis of his appropriateness for the job. The interviews that end in successful selection of suitable candidates are effective interviews. It can be concluded that effective interviews can be conducted if the interviewer fulfils a number of requirements. These requirements include positive communication, understanding of vocal as well as non-vocal facial expressions and bodily movements, polished listening skills, well planned interviewing process, listing all the required questions, recording answers, obtainment of essential training for understanding interviewing process as a whole and indiscrimination of authorities. The interviewer should be able to provide a relaxed and flexible environment to the interviewee to make him comfortable and allow him to share his thoughts and expressions whenever required. There should be no hesitance from any side. Interviewing is a communicative process in which, both the individuals should participate equally. By summarizing, it can be said that for conducting effective interviews, the interviewers require training, they should make use of good communication skills, they should do planning, they must be accommodative and should be unprejudiced. References Dipboye, R. L., Macan, T. & Shahani-Denning, C. (2010). The selection interview from the interviewer and applicant perspectives: Can’t have one without the other. New York: The Oxford Handbook of Personnel Assessment and Selection. Gordon, Nathan J. & Fleisher, William L. (2006). Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques. New York: Academic Press. Kennedy, R. Bryan. (1994). The Employment Interview. Journal of Employment Counseling 31 (3). Also Available at http://www.fbe.hku.hk/Programme/Undergraduate/doc/courses/2008-2009/BUSI0075/Interview.pdf Macan, T. (2009). The employment interview: A review of current studies and directions for future research. Human Resource Management Review 19:x 203-218. Marshall, David. (2007). "Discrimination in interviews". Human Resource Management International Digest 15 (7). Schockley-Zalabak, P. S. (2011). Fundamentals of organizational communication: Knowledge, sensitivity, skills, values (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc./Allyn & Bacon Read More