Interview Skills for Small Business Owners
Tips For Interviewing for Recruitment and Selection of Good Staff
May 14, 2009
Small business owners neglect the recruitment and selection process – especially the interviewing of candidates – at their peril. If interviewing seems too much trouble, consider the problems of poor performance, customer dissatisfaction and high staff turnover. The following interview tips will assist busy employers to ask the right questions to get the skills and qualities desired.
Compile Selection Criteria
To get good staff with the skills and attitudes required, the small business employer needs to clarify these qualities in his or her own mind (see additional details of this at foot of page) and state them precisely in the job advertisement. If the applicants know exactly what the owner is looking for, they can expect to be tested for those capabilities at interview.
The Purpose of the Interview
It is highly likely that, after culling unsuitable candidates, the top ten applicants have very similar educational background, qualifications and work experience that meet all the requirements of the position. Why call them to interview if they do not? It goes without saying that all are honest, reliable, and punctual, can accept responsibility, work well in a team, etc. They will exhibit all these stock employment virtues that are placed in job ads. Who would be crazy enough to say that they don’t? It is only by well-directed questions in a thoroughly prepared interview session that these claims can be tested and the right person selected for the job.
Writing the Interview Questions
To be of value, interview questions must be directed to the essential and desirable criteria laid out in the job advertisement. However, questions that just require the applicant to regurgitate the work experience or education details they have written in their application are irritating to the applicant and of no value to the employer.
Open-ended Questions
Questions need to be open-ended, rather than closed. Put simply, this means that the applicant cannot give a yes, no, or single word answer. Thus, “Are you an honest, reliable person?” is a closed question and quite useless, as no candidate is going to answer “No!” The interviewer is no closer to deciding which applicant is better.
An open question requires the candidates to think and talk, and gives the interviewer a chance to evaluate them. For example, “In your past employment, which tasks did you enjoy most and why?” This question can give the interviewer a chance to evaluate the applicant’s approach to the job, their preference for say, creative work over repetitive, solo work over group work, and leadership potential.
Testing for Evidence of Skills and Attributes
If applicants claim X years’ experience in a particular role, or knowledge of a certain procedure or software package, it is perfectly legitimate and sound practice to ask them to describe how they would complete some task that should be well within their scope.
For example:
- “You mention that at High Hill Gas Station, you were on the late shift and solely responsible for closing up at midnight. What did that entail? What procedures did you follow?”
- “We do a lot of roofing repairs, Bill. Can you explain how you would go about replacing slates around a chimney?”
- “Sarah, what stock control procedures were used in the delicatessen section you managed at your last employment?”
Selected tasks should be straightforward, required in the position advertised and, hence, within the presumed capability of the applicant.
Hypotheticals to Test for Character Attributes, Creative Thinking and Rapid Response
Hypothetical situations as interview questions are valuable but dangerous, as many people, already under interview stress, can perform poorly when they might manage quite capably in the real situation.
They can be a “What would you do if…” question or a full role-playing scenario with one of the interviewers. For example, a ‘what if’ question might ask: “What would you do if a long-standing customer wants to return a garment they bought a week ago but can’t display a sales docket?”
Role plays might test whether a potential employee can cope under stress, has good customer skills, or can think on their feet. It is quite unfair to include such questions if they are largely irrelevant. If the employee would not encounter a particular situation, they should not be faced with them, at interview.
However, if it is quite likely that, on Day One of employment, without further training or advice, the employee will have to deal with aggressive, rude customers, then it is reasonable to role play such an encounter.
By delivering searching questions that are relevant to the required skills and attributes of the position, the small business owner can guarantee they have identified the best applicant and, for the sake of some time and effort lost in the process, will possibly get better results from the employee and reduce staff turnover. For a detailed account of the importance of recruitment and interviewing to small business, see the following Suite101 article.
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