Employment interviews

Question 1

What are the 15 components of a fully structured employment interview?

Answer 1

1. Thorough job analysis
2. Ask each candidate the same qeustions
3. Limit prompting
4. Use better type of questions (situational / behavioural)
5. Longer interviews
6. Control ancillary information compared to focusing on CVs and asking diverse questions
7. No questions from applicant until the end
8. Rate each question
9. Use anchored rating scales
10. Make detailed notes
11. Have multiple interviewers
12. Have the same interviewer(s)
13. No discussion between interviews
14. Train the interviewer
15. Statistical prediction, based on numbers instead of intuition

Question 2

Why do interviewees dislike structured interviews?

Answer 2

→ They feel they have less opportunity to perform and show themselves.

→ Explaining why structured interviews are used eases this opinion

Question 3

Why do recruiters dislike structured interviews?

Answer 3

→ Less discretion in how the interview is conducted
→ Losing the informal, personal contact
→ Time demands in developing structured interviews

Question 4

What are the trade-offs when using (un)structured interviews?

Answer 4

→ Unstructured interviews you gain:

1. Recruiter experience
2. Applicant reactions (making them feel more at ease)

→ Structured interviews you gain:

1. Predictive validity
2. Reliability
3. Fairness

Question 5

How do interviewers tenure, number of interviews and training influence the use of structured interviews?

Answer 5

1. Tenure: less question sophistication, less use of situational and behavioural questions. Use more intuition
2. Number of interviews: more probing and note taking but less situational questions
3. Training: more question consistency, note taking and evaluation standardization

Question 6

What is the difference between situational and behavioural qeustions?

Answer 6

→ Situational: presents hypothetical job-situations. Used to measure cognitive ability and job knowledge (future oriented)

→ Behavioural questions: describe what they did in past job-related situations. Used to measure personality (past oriented)

Behavioural questions have slightly higher predictive validity

Question 7

What is the STAR(R) method?

Answer 7

→ Situation
→ Task
→ Action
→ Results
→ Reflection

Question 8

What is dual-process theory?

Answer 8

Argues that there are two systems that help in making decisions.

→ System 1: automatic, fast and unconscious (first impressions)

→ System 2: Controlled, slow and conscious

First impressions control judgement unless modified or overridden by deliberate operation (structure) which takes place in system 2

Question 9

Which two decision making biases are there?

Answer 9

→ Self-fulfilling prophecy: interviewers with positive impressions act more favorable towards applicants

→ Confirmation bias: the tendency to search for, interpret, favour and recall information that confirms one’s hypothesis (first impressions)