r e c r uitment Keith McGregor

Keith McGregor is Director of Personnel Psychology NZ. He presents the Enhanced Interview Skills
workshop for HRINZ. Keith describes interviewing as a privileged opportunity to get to know somebody
and despite having almost 40 years interviewing experience feels he still has so much to learn.

why are job interviews

so stressful?
She was a solo mum. She
had spent four lonely and
stressful years working
to gain her degree
extramurally. A permanent
job became available at the
workplace where she was
on a short-term contract.
Finally, a chance to get off
the benefit, a chance to
start her career, a chance
to provide properly for her
young daughter and do a job
she loved with all her heart.

S
he prepared hard for the interview. She researched
interview techniques, studied the position description,
prepared examples for the competencies, thought carefully
about the reasons she wanted the job and how she could make a
difference.
The big day came. She put on her best clothes and her best
smile. She affirmed how much she loved interviews although that
didnt slow down the butterflies going crazy in her stomach. So
much hung on this one interview. Introductions out of the way,
then the first question. It was a long question that she couldnt
understand let alone answer.
Panic. She tried her best to respond but it all came out as a
jumble. She felt her face going bright red and was sure everyone
could hear her heart thumping. Then her brain simply gave up. The
next 30 minutes lasted an agonising lifetime. All the examples she
had prepared vanished. One thought blocked out all others I
have blown it.
After the interview she sat in her car and wept. It was all over,
she could never do another interview, she could never get a job,
she was useless. Four years of study down the drain.
At eight oclock that night her phone rang. It was the manager.
Congratulations, we would like to offer you the job. They had
seen how she worked and were determined to get her on board.
Surprised and thrilled, she accepted the job and has since gone
from strength to strength.
The outcome for this young woman was positive but how many
go the other way? How many people dread attending interviews?
How have we ended up with a process that can so often
undermine self-esteem and be routinely described as a major
source of stress?
For the past 80 years psychologists have researched interview
methods. Assessing people can be a challenging task, especially
when those being assessed are trying to impress and the cost of
getting it wrong can be so high. There has been a constant search
for ways to make interviewing easier, to find the silver bullet that
will eliminate the guesswork.
In 1997 David Campion and his colleagues conducted A review
of structure in the selection process in which they concluded
that interviews could be made more relevant by increasing the
degree to which they were structured. Amongst other things, they
reported enhancements such as basing all questions on, and only
on, a job analysis, rating each answer separately using behavioural
rating scales, asking every candidate the same questions, not
looking at other information such as CVs or test results before the
interview, and not discussing candidates between interviews.
As a result of this and numerous other studies, structured
interviewing variously known as competency based or behavioural
event interviewing has become widely established and it is easy
to see why. The approach appears to make perfect sense: identify
the competencies required for the job, write questions to assess
those competencies and appoint the person who gives the best
answers. Unfortunately, life is never quite that simple.

6 h um a n r e s o u r c e s December 2011 / January 2012

 Interview questions can be divided into two broad categories:
deductive and inductive. Deductive questioning involves first
identifying a job-related competency and then asking questions to
see if the candidate has that competency. For example, Tell us
about a time you had to exercise leadership skills, what did you do
and what was the outcome? Inductive questioning, on the other
hand, involves systematically collecting samples of behaviour and
then analysing this information to see what patterns they reveal.
An inductive question could be, What parts of that role did you
most enjoy getting your teeth into?
Inductive questions help us to assess attitudes and values. We
instinctively use inductive questioning when we meet someone
new at a social function. Without specifically looking for anything
we quickly gauge whether we want to continue the conversation
or end it as soon as possible. This style of questioning is non-
confrontational and from the candidates perspective may feel
more like a chat, but in reality we are gathering examples of
attitudes, likes, dislikes and experiences. Research has found that
an inductive approach can identify undesirable personality traits
more effectively than a deductive style.
Deductive questioning is useful when assessing specific skills. If
the role calls for project management skills, direct questioning can
be used to assess the candidates project management knowledge
and experience. However, deductive questioning has to be handled
carefully, particularly when interviewing anxious or inexperienced
candidates or people from cultures which discourage self
promotion. Conversely, candidates who are adept at creating the
right impression can use our deductive questions to work out what
we are looking for and construct an impressive' answer.
To predict how a candidate will perform in the job we need to
gain a reliable assessment of their knowledge, skills and attitudes
in order to match these with the knowledge, skills and attitudes
required in the role. At the same time we want to ensure that
We live in uncertain times when anything can and is happening.
Are you thinking about
Your business today?
Your business tomorrow?
What if?
Are you ready for anything?
What are you going to do if you have no power, no people, no planes, or no pcs?
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the candidate leaves the interview with their self-esteem intact
and feeling that they have been assessed fairly. The best way
to achieve this is by using a balance of inductive and deductive
questions.
Returning to our solo mum. To have made this a positive
experience for all concerned the panel could have begun with a
structured behaviour-sampling approach by using a series of inductive
questions. They could have invited her to talk about her studies, her
part-time jobs, her short-term contracts and so forth. For each of
these they could have explored the facets she had enjoyed and any
she disliked or found challenging. Our solo mum would have found
these questions easy to answer but without realising it would have
revealed a great deal about her personality. By noting the positives
and negatives the panel could have quickly built up a detailed picture
of what motivated and de-motivated their candidate while at the
same time gaining an insight into her skill sets.
And when, while talking about her work, she mentioned an
activity that equated to a required competency for example,
editing videos the panel could have used deductive questioning.
They would have drilled down, seeking the detail they needed
to satisfy themselves that she actually had the necessary skills.
Again, this would have caused her little stress as she would have
been talking about something she had actually done. In the event
that she was stretching the truth this would also become obvious
as the questions probed the detail.
Our solo mum was appointed because the organisation had
seen her in action and knew that she was very good at her
job. Had they not known her and relied purely on her interview
performance they would have lost a good candidate and left a
vulnerable person feeling even more vulnerable. Interviewing
that draws on a balance of inductive and deductive questioning is
scientifically valid, easy to carry out, enjoyable for the candidate
and yet allows accurate predictions of on-the-job behaviour.
Contact us now to nd out more
Phone: 09 485 3270
Email: servicedesk@herrmann.co.nz
Web: www.herrmann.co.nz
December 2011 / January 2012 human resources 7