Interviewing as the most used employee screening skill

Another very effective method of prospective employee evaluation is evaluation interview. Evaluation interview was a theme of a number of researches and studies, which examine the validity of different interview types. The researches show that structured intrviews have a higher acuracy than unstructured (Huffcutt and Arthus, 1994; McDaniel et al., 1994; Wiesner and Cronshaw, 1988; Wright et al., 1989). In most cases interviews can be planned using job analyses questions or scoring procedures, which can objectively evaluate candidates creditability in prospective field.

Each interview has five common steps: planning and preparing the interview, beginning it with objectives, gathering information and documenting it (talking, listening, writing), ending an interview in a way that gains commitment, using the information gained to make decisions and take actions.

Structural interviews allow determining quite accurately whether candidate's profile matches with job's specifications. Structural interviews require more time and costs as they can be conducted only by human resource managers of a specific organization or other decision makers, and unlike tests are more accurate, especially today when validity and effectives of some tests have created a number of discrimination claims. The most widely used methods of interviewing are situational and behavioral. Situational interview includes question which model specific situations that are most typical for the job proposed and responses of candidates indicate their chances to fit job requirements. The main deficiency of this interview type is that candidates can easily fake their responses, simply being dishonest. Because in some cases interviewer can be easily biased by the charisma of candidate or other personal attributes, such interview results are often subjective, while personality tests cannot be faked easily. For example findings by Fletcher (1992) indicate that 20 per cent of candidates admitted that they were seldom completely honest in interviews. Even the well-trained interviewers can find it difficult to break through the prepared answers of the candidates as executive candidates are usually well trained to pass an employment interview.

The behavioral interviews mainly concentrate on past professional experiences of a job seeker, considering the assumption that past indicators serve as the best evidence in predicting future performance on the workplace. These interviews are constructed in such manner so that interviewer can draw an opinion of how candidate coped with his responsibilities on previous jobs. Because of a variety of questions that can be asked and inability to model them, these interviews are very difficult to be faked. For example, candidates should present evidence of the facts they provide during behavioral interview. In general, the questions can be grouped into preliminary questions, on the candidate's work history, questions to determine fit, expectations from the job to determine motivation, background and teamwork questions, stress and thoughtful prompts, money matters, questions to draw interview to a close and employee's inquiries to the interviewers. Furthermore, the well-organized structured behavioral interviews will provide decision makers with ability to find the evidence of candidates' professional qualities and abilities to cope with the work provided on proposed position. The 25 most popular behavioral questions will expect the job-hunter to tell about the time when he/she:

Worked effectively under pressure.

Handled a difficult situation with a co-worker.

Used your creativity to solve a problem.

Missed an obvious solution to a problem.

Were unable to complete a project on time.

Persuaded team members to do things your way.

Anticipated and averted potential problems.

Wrote a report that was well-received.

Had to make an important decision with limited information.

Were forced to make an unpopular decision.

Had to adapt to a difficult situation.

Tolerated opinions that were different from your own.

Felt disappointed in your own behavior.

Used your people skills to get your own way.

Had to deal with an irate customer.

Delegated an assignment or project that succeeded.

Surmounted a difficult obstacle.

Set your sights too high or too low.

Prioritized a complex project.

Won or lost an important contract.

Had to fire someone for cause.

Made a bad decision.

Hired the wrong person.

Turned down a good job.

Were terminated from a job.

Conclusion

The process of selecting a proper personnel always involves risks, that's why it should have a well-planned strategy and must be as accurate as most of corporative decisions. In many respects the selection of candidates for prospective jobs will influence the performance of organization in whole. Recent trends in recruitment methods show that in most cases this process is very complicated, so a special emphasis in big organizations should be made on providing effective human resource management. Changing situation on global labor market initiated development of the whole industry of personnel recruitment, which provides effective and the most appropriate selection of candidates for different jobs, with application of personal testing and profile screening methods that allow to evaluate professional performance and predict candidate's behavior on future workplace. The review of the evaluating techniques made in the paper has shown, that the most effective and accurate methods of candidate evolution are personal profile testing sand structural behavior interviews. Either method is chosen, specialists advise that the following...

The hiring process should be well organized in the matter of objective decision-making, including limited number of decision makers and a careful expertise.
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