In order to attract and select the best candidate for a job, there is need for thorough preparation for an interview. There is need to spell out the kind of person who would be best for the job in question.
One recommended way to do so is to focus on four basic factors which are knowledge and experience, motivation, intellectual capacity and personality. There is also need to ask the following questions:
.What must the candidate know to perform the job? What experience is necessary to perform the job? (knowledge and experience)
.What should the person like doing to enjoy the job? Is there anything the person should dislike? Are there any essential goals or aspirations the person should have? Are there any unusual energy demands on the job (motivation)
.Are there any specific intellectual aptitudes required (mathematical or mechanical)? How complex are the problems the person must solve? What must the person be able to demonstrate to show that he or she can do it intellectually? How should the person solve problems (cautiously or deductively?) (intellectual)
.What are the critical personality qualities needed for success on the job (ability to withstand boredom, decisiveness and stability)? How must the job incumbent handle stress, pressure and criticism? What kind of interpersonal behaviour is required in the job up the ladder, at peer level, down the ladder and outside clients? (personality)
Having considered the above questions, the interviewer needs to use a combination of situational questions and open–ended questions to probe the candidate’s suitability for the job being interviewed for.
The questions need to focus on the four areas that we highlighted above so as to draw out as much detail as possible from the candidates. For example: .Intellectual factor: In this area, the interviewer needs to assess such things as complexity of tasks the person has performed in previous employment, educational qualifications and how the candidate organises his or her thoughts and communication ability.
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.Motivation factor: The interviewer should probe areas such as the following — the person’s likes and dislikes (for each task accomplished, what he or she disliked about it); aspirations (including validity of each goal in terms of the person’s reasoning about why he or she chose it and energy levels perhaps by asking what he or she does on, say, a particular day).
.Personality factor: In this area, the interviewer needs to probe the candidate by looking for self-defeating behaviours (aggressiveness and compulsive fidgeting) and by exploring the person’s past interpersonal relationships.
There is also need to ask questions about the candidate’s past interactions.
.Knowledge and experience factor: the interviewer needs to probe the candidate with situational questions such as “How would you organise a training course for sales persons? How would you design a course relevant to that target group?
Such questions would assist you in getting to know whether the candidate has enough past knowledge in performing the tasks you expect him to undertake.
Such thorough preparation for an interview will result the organisation hiring the best candidate who will fit into the system in the shortest possible time. Acknowledgements:www.penhall.co/dessler
Paul Nyausaru is human resources practitioner. Views contained in this article are personal. You can contact him on email pnyausaru@yahoo.co.uk or pnyausaru@gmail.com
