interviewing policy
Geric
4 Posts
When you interview, the same questions are to be asked. Does the the interviewer have to be the same person, or can you have different people conduct the interview? Does the person interviewing have to be involved in the hiring decision, or can they just pass on their findings?
Comments
And, the person interviewing may not be the actual person hiring, but his or her recommendations should be taken seriously.
There is nothing to suggest or require that interviews be so stilted or scripted as to have the same questions asked of each candidate. We cannot obsess about the EEOC to the point that we feel we have to do that. An interview, in my experience, is a fluid conversation that may take many directions. Sure, there may be a list of key things we want to elicit during the interviews of all candidates, but there's no need to feel like me must ask each candidate the same things, in some order or mirrored methodology. ("Gosh, I don't think I asked Carley why she left the cosmetology field or what her management style was and I did ask those questions of Monique, so I must have discriminated against Carley.")
Secondly, to your other question, there is no kind of requirement or suggestion that the same person must conduct all of the interviews of all of the candidates. It matters not who conducts interviews. You manage your process the way you want to. Neither processes nor fear of the EEOC should ever manage us. ("Oh no, I interviewed Jessie and had two other managers interview him; but, only one manager interviewed Henry and I was out that day. We hired Jessie. Henry is going to have our heads.")
Both parenthetical scenarios are laughable.
We all know the importance of hiring the right person for the job and that means all of the functions around the hiring process need to be effective to lead a company to a good hiring decision.
The interview process is, perhaps, the most important function of the hiring process. After all, it is the first time you are meeting the candidates face to face - getting the opportunity to fill in the blanks that are inevitable in any resume and application for employment. It is the first opportunity to assess personality types and the hard to quantify chemistry that comes with all of the other qualifications for the job.
The interviewer must be free to follow up with additional questions that come from responses to the canned questions. It is often this additional follow-up that determines the "fit characteristics" that become one of the more important aspects to the hiring decision.
That is where the training comes in. Those "fit characteristics" cannot be discriminatory in nature. One needs to train the interviewers how to document the additional discovery type questions and the areas to avoid.