Evaluating the Interviewing Process from Both
Perspectives
Professor Steve Williams
Sr. Vice-President Drew Yantis,
Table of Contents
Employer
Perspective for Interview Evaluation
3
Identifying
the need for hiring a new employee
3
Developing
the interview procedure to be employed for the position
4
Prepare
for interview process
4
Planning
and Executing the Interviews
5
Evaluate
Candidates
5
Second
Interview
6
Offer
Position Negotiate Terms
7
Prepare
Company to receive new hire
7
Job
Seeker’s Perspective for the Interview Evaluation
8
Identify
the type of company
8
Compile
a list of target companies
9
Develop
checklist
9
Tailor
specific questions for each interview
12
Evaluate
Job Offers
12
Make
a Decision
12
Job
Checklist example
Appendix A
Problem
Statement:
Evaluate the employment process from both the
perspective of the potential employer and potential employee. Determine what information you would want to gather about the
employer and employee, how to get that information and how to analyze and
compare that information.
In order to make this evaluation we divided the
employment process into the two perspectives and looked at the process for each
perspective individually. This
allowed us to identify the critical components of each perspective necessary to
make an appropriate evaluation of the details from either side.
In looking at the employer’s perspective, we
outlined a process by which a potential employer can systematically identify the
need for a new employee, define the position and where it will fit in the
overall organization, develop a strategy and approach for interviewing
candidates, conduct interviews and evaluate their findings in a manner that
assists them in effectively identifying a prospect that will be a good fit for
their organization. In doing so we
identified methods by which a determination could be made on the basis of both
necessary technical skills and cultural aspects of the business environment.
For the jobseeker we detailed a clear process for
gaining fulfilling employment. In
this process we went over the initial search, the questions you need to get
answered through the search, a way to quantify your results, and make the
decision.
I. Employer’s
Perspective for Interview Evaluation
A.
Identifying the need for hiring a new employee / defining
the position to be filled:
±
What
skill set is needed to adequately fill the position?
Properly identifying skills necessary to perform the job can effectively
qualify or disqualify applicants very early in the recruiting process.
±
What is
the starting salary to be offered? It
is a good idea to determine the maximum resources available for a position prior
to seeking applicants. This may
dictate the type of employee you will be able to successfully recruit and
retain.
±
What
benefits will be made available to the new employee?
Different types of employees value different benefits and have varying
benefit needs.
±
Determine
travel time for the position and be prepared to give candidates a realistic idea
of the amount of travel to anticipate.
±
Where
will the new employee be stationed?
±
What
training/orientation will be required for new hires?
±
Where
does the position fit in relation to the structure of the company as a whole?
What are the possibilities/expectations for advancement?
±
What is
the timeframe for filling this position? Is
there a need to quickly fill a recently vacated position or is there time to
carefully select the ideal employee to facilitate the planned growth within the
company?
±
What
traits should the candidate possess? What
experience level is absolutely required for this position?
±
Define
the job in order to give applicants the most realistic possible description of
all aspects of the position. Too
common is the situation where an applicant feels that they are being hired for
one job and later find they are actually doing something different.
Recognize also that applicants may want to paint too pretty a picture for
themselves. Both parties must
clearly express their expectations.
B. Developing the interview procedure to be employed for the position:
±
Who will
administer introductory interviews? Prospective
employees will feel most comfortable opening up to an interviewer with whom they
feel they have things in common. This will help to open the door to a more
personal evaluation in order to determine whether the applicant is a good fit
for the company’s culture. Whenever
feasible to do so effectively, it is advisable to have someone who is
approximately the same age as the applicant conduct the introductory interviews.
±
Where
will the interviews be held, and what format will be employed?
Applicants will feel most comfortable on their own or neutral territory
in the preliminary stages.
±
What
avenues will be explored in seeking applicants?
While advertising in the classifieds or on the Internet may elicit a
plethora of responses, many of these responses may be undesirable and can
present a HR nightmare to disseminate. Recruiting
at colleges and word of mouth recommendations tend to pre-qualify applicants,
making the process less overwhelming to administrate.
Employing the services of a headhunter can also be of much assistance
when seeking an applicant who possesses specific credentials.
C.Prepare for interview process:
±
Determine
minimum criteria for acceptable applicants.
What educational background and occupational experience is necessary to
be considered. How much technical
training are you willing to administer or facilitate?
±
Schedule
interviews of all candidates as close in time as possible in order for the
evaluator to have a clear recollection of all candidates considered? This will help ensure that all considered are fresh in the
mind of the person responsible for administering the evaluation process.
±
Prepare
the interviewer with notes from the resumes received from all candidates to be
considered. Make an effort to establish certain criteria applicable to all
interviewees while also relating directly to the position at hand.
This will help to later establish standard criteria for comparison.
D.Planning and Executing the Interviews:
Tailor interview questions
to elicit the responses that will allow you to draw the conclusions specific for
your needs in a given area. Make
the interview as personal as possible. Following
are a few methodologies for developing interview questions:
±
If it’s
whether or not the person will be a good fit for your company’s culture that
interests you, take time to get to know the person and engage that person in
conversations that tend to reveal more personal characteristics regarding that
person’s internal drive and motivation. The
interviewer should reveal more personal things about himself regarding aspects
of the culture that are appealing to him in order to open the lines of
communication so the applicant will feel more comfortable revealing his personal
preferences. Following are a few
examples of questions that may help you reveal how the applicant perceives
things:
§
Why are
you leaving your current position? How long were you there?
§
What are
some things you enjoyed about the previous company, position and superiors?
§
What did
you dislike about the previous company, position and superiors?
§
Is your
employer aware that you are seeking a new employment opportunity?
Responses
to these types of questions will give you an idea of whether or not the person
tends to have an optimistic or pessimistic attitude, whether they tend to blame
themselves or others for their shortcomings, and whether they would be likely to
leave your company in the future without warning.
E. Evaluate Candidates:
Upon
initial interview of all candidates the interviewer should make a formal
evaluation and participate in a debriefing session with the appropriate
management personnel who will be directly involved with the new hire in the
short term. This will allow the
supervisor the opportunity to identify any characteristics that seem either
appealing or not in conjunction with the culture of the department.
±
Standardize
evaluation method (leave room for subjective notes).
±
Criteria
should be evaluated based on both technical and cultural aspects.
±
Rank
interviewees based on the criteria.
±
Check
references for those desirable candidates whom you will invite for further
evaluation.
F. Second Interview - bringing the shortlist to the workplace/job-site:
The
second interview is perhaps the most crucial point in the process or determining
if a good fit is possible between the employer and prospective employee.
The prospect will be cueing in on several aspects or your organization in
his assessment of the business environment and culture.
It is also an opportunity for members of the organization to make an
assessment of the employee. While
the formal interview will further the discovery of the prospect’s impression
of self, others in your organization should take the opportunity to make
intuitive observations that can be critical when the team selects its new
member.
±
Develop a
planned itinerary for the visit. Inform future team members, co-workers and
other key persons that there will be a visitor on order for them to be prepared
to set aside a few minutes to meet the prospect and spend enough time with them
to get a brief sense of their personality.
±
Introduce
the prospect to as many potential co-workers as possible, and if possible
conduct a brief, informal group interview?
If this element of the process is employed, make special considerations
in order to not make the environment feel intimidating.
±
Take the
time to debrief all who meet the prospect and compile feedback from all
interviewers in order to rank candidates.
G.
Offer position / negotiate terms:
Once
it has been determined that acceptable candidates have been identified the
organization should be prepared to make an offer to their most preferable
candidate. Determine the value that
the prospect would bring to the organization and prepare an offer accordingly.
±
Make sure
there is a win / win in the negotiations. Keep
in mind that once negotiations are concluded that, if acceptable to both
parties, this person will be a new member of your organization. The feeling that a good deal has been made can have an
extreme impact on the attitude of the person entering the job.
±
Determine
the start date for position.
H. Prepare company to received new hire:
Your company’s preparedness
for the entry of a new member can send a clear sign that the company sees them
as an important member of the team. This
feeling of being included can take a jump on making the new hire comfortable on
the job and quickly develop into a productive member of the team.
±
Assign a
mentor or partner to give the new hire someone to go to for direction that they
can feel comfortable asking those “stupid” questions without having to feel
burdensome.
±
Set up a
brief welcoming session.
±
Plan
lunch for their first day.
II.
Job Seeker’s Perspective for Interview Evaluation
A job search is one of the most important processes that one can
decide, next to getting married. You
will spend at least 50 hours a week performing your job;
therefore, you should approach finding one with all of
your skills honed. In an attempt to
do this we have outlined a process taking an employee through the interviewing
process up to the decision to take the job.
In
this outline we will address identifying the type of company, the type of job,
the positioning, and what financial benefits the job offer provides you.
To
do this we had to make some assumptions to curtail our paper to some reasonable
length. These assumptions are: our
resume is done and identifies our strengths and how our experience relates to
our desired job, that we know what position we are working towards, and that we
will get interviews.
In
this section we have delineated some aspects of the company that influence the
attractiveness of the company to us.
b.
Company’s size
c.
Public or Private
d.
Corporate Structure: Is there room for advancement at the top?
e.
Procurement method: negotiated or hard bid
f.
How old is the company?
g.
Where is the company in the growth cycle?
h.
Type of work performed: commercial, industrial, or residential.
i.
Financial Standing
j.
Corporate culture: This will
be limited to mission statement most likely at this point.
| Prospective Employee Comparison Chart | ||||
| The PECC is a list of possible traits that a position at a company may or may not have. Each | ||||
| Should be rated by the prospective employee during the interview process. We suggest a 0-5 | ||||
| with 5 being the best. The 4 catagories that are most important to the prospective employee | ||||
| should be give multipliers of 1.5 to their scores. At the end of the interviewing process the list | ||||
| may be used as a quantifiable comparison between companies. | ||||
|
Company A |
Company B |
Company C |
Company D |
|
| Total Score | 192 | 185 | 176.5 | 215.5 |
| The Job | 62.5 | 57.5 | 60.5 | 62 |
| Boss agreeable | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Mentor or partner program | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Management style, # of bosses | 2 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Clear understanding of work expectations | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Responsibilities reflected in job title | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Positition intresting/ rewarding | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Control over own work, decision authority | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| coworkers agreeable | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Training necessary | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Training available | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Estimated work week | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Travel | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Relocation | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| Relocation benefits | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Spouse relocation benefits | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Job security | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| ability to tell friends about job | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Positioning | 28.5 | 28 | 29 | 27 |
| job will lead to promotion | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| job offers specialized experience | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| job offers broad experience | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| job has potential as a spring board | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| exposure to other opportunities in field | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| visibility to decision makers | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| performance evaluation frequency | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| weight of performance evaluations | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| The Company | 39 | 35.5 | 40 | 47.5 |
| too large, ie. Rigid structure | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| too small, ie. No room for advancement | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| personell statement, description of policies | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Company growth in industry, comparitive | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| attrition rate | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| location | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| commuting time | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Physical setting of office space | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Is company's location desirable | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| firms reputation for employee treatment | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Co. Growth expanding, contracting, or stagnant | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| Age mix at company's upper level | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Financial Rewards | 62 | 64 | 47 | 79 |
| Salary | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| clear understanding of payment method | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Bonus structure clear | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Raise structue clear | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Benefits Clear | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Medical | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Dental | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Life | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Memberships | 1 | 5 | 0 | 4 |
| Parking | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| Retirement Plan | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| How much does company match | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| Profit sharing program | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| Vacation Days | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Sick Days | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| Holidays | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| Company Truck | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Expense Account | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Continuing Education reimbursement | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Travel to confrences, conventions | 0 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Trade and proffesional journal subscriptions | 0 | 3 | 4 | 4 |