HR Interview

HR Interview

This article revolves around understanding role of HR in selection process. Is it limited to short-listing of candidates as per ‘check-list’ of JD / Desired Candidate profile or there is more to it?

Every activity executed by HR Department is crucial in its own capacity. When we try to understand role of HR in an organisation, an oversimplified version of explanation can be read as ‘HR has two major functions, get the right Resources to be a part of the Organisation and Second to ensure those Resources continue to be with the Organisation being highly productive at all times’. Activities like timely payroll, RnR, T&D, Employee Engagement, PMS, etc are all subsets of Second part. If we do the First part right later becomes much easier; i.e. if we get the right person IN with adequate skills, expertise, right attitude, right expectations, etc., keeping the employee motivated and productive with long association becomes much easier.

In an attempt to understand how to do the First part right, Hire the right Resources, lets determine the factors impacting the Second Part of HR’s Role. All the efforts in Second part are focused towards:

o   Having highly productive employee at all stages of career (tenure) with company.

o   Retaining such productive employees.

Highly productive employees are a result of adequate skill, expertise, experience, aptitude (EQ & IQ) and high motivation level. Whereas, attrition causes are mainly related to Growth opportunities, Work environment and Cultural fitment (Values driven in company).

While acquiring the right resource, we usually refer to a check-list as described in Job Description / Desired Candidate profile that covers required Skills, Experience, Expertise and Academics. Well most of this can be better judged by their Reporting Heads or Technical Managers. HR Interview is a function to evaluate fitment of the candidates whether they can be Motivated, Upgraded as per dynamic needs of organisation, would provide good work environment to others. would drive the culture aimed at and their aptitude (IQ & EQ).

Determining these aspects of a candidate’s behaviour is a matter of high subjectivity. There are few Behaviourial Analysis Techniques to evaluate, but grasp certain level of understanding in absence of tests there can be certain guided means. While trying to define guidelines for HR Interview it is imperative to understand the cause that leads to Motivation, Cultural differences, Behaviour, etc.

An important aspect to inspect is ‘Expectation’ what the candidate has from the Organisation. Understanding purpose or Motivating factor that prompted the candidate to part ways with previous organisation would form the basis of ‘Expectations’ from new Employer. This ‘Expectation’ has to be ‘Realistic’ and ‘Deliverable’ by your Organisation. By ‘Realistic’ we are referring to rational and practical outlook; for example a candidate looking forward to exit current organisation as salaries are not revised every 6 months. This is an extreme exaggerated example, but the message is to look for ‘Realistic’ expectations. An equally important element is ‘Deliverable’ expectation. Candidate’s expectation may be ‘Realistic’ but knowing your Organisation’s policies & procedures, you need to be sure that the same can be delivered; for example a candidate seeking freedom to execute assigned responsibilities at will, however, you know that Organisation’s processes are very astutely defined and variance is seldom accepted. In this scenario if the candidate joins, there would be huge ‘Expectation Mismatch’ leading to ‘Demotivation’. Employees hired with ‘Realistic’ and ‘Deliverable’ expectations are easy to motivate as you know exactly what to do when to keep them happy.

Another crucial factor is ‘Cultural Fitment’. ‘Core Values’ driven / aimed to be driven by Management impacts behaviour of people in the Organisation which shapes ‘Culture’. While identifying ‘Cultural Fitment’ what we are probing into is ‘Behaviour’ in various scenarios and eventually understand the ‘Core Values’ that make an individual. This dimension of HR Interview is developed over experiential and observation learning in the Organisation by HR. HR can make a list of ‘Desired Behaviourial Response’ in various scenarios. While we throw various scenarios at candidate, their behaviourial responses should be compared with ‘Desired Response’ to determine ‘Cultural Fitment’.

What we have covered yet is all about ‘Past’ of the candidate. All the Skills, Expertise. Realistic Maturity level, Values, etc. are developed over a period of time. However, ‘Potential’ of going to next level is also an indispensable element of assessment. The ‘Aptitude’; i.e. natural ability determines ‘Potential’ to move on to next level. We have standard EQ and IQ tests available to complete the exercise and obtain meticulous conclusion from HR Interview.