As a human resource specialist, part of your job is to make sure every detail is exhumed from the applicant. Yes. Every single piece of evidence that could help you determine if the person is qualified for the job post. Attention to detail is critical in this line of work.
To play the role of a recruitment specialist, you need to equip yourself with the necessary skills and abilities. You also need to be very precise in throwing questions and determining whether the person is telling the truth or not. As a precaution, you should use a checklist as a guide throughout the interview.
The most anxious feeling—aside from standing at the edge of a tall building 1000 feet above the ground—is when you are in a room alone with the recruitment specialist in a job interview. That was quite a vivid simile, I might say. But, honestly, most of us who have been through a job interview has also, probably, had that tense moment. But as the experts say, confidence is the key.
One way to fight this interview fright is to prepare an interview checklist. For an applicant, an interview checklist could be defined as a list that contains a series of questions and planned answers as well as the appropriate responses and behavior in an interview. A human resource specialist, on the other hand, could still have slightly the same definition about what an interview checklist is.
For the latter, it is a record of the questions to be thrown at the applicant. It could also work as well as a sheet to jot down the responses. They use this as a basis to assess and determine the interviewee’s suitability for the job. An interview checklist is a device to make sure that the interview is successful and to avoid missing out on important details that could be of vital significance.
This question might sound a little bit silly, but it is something that bothered me while writing this article so I might as well dig a little deeper on it. To provide you, my dear readers, a more vivid explanation of how helpful an interview checklist is, I have conducted an interview with one of my friends in the human resource industry whose identity I cannot divulge for confidentiality purposes. What I will be presenting are the highlights of our conversation.
An interview checklist is somehow considered as the go-to cheat sheet by a recruitment specialist. It provides you a guide for a better flow of conversation and to avoid repeating the same questions over and over again. There is also a funny side in bringing a checklist during an interview; a little experiment was performed to see how applicants would react upon the sight of a paper on hand. At times when the interview’s checklist is visible, and you look at it from time to time, the applicant seems a little intimidated and stiffer. On the other hand, without a checklist, the applicant appears more confident and expressive.
While it is good to have a conversational approach and keep a friendly tone, it is not an effective way to conduct an interview in hiring the best candidates. Because those who can compose themselves under pressure and maintain logical and straight responses are the ones, who are most likely to be successful and passionate about the job. With an interview checklist, you can prepare questions that are most relevant while at the same time, focus on the behavior and attitude of the applicant.
Another use of an interview checklist is that you can finish the interview on time once all the questions are asked, and you have enough information to come up with a decision.
This part of the article is where you will learn about the things to do before, during, and after conducting an interview — it is indeed a tedious and simultaneously rewarding job to be a recruitment specialist. Apart from the truth that you are doing your company a favor by selecting the best candidates, you also learn different things from what the applicants are sharing. However, before getting into that frenzied feeling, let us talk about the things to do in an interview.
“There is no noble task that is easy,” I always believe this line and use it every time I encounter something difficult and outside my comfort zone. Human as we are, we have this instinct to survive and somehow, somewhere, hidden in every spec of our genes, there are built-in spaces of self-preservation and a will to battle every single challenge.
The same view in life could be used in our day-to-day activities, even when dealing with things at work. As a recruitment specialist, it is a typical scene to encounter people with different cultural orientations. Sometimes, the most challenging part is trying to decipher someone’s personality and figuring out the right approach. Keep in mind that there is no set standard manner of establishing a conversation with somebody since what may seem appropriate for you could be interpreted differently by the other person.
For example, handing someone an object with your left hand may be perfectly fine in other countries. However, in India, they try to avoid using that particular hand when delivering a gift as it is seen to be rude. They consider the left hand dirty since most of the time you use it in nasty activities like when you answer the call of nature. To make sure you are safe from any trouble, practice precaution. Be careful when dealing with things you are unfamiliar with and do a little research to keep you informed — the same method should be applied when writing an interview checklist.
Interview checklists are considered vital in ensuring the success of the recruitment process. You don’t only need to learn how to ask the right questions but also when to ask them. So the predicament should become finding out the best way to write an interview checklist… unless of course, we have the steps that you need.
The interview checklist is just one of the many ways to make the recruitment process a success. It is a simple list to guide you, the interviewer, in choosing the best candidate most suited for the job. However, never underestimate what it can do because most failures come from simply ignoring how things work.
No matter how difficult the job may seem, always be positive, and appreciate the value of your work. Knowing what questions to ask during an interview does not only benefit you and the company, but you are also providing an opportunity to help the applicant get the job they have been longing to have.