Fishing in the right Talent Pool

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6.3a Types of Interviews

Interviewing methods differ in several ways. In highly structured interviews, the interviewer determines the course that the interview will follow as each question is asked. First, in the less structured interview the applicant plays a larger role in determining the course the discussion will take. Next, let’s look at the different types of interviews from the least structured to the most structured. Note that different types of interview styles and questions they utilize can be mixed and matched to yield a more complete picture of candidates.

Nondirective Interviews

In a nondirective interview (An interview in which the applicant is allowed the maximum amount of freedom in determining the course of the discussion, while the interviewer carefully refrains from influencing the applicant’s remarks) , the interviewer asks broad, open-ended questions—such as “Tell me more about your experiences on your last job”— and permits the applicant to talk freely with a minimum of interruption. The greater freedom afforded to the applicant helps uncover information a candidate might not disclose during more structured questioning. However, because the applicant determines the course of the interview the information gathered on one applicant can be vastly different than the information gathered on another. Thus the reliability and validity of these interviews are not likely to be as great.

Structured Interviews

A structured interview (An interview in which a set of standardized questions having an established set of answers is used) has a set of standardized questions (based on a job analysis) and an established set of answers against which applicant responses can be rated. Thus, it provides a more consistent basis for evaluating job candidates. According to a report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that serves as the guardian of federal merit systems, structured interviews are twice as likely as nondirective interviews to predict on-the-job performance. HR staff members of Weyerhaeuser Company, a forest products firm, have developed a structured interviewing process used for all candidates. Candidates’ responses are rated on a five-point scale relative to those answers, and the interviewers take notes for future reference and in case of a legal challenge. Structured interviews are also less likely than nondirective interviews to be attacked in court.

Situational Interviews

A situational interview (An interview in which an applicant is given a hypothetical incident and asked how he or she would respond to it) is a variation of a structured interview. An applicant is given a hypothetical incident and asked how he or she would respond to it. The

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applicant’s response is then evaluated relative to preestablished benchmark standards. Many organizations use situational interviews to select new college graduates because they may lack actual situations in the workplace they can describe. Highlights in HRM 2 shows a sample question from a situational interview used to select systems analysts at a chemical plant.

Behavioral Description Interviews

A behavioral description interview (BDI) (An interview in which an applicant is asked questions about what he or she actually did in a given situation) focuses on actual work incidents in the interviewee’s past and what the applicant did in response. To assess a potential manager’s ability to handle a problem employee, an interviewer might ask, “Tell me about the last time you disciplined an employee.”

A BDI assumes that past performance is the best predictor of future performance. The format also may be somewhat less susceptible to applicant faking. In addition, research indicates that the behavioral description interview is more effective than the situational interview for hiring higher-level positions such as general managers and executives.

Sequential and Panel Interviews

A sequential interview (A format in which a candidate is interviewed by multiple people, one right after another) is one in which a candidate is interviewed by multiple people, one right after another. Sequential interviews are very common. They allow different interviewers who have a vested interest in the candidate’s success to meet and evaluate the person one- on-one. The interviewers later get together and compare their assessments of the candidates.

Highlights in HRM 2

Sample Situational Interview Question

Questions:

It is the night before your scheduled vacation. You are all packed and ready to go. Just before you get into bed, you receive a phone call from the plant. A problem has arisen that only you can handle. You are asked to come in to take care of things. What would you do in this situation?

Record Answer:

Scoring Guide:

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Good: “I would go in to work and make certain that everything is OK. Then I would go on vacation.”

Good: “There are no problems that only I can handle. I would make certain that someone qualified was there to handle things.”

Fair: “I would try to find someone else to deal with the problem.”

Poor: “I would go on vacation.”

In a panel interview (An interview in which a board of interviewers questions and observes a single candidate) , the candidate meets with a group of interviewers who each take turns asking questions. After the interview, the interviewers pool their observations and their scores of the candidate. Because these interviews involve input from multiple people, they tend to more reliable and accepted as fair by candidates. If the panels are composed of a diverse group of interviewers, there is some evidence that hiring discrimination is minimized.

A panel interview also results in a shorter decision-making period than if each applicant has to be interviewed by each interviewer separately.

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