Monday, March 17, 2014

Types of Interviews

Human Resource is one of the most strategic partners for any organization. One of the most essential areas of Human Resources is the recruitment. From attraction, selection to retention, recruitment is critical for all 3 divisions. To make sure that we have the right candidate we need to take a couple of steps to assess the candidate.

Selection can be based on Competency Based Interview or Situation Based Interviews. Also the management can come to a consensus to take Assessment Centers for senior positions or go for Live Projects when it comes to recruiting key talent for the company. Many companies assess the abilities of candidates through case studies, aptitude tests and also psychometric tests.

The best evaluation instrument in the hands of the recruiter is the Competency Based Interviews or Situation Based Interviews. In a Competency Based Interview also known as Behavior Based Interview the interviewer tries to extract competencies from an informal discussion on the past experiences of the candidate. The interview can also be a structured one, in which all the questions are predefined and competencies are extracted from what the candidate has done in the past.
The technique used is called STAR viz. Situation, Tasks, Actions and Results. You need to ask questions regarding a past Situation and how did the incumbent tackle the situation. What “tasks” he did. What “Actions” those tasks included. And finally what were the results of those activities. During the entire discussion on STAR you would come to know on the competencies of the candidate.

Another interviewing techniques the Situation Based interview in which competencies are arrived through answers of questions which are on a hypothetical situations. For example you are leading a post of 5 army men on a task and you realize that two have fled the post, one is sick and two others do not like each other. You are stuck in a no man’s land and have to send a message urgently to your regiment which is some 5 kilometers away. How would you do it? While answering the candidate would display signs of competencies which you are looking for. The interviewer needs to carefully assess each of his answers and arrive at a conclusion whether the candidate has the competencies they are looking for.

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