Interviewing as the Most Common Employee Selection Method

Numerous tools and approaches are available to help organizations to narrow the pool of candidates for a relevant job position while interviewing takes a major place among those as it is tremendously used from the past. At a traditional job interview, the interviewee is questioned only about the technical side which relates to the open job position. However, in the modern society, the interviewee has to face numerous type of questions and the recruiter is able to recognize the applicant’s interests, personality, preferences, person-job fit, motivation and future behavior at the organization (Blackman, 2017). Interviewing supports its best to create a close contact between the recruiter and the candidate. Therefore, the interviewer can determine the applicant’s suitability for the vacant job role of the company by assessing the skills, experience and qualifications. Other than that, employee interviewing in hiring process focuses on other different purposes like gather information about an organization, its products or services, its culture as well as building relationships with potential employees. (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

The interviewer gets an opportunity to explore the suitability of the candidate to the open position in a more realistic way useful for determining social skills of the applicant which may be necessary for the job ·         interviewer can gain additional information ·         used to evaluate applicants' verbal fluency ·        can be used for selection among similarly eligible applicants ·         allows the interviewee to ask questions that might disclose additional information beneficial for making a selection decision ·         the interview may be modified as needed to collect significant information

biased evaluations are made           judgements tend to be made within the first few minutes of the interview with the rest of the interview used to validate or justify the original decision          not much evidence of validity of the selection procedure            not as reliable as tests

Table 01: Advantages and Disadvantages of Interviewing (Bell, & Waters, 2014).

Types of Interviews

Mainly there are two types of interviews. A structured interview is one based on a defined framework and within it, there is a set of predetermined questions. All candidates are asked the same questions and the answers are scored through a rating system. Unstructured interviews are a general discussion between the applicant and the organization and the candidate has to face few questions. The Recruiter asks those questions without any specific aim in the mind other than getting an overall picture of the candidate as an individual. Questions are often random and non-specific (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

According to Blackman (2017), the most widely used another way of categorizing of interviewing are:

• The telephone prescreen interview.
• The direct one-on-one interview, which can take a behavioral, competency-based or situational approach.
• The panel interview.

Interviewer Training is also an important fact in interviewing process of potential job seekers. It influences in conducting the interview and crucial in selecting the most suitable candidate in a successful manner (Blackman, 2017). 

Video Interviewing 🙋

As technology takes place a major role in every aspect of a business, there is no surprise that video interviewing is used for candidate selection process for a company as it is flexible, cost effective and convenient to both parties. Instead of a face-to-face interview, managers can conduct the interview over video cameras, webcams, or other related video technology. Videoconferencing is the most common use of video in the interview process. However, one of the newer technologies for this process is called video interviewing (Toldi, 2010). 

Covid-19 virus affects not only to the personal lives of the people, but also to the professional lives of the people. It was a very difficult time to the job seekers as physical interviews and closed person interaction were unable to hold since people had to maintain minimum six feet gap to reduce the spread of this virus. Therefore, the rise of interactive virtual interviewing using web-based video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Skype, WebEx, Google Handouts Meetings and GoToMeeting can be seen instead of on-site physical interviews (Joshi & et al, 2020). Video interviews are popular today and identified as an efficient selection tool. When companies implement this tool, it is crucial to understand the perception of the interviewee and its impact of overall hiring process (Guchait & et al, 2014). 

 

According to the company I am currently working for, they mostly preferred physical interviews rather than video interviewing since they have identified that face to face interviews are more successful than online ones. At the very beginning of the selection process, they hold a telephone interview to screen the candidates.

However, there are special benefits through video interviewing. The financial cost for travel, meal expenses, lodging, paperwork /clerical are saved. Eliminate the travel time of both parties, no geographical barriers, no matter with the weather (winter season, raining), more convenient and flexibility can be recognized as other benefits of video interviewing (Joshi & et al, 2020).

Although video interviewing is a beneficial method, there are some drawbacks also such as the candidates are unable to interact with the organization physically and get a sense of their organizational culture, there may be technical issues at the time of interview, some applicants are unable to find calm and professional background to hold the video interview, some may not possess appropriate technology (computer with a good quality camera and high speed internet facility) (Joshi & et al, 2020).

References

 

Armstrong, M. & Taylor, S., 2014. Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 13 ed. s.l.:Kogan Page Limited.[online] Accessed on 29^th November 2023.

Blackman, M., 2017. The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Recruitment, Selection and Employee Retention,. 1 ed. s.l.: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published. [online] Accessed on 27^th November 2023.

Bell, J., and Waters, S. (2014). Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First Time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science, 6th ed. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. [online] Accessed on 29^th November 2023.

Joshi, A. & et al, 2020. Video Interviewing- A Review and Recommendations for Implementation in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond. s.l.:Elsevier Inc.. [online] Accessed on 27^th November 2023.

Toldi, N. L., 2010. Job applicant reactions to the use of video interviewing as a selection tool. [online] Accessed on 29^th November 2023.