Introduction
Recruitment and selection is a difficult process, as it involves various elements to judge the right candidate for the organization. However, today, there are several ways of judging the candidate for a given organization. There are written tests, group discussions, providing tasks, making them solve problems in groups, and finally, conducting personal interviews. The Human Resource Management tries to evaluate the competencies and skills of an individual from several perspectives (Strasak et al., 2007). We would like to judge the candidates on the basis of their behaviors, attitudes, knowledge, and skill-set demonstrated in the group discussions and personal interviews.
During the group discussion, there are 6-8 candidates, allowed to discuss on any of the topic provided to them. It generally, lasts for 10-12 minutes. During this period, the assessors will not only be looking at the knowledge of the candidates, but will also be judging the candidates on the basis of how they are demonstrating their knowledge. It might happen that, not all the candidates will be having the desired knowledge on a given subject knowledge (Lewis, 2008). And, hence, they try to gather the information from the discussion, and then provide their opinion. While, there are some others, who will be constantly interrupting the discussion, and will be trying to deflect the entire discussion.
For the assessors, it is important to assess the body language, the behaviors, and the problem-solving approach adapted by each of these candidates. It will help them in judging the best candidate for their organization. During the entire discussion, the evaluators will be assessing on various parameters, on the basis of which they will be providing their final judgments.
Interview Process
The next is the interview process, which might last for 15-20 minutes, depending upon the interviewer. As the first step of judging a candidate, the interviewer will ask him whether he has got the job description. There will be a premeditated list of pertinent questions in order to ask each of the candidates that have applied for the job (Sparrow, 2012). These questions will focus upon the subject knowledge, general knowledge, current awareness, and some of the business tasks.
Post of Client Service Manager
Let us consider the case of selecting the candidate for the post of Client Service Manager. Now, there will be several people already working in this position inside the organization. Hence, the interviewer will be aware of the facts associated with it. He will be identifying the exact skill-set in the candidates that will match with the requirements of the Client Service Manager. As we know, the Client Service Manager has many subordinates in several working positions. Hence, it is important for the candidate, if he can delegate with them. The public relationship capacity of the manager is a must for this post. The interviewer will check and detect if the candidate has any such certification regarding this job profile.
During the interview, the interviewer will be offering problems to see how the candidate reacts with it within a short span of time. Justifying applicant’s ability of taking research, providing seller services, discussing the thought, and outlining the value of clients is a big part of his execution. He will thus, try to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate, so that it becomes easy for him to judge at the end.
While working as a Client Service Manager one needs to learn about several skills and attitudes for a given job profile. Hence, during the entire candidate selection process, the interviewer will be assessing certain skills related to - taking of initiatives, demonstration of creativity and innovation, social interactions, leadership, rationale used for solving given set of problems, and physical capabilities (Klarsfeld, 2009).
Interviewing the Candidate
Conducting a Client Service Manager interview requires someone to be technically adept and expert in questioning. Interviewing a candidate for the post of the Client Service Manager is a tough call, and hence, one needs to prepare a set of questions before conducting the interview. These questions will test the ambitions, working ability, integrity, transparency, and legitimacy of a given candidate.
- Question – Tell me about yourself? Describe your schooling, educational qualifications, experience, and your interest in this job
Through the answer provided for this question, the interviewer will develop a brief idea about the personality and the overall approach of the candidate in a given interview. It will highlight his confidence and communication tactics during this stage.
- Question – Tell me the concept working behind the Client Service Manager.
This question will provide the interviewer a consummate idea of the candidate. He will know the technical knowledge possessed by the candidate. Half of the process is completed over here, if the candidate provides either positive or negative reply to this question.
- Question – Tell me about the organization that focuses more on services rather than the products. What are their core-competencies associated with the service?
This question will test the general knowledge and the out-of-the-box thinking of the candidate. It will provide the interviewer with an idea on how the candidate is well aware of the practical knowledge on a given post. He will also check, how the candidate is approaching to this answer, if he is not having an idea on any of the organization, but is aware of the major services implemented by several organizations.
- Question – Providing a short Case Study on a given job post.
The question on a short case study will help the interviewer to test the analytical, logical, rational, theoretical, and practical skills associated with a given job post. It will also help eh interviewer to get identified about the management style and the way of handling a given problem. It will also test the nature of the candidate during such a scenario.
- Question – Tell me about your work experience in the past organization. Describe the job role. Provide one example on the challenge that you identified, and the ways adapted by you to overcome it.
This question will provide the interviewer with an idea on the overall work experience of the candidate. If the candidate brings performance appraisals of his past experience, the interviewer should take a look at it. It will help him to judge supporting skills and problem-solving skills of the candidate. It will also help in identifying his communication skills with the senior employees of the organization.
- Question – What are your hobbies? How do you spare time for them?
These are general HR-based questions to check the nature of the candidate. If the interviewer finds it supportive and friendly, it will help him a lot. Many such questions can be asked at this stage since it will be a light-hearted discussion. In addition, it will be an informal talk to end the interview.
Closing the interview
It is important to close the interview, with a thank-you note. The interviewer should conclude the interview, and inform the candidate to wait for the final results.
Assessing the Candidate
The interviewer will also be assessing on, whether the candidate is losing temper or not. He will be checking his mood during different times, and will provide him marks accordingly. It is very much important, to identify the nature of the candidate, as it will be very much important for the respective organization. There might be some candidates who will often get angry and will damage the entire working environment. Hence, the organization will not prefer such candidates for the post of a given job.
As the body language of the candidate really matters within the short period given in the interview, it is equally important to measure the body posture and eye contact of the candidate. Since customer experiences are crucial to the sustainability of an organization, the interviewer is always looking for outstanding client service from a Client Service Manager (Srivastava & Thakur, 2013). He will be thereby, looking out for the candidates who are well aware of the meaning of the service.
Further, to understand how a Client Service Manager would serve people, the interviewer will ask the candidate directly about his past proven track record of providing efficient services. In addition, conducting an interview for the post of Client Service Manager requires someone, to be technically adept and expert in questioning.
Hence, it is important for the interviewer to assess the talent and expertise on the basis of candidate’s ambitions and approach of working. The interview needs to test the abilities, values of integrity, transparency, and legitimacy so as to choose the best candidate for the organization.
Since the time for each candidate is not more than 30 minutes, premeditated questionnaires should be completed within time so that the interviewer can judge the performance of all the candidates for a given post. The candidate’s immediate knowledge regarding Client Service Manager’s details will help the interviewer develop a consummate idea about the candidates’ skills and experience in this field.
Create a comfortable decorum
Besides, taking the interview and conducting group discussions, the interviewer needs to let the candidate feel comfortable in the environment and build a rapport from the beginning of the selection process. Getting introduced with the handshake, having a little informal talk will beget the associative environment between the interviewer, and the candidates (Burnouf, 2004). It is important to provide all the information and norms associated with the selection process to all the candidates. The interviewer should inform the candidates about the privacy clauses associated with this process.
The questions should be open-ended in nature. The interview should consider the problem from his perspective and show that he emphasizes with candidate’s situation. Nodding the head appropriately, will prove that the interviewer is listening to what the candidate is replying. Paying attention to what he says is extremely important, as it will not only help him in judging the candidate, but will also maintain the interest of the entire selection process (Scipes, 2010).
There are sufficient reasons to complete the whole interview of this candidate on time. If there are additional questions that have been unanswered, or wrongly answered, the interviewer can repeat those questions again to judge the position. The interviewer may ask the participant to provide right information regarding his personal details such as age, educational qualifications, and experience in the current working field.
The interview process and the group discussion are important for any organization to hire the best candidates. And, all these processes generally take more time rather than an individual meeting. However, it is possible to find viable candidates through a single interview. A well-designed conduction and agenda for the interview will let the interviewer know the best candidates for his organization (Collard, 2007).
Conclusion
It is important for the interviewer and the hiring team to create a decorum of the group discussion and personal interview such that, it will make the candidates feel energetic and motivated to interact with each other. It can initiate a more relax surrounding for the applicants. While necessarily there is the plan to have traditional questioning and answering sessions the interview room can be adorned with the classroom style rows of chairs.
Both, during the group discussion and personal interview, the panel of interviewers will introduce themselves. They will be providing a briefing about their organization and the current job post. They will also ecxplain the agenda of the entire hiring process. Further, the candidates will introduce them to the panel. They will be informing their personal details, and this is how the process for the hiring will begin.
However, at the end, it will be a challenging task in front of the interviewers, to select the best ones. For any confusion, they can adapt to some other method to choose the best one out of the two candidates. Both the interviewers and the interviewees have to follow certain business norms during this process. Finally, the interviewers need to announce their results, and inform the winning candidates about the further procedures (Deardorff, 2009). They can wish good luck to those that were not selected during this process.
References
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