Introduction to Interviewing
Interviewing is a process of selection through which an interviewer or a group of interviewers determine that the candidate is suitable for a certain position offered by the organisation. Another purpose of conducting interviews is to gather relevant information from the candidate. However, there are various types of interviews such as corporate, research and leadership role interviewing. Therefore, the role of interviewer in conducting an interview is so essential because it determines the way of interview and its success or failure in order to select the right and eligible candidate for the job. Any mistake in hiring people for the job is the result of the huge loss for the organisation in terms of both money and resource. The mistakes of interviewer cause failure of the selection purpose. These are the common mistakes committed by the interviewer during the selection process:
It is essentials before starting the interview is to introduce your name and briefly introduce the name of other team members with their designation followed by the purpose of conducting the interview. Sometimes the interviewer misses the friendly introduction that causes the candidate to feel uncomfortable during the interview (Chait, 2017). A friendly environment in the interview allows the candidate to calm his/her nerves and feel comfortable during the interview. People from Generation Z (younger generation group people) are more committed these mistakes in comparison to older generation people (Generation Y) because they are faster and forward in their thoughts and presume that it does not matter.
Real World Ex: One of my friends who appeared in an interview and he was not aware of any member of the team because they did not introduce themselves. The head interviewer was in such a hurry to finish the interview, but not introduce their member and he was so young in the team. The implication of that mistake was that my friend feels so unfamiliar with that interviewee and still told us that to whom he faced in the interview he does not know.
Many interviewers starting the job interview without defining the job purpose and duties of candidate and requirements needed to succeed in the job. This mistake of interviewer increases the risk of hiring the wrong person for the job. A thorough job description explains the duties and responsibilities and helpful in identifying technical skills, professional qualifications and personal qualities such as interpersonal skills of the candidate. A well-written interview helps in conducting structured interview questions that evaluate applicant’s fitness for the job.
Types of Interviews
When the interviewer is a stereotype of person and judge people on their past thinking and experience, or candidate’s background, or personal circumstances, the interviewer is not able to assess candidate’s ability for the job. This type of interviewer general asks the question of their stereotype thinking (DeZube, 2016).
Real world Ex: He was a football player in the college; he must be aggressive.
She is wearing casual clothing; she may be too phlegmatic for our organisation.
She has two children; it is impossible for her to work overtime.
Such types of mistakes committed by generation ‘X’ and millennial age group people, because they have a tendency to judge the candidate on their experiences. Such stereotype assumptions cause interviewer missing-out on well deserves and qualified candidates for the job and as well as he/she maybe be suspect for discrimination (Cheng, 2011).
Normally, the interviewer forgets to prepare questions for the interview in advance that causes a problem by taking the interview and lead to an unstructured interview having no sense. A well expert and effective interviewer always prepare himself for preparing to interview questions in advance. It helps in to seek out the relevant information about the candidate. If you are asking the same question from each candidate, it will be helpful in comparing the candidates with each other easily (Derous, Ryan, and Nguyen, 2011). For this interviewer should keep a notepad with him and not the answer of all candidates in a sequence that will be helpful to compare and analyse the skills of the candidate and select the best candidate for the job. People from generation Z committed such types of mistakes because they believe in technological aspects and not believe in pen and paperwork and they have a tendency to prepare themselves for the right movement.
It has been seen that when the interviewer is more talkative and not give chance to others. My friend Mr Richard, who felt this pain first time when during an interview, his colleague continuously monologues for 20 minutes non-stop. After this, the hiring manager eventually put his finger on his mouth and politely said to him ” shhh” and told the candidate that I would like to talk with you now.” These mistakes lead to waste of time in the interview and people failed to assess candidates within the time and at the end, the interview will end in a rush because of expanse such precious time of interview session. It also leaves a bad impression on the candidate and a poor image of the company. Usually, such type of mistakes committed by generation Z because they are tends to be more talkative (Gorham, 2018).
The Importance of the Interviewer’s Role
Hiring a suitable candidate for the job is not a one-minute process rather it takes time to conduct the interview process and hire candidates based on the quality. When interviewer rush for the interview, it might be possible that he/she fails in analysing and judging the best traits in the candidate. Normally these mistakes are done by generation ‘Z’ who tend to be more focused on doing things in a speedy manner and want to interview more and more candidates in quick time (Schulz, 2008).
Before conducting interviews, the interviewer must focus on certain measures that help in avoiding such types of mistakes and avoid biases during the interview. These measures are as follow:
The interviewer must introduce himself to the candidate and other members of the team with their designation. It helps the candidate to come in a comfortable zone and allow the candidate to calm his/her nerves and feel comfortable during the interview. This creates a friendly environment in the interview session and helps the interviewer to analyse candidate for the jobs (Guion, Diehl, and McDonald, 2011).
Keep an open mind and avoid stereotype thinking is the valuable traits of an interviewer. Thus, such assumption like “he belongs to a middle-class family; so how he can handle the corporate professional life.” or “he/she was a football player in college; then he will be aggressive” should be avoided during interviews. Some people judge candidates through their dressing styles and their face, it is so worst for the interviewing process and never helpful in selecting the best candidates for the job.
Ex. An interviewer presumed in the interview process about an individual candidate to be strong and athletic because he was African-American. He was inevitably decided to give the place of the head of the physical education department.
Mr David forget to prepare questions for conducting interviews and next day when he takes interview of candidates for the company’s job, he misses the main agenda and skills on which he has to select candidates for the job offered. He was also unable to note the skills and qualification of candidates on a notebook that also create difficulties when he compares candidates with each other in order to select superior quality candidates for selection of best. Taking note during the interview is requiring to record down all the relevant information about the candidate. This also helps in further discussion about the candidates because it was very less time between the candidate for discussion and evaluation. The interviewer can also use structured recording tools for the recording of specific experiences and skills like communication and teamwork abilities (Kacperck, 2014).
Common Interviewer Mistakes
Keep an open mind is definitely an essential characteristic of an interviewer during the selection process. Because it brings that crucial information about the candidate that was, uncover during the interview process. This is because predetermined and stereotype judgement could act as barriers to an open communication. Being attentive to own prejudices and bring them to a cognisant level would allow one to overwhelm those prejudices and reach an unbiased decision. Thus, it is necessary to being aware of your own biases and being aware and being aware of the information retrieved from the interview process (Miller and Rollnick, 2013).
It was found that the biases and stereotype thinking of interview positively related to the huge amount of cognitive load. It means, when the interviewer is facing high mental pressure, there would be an increased tendency to categorizing candidates on stereotype and partialities to aid in decision-making. Therefore, it is necessary that the interviewing process should be adequately spaced out in such a way that it could not cause mental pressure or cognitive load on the interviewer (Macan and Merritt, 2011). If an interviewer is not well focused towards the interview, activities he might be remembered only one candidate out of the several interviewees and if the interviewer has gone through in one day, the interviewer seems to only remember and favour the first applicant (Robles, 2012).
If the interviewer has gone through in one day, the interviewer seems to only remember and favour the first applicant because it is impossible to remember everything that happened in the whole interview process. This creates biases with other candidates and may result in selecting a wrong person for the job and avoiding others who deserve for the same job (Ullah, 2010).
Therefore, it is necessary to consider these measures to avoid the above mistakes, which is done by numerous interviewers during the interview process.
A generation is normally a group of people born in the same era and raised around the same place. People in this “birth cohort” exhibit similar nature, preferences, behaviour, characteristics, and values over their lifetimes. There are four generation called Generation X, Generation Y, or Millennial, Generation Z, and Baby boomers. These generations are categorized on the following basis:
- Generation X: Those people who were born in between 1965 to 1976. They came before millennial.
- Generation Y or Millennial: These people are born after generation X, it means in between 1976 to 1996.
- Generation Z:These people are born after the millennial generation, it means after 1996 and later.
- Baby Boomers:These peoples are born after the Second World War (1946-1964) that is why they called baby boomers.
- Both agreeing on short tenure:Both generation people think that approximately 3 year of a period is enough for spending time during the first job. 83% of generation Z and 91% of millennials expect to stay in a job less than 3 years.
- Customization of careers:Millennial grew up in the era of customization where profile pages, cars, bike, phones, and even t-shirt could be customized based on individual liking. It is also happening with generation Z and they are sharing the same millennial attraction for customization (Waldherr, and Muck, 2011).
- Motivated by meaning:Millennial are searching for more logic behind any work. Most of the people who belong to generation Z believe that the impact of the company on society affects their decision to work there, thus they will be looking for more meaning at work.
- Technological addiction or Tech Savvy:Both Millennial and generation Z people are attracted towards technology, although generation Z people are more addicted than millennial.
- Open minded and idealistic: People belong to both generations are more idealistic and open-minded.
- The difference between Millennial and generation Z is that generation Z people are less Focused than millennial because they born in the era of advanced technology (such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Whatsapp). Thus, they are normally less focused than millennial (Ahmad, 2018).
- Though Generation Z people can be less focused than millennial, they do multiple tasks at the same time such as doing schoolwork and watching TV at the same time, watching TV during eating and studying, playing games and operating their social media at the same time. While generation Z quickly shifts from one task to other.
- Generation Z has a higher expectation than millennials.
- The generation Z people are more adaptable in compare to millennial generations’ people (Beall, 2017).
- Generation Z people are less patiently than the millennial generation and even people are more short-tempered who born in the period of generation Z.
It is necessary for an interviewer to understand the traits of generation Z people. It is also essential to understand what makes this generation so incredibly different anyone that came before them into the workforce. The unique characteristics and nature may frustrate, surprise, and even inspire an interviewer when he/she take interview of these generation people.
- Most of the Generation Z candidates are rank career opportunity as their primary consideration:Generation Z candidates may not take the job if it does not provide career opportunities. Their opinions are career oriented and they won’t see themselves at a certain place after some time (Miller and Moyers, 2008). Rather than thinking that how they can apply their skills and knowledge to help the company they think about how the company help them to meet their future goals. An interviewer should know this motive and must ask them “what are their long-term goals” and “how they think that this organisation can help them to get their desired goal.”
- Re-assess authenticity:Authenticity is the major factor attached to generation Z for their working relationship with a company. They search lots of information about the company before the interview, and then they want to know if the company is real or not. Therefore, it is necessary for an interviewer to equip himself/herself with the full information about the company and its operations (Ng, Schweitzer, and Lyons, 2010).
- Growth is the primary agenda than Salary:it as earlier discussed that career opportunities are the primary concern for generation Z candidates and after that, they consider the salary. Therefore, it is important for the interviewer to tell them about first about the growth opportunities and then after he/she must explain the pay structure. The one reason behind this these candidates born in the era of economic crisis and economically shaken era. Many of them see their family in through financial hardships that cause they want to establish in their career in such a condition that again they will not suffer from the same problem (Weger, Castle, and Emmett, 2010).
- Socially conscious:when the interviewer takes interviews of a generation Z candidate he/she must highlight some of the social activities their company do for the community in which it operates. Most of the people who belong to generation Z believed that the impact of the company on society affects their decision to work there, thus they will be more attracted to work in the organisation.
Measures to Avoid Mistakes
An interviewer should approach these five key things during recruiting Generation Z candidates:-
- Serious Involvement in the hiring process:The interviewer must show their involvement towards the hiring process because it reflects the engagement of interviewer towards the work attracts the Generation Z candidate who likely to experience for the company interviewer represent.
- Good verbal and non-verbal Communicational Skills:Interviewer must show good communication skills with the generation Z candidate. The recruiter should clearly show them that which type of people is required in the organisation for which type of work. Here, proper communication and conversation are necessary to talk about the job requirement (Lunenberg, 2010).
- Show them what you are really offering:Interviewer must try to conduct the interview face-to-face or use video calls interview as opposed to the telephonic interview. The interviewer must try to take the interview face-to-face because, after personal communication, they will understand and physically experience a taste of the organisation interviewer represents (Clark and Roberts, 2010). And if a Generation Z candidate who lives in the same city where the recruiter is taking interview it will be better to invite the candidate into the office.
- Retention of Candidate:When the recruiter finds best and capable talent from Generation Z, think hard about what might have to happen in order to keep them. Save yourself and the candidate some time, and try to make the most of the forecasts in retaining for these individuals as they enter the worldwide workforce (Recruiter, 2018).
These approaches help recruiter to hire a suitable and perfect candidate for the job in the company because they can prove themselves as a pillar of the organisation because they are more energetic, tech-savvy, and multi-tasking people who always bring success for the organisation.
References
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Beall, G. (2017) 8 keys difference between Gen Z and Millennials [online]. Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-beall/8-key-differences-between_b_12814200.html [Accessed: 30/08/2018].
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