The tried and tested methodologies that existed for conducting job interviews have now become redundant, say experts. Hence, in a quest to hire the best, its a must to revamp existing techniques and rectify the loopholes that are present in the current interview processes
Sanofi-aventis India recently hired a senior level manager. The candidate was interviewed by three separate panels. Her probable immediate manager and senior managers from the team interviewed her to evaluate her in areas of technical competence; the HR manager focused on specific behavioural competencies required for the role and the team of senior leadership including the business head and senior director-HR focused on the candidates strategic focus and her ability to culturally adapt herself to the organisational culture. They all exchanged notes from all levels and ensured they were fully satisfied with the candidates performance in each of these areas before taking the hiring decision. The above case studies clearly indicate the new approach many organisations are adopting towards job interviewing techniques to ensure the right fit gets hired. At a time when organisations are investing money and time towards grooming talent, they cannot afford to have a wrong hire on board. And such mistakes could be avoided during the interview stage itself and HR needs to exercise caution to ensure just that. Todays environment is charged with dynamism. With everything, right from an organisations values to its endobjectives undergoing a change, it is imperative that obsolete methods of gauging potential employees are done away with and innovative ways are adopted, says Chetan Shah, MD, Synygy India. Several experts complain that there are many bloopers that HR commit while interviewing prospective employees.
Shah expresses, Certain clichd questions like where do you see yourself five years down the line , continue to be asked the objective may be essential, but the way to get an answer to that question needs to undergo a change. I feel that organisations need to train their personnel better when it comes to interviewing. The managers involved in interviewing must have a clear idea about the needs of the role as well as the organisation and should be supported by appropriate tools. A simple example would be the Interview Evaluation sheet . Its mostly taken for granted and many a times, is just a collection of some generic parameters rather than a real reflection of an organisations need, says Pradeep Vaishnav, senior director HR, sanofiaventis India. According to Rajiv Krishnan, MD, DDI India, in interview after interview, we see that interviewers make the same mistakes - they are sometimes not prepared or may not have the CV with them; they may not have a clear plan of questions and therefore, may ask leading questions probing unnecessarily into a person's private life. Additionally, interviewers sometimes take over the discussion and do not follow the 80-20 rule, where the candidate is allowed to talk 80 per cent of the time. We also sometimes look for clones of ourselves - people who studied at the same institutions or have worked in the same organisations and so on. Another danger is to look for the good candidate and not the right candidate , Krishnan adds. Punkaj Shankar, global head HR and RMG, Infogain Corporation enlists a few flaws that exist in the current job interview processes: 1) People tend to react to first impressions and sometimes let one positive attribute imply that all other aspects of a persons behaviour will be positive. An employee may turn out to be not as skilled or personable as was initially believed and the performance of the organisation deteriorates and 2) business conditions or growing demands can force a relaxation in hiring standards. If they fog the mirror, theyre a strong candidate. Many people overlook signs of trouble in their haste to relieve the burden on the business.
Its therefore evident that there are no flawless interviewing techniques that HR can use to hire the right talent. However, there are several unique, innovative measures that will help you keep such bloopers at bay. After all, HR cannot afford, quite literally to have a wrong hire, especially during such testing times, aboard.
(Viren Naidu,TOI,23 Dec,2009)
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