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Screening and Interviewing -  
Screening the applications - Deciding who to interview.

Testing - When and why to use tests to screen applicants.

Interviews
Do’s and don’ts for interviews.
Questions that work - How to develop questions that find out what you need to know.
Questions you can’t ask - Steering clear of problem questions.
Checking references

Screening Applications

Once you have applications for the job opening, you need to review them to decide which candidates you wish to interview.

The first step is to review each application to see if the applicant meets the requirements for the job. Does the applicant have the education and experience you asked for? Does he or she have the skills you need? Does the person seem to understand the duties of the position?

You may not be able to answer all of the questions you have about each applicant. Make a note now, while you notice, so that you can ask the applicant directly during an interview.


We Recently Received A Resume That Used This Capitalization Style. When I Kidded The Interviewee About It, He Said He'd Tried It The Usual Way, But Thought It Looked Better Like This.

The Joke Was On Us -- We Offered Him A Job, And He Turned It Down. --
Shane McRoberts

Decide how many people you want to interview. Obviously, the more people you interview the more choice you have. This is not necessarily a good thing. You can suffer from information overload and be in no better position to decide who is best.

There are two rules of thumb for deciding how many people to interview:

Rule One: try to interview from three to six candidates.
Rule Two: Only interview people you think you would want to hire.

Remember interviews are costly, time-consuming and nerve-wracking -- both to you and the candidates.

Testing

Testing can be a useful screening technique for deciding whether an applicant is going to be able to do the job. A lot of job skills and aptitudes may be tested better through a simple test than through interviewing or checking references. Here are some of the skills that can be assessed by testing, along with examples of the kind of tests that can be given:


SKILLS
TESTS
clerical and bookkeeping
data entry and spreadsheet skills tested for speed and accuracy
creative abilities
ask a marketing applicant to create a concept for a promotion campaign
teamwork
ask a group of candidates to work together to solve a problem
language
conversational or written exam
problem-solving
ask an individual to solve a problem
writing
give the applicant a typical work-related document to write
selling and presentation
give the individual a well-known product and ask the person to prepare and deliver a sales presentation to you after five minutes’ preparation time
knowledge of products, field,or regulations
written multiple choice test
computer programming
write or correct some code to carry out a function for a typical situation
personality or temperament
personality or temperament test
job specific skills
for example, for a teller, counting cash accurately and quickly

Another thing to remember is that you can get testing done by other people and agencies (for a fee, of course). Temporary agencies can test for clerical and secretarial skills. Counsellors can test for aptitude and attitude to work.


 


Interviews

Interviews are one of the most important tools you will use to select employees:

Take the time to prepare carefully for the interviews.
Decide on the questions you need to ask to find the candidate with the right knowledge and skills.
Review the applications carefully to see if there is anything else you want to know from individual candidates.
Also, think about what you want to communicate about your company and the work to potential applicants.

Do’s and don’ts for interviews.

Do's:
- Do take the time to put the person you are interviewing at ease.
- Do prepare a list of interview questions and ask every candidate these questions.
- Do prepare any special questions you want to ask individual applicants to help you understand their experience or knowledge.
- Do keep notes of what each candidate answers.
- Do focus on learning about the person’s experience, ability and personal qualities that will directly affect how he or she will do the critical parts of the job.
- Do ask questions that are open-ended. For example, ask how the candidate’s education would help the person do this job better, rather than ask what education the person has.
- Do make sure you ask questions that show a person’s attitude.

Don’ts:
- Don’t talk too much during the interview.
- Don’t make a decision too early. Listen carefully to what the candidate has to say through the whole interview.
- Don’t be too concerned if the applicant is nervous, unless it is really relevant to whether the applicant can do the job. It matters if the person would have to make cold sales calls. For most jobs, it doesn’t matter.
- Don’t ask leading questions, which tell the applicant what answer you want to hear. For example, if you want to know the applicant’s philosophy of customer service it would be better to ask an applicant to give you an example of how he or she has handled a difficult customer than to ask whether the applicant thinks customer service is important and why.
- Don’t use stress interviews, designed to see if you can upset the applicant. You can find out if an applicant can handle a stressful job through role-playing, situational questions (see Questions that work), or by checking with references.


 

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