Interviewing Methods That Prove Successful

In today's hypercompetitive climate, employing new employees has emerged as a critical component in building and preserving your company's competitive advantage. Your firm will be able to move rapidly and grow consistently if it is able to recruit the top individuals and hire them. On the other hand, making poor hiring decisions might cause you to lose valuable time, money, and opportunities. Ineffective hiring practices could result in the loss of your business.

Unfortunately, it is becoming more difficult to hire applicants who are capable of doing what they say they are capable of doing. Over the course of the last 10 years, a whole industry has developed to assist job seekers in securing employment sometimes at any cost.

You simply do not have the budget to bring on staff a person who is unable to complete the task, who requires extensive oversight, or who moves slowly. You are in luck because there are strategies you may employ to guarantee that the individual you choose for the position is capable of carrying it out. In this section, we will look at four different methods: demonstrations, simulations, problem solving, and testing. In addition, we will introduce a strong interviewing method called High Performance Interviewing, which will be covered in greater depth in the subsequent issue of Performance News.

Demonstrations

In an ideal world, putting a candidate through their paces on the job in question is the most effective approach to determining whether or not they are qualified for the position. In other words, we want them to demonstrate that they are capable of carrying out the assignment. A machine operator can operate a machine; a salesperson can sell something; a software engineer can code something; a machine operator can sell something; secretaries can answer the phone or type a message; etc.

Simulation

Sometimes demonstrations are not possible or appropriate. A simulation is an excellent alternative to a live presentation of the material. A simulation is quite similar to a demonstration, with the key difference being that the scenario being simulated is not the actual one. For example, if you're interviewing candidates for jobs in sales or customer service, you may play the part of an irate client and see how they react to your fury. Another form of simulation would be to act as the "customer" and receive a call from a telesales agent who is trying to sell you something. Or, if you are conducting an interview for a position that requires training, you could ask the candidate to give you a demonstration.

Problem Solving

There are instances when demonstrations and simulations just cannot be carried out. The capacity to find solutions to problems could give you more faith in the person's overall competence. Interviewers frequently test candidates' problem-solving abilities by posing them with fictitious or real-world scenarios, and they do so to determine how well they would do in the position.

Problem solving is distinct from simulation in that the candidate is asked to describe what actions they would take in a given situation rather than acting out those actions in a simulated environment. A word of caution: the ability to solve problems on its own may simply be indicative of what a person SAYS they will do in a certain circumstance, not how they actually will or have behaved in the past. However, addressing problems is a fantastic way to test one's critical thinking skills.

Test

In addition, tests can be beneficial as part of the employment process in specific cases. Some businesses use psychological testing as a means of zeroing in on an individual's most important traits in order to better hire them. There are many other methods of testing, such as asking questions on specialized expertise, such as "What commands might you use to initiate a subroutine?" alternatively, "What are the advantages and disadvantages of common network protocols?"

Interview

On the other hand, demonstrations, simulations, the resolution of problems, or testing might not always be possible; at the very least, these activities are insufficient when carried out on their own. It is necessary to conduct interviews. In order to conduct an effective interview, you need to have strong questioning and listening skills. These abilities will enable you to persuade the candidate to describe or explain relevant experiences, from which you can derive highly predictive information. This particular kind of interview is referred to as a high Performance Interview.

Is it possible for us to hire more successfully by making the most of the interview, which is the typical way of hiring candidates? The correct response is "YES!"

In many cases, interviews end up being nothing more than a pointless back-and-forth between the parties involved and a "gut feeling." The method that we call High Performance Interviewing (HPI) is designed to help you collect useful and predictive information as well as give credence to your "gut feeling."

The hypothesis that previous conduct is the most accurate indicator of future behavior underpins the HPI model. The High Performance Interview (HPI) is built to elicit highly predictive and precise target data from candidates. The target data is:

Behavioral: The data must be about what the candidate did, said, thought, or felt. • Cognitive: The data must be about what the applicant thinks. What the person "was responsible for" is not something that we take into consideration as target data because it does not inform us what the person actually performed. The information provided must pertain to the candidate. Due to the fact that we are unaware of the candidate's actions, we do not consider "we" data to be target data.

Target data comes from the candidate's memory, not from the interviewer's ideas or urging; the candidate is the one who volunteers this information.

Relating to a particular event that took place in the past: concentrating on what did take place as opposed to what may have taken place or what typically takes place. It is possible to gain insight into the candidate's problem-solving and quick-thinking abilities by having them describe what actions they would take in a variety of hypothetical situations. However, this method may not accurately anticipate what the candidate has done in actual, analogous circumstances. Target data can only be data that is based on situations that have already occurred in the past.