Information Gathering and Data Eliciting
Information Gathering and Data Eliciting
The interviewing team should take time to prepare the interview questions, determine the skills required for the project and forecast any concerns that may arise from other parties during the process. The team should also acquaint themselves with background information on the interviewees.
Step Two: Outlining objectives
The objectives of the interview should be well highlighted before the actual process; this is essential in ensuring that the right skills are selected for the project. In addition, the team should also identify the professional objectives of each interviewee and aim to highlight how the project will help achieve these goals. The objectives of the project should be communicated to the candidate before the interview, and should be restated during the process.
Step Three: Identification of unique skills
The interviewing team should be keen to recognize any special skills that a candidate may possess, and to identify the manner in which these skills can be tapped to add value to the project.
Step Four: Identification of people skills
Technical skills are vital for the success of the project; however, the possession of people skills is imperative for teamwork during the project. These skills should be identified during the interview based on how the candidate interacts with the panel.
Step Five: Short listing
Individuals that meet the previous steps should be selected for further scrutiny and vetting. Additional steps may include verifying the skills identified during the interviewing process, for example, unique skills can be tested using dummy projects.
Selection of Participants for Interviews and JAD System
The team selected to participate in JAD workshops should include company employees who are able to offer solutions to the problem. Participants are selected from different departments to increase interactions with each other. The first step in selecting participants for an interview is creating a list of the characteristics that they should have. These may include age, geographic region, marital status or income (Miller, 2001). The second step does entail identifying and sampling individuals that meet the sample criteria. This stage is followed by asking participants to offer suggestions for other participants who qualify for an interview. For example, a participant in an online interview can be asked to forward the link to other friends who share the same relevant characteristics.
Differences between Structured and Unstructured Interviews
A typical interview heavily relies on the job description, as well as, the company’s policies. A structured interview is more standardized, and the order of the questions often remains the same for each applicant. Structured interviews aim at ensuring fairness and equality by reducing biases. Comparisons between answers in a structured interview can be made easily as compared to an unstructured interview. In an unstructured interview, questions can be altered according to the respondents intelligence and knowledge about the subject.
Questions asked in a structured interview are close-ended while those asked in an unstructured interview are open-ended (Copeland, 2006). Structured interviews, therefore, limit themselves to specific events while the questions in unstructured interviews are designed to know the candidate's depth of knowledge. Answers in a structured interview are responding in the same context and are quantitative in nature. In an unstructured interview, the interviewer allows the interview process to flow freely and ask specific questions that enable the interviewee to analyze a particular situation.
References
Copeland, J. (2006). A semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of diagnosis and mental state in the elderly: the Geriatric Mental State Schedule. I. Development and reliability. Psychol Med, 6(3), 439-449.
Miller, P. (2001). Inpatient diagnostic assessments: 1. Accuracy of structured vs. unstructured interviews.Psychiatry Research, 105(3), 255-264.
