How To Conduct An Interview: A Few Tips

Introduction

Interviewing is one of the main functions of an organization. Based on the interview, the right people are selected for the organization. ABC Inc. is one of the well-known companies that recruit many brilliant people. It originated as a consultancy company. It is a company that is primarily engaged in consultancy, technological services and outsourcing processing works. It helps the customers become good performers in business. There are offices of ABC in two hundred cities all over the world. There are about 187,000 employees working in this global organization. This company concentrates on call centres, IT-enabled services and Business Processing organizations (BPO). Training and developing programs are based on the needs of trainees. Good training programs and supportive environment are the factors responsible for the company’s success. For success of these programs a good planning is needed. “Also, it’s not important to stick to the plan for the sake of the plan. The plan will likely change as you go along” (Mcnamara, 2008, Don’t worry about whether your plan is perfect or not- the plan is guide, not law, para.1).

Needs Assessment Instrument

Prepare a needs assessment instrument that determines the pre-training needs of your organization and will reflect the focus areas of your training session.

ABC does need assessment in a systematic way as to how the work should be done. They are related to the performance of a person. Training must be given to an individual by evaluating his skills. Sometimes the evaluation presumptions may be wrong. So needs can be identified carefully and planned correctly. ABC spent time by giving proper training to individuals and looking forward to their needs. Need evaluation leads to the development and success of the company. Cost requirement will be more for training. But ABC does not consider this as a problem; they only give key importance to workforce by evaluating their needs. This is another factor leading to their success.This company verifies the need evaluation by comparing genuine performance of the company and existing standards. Thus, the company can do their training program based on the needs of the workforce. All needs for training begin with a need assessment. There are three levels of need assessment. They are organizational analysis, Task analysis and Individual analysis.

The objective of interviewing in ABC is to identify the performance or needs required in an organization which helps in attaining the enterprise goals. If needs are recognized correctly, This Company can increase its productivity by employing high-performance employees. Need assessment is the stepping stone for evaluating performance. The needs of employees can be identified by looking at their weaknesses and identifying areas where improvements are needed. The problems of workforce must be recognized and solutions must be provided for those problems. The need assessment may be based on the problems like absenteeism, productivity, turnover, working conditions etc. It prepares need assessment by providing maximum motivation to the employees working in the enterprise. Need assessment rationalizes current programs of the Company. It develops new program by conducting evaluation. Need assessment helps to solve business problems to some extent. KAL focuses on time, effort, skills and resources. It needs assessment may be organized by the client they are dealing with. Need assessment interviews are conducted in the organization. It may take time while interviewing, but it ensures what is exactly needed for an individual. A good need assessment with excellent interviewing may help the business organization achieve success. The client will be pleased when a good assessment is conducted. Employee turnover can be reduced, which is the main problem faced by an organization. It can be conducted by asking questions, conducting tests, interviews and by giving sample works. The key to successful need assessment is providing accurate data about the target viewers. Each enterprise has got its own advantages as well as disadvantages. Training and development are the best methods for need evaluation. Goals of need assessment must be given to the employees. “Similar to the nature of training goals, learning objectives should be designed and worded to be “SMARTER”” (Mcnamara, 2008, Identify some preliminary learning objectives for each new area of knowledge or skills that you need to learn, para.1).Efficiency and effectiveness are ). based on need assessment.

Task Analysis

Prepare a task analysis of the skills(s) you will be teaching. This will involve a step-by-step outline listing of the skills, knowledge and behaviors necessary to perform the skill in the order the skills will be taught based on the results of the needs assessment.

Achieving different types of skills is one of the important things required in this competitive world. Required skills are of different types. But acquiring those skills require lots of effort from one’s side. One can attain skills by undergoing training, or by taking part in all kinds of activities.

A success factor of an organization revolves around the performance of employees in the organization. Performance of an employee will increase only by developing his skill sets. Strategy or methods adopted by organizations for employees will vary from organization to organization. It is because each organization follows different techniques. These techniques will be implemented by the head of the organization after a long discussion. This implemented strategy or methods won’t be same as they depend upon the situation. The training provided to a fresher in the company will be different from the training given to an experienced employee.

Presently many organizations are ready to give training to the employees so as to stay in the competitive field. To stay at the top, effective training must be given to the employees of the organization. Employees are one of the important parts or key players in the organization. Depending upon their performance, good or bad results come up. Thus, to make the employee fit for the present and future, effective training programs have to be conducted.

Skills can be developed by effective training and development techniques. Through this system, one will be capable of facing any kind of challenges that come in one’s way. As soon as an employee is inducted into a company, there will be classes or sessions (which may go on for few days) which are normally handled by experts in their respective fields. The session includes skill development programs for employees, which include orientation or motivation. This could also be termed as a training education curriculum.

The main aim of these is to bridge the gap between new workers and existing workers in the company. This ensures smooth flow of work in the company. The main motto is to ensure proper communication among employees which is very imperative. A lot of research needs to be conducted by the management team responsible for training new personnel. In simple terms, “What specifically must be accomplished (that is, what objectives must be reached) in order for you to reach those goals? Which of these objectives require learning new areas of knowledge or skills? These objectives are likely to become learning objectives in your training plan.” (McNamara, 2008, Determining your learning objectives and activities, para.3).

Also these days, many companies are investing large amounts for training sessions by providing skill developments for employees to stay productive in the competitive world. Another advantage in providing training is that it will help quickly identify the gap in the employee’s skill levels. Once the skill level of each employee is identified and gauged, one can accordingly adapt the training method which suits each employee. Employees must be fully adaptive to the work environment while working in the organization. All these can be assessed and analyzed at the time of conducting the interview with potential employees and workforce members.

Needs Analysis

Describe the function, goals, employees, and mission statement of an organization you have created.

The main functions are Corporate, Human Resources, and Finance.

Corporate function

ABC is a global company that covers diverse functional areas, viz., marketing, human resource, finance, quality control, IT facilities etc. Their employees are their main assets, who remain committed to the assigned assignments. The labor force cannot remain stagnant because of the ever-changing demands of the market and also to attain high performance by the clients. Workforce helps the growth of the company. A corporate body works well with a good team of workforce. Professional development of corporate function may be based on the workforce, workgroup requirements and one’s own career development. These opportunities may include skills training, on-the-job training and labor group-specific training. These help in developing skills and knowledge through on-the-job training.

HR function

Human resource function plays a significant role. It enhances ABC’s performance level. It has a wide set of responsibilities. Human resource builds up and manages a good leadership style. Workforce plays a vital role in strategic planning programs. Human resource in this company helps in recruiting and developing the skills of employees by looking after their needs.

Finance function

Finance is the lifeblood of any enterprise. Companies use outsourcing to remain competitive, but cost-cutting is also required along with it. The enterprise must consider outsourcing, not only to effect cost cuts, but also as a fundamental support to back-office function. High performance in business may provide the shareholders good returns, growth in revenue, high return on cost of capital. These are the expectations of this company for its growth in the future.

Goals of ABC

Achieving goals is one of the successes of an enterprise. The ultimate aim of the company is to select the best person who could fit the job. Through interviewing and selecting the right persons for the right jobs and giving them proper training is the goal of the enterprise. ABC promotes a complete team and entrepreneurial surrounding where employees work in team spirit, respect, and confidence to attain their goals. Another goal of the company is to provide maximum return to the shareholders. ABC gives opportunities to employees to meet new people and make friends with them; to do their work most willingly and by sharing their problems with others. Another goal of the company is to shape the skills of the people so that they do their job efficiently. The company gives remuneration at competitive market rates taking into consideration their skills and responsibilities towards the job. In addition to that, there is scope for professional growth and other benefits that may recognize their individual contribution and performance. These will encourage the workforce to work consistently, which in turn leads to attaining their specific goals. The growth of a company lies in the hands of their skilled employees who work hard to attain the organizational goals. CAL consists of a pool of such skilled employees who are selected through good interviewing procedures. Proper training and development lead to attaining the goals of the company. “Consequently, be realistic about training and development plans” (Mcnamara, 2008, Set realistic expectation, para.2).

Employees of ABC

Employees are the strength of an organization. Skilled employees who are apt for an organization are selected through interviews. ABC is a worldwide outsourcing company recruiting employees for business enterprises. They give employees interesting and challenging work as their aim is that they do their work satisfactorily. ABC expects to double its employee strength in India in about two or three years, which at present is around 19000. The company has grown quickly in India over the last few years. It had about 1000 employees only in 2003. It has amenities in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune providing services to over two hundred customers globally. Skilled professionals are working in forty developing countries. It has more than 187,000 employees spread over many countries. ABC provides good compensation and other benefits to their employees and rapid growth within the organization.

Mission of the company

Like any other organization, ABC ’s main goal is to become a leading BPO company in the world. The company always utilizes its resources and intelligence to find out new business and current technological changes. It always gives importance to requirements of clients by observing the current market situations and accordingly introduces changes. The unique feature of the company is that this inspires the employees to utilize their skills in a proper way and make better impact in the business environment. The company mainly focuses on the social and economic development. They are:

  • Allowing customers’ right to use the company’s personnel, information, resources and international networking.
  • The mutual understanding between the clients and business authorities helps to fulfill the Company’s mission.
  • Advancement of advanced business philosophy along with how the latest technology assists in growth units in developing nations.
  • In this competitive market, increasing challenges are result-oriented.
  • Instituting unions between the public, private and non-profits sectors to promote teamwork in tackling global growth plans.

Some organizations strictly focus on products, others lay more importance on introducing new technologies. But the goal of ABC is somewhat different from that. In order to get high performance, it applies new technologies that will help the client get the work done properly. ABC’s business consultants work together with clients and it helps them understand and fulfill the needs of the clients, thus they can make new solutions for critical business situations. The vision of the company is to remove poverty for which people should work together using their all potential and abilities.

Instruments to assess the training needs of the employees

Various methods are used for training in various organizations. Training may be conducted by using study materials, books, sample works and assisting the other lesser experienced workers. Training helps the employees to fully inculcate their skills so that they are more familiar with the job on which they are getting training.

However the mode of interviewing is also important since it would determine the suitability of candidate or not. Interviews could also be two-way communication systems where interviewer may need to establish rapport with candidates to assess their potential and job capabilities for the applied position. “If you want them to ask questions, specify if they’re to do so as they have them or wait until the end of the interview” (McNamara, 2008, Preparation for interview, para.4).

In most cases it is preferred that questions from applicants are reserved till the end of the deliberations so that it does not interfere with the actual recruiting process.

Summarize the “results” describing the skill needs in a table format

Table below shows different steps to devise skills of employees.

Step 1 Conducting Survey
1 This is to analyze skills of an employee. Methods, such as, focus groups and adopting one-on-one meetings could be fully used.
2 Focus groups and one-on-one meetings include different types of discussions among employees. This will result in analyzing different thoughts of the employees. This also can include asking questions, holding seminars, conducting workshops, etc.
3 The main aim of conducting these would be to analyze the response from employees. This will help to calculate the skill level of employees.
Step 2 Analyzing the results obtained while conducting the survey.
1 Performance of the employee in focus groups and one-on-one meetings must be determined. This is where actual skills of the employee lie. At this stage, actual testing of the employees takes place – whether employees can take up the responsibilities associated with the present job and also in the future.
Step 3 Training profile can be created
1 Analysis obtained from the above can be put in an easily retrievable form. For example in a table format. Based on the data collected, employees could be placed in different categories. These differentiations could be in terms of age, qualifications, experience, skill sets, etc.
Step 4 Devise various plans for training and development, including employee support and guidance for freshers and people with lesser experience.
Once the process is over, arrangements can be made to give training and development to all. This is to ensure that everyone is getting equal opportunities to learn the newer aspects of the work.
Step 5 Implementation of training session
Providing training for employees to make them fit and skilled for working.
Step 6 Evaluation of training
To make sure about the effectiveness of training. This will help to analyze the entire session and get valuable feedback about it that would provide improved editions of training programs in future.

Summarize the “results” in dialog form identifying the implication of the “results” for training

This section consists of implications of the results for training which has been described in dialog form.

Question: What’s the purpose of giving training for the employee in the company?

Interviewer: Training is one of the essential items needed in the company. The main purpose of training is to analyze and fill the gaps between what’s desirable for efficient performance and current level of performance.

Question: Why effective analysis is needed for training?

Interviewer: An effective analysis is needed for training. Then only training will be successful. One needs to make sure that resources and infrastructure available in the organization are enough for training. This analysis will give the proper idea of whether training program has to be conducted or not.

Question: Are there any levels or any stages for training?

Interviewer: Of course, there are three levels or stages for training. They are organizational level, individual-level and operational level.

At organizational level, it mainly focuses on three things. First one is strategic planning, second is business need and third one is goal. Strategic planning deals with human resources of the company. Here, one needs to make sure that everything in the company is going smoothly. It should be ensured that employees in the company have requisite knowledge, skills and other attributes needed for normal functioning of the company. These levels also focus on determining the procedures and policies, strengths and weaknesses, goals etc. One can find out the strengths and weaknesses through SWOT analysis. At the time of training, weak areas can be made strong with quality training. Similarly, weak areas can be analyzed properly and proper training programs can be implemented to tackle this.

Individual-level training is entirely different from other kinds of training. This level of training really focuses on individuals and their performance. Performance of each individual is carefully monitored here, and based on this, proper training is given to them, or suggestions are given to make a change in the way they are functioning.

The final level of training is called the operational level. Here, analysis is required to find whether the employee has properly understood the work he/she is needed to do. Based on the findings, training given to the employees must vary. Next, the final summation takes place. “Now that we know what the trainee is going to learn, how the trainee is going to learn, and how we know that the trainee has learned, what is the overall purpose of the training program?” (Writing a dynamic training plan, n.d., p.1).

These questions need to be answered when the training sessions are going on, so that the full benefits of training could be gained by both the interviewer and interviewees.

Question: What are all the things the individual needs to learn at the time of training?

Interviewer: At the time of training the individual needs to learn the required skills and techniques. Various techniques, such as, how to handle the job, how to meet deadlines, how to handle work pressures, etc. are taught to employees by the company experts by conducting workshops, seminars etc. which help them work effectively and efficiently and contribute in larger measures to achieve the goals and objectives of the company.

Conclusion

It is thus seen that the role of interviewing and recruiting the right kind of candidates who could serve the organization well is very important. A company’s main strength and assets are its personnel at all levels, and getting optimum performance from them constitutes a key objective of personnel department. The need for training and motivating employees is also important, because through these processes, the best performance could be achieved and sustained for a long time. Moreover, trained and motivated personnel could help raise stakeholder value, improve profitability and make the company more competitive and strong in the marketplace.

Annotated Bibliography

McNamara, C. (2008). Complete guidelines to design your training plan: Determining your learning objectives and activities. Free Management Library. 2009. Web.

This site is a very useful and informative guide that helps choose the most appropriate training tools and techniques that could be used. The identification, planning, organizing and implementation parts of the training programs are well explained. To a very large extent, these could be taken as just templates, or guidelines that need to be modified to suit corporate requirements and specific needs. The article also delves on one aspect that is often ignored during training program implementation and execution and that is follow-ups to find out its actual efficacy and areas in which further improvements may be necessary – defects eliminated and systems changed.

Mcnamara, C. (2008). Complete guidelines to design your training plan: Identify some preliminary learning objectives for each new area of knowledge or skills that you need to learn. Free Management Library. 2009. Web.

This site is helpful in understanding the learning objectives and activities. The site clearly mentions how to design the objectives and how to accomplish this. The different methods have been explained on this website. Learning objective includes different tactics implementation in order to reach the goal. The design of the learning objective should be smarter in order to be different from others. The different methods to employ learning activities mentioned on the website are by reading, doing or listening. One thing to keep in mind while deploying these methods is whether these methods are making any stress on the individual. That is whether the methods are accessible to the individual or whether they make any uncomfortable in the individual. Such things are clearly explained on the website. The website also mentions the changes happening before and after the learning objectives. What the difference made in the individual. This website is helping hands for those who are in search of learning objectives and activities.

Mcnamara, C. (2008). Completed guidelines to design your training plan: Preparation for designing your training plan: Don’t worry about whether your plan is perfect or not- the plan is guide, not law. Free Management Library. 2009. Web.

This website is very useful in getting the idea or guidelines to design the training plan. The explanation for how to design the training plan has been explained. Also how to determine the overall goals in the training, what are all the objectives and activities should follow while implementing the training plan, is there any extra materials needed while adopting the training plan, how to maintain the quality and how to evaluate the plans for training plans are all explained in this website. Websites mentions while designing the plans there is no need to worry about the outcomes of the plan. That means no need to worry whether the plan is perfect or not. Websites also focus on testing whether the goals of the training are achieved. This can be done by asking some questions and finding the answers to all. By evaluating this one can find out the goals for the training is achieved or not.

Mcnamara, C. (2008). General guideline for conducting interviews: Preperation for interview. Free Management Library. 2009. Web.

The main aspects that interviewing shoud serve is to serve a certain purpose, or objective – whether the candidate is the right person for the job. Thus, it is necessary to provide the right environment that could soothen their frayed nerves and address the task at hand. It is preferred that the length of time the interview need also be informed to the candidate. The interviewer needs to provide description of the job and how it has to be performed. Then he needs to tactfully probe into the present job, and competencies and capabilities of the candidate to work in this company. The best method would be the standardized, open ended question method that is fast, efficient and can make comparative studies between suitable candidates, according to experience, skill sets and interest for the job. Besides the interviewer need to draw conclusions about the conduct, confidence levels, values, knowledge, sensory perceptions and intelligence level of the candidate, to form a basis for his/her suitability or otherwise.

Mcnamara, C. (2008). Suggestions to enrich any training and development plans: Set realistic expectation. Free Management Library. 2009. Web.

This website is very useful for one who is searching for suggestion to enrich the training and development plans. Site mainly focuses on three things such as plan, goals and methods one need to focus while making the plans for training and development. Planning section of this site clearly mentions that one need to prepare the documentation while implementing the plan. This sketching is very important as it will give clear cut idea about about the implemented plan. It is because to know whether perfection is attained or not. About goals what this site says is goals created must be their own and it should not be goals created by another program or writer. So their need careful thought while setting training and developing goals. About methods there are certain things need to be performed and others to be avoided. That is when selecting the methods one need to aware about the basic principles one need to follow.

Reference

McNamara, C. (2008). Complete guidelines to design your training plan: Determining your learning objectives and activities. Free Management Library. 2009. Web.

Mcnamara, C. (2008). Complete guideline to design yourtraining plan: Identify some premilinary learning objectives for each new area of knowledge or skills that you need to learn. Free Management Library. Web.

Mcnamara, C. (2008). Completed guidelines to design your training plan: Preperation for designing your training plan: Don’t worry about whether your plan is perfect or not- the plan is guide, not law. Free Management Library. Web.

Mcnamara, C. (2008). General guideline for conducting interviews: Preperation for interview. Free Management Library. Web.

Mcnamara, C. (2008). Suggestions to enrich any training and development plans: Set realistic expectation. Free Management Library. 2009. Web.

Writing a dynamic training plan: Step 10. (n.d.). American Immigration Law Foundation. 2009. Web.

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BusinessEssay. "How To Conduct An Interview: A Few Tips." December 14, 2022. https://business-essay.com/how-to-conduct-an-interview-a-few-tips/.