Interview methods and skills that HR must learn

Interview methods and skills that HR must learn

Interview is a stepping stone to finding a job. Have you studied interview skills seriously? Here are interview techniques that hr won't tell you. I hope it works for you.

First, how to use interview questions flexibly

1. The embarrassing situation in the interview

At present, examiners are experiencing an increasingly embarrassing situation in the interview, that is, candidates' ability to resist exams is getting stronger and stronger. Tracing back to the source, it is because of the high pattern of interview topic types and the lack of unified evaluation criteria.

The so-called high model means that the human resources departments of different enterprises often ask the candidates the same or similar questions. A typical example is "Why do you want to work in our company?" Applicants have been prepared for this: "Your company is great! Your enterprise has a bright future! There are usually several "standard answers" to such questions in your company online, but they are slightly different according to the different recruitment positions.

Lack of unified evaluation criteria;

Although recruiters of different companies have different qualifications and levels, they often take pains to establish a set of standardized forms, covering all the indicators to be referenced in the interview, all the questions to be asked, and the scoring table for candidates. But in fact, the interviewer is basically independent when scoring, especially when the head of the business department is interviewing.

On the surface, it is because there are too few interview methods available to recruiters; However, the underlying reason is the lack of unified evaluation criteria, that is, recruiters can not accurately grasp the evaluation points in the interview process. Due to the lack of relevant professional training, candidates are usually graded according to their personal experience.

2. Common types of interview topics

According to the perspective of topic design, recruiters can divide the common problems in traditional interviews into six types:

Introductory question

The so-called lead-in question means that before the interview, the examiner asks questions to the candidates by chatting. For example, "What's your name?" "Which school did you graduate from?" "Where do you live?" Wait a minute. For such questions, candidates can often give answers without thinking.

The original intention of introducing questions is to create a harmonious interview atmosphere and eliminate the tension of candidates. Due to the rapid development of the times, it has been difficult to play its due role. On the contrary, the candidates don't seem very nervous, but the examiner is very worried: what if the candidates are not judged correctly?

In the new environment, the examiner should endow the lead-in questions with new functions, grasp the characteristics of them so that candidates can eliminate psychological prevention, defeat the enemy in one fell swoop and show the examiner's level.

(1) case

"Simple questions" are not simple.

A chemical enterprise wants to recruit a marketing director, and the requirements for the candidate are: more than five years of working experience in this industry and more than three years of marketing director experience. The most important thing is to have a more mature customer base, and it is best to master a large number of foreign customer resources. The annual salary of the post is 600,000-700,000, thus attracting a large number of applicants. Finally, the enterprise chooses a candidate recommended by a headhunting company for an interview.

The examiner starts with introductory questions and chats with the candidates. Through a short question, he learned the basic situation of the applicant: he lives far away, took the subway for two hours to interview, his lover is a nurse, he has a one-and-a-half-year-old child, and his parents are both in their hometown. The examiner made the following judgment: for an executive who has been immersed in this industry for many years, with an annual salary of 600,000-700,000 and a fixed customer base, first of all, his residence should not be in a remote place from the urban area; Secondly, it is very formal for people with executive experience to go to other units for interviews, even if they don't drive, they should take a taxi, otherwise the professionalism is questionable.

The examiner suggested that the company conduct a background check on the candidates again. Sure enough, although the applicant did serve as the marketing director of an enterprise, he has only been in office for one year, and the channel has not been established, mainly doing technical work. Later, when he set foot in the marketing department, he actually fell far short of the recruitment requirements. Professional examiners can see the depth of the applicant through a few seemingly simple introductory questions.

Look at the advantages of simple questions

China Mobile once recruited an account manager in a university, and asked the applicant to be flexible. After visual inspection of many applicants, the examiner found a young man who was not well dressed, but his eyes were bright and his bones were shrewd, so he decided to test him and let him introduce himself briefly in one minute.

Halfway through the other party's introduction, the examiner suddenly interrupted him and asked him to re-introduce it with the title "1, 2,3". The young man immediately replied that he had won a national prize during his school days, participated in two large-scale social practices and made three good friends. Showing its quick response, the examiner found the real advantage of the candidates through a simple introductory question.

As can be seen from the above cases, the interview technology itself is a "knife", and it is a "stupid knife" in the hands of novices. For the "Wulin master", "there is no knife in the hand, but there is a knife in the heart". The seemingly simple problem is not useless, but has deep potential. The key is whether the examiner can dig it out, get a glimpse of it and dialysis the essence of the candidates.

Behavioral problems

Behavioral questions, also called behavioral interviews, are generally accepted by examiners and candidates. Its characteristic is to judge the ability of candidates and predict their future performance by examining their performance in past experiences.

Frequently asked questions are: "How did you behave in certain situations in the past?" "What is your most successful case? Why? " Wait a minute.

Situation problem

The characteristic of situational questions is that the main part of the questions is often hypothetical situations such as "if" and "if" that have never happened.

Common questions are: "If you were the marketing manager of this enterprise, what would you do?" "If you can't open the market in Shaanxi, what measures will you take?" Wait a minute.

Intelligent problem

Intelligence questions mainly examine the logical and comprehensive analysis ability of candidates, and enterprises that design such questions often require higher IQ of candidates.

The typical problem is: outside the three rooms, there are two switches to control the rooms in the three-light area. You can only enter a room once, so how do you know which switch controls which light?

Will problem

Willingness mainly examines the applicant's true willingness to the job and the enterprise. Simply put, it is "what do you want?" "What do you want?" Wait a minute.

Common questions are: "What kind of enterprise do you want to work in?" "What kind of people do you like to deal with?" The validity of such questions is usually very low, and candidates can prepare ideal answers in advance. For example, the second question, the candidate can answer: "I have a double personality, and I like both cheerful and introverted people."

When designing the question of willingness, the recruiter must proceed from the opposite direction and throw the question to the applicant. For example, if a company does not set a basic salary for the marketing manager to be recruited, it can ask him, "Can you accept a job without a basic salary?"

Tension problem

Adaptability mainly examines the emotional stability and adaptability of candidates, and it is also a widely used question type in interviews.

Common questions are: "What should you do if the leader makes a mistake?" Wait a minute.

3. Flexible use of interview questions

Among the six common types of problems, behavioral problems and situational problems are relatively effective.

Analyzing a candidate's past behavior through situational questions is the best prediction for other future performances. Examining how candidates complete a task in a specific situation through situational questions can show their comprehensive ability. These two topics can be used separately or in combination.

Regarding the teamwork ability of the candidate, if you use behavioral questions, you can ask the other person: "What is the best task that you led your team to accomplish? Please introduce it in detail. " Then you can ask questions in depth according to their answers. If you use situational questions to investigate, you can ask the other party: "If you are a branch manager of an enterprise, the team members you lead are very young and of high quality, but their performance has never been up." The investigation proves that it is not the lack of market demand in this region, but the contradiction within the team. How will you lead the team out of the predicament? "

For the use of behavioral questions and situational questions in interview questions, there are two aspects worthy of attention:

Select the problem effectively

For candidates with work experience, we should use behavior questions as much as possible to understand their experiences; Candidates who have no work experience should use situational questions as much as possible to explore their potential and quality.

Efficient utilization problem.

When using behavioral questions is ineffective, recruiters should try to use situational questions. In the interview process, especially candidates with management experience, their thinking has made a big leap, and even if the examiner asks deeply, they often can't get a complete answer. At this time, it can be judged that the behavior question is invalid, and the recruiter should consider trying the situational question.

(2) cases

Emergency standby problem

At a job fair in a bank, the examiner is examining an applicant's execution.

The examiner asked, "In your past work experience, what was the best project you led the team to carry out?" The applicant immediately began to make a presentation, which took a long time. For a time, in 2009, 2006 and 2005, several things were mixed together and I didn't know what to say.

The examiner suppressed his anger, interrupted the other party and changed a question: "If there is another earthquake in a southwest province, your bank has been ordered to provide directional rescue to a local branch. The local rescuers don't know what to save first. You need to lead a five-member team into the disaster area within 24 hours to provide assistance to the branch. How will you accomplish this task? "

Then, the examiner designed several hypothetical scenarios. For example, "the local traffic has been completely interrupted and it is impossible to enter the disaster area within the scheduled time. What means will you use to achieve your goal? How will you report the progress of your work to the leader? " The examiner pulled the examinee's thinking back through several typical situational questions.

Therefore, the examiner should prepare at least two questions before the interview. When one of the questions can't work effectively, he can bring a backup question to make the interview go smoothly.

Second, how to design interview questions

In the traditional interview, the general process of the examiner's questioning is as follows: First, design general questions to investigate the candidates. For example, when examining the planning ability of candidates, ask, "How do you make the work plan of the human resources department?" Secondly, ask questions according to the candidates' answers. The questions asked are often not designed in advance. Finally, it is perfunctory to make a simple score sheet.

The traditional question focuses more on the four elements of a star, that is, what is the background of this event? What's the goal? What measures have you taken? What is the final result? This questioning technique has been well known by many candidates, so the routine of answering questions is prepared in advance, which greatly reduces the effectiveness of asking questions.

Traditional questioning follows the four elements of STAR:

1 s: situation, scene;

2 t: target, target;

3 a: action, action;

④ r: Result, result.

In the new environment, the efficiency of star four-factor interview process is getting lower and lower, and it is urgent to carry out interview technology revolution. The key point is to design interview questions and standardize questions.

1. Questions based on quality profile

In the interview of technological revolution, the examiner should design standardization questions according to the quality profile required by enterprises for candidates.

Questions based on quality files usually include three forms:

Emergency interview

Take the typical problem of examining adaptability as an example:

"If you accompany the leader to go abroad for business negotiations, in the process of negotiating with the foreign party, the leader made obvious mistakes in introducing several important sales data, what would you do?"

The quality profile design problem based on strain capacity usually obtains the following results:

First, can the applicant rationally analyze and introduce the possible consequences of incorrect data, that is, on the one hand, the impact on negotiations, on the other hand, the impact on corporate reputation.

Second, is the candidate flexible enough after the incident, pretending not to know, or actively seeking solutions?

Some candidates may choose to take responsibility for themselves, some candidates may write a note asking the leader to correct themselves, and some candidates will hand the note to the leader and say, "This is the latest data we have just received." Obviously, the third candidate is the most adaptable.

Based on the quality profile, the examiner does not need to ask in-depth questions about all four elements of STAR, but first judges the returned profile questions according to the candidates' answers, and asks questions about the profiles that have not been answered, so as to dig deeper into their quality.

Semi-structured interview

In traditional interview, structured interview is a common method. Its biggest feature is that interview indicators, topics, grading standards and implementation procedures are standardized in advance, and all candidates' questions are the same. This method ensures the fairness in form, but it also faces more and more challenges. For example, for enterprises, what they ultimately want is not fairness, but a deep grasp of the quality of candidates. If candidates have different answers to the same question, should they ask their personalized answers in depth? Therefore, the semi-structured interview method came into being.

The semi-structured interview method emphasizes that the examiner must ask the candidates in depth. Based on the general situation of quality, the examiner should re-examine the structure of the topic that was previously examined for adaptability and rename the topic as the stem. At this time, the stem of the question no longer plays a key role, but only serves as an introduction to the conversation, creating opportunities for examiners to dig deeper into information. The example told by the examinee is only a carrier, and what the examiner really needs to pay attention to is the quality of the examinee in the process of completing the event.

Behavioral interview

Take the typical questions in the traditional interview as an example:

"Please tell me the best thing you have done with others in your past job."

The face validity of this question is often very high, and it seems to be examining the team cooperation ability of candidates. But in fact, candidates often immediately perceive the examiner's intention and make a seemingly good response. If the examiner does not design standardized questions in advance, he will immediately fall into a passive state.

The focus is on behavioral interview, that is, the main points of behavioral interview based on competence, not based on the stem itself, but on asking questions. Questioning candidates' behavior mainly includes the following typical questions:

Let's take the behavior problem of candidate's goal management ability as an example: "What is the good project that you led the team to complete in the last six months?"

Secondly, take the candidate's sensitivity to the goal as an example: "What do you think is the goal of this project?"

Thirdly, examine whether the candidate can effectively transform the goal: "How do you make an implementation plan according to this goal?"

Fourth, examine whether the candidate can effectively break down the goal: "How do you divide the work among the members of your own project?"

Fifth, examine whether candidates can adjust their goals according to objective reality: "What kind of situation did you encounter in the process of implementing the plan? How did you handle it? "

It can be seen that the examiner's questions generally do not examine the candidate's target management, but completely look at the quality file, so the evaluation of the candidate is relatively more objective.

2. Questioning the topic of the situation

Situational topic refers to telling the applicant about his problem or situation by assuming the identity of the applicant and causing his behavioral response. Although it is only a hypothetical question, we need to pay attention to two elements: one is to tell the specific identity or role, and the other is to tell what the problem or situation is and what needs to be done.

Topic hypothesis

"You were sent by the company to Guangzhou branch as a manager. The company has never opened up the situation in Guangzhou market, but the annual growth rate of competitors in Guangzhou market far exceeds the industry average, indicating that the industry has great market potential in this region. Guangzhou Branch has good staff quality and sufficient market development budget. How will you improve the sales performance of your branch as soon as possible?

In this question, the examiner first gives the assumed identity and role: the manager of Guangzhou branch, the hypothetical problem or situation: 1. The enterprise has not opened the situation; Second, this region has full development potential; Third, the quality of employees is good; Fourth, the budget is still relatively adequate. The reaction of the hypothetical scenario is: How will you improve the sales performance of the Guangzhou branch as soon as possible?

This is a typical situation problem, which contains three elements: first, there is a hypothetical situation; Second, the situation contains problems; Third, there is a problem or situation.

For the question of situational questions, traditional examiners will pay more attention to: "Why did you do this? What was your idea? " In future questions, the examiner should pay more attention to the results, such as "What will happen to you? What if? This situational approach will achieve better results.

"Trilogy" of Topic Design

The design of interview topics and situational topics is mainly divided into three steps:

First, sort out the dimensions and indicators of the interview. In the process of combing, we should also do "three steps": first, determine what the index is; Secondly, analyze the quality of indicators; Finally, the specific behavior under each index is subdivided.

It should be noted that this process is not implemented after the interview topic design is completed, but is completed when the selection criteria are determined.

Second, look for key events. In this link, the examiner can get by analyzing the duties and tasks of the recruitment position and combining the typical events that the position often encounters. In fact, this process has passed the interview in the development of competency indicators. It can be seen that the formulation of selection criteria and design topics cannot be regarded as a completely separated stage.

Third, design interview topics. In the design of interview questions, the examiner should determine the questions according to the nature of the candidates. The recommended practice is to use behavioral questions first, then situational questions. Because the stem of the former is shorter, the design is relatively easy.

After the interview topic is designed, you must not directly apply it to actual combat, but do a test first. The effective way is: take the topic to several colleagues, listen to their understanding of the topic, and check whether it is consistent with the original intention of their own design. If no consensus can be reached, the wording of the topic needs to be revised.

Design a new interview method

On the basis of behavioral problems, a new projection interview method has emerged, which was originally intended to conceal the real purpose of the interview as much as possible, deliberately using the question of low face validity, making it difficult for candidates to effectively understand the examiner's real investigation point.

Frequently asked questions are: "How to evaluate former leaders? What qualities does he have that make you feel comfortable? What are the things that you find hard to accept? " This is different from the traditional question "How did your former leader evaluate you". Opposition makes it difficult for candidates to guess the examiner's purpose. This is the characteristic of projection topics, but it is usually risky. Once the applicant has a wrong understanding of the meaning of the question, it is likely to lead to an answer that has nothing to do with the selection index.

To sum up, in order to carry out the revolution of interview technology, only by using comprehensive quality profile questions and situational topic questions to examine candidates can we achieve better interview results.

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