From Susan M. Heathfield,
Your Guide to Human Resources.
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• More Job Interview Questions for Employers

The job interview is a powerful factor in the employee selection process in most organizations. While the job interview may not deserve all of the attention that the job interview receives, it is still a powerful force in hiring.

Other background checking and work history references provide much less personalized and more factual information, and hopefully, you have added these checks to your hiring decisions, too. But the job interview remains key to assessing the candidate's cultural fit. The job interview remains the tool you can use to get to know your candidate on a more personal basis. The job interview process helps other employees “own” the new employee who joins your organization.

How to Select Candidates to Interview

Your starting point, before scheduling a job interview with a candidate, is to review each candidate's:

• Resume cover letter and
• Resume.

When faced with 100-200 candidates, it's important to use tools that separate the great candidates from the many. These will help you select the candidates for the job interview. They will also help you prepare your list of questions to use to telephone screen candidates and ask during the job interviews.

• Read Why This Resume Rocks.
• Hold a recruiting planning meeting.
• Devise a list of qualities, skills, and experience to use to screen resumes and job interview candidates.

Telephone Screen Candidates Prior to an Interview

The telephone interview or candidate screen allows the employer to determine if the candidate's qualifications, experience, workplace preferences and salary needs are congruent with the position and organization. The telephone job interview saves managerial time and eliminates unlikely candidates. While I recommend developing a customized interview for each position, this generic job interview will guide you.

How to Prepare for the Job Interview

The interview team was selected at your earlier recruiting planning meeting, so the interviewers have had time to prepare. You will want to use the list of qualities, skills, knowledge, and experience you developed for the resume screening process.

Use this list to make sure each interviewer understands their role in the candidate assessment. Review each interviewer’s questions, too, to make sure the interview questions selected will obtain the needed information.

Sample Interview Questions for Employers

• Motivation Job Interview Questions
• Teams and Team Work Job Interview Questions
• Leadership Job Interview Questions
• Interpersonal Skills Job Interview Questions
• Management and Supervisory Skill Job Interview Questions
• Communication Job Interview Questions
• Planning Job Interview Questions
• Decision Making Job Interview Questions
• Empowerment Job Interview Questions

Illegal Interview Questions for Employers

Ask legal interview questions that illuminate the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses to determine job fit. Avoid illegal interview questions and interview practices that could make your company the target of a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit.

Hold a Behavioral Job Interview With Each Candidate

During the job interview, help the candidate demonstrate his or her best knowledge, skills, and experience. Start with small talk and ask several easy questions until the candidate seems relaxed. Then, hold a behavioral interview.

Behavioral interviews are the best tool you have to identify candidates who have the behavioral traits and characteristics that you have selected as necessary for success in a particular job. Additionally, behavioral interviews ask the candidate to pinpoint specific instances in which a particular behavior was exhibited in the past. In the best behaviorally-based interviews, the candidate is unaware of the behavior the interviewer is verifying.

In addition to the candidate's verbal responses during the job interview, you'll want to notice all of the nonverbal interaction, too.

• Believe What You See: Nonverbal Communication in the Job Interview

Assess Candidates Following the Job Interview

Provide a standard format for each interviewer to use to assess each candidate following the job interview. You should have several candidates who you'll want to ask back for a second or even third job interview.

• Job Interview Match Dance.
• How to Recruit and Hire the Best: A Checklist for Success

Disclaimer: The information in this article is from this Web site and a variety of online resources. The information provided, while authoritative, is not guaranteed for accuracy and legality. Please seek legal assistance, or assistance from State, Federal, or International governmental resources, to make certain your legal interpretation and decisions are correct. This information is for guidance, ideas, and assistance only.