Another way of conducting interviews is with a panel of interviewers. Within this panel of interviewers, line managers need to be there. They know most about the work that is going to be carried out and can judge weather the candidates have the correct knowledge and skills for the job. However it is not just the line managers to ensure they pick the correct candidates, everyone involved should be able to make a fair contribution and should be fully trained. Interviewers need to be fully trained in order to carry out the interview with little errors. If the interviewer doesn’t know what he/she is doing interview errors occur hence interviews are regarded as ineffective.
There are many reasons why interviews are regarded as ineffective and the reasons vary. Interviewers errors arise because of the perceptual process all of us use to deal with the world around us. This process is also known as perceptual selection. What we select is determined by our “own experiences, personality and motivation”. Due to our own experiences we make judgments focused on inappropriate stimuli, ignoring information that is in fact opposite. It is said that first impressions count in this world. That is very true in relation to interviews. Some candidates make very good impressions, as soon as they walk into the room. Reasons could vary from, the candidate being well dressed to even a firm handshake. Research has shown that if candidates form good impressions on their interviews, it has two effects. One being, this good impression continues on through the rest of the interview, no matter what is being said. Secondly the interviewer will find more positive information to confirm their first impression. This is called the “Hallo Effect”. This can also happen as a negative impression. This is described as the “Horns effect” and this is when the interviewer looks for negatives in the candidate, continuing from the first impression. As the fist impression counts a lot for an interview, it is said that within the first five minutes interviewers make up their mind. This shows how interviewers are not taking the opportunity to draw out a wide range of information provided from the candidate but using the perceptual process as a method of choosing the suitable candidate for the post.
When interviewers interview candidates, they are always looking for people that are like themselves. It is innate human tendency to identify with people who are like us, and share characteristics. These characteristics might relate to the ability to perform in the job however it is harmful to a company to have only like-minded people on its staff. Interviewers are said to be hiring their own image. This relates back to discrimination, as if you are hiring people like yourself then it could equate to racial or sexual discrimination.
Perhaps if interviews were carried out appropriately, then they would be seen as effective. One way to achieve this is through training. Every interviewer may have different targets to work towards. They all want to select the best person for the job, in the most fair and objective manner. If training was given to every interviewer, maybe this could be then achievable. Also through this training, interviewers are trained on awareness of equal opportunity issues. Also they get trained on development of questioning skills, which helps without doubt on interviewing.
The time devoted to interviews are said to be not long enough. It is not really rational that in 10 minutes you can find sufficient details of a person, to be able to base a decision on. However managers can’t afford to take mass amount of time out to conduct these interviews, and make fast decisions based on a small interview. Not only is it about time allocated for interviews that can make interviews so ineffective but also the venue for the interview. The venue must be suitable, as it must not be somewhere where the interviewers/interviewees can be distracted.
Another reason why interviews are regarded as ineffective may be because some interviews aren’t structures. As they are not conducted in structured manner, gathering sufficient information on the candidates is not structured either. To follow a structured plan for the interview, the interviewer should design a set of questions to elicit information relevant to the selection decision. The interviewer should also focus the structure on giving candidates an opportunity to answer these questions. The questions asked in the interview should be based on the “person specification and competency profile”. The job description should be used to create these questions.
Even though interviews are seen as being so ineffective, little emphasis is places on tests. However some companies use the test format as part of recruitment and selection. Tests which are described as “testing is essentially an attempt to achieve objectivity, or to put it more accurately, to reduce subjectivity in selection decision making” (Lewis, 1985). Tests are not just used to measure the candidate’s ability. It is important for candidates to be given adequate information so that they can too make a decision about weather the job is suitable for them or not.
One type of testing used is called “Psychological Tests”. It is a method of acquiring objective information about a range of individual abilities. Within the “Psychological Tests”, interviewers can test candidate’s ability using the ability test. Ability tests focus on specific mental abilities and produce separate scores for the different skills. Ability tests asses skills and knowledge that have been acquired through experience and learning.
Another type of test is aptitude test. This test measures individual’s potential to develop ability. There is not any major distinguishes between ability tests and aptitude tests. There are specific aptitude tests for specific occupations such as word processing, and test batteries that produce a profile for the candidate over a range of abilities.
