Part - I

The best possible recruiting plans are useless if good candidates are being lost because of problems during the interviewing process. Outlined here are eleven ways interviews fail - and steps you can take to improve the selection process.

Lack of rapport.
It is the responsibility of the interviewer to help the job candidate feel comfortable. After all, the candidate is, in effect, a guest and should be treated that way. Set the stage for the interview and help candidates feel so comfortable that they will tell everything about themselves!

The interviewer does all the talking.
The 80-20 rule of interviewing should apply: the interviewer doing 20% of the talking, with the candidate talking the remaining 80%. Unless you permit the candidate to share information, you cannot learn needed information that will assist in the selection decision.

The interviewer rehashes the application.
The application should be read thoroughly and possible questions noted before the interview. That way the application can be used as a springboard for gaining more in-depth information from the interviewee. A rehash of the application such as "I see here that you went to Central High School?" is a waste of time and adds no additional information, except possible frustration on the part of the candidate and the interviewer.

The interview questions are not prepared.
It's important to think through the information needed from the interview and have an outline of questions jotted down. If you're so busy during the conversation trying to think of your next question, you can't really hear those all-important answers! Many organizations have adopted a structured interview process, using the same basic interview questions for all job candidates. The structured interview also permits a fair and consistent measure during this subjective screening process.

The interview is too short.
A minimum of twenty minutes should be allotted for each job candidate, particularly for behavioral interviewing where past job examples are elicited in order to predict future performance. The optimum time for an interview is an hour, especially for management interviews where many more job criteria are being measured.

Next

* Catherine D. Fyock, CSP, SPHR, is an employment strategist, helping organizations recruit and retain employees in a volatile labor market. She combines her talents as speaker and her knowledge of work force issues to provide innovative and inspirational learning events, and to help organizations attract top talent, reduce turnover, and improve productivity.