“Good morning, I am from ……company. We have received your application. You have been shortlisted for preliminary interview. Please come at ………… on …………”.

Receiving a call from a reputed organization, the candidate thought that being shortlisted in itself an achievement. On the day of interview, he took shower, went for haircut and wore best suit he had. When his turn came, he wished himself good luck and went inside the meeting hall where five interview panelists were waiting for him. Hardly he spent 10 minutes inside the interview room and came out very relaxed. What really happened inside the closed door of interview room? 

In the interview room, once the candidate came, most of the interview panelists were impressed by his personality, sense of dressing and the attire of the candidate. Immediately, one of the HOD put 5 stars on his interview marking sheet on leadership, 
personality, cultural fit criteria. Other panelists asked few questions on past experiences, his salary expectations and his notice period. Most of interview panelists marked him 5 stars. There was one interview panelist who found the candidate did not fit the role as this candidate lacked required experiences. Since he was the youngest one in the panel, he did not have choice but to agree with the decision. Also, other interviewers hardly bothered to ask his opinion.

In the above scenario of the interview, what really went wrong? Following could be probable errors/issues that could have occurred:

1)    Biasness/Error of Interviewer- Most of the interviewers were influenced by the personality of the candidate. One positive aspect overshadowed while making decision by most of interviewers. This is halo effect. 
2)    Groupthink- One interviewer agreed on the decision made by majority without sharing his individual opinion.
3)    Lack of structured questions- Interview timing was so less. So, lack of preparation in terms of structured questions from 5 interview panelists could be another issue.
4)     Overconfident by interviewers- Some senior interviewer panel may have mindset that I am ‘pro’ at interviewing and can easily judge people in the first impression.
5)    Lack of culture of participative approach- Neither senior managers asked youngest panelist to share his/her opinion nor the youngest panelist dare to share his thought. There seem to be lacking participatory approach in decision making in the organization.

Above errors/ issues could most probably lead to wrong hire. Wrong hire eventually 
will be costly to an organization in the long run as misfit candidates could land up which could be liability for the organization. Organizations can not compromise on getting wrong hire only to save time of hire, or to decrease one’s Recruitment Turnaround Time.

So, what could be better ways of improving interview process for making right decisions? Following are some of the tips that could work out:

1)    Preparation before interview: 
Before interview, it’s important whether preparation has been seriously done by individual interview panelists or not. Some of prerequisites during preparation phase could be:

• Job specification, i.e. KSAs (Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes) to be clearly defined and job description to be made handy by HR in consultation with line managers. Also, HR and line managers should reflect on values that the organization believes on. These values are core beliefs that are portrayed via actions by the members of that organization, especially by the senior employees. The values that organization beliefs should get reflected in ‘A’ under KSAs. For instance, some organization encourages creative way of thinking at every levels and hence, Creativity becomes one of the important Attitudes for any position in that organization.
• Study of individual CVs, job description and job specification (competencies) thoroughly by each interviewer panelists.
•    Based on competencies and job description, questions should be prepared. Rather than HR developing one structured interview questionnaire for all, it will be more practical if all interviewer panelists develop their individual competencies based  structured  interview  questions  by
themselves ahead. 
• Interviewer training is one important initiative that HR can drive. Interviewer must have knowledge and skills in taking interviews, this requires thorough understanding of interview process. During such training, interviewers can be made aware about biasness/errors that interviewers make, techniques to create structured questions, tips on assessing candidate and giving overall scores/judgment.
• Information collected by HR prior to interview during telephonic conversation with candidates such as expectation, notice period, any job specific information, which are not part of CV, should be documented by HR and shared with interview panelists beforehand. This will avoid asking same questions during the interview and hence, saves the time.
• HR should clearly brief on job description, CTC of the mentioned position and give Realistic Job Preview (RJP) to the candidate before interview.
• HR should make candidates clear on venue, dress code, expected time period of the interview and who shall be interview panelists.
• Period of interview should be planned and communicated ahead to interview panelists.

2)    During interview:
•    First, interviewer should change one’s mindset that their role is neither to scare the candidates nor create stressful experience. Interview should ideally be pleasant experience for the candidate. Even if candidate does not get selected, he/she should feel respected. At the end, every individual that organization meets during the selection process could be one of the sources of word of mouth employer branding after he/she leaves the Interview room. 
• All required documents- such as JD, job specification, CVs, scoring sheet should be available for all panelists.
• At least one HR representative should be available to coordinate with the candidates. If unexpectedly, interview timing lengthens, HR representative should keep on updating information to remaining ones.
• If allowed, some light refreshment such as tea/coffee could be provided to the candidate while waiting.
• During interview, it’s better if functional based competencies in terms of knowledge and skills are primarily judged by functional/departmental heads. Whereas generic skills could be assessed by other interview panelists. Further, required attitudes/soft skills should be majorly focus of HR person during assessment.
• Though structured set of questions prepared ahead will be guide for interviewer, he/she should listen to each response carefully so that questions could be probed based on responses. Probing questions help in getting clarity on responses as well as getting honest responses.
• Spending substantial amount of time on each candidate is crucial rather than jumping on making decisions depending on one standalone criteria.
• Documenting scores and opinions by individual panelists is also important. After each candidate, sharing one’s thoughts by each interviewer panelist could help in making right decisions.

3)    After Interview-

• After interview, HR should immediately discuss with entire interview panelists on shortlisting candidates for further rounds. 
• Immediately, it’s better to block times  of all decision makers who  shall  be  part  of 
 next selection process.
•    Communicating individually to candidates for further rounds of selection in phone as well as via mail will be better. Even rejected candidates should be sent a mail at least.
 

Source: Liberty of HR Thoughts