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Structured Interview Questions for Making the Best Hiring Decisions

By Lori Olson

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 21Jun2009 Word count: 728 Viewed: 400 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

As an employer, you know this economy has resumes sacked up and falling off your desk. Sorting through prospective employees proves to be problematic and difficult. How can you decide from a resume? When the interview comes, people can often blend together, and needing to decide the best employee for the company is even more crucial now than ever. Structured interview questions to determine this is essential. You must also pay critical attention to what the future employee answers. Every second he is in the hot seat, he is giving you clues to whether or not he will be a valuable employee for your company.

The most important thing to look for is drive. Drive will be difficult to cultivate questions for, but it is imperative to do so. Drive can be illustrated through their determination to do something, such as starting a program during college or during a previous job. The ingenuity of creating is something that proves drive. If individuals are willing to put the effort and exertion into creation, they are strong workers that will prove this to you as well. Creativity is another aspect to look for in indentifying drive. Problem-solving capabilities and abilities to think outside the box will ultimately push them forward as valuable employees. Creativity will also project your company and prove its value against competitors. Drive shown through creativity proves the worth of the employee as well as their expression. Expressed creativity will also show how individuals use their voices, as they will as employees of yours. Question about past endeavors will show how they would act within your company. Use specific examples from your company, so they are able to connect with what they will be doing, and you will be able to see if they are a good fit. You will also be able to see what they can bring to the company.

Inquisitiveness is another aspect to look for in your potential employees. Their desire to figure things out will help you expand your company. What they are interested in exploring and learning will help you develop and expand your company. Their curiosity will allow them to be a free thinker and shows that they will be leaders in your company. This too is something to strive for in an employee.

While interviewing candidates, it is important to pay attention to everything they do. What they do not say is as important as what they do. If they are hesitant, why? What are they keeping hidden? Always ask questions. Candidates' manners are also something to pay close attention to. This is how they will interact with customers as well, and indicates what they find to be important. Attitudes will show levels of respect, as well as reveal true personality. When candidates interrupt you, it is probable that they are egotistical. This shows lack of respect for what you have to say. Although it may be an accident, as candidates are trying to be on better behavior for the interview, it shows a behavior that is accustomed.

So as you can see, the interview process needs to be very deliberate and very consistent from candidate to candidate in order to be most effective. Psychometricians (those who create and analyze tests and assessments) know that collecting and analyzing biodata (resume and interview) can be a very powerful way to select a new hire. They also know that it must be done in a structured way; hence the points made in this article. When interviews are not structured, the interview becomes more susceptible to the "halo effect" in that the interviewer will have more of a tendency to be influenced by a particular look, remark or attitude of the candidate. The interviewer may become blinded to faults and fail to scrutinize the candidate adequately. Also, when the interview is unstructured, statistically there will be really very little data gathered which can be reliably compared. Additionally, a structured interview will be more compliant with EEOC regulations.

The trend in today's market is to assess employees in a number of ways. Collecting biodata is one method that is even more powerful when combined with employee personality and aptitude testing. Keeping these tips in mind, finding your future employee will become a simpler task, and that stack of resumes on your desk will thin out to the one employee you are satisfied with.

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