As a supervisor, I get to conduct interviews fairly frequently. The company I work for has base questions the interviewer must ask and then we can add additional questions as needed. These questions range from general knowledge questions relating to the position to behavioral questions. Most of the positions I interview for are entry-level positions, so generally I am interviewing candidates in their twenties or candidates looking for a part time retirement job. As an interviewer I find the behavioral question most helpful especially regarding candidates looking for one of their first jobs. I find the process that my company uses to be effective as a framework for interviewing candidates.
The only issue I find is that regardless of the framework a company uses, if the interviewer has not been trained well in employee selection it can make the process difficult. I wish that my company gave more training to supervisors on how to hire effectively. I feel that through classes that I have taken at OSU I have a good understanding of how to be more selective in hiring. Companies do themselves a disservice if their supervisors have little training in hiring as this will increase turnover, due to incorrect hiring decisions. The only training that my company provides to its supervisors is a one hour “Employee Selection” training. This unfortunately is ineffective if the supervisor is less experienced in this area themselves. I have also noticed that different supervisors have vastly different traits that they prefer in a candidate, even if on paper the candidates are similar. In summary, a framework for interviews is important but it does little to improve hiring decisions if proper training is not given to supervisors.
