Employment interviews are selection/recruitment devices in which applicants and employers interact (e.g., face-to-face, via telephone) to gather data from each other that will aid in making employment decisions. Because applicants and employers often have multiple job opportunities or applicants, respectively, from which to choose, it is important to gather accurate information quickly and easily

1. Structure Interviews to Hire the
Best people
CYNTHIA KAY STEVENS
Presented by: Mehran karami
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 1

2. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 2

3. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 3

4. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 4

5. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 5

6. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 6

7. Interviews provide a flexible tool
for gathering and disseminating
information between applicants
and employers
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 7

8. interviews can be easily adapted to accomplish multiple goals:
• introducing applicants and employers
• attracting applicant interest
• screening out unsuitable applicants
• becoming comfortable with the chosen option
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 8

9. interviews (along with reference checks) are the
most common selection procedure used across
a wide range of jobs and industries
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 9

10. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 10

11. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 11

12. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 12

13. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 13

14. DECISION-MAKING RESEARCH
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 14

15. Researchers using different theories
have converged on the notion that
when decision makers are confronted
with multiple options, they often use
a two-stage decision process.
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 15

16. first reduce the total number of options by
screening out clearly unsuitable options, often
using simple decision rules. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami16

17. • Second stage
•
decision makers evaluate the remaining options more
thoroughly with the goal of choosing the “best” option.
• Unless a single option survives the initial screening
process .
• decision makers usually devote more effort to this
second-stage evaluation
• although they often (but not always) select the
prospective top choice from the first stage.
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 17

18. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 18

19. cognitive factors
how decisions are framed
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 19

20. Motivational factors
include decision makers’ goals, which can include
the desire to be accurate
the desire to have a good
rationale for one’s choice
desire to minimize the effort needed to reach a
decision
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 20

21. contextual factors
include the characteristics of the
set of available options and
whether options are evaluated
one at a time or jointly
Decision researchers often find
that preferences shift depending
on how options are presented
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami
21

22. DECISION-MAKING IN INTERVIEWS
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 22

23. interviews represent an applied situation in which
employers and applicants collect information to make
decisions about each other.
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 23

24. Interviewers’
decisions
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 24

25. With regard to interviewers, studies show that their judgments
can be swayed by many of the cognitive, motivational, and
contextual factors that affect other types of decisions.
Interviewers often rely on stereotypes as mental shortcuts to
help them determine applicant suitability, such as race, gender,
age, or even weight-related biases.
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 25

26. they overestimate the importance of
minor cues and underestimate the
importance of major cues in how they
have reached their judgments
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 26

27. Several features of the interview context and
task can shift interviewers’ motivation and thus
their judgments
when determining applicant suitability,
interviewers often consider personal qualities
interpersonal skills goal orientation
appearance how much they like applicants
how well applicants fit with organization’s culture
This subjectivity leaves room
for applicants to present
themselves as likable, and
thus garner more favorable
interviewer evaluations.
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 27

28. interviewers use résumé and other information about
applicants to form preliminary impressions
then
behave in ways during the interview to gather
information that confirms their preliminary
impressions
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 28

29. Training interviewers does help improve their ability to predict who will perform well
However, the biggest gains in predicting which applicants will perform well on the
job seem to come from structuring interviews. Across interviewers, the use of
structured interview formats leads to better prediction of job performance
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 29

30. Applicants’ decisions
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 30

31. applicants are concerned about finding jobs whose
attributes provide a good fit with their interests and
needs
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 31

32. Applicants evaluate a job’s attributes more positively, however, if their
interviewer was personable and friendly during the interview
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 32

33. Structured interviews
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 33

34. I define interview structure as any
standardization of the interview
format, which can occur across
several dimensions.
Although interview structure does appear to be an
important means for improving joint decision-making, it is
not always clear what it means to structure an interview
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 34

35. Campion, Palmer (1997) identified
15 possible dimensions of
interview structure, including their
content and process.
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 35

36. • basing question content on job analysis
• asking the same questions of all applicants
• asking better questions
• limiting applicant questions
• reducing the use of prompts or elaboration
• ensuring that all interviews are of the same length
• Eliminating interviewers’ access to background
information
content
dimensions
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 36

37. • scoring each answer with anchored rating scale
• taking detailed notes
• using multiple interviewers
• having the same interviewers
rate all applicants
• restricting cross-talk among interviewers
• using statistical procedures to combine interviewers’ ratings
• training all interviewers
process
dimensions
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 37

38. IMPROVING DECISION-MAKING THROUGH
INTERVIEW STRUCTURE
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 38

39. Sub-principle 1:
train interviewers
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 39

40. Sub-principle 2
develop standard questions and scoring
criteria, based on job analysis, for use with
all applicants
Sub-principle 2:
develop standard questions and scoring criteria,
based on job analysis, for use with all applicants
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 40

41. Sub-principle 3:
request that interviewers take
detailed notes on applicants’
answersStructure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 41

42. Sub-principle 4:
if pre-interview information about
applicants is provided ensure that it is
valid
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 42

43. sub-principle 5:
ask applicants about their decision
processes and criteria, and share
realistic information tailored to
those processes and criteria
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 43

44. CASE EXAMPLES
INTERVIEWER. What else have you done that ah, you feel
would be helpful to you in public accounting?
APPLICANT. Oh, gee, as far as extracurricular? Well I was in
a lot of service clubs and, you know, I’ve worked with
people, done March of Dimes, things like that. Just
dealing with people.
INTERVIEWER. How would you say your communication skills
are?
APPLICANT. I think they’re pretty good. I think I have pretty
good communication skills. Listening is part of it, yeah,
so –
INTERVIEWER. Okay. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 44

45. INTERVIEWER. Here are some reasons why you would want to choose a career with
[name of firm]. We guarantee your income while you start, develop your own image
on being your own boss, getting, ah, getting into management career status, extra
benefits, ah, and on the back here, are twelve good reasons . . . Why you would
want to be an insurance agent. And, um, here is, ah, a brochure that
explains ah, the training program in general . . . terms. It’s a lifelong training
program. Um, we have, we feel, the finest training, uh, in the industry, ahh, as a
company . . . And I believe, in my district, we have, ah, the finest training in America
simply because we use the company training in the first six–twelve
months or so, and after that we go into material, we make available to you material
from the Insurance Institute of America. Now when I say make available to you, ah,
we recruit and train people from all walks of life., ah, none of them have taken
advantage of all the material that I could give them. Because, well, it’s not all bad
either. Some of them, three of them are college students and they’re doing so well
that they don’t have the time, they won’t take the time o, to attend the course. Ah,
one of ’em has gone through a couple of ’em or attempted to go through a couple
of ’em, but, ah, nevertheless I’ve kept my end of the bargain and I would make it
available to her and now in their second or third year, ah, they would take it a little
more serious, ah, the more advanced learning of insurance. Okay?
APPLICANT. Um-hmm.
33. INTERVIEWER. So we say we’ll make it available to you, if you’re good
enough to take advantage of it, that’s fine.
APPLICANT. Um-hmm
.
Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 45

46. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 46

47. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 47

48. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 48

49. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 49

50. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 50

51. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami
51

52. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 52

53. Structure Interviews to Hire the Best people/Mehran Karami 53