Strayer University All Rights Reserved This Document Contain ✓ Solved

Strayer University All Rights Reserved This Document Contains Stra

This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. JWI 521 – Week 3 Lecture Notes (1192) Page 1 of 5 JWI 521 Recruit, Develop, Assess, Reward, Retain Week Three Lecture Notes © Strayer University. All Rights Reserved.

This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. JWI 521 – Week 3 Lecture Notes (1192) Page 2 of 5 HOW TO ASSESS A JOB CANDIDATE What it Means Whether hiring from the outside or promoting from within, you should never appraise a candidate solely based on the experience listed on their resume. It is highly unlikely that your candidate has ever been in a job with the same goals, challenges, and resources as the open position. When jobs are unique, intangible traits make the difference between average and outstanding performance.

So, what can you do to assess your candidates effectively? Follow a strategic approach to hiring, based on competencies. First, understand the competencies required for the open position. Second, put together a shortlist with the candidates most likely to have those competencies. Third, create a set of interview questions that will probe for those specific competencies in each candidate.

Why it Matters

• Appraisal of candidates for hiring or promotion is an important, complex, and challenging task

• The typical interview process is poorly structured and fails to identify the best candidates

• Well-structured interviews, based on competencies, will greatly improve your company’s hires

“Hiring is the most important people function that you have, and most of us aren’t as good at it as we think.” Laszlo Bock © Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR INTERVIEWS

Unfortunately, most interviews are ineffective. The typical job interview is highly unstructured. The interviewer asks different, unplanned questions of different candidates. There is little advance preparation to determine what competencies the position requires, what needs to be learned about the candidates to identify these competencies, and which questions will best elicit this information. This situation leads to ineffective interviews, which lead to poor hiring decisions, which lead to lower retention and poorer employee performance.

This is a high cost for both failing to adequately analyze the requirements for the position and not planning in advance to design a consistent and structured interview process. Structured interviews have been found to be twice as effective as unstructured ones. Structured interviews are designed based on careful analysis of the relevant competencies, as well as careful thought about the type of questions that can be used to identify those competencies. Research shows that two types of structured interview are particularly reliable across a wide variety of jobs. One is the behavioral interview, which is built around questions aimed at understanding what the candidate has done in actual situations.

The other is the situational interview, which is built around questions that probe what the candidate would do in hypothetical situations. Both behavioral and situational approaches require significant preparation, including a detailed plan for each meeting with the candidate. What competencies will you investigate, and what questions will measure each required competency? When a candidate has some relevant experience, the behavioral approach is preferable. It focuses on facts rather than on speculation, and offers an opportunity to probe more deeply into a candidate’s actions and choices.

When the candidate has no relevant experience, the situational interview is often the better alternative. It can also be effective to use a combination of the two approaches, including some behavioral questions and some situational questions. Whichever approach is used, it is very important that call candidates are asked the same set of questions, so that the assessors can make effective comparisons. Structured interviews are the result of careful planning and disciplined implementation. First, the hiring team identifies the key competencies required for the position.

Then, they create a list of questions that can help identify whether the candidate has those competencies. Finally, the assessors are ready to ask candidates about their experiences and behavior in relation to the competencies that are needed for a good hire.

NEVER HIRE ALONE

You may be hiring someone who will be working exclusively for you. Or you may have a clear idea of exactly the type of person needed for a particular position, and believe you have already found just that person. Or you may simply be in a hurry to fill the position. But, no matter how quickly you need to fill the position or how promising a candidate looks, make sure that several people interview every candidate. And listen when a trusted colleague tells you she has a lingering suspicion that the candidate is not what they seem.

Carefully select the people who will help you interview candidates. Some interviewers are much better than others. How do you identify your high-caliber assessors? First, given the complexity of the task, you want people who are familiar with the range of experiences and competencies relevant to the position. Other attributes common to high-caliber assessors include good listening skills, the ability to decode nonverbal behavior, and high self-awareness. Finally, the assessor must be strongly motivated to conduct a sound appraisal and willing to take the time to prepare properly for the task.

USING COMPETENCIES TO CREATE QUESTIONS

The chart below shows how competencies can provide the structure to design an effective interview. The search in this example is for a marketing director for a consumer goods company. The team identified five competencies required for the position, as well as some required technical qualifications. The chart below shows the five competencies, along with some of the questions the assessors developed to measure each competency. COMPETENCY SOME QUESTIONS ASKED Results oriented • Have you been involved in a business or product launch? What were the specific steps you took to support the success of the launch? • Describe the most successful marketing communications project you have led. How did you measure the results? Team-centered leadership • Describe a time you led a team to be more effective. What did you do? How did the team and the organization benefit from your actions? • Describe a time you were asked to lead a particularly challenging team project. How did you overcome the obstacles you faced? Strategic thinker • What are the top three strategic issues that your current company faces? • Describe a situation in which you have been personally involved in addressing one of these issues. What actions did you take? Change agent • Describe a time when you faced organizational resistance to a project you had to implement. How did you handle it? Would you handle it any differently now? • Given our company culture and the changes we need, what specific examples from your experience demonstrate your ability to perform effectively in this role? Ability to respond to deadline pressure • Describe a time when you made an extraordinary effort to meet a tight deadline. What were the results?

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THIS WEEK’S CLASS

As you read the materials and participate in class activities, stay focused on the key learning outcomes for the week:

• Understand the difference between behavioral and situational interviews
• Think about your own experience with interviews, either as a candidate or as an interviewer. Did you encounter behavioral or situational questions? If so, what skills and competencies did they reveal in you or as the candidate? If not, could such questions have improved the outcomes of those interviews? Does your HR team make sufficient use of these types of interview questions? If not, what can be done to address this issue?
• Explore the use of competencies to design structured interviews
• In your organization, do job descriptions include a clear set of competencies required for the role? Does your HR team understand how to use competencies related to an open position to design structured interviews? Do candidates competing for the same position in your company get asked the same questions, so that their capabilities can be effectively compared?
• Compare different models to assess job candidates and make hiring decisions
• Consider the assessment techniques and interview practices used in your own organization. Is there a well-defined process for interviewing candidates? How are assessors chosen and trained to perform the important task of evaluating prospective candidates? Is the process of interviewing and assessing candidates a team effort? What would it take to develop a new, more structured model of interviewing in your organization, and how could HR help to make that happen?

References

• Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262–274.
• Campion, M. A., Palmer, D. K., & Quaan, D. (1999). A review of structure in personnel selection research. Personnel Psychology, 52(2), 273–319.
• Levashina, J., Hartwell, C. J., Morgeson, F. P., & Campion, M. A. (2014). The structured employment interview: Narrative and quantitative review of the research literature. Personnel Psychology, 67(1), 241–293.
• Levashina, J., & Campion, M. A. (2007). Measuring faking in the employment interview: Development and validation of an interview faking scale. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1638–1656.
• McDaniel, M. A., Whetzel, D. L., Schmidt, F. L., & Maurer, S. D. (1994). Job analysis methodologies and measurement error: Implications for validity, utility, and fairness. Personnel Psychology, 47(3), 563–590.
• Huffcutt, A. I., & Arthur, W. Jr. (1994). Hunter and Hunter (1984) revisited: Interview validity for entry-level jobs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(2), 184–190.
• Roberson, Q. M., & Hewlin, P. F. (2008). When is a planner a faker? The effects of cognitive bias on structured interview accuracy. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(4), 864–870.
• Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (2006). Validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262–274.
• Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262–274.
• Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262–274.