human resources management

Recruiting : job interview questions | HHRR tips !

/ brain perks by mvm

Interview Questions to Ask

For any business, interviews are an important part of the hiring process. Small business owners can make the most of interview opportunities by considering good interview questions to ask far in advance of the actual meeting. In addition, it’s necessary to consider what types of responses to look for and think about how you will evaluate candidates’ answers.

Five Good Interview Questions to Ask

The following are five good interview questions to ask of prospective employees:

“What interests you about this job, and what skills and strengths can you bring to it?” Nothing tricky here, but it’s a good interview question to ask all the same. Note that the question is not “What are your skills and strengths?” but “What skills and strengths can you bring to the job?” The answer is yet another way to gauge how much interest applicants have in the job and how well prepared they are for the interview. Stronger candidates should be able to correlate their skills with specific job requirements. (E.g., “I think my experience as a foreign correspondent will be of great help in marketing products to overseas customers.”) They will answer the question in the context of contributions they can make to the company.

“In a way that anyone could understand, can you describe a professional achievement that you are proud of?” This is an especially good interview question to ask when you’re hiring for a technical position, such as an IT manager or tax accountant. The answer shows the applicants’ ability to explain what they did so that anyone can understand. Do they avoid jargon in their description? Do they get their points across clearly? Failure to do so may be a sign that the individuals can’t step out of their “world” sufficiently to work with people in other departments, which is a growing necessity in many organizations today.

“How have you changed the nature of your current job?” A convincing answer here shows adaptability and a willingness to take the bull by the horns, if necessary. An individual who chose to do a job differently from other people also shows creativity and resourcefulness. The question gives candidates a chance to talk about such contributions as efficiencies they brought about or cost savings they achieved. If candidates say they didn’t change the nature of the job, that response can tell you something as well.

“What sort of work environment do you prefer? What brings out your best performance?” Probe for specifics. You want to find out whether this person is going to fit into your company. If your corporate culture is collegial and team-centered, you don’t want someone who answers, “I like to be left alone to do my work.” You also may uncover unrealistic expectations or potential future clashes. (“My plan is to spend a couple of months in the mailroom and then apply for the presidency of the company.”) People rarely, if ever, work at their best in all situations. Candidates who say otherwise aren’t being honest with themselves or you.

“I see that you’ve been unemployed for the past months. Why did you leave your last job, and what have you been doing since then?” This question is important, but don’t let it seem accusatory. Especially in challenging economic times, it isn’t unusual for highly competent people to find themselves unemployed through no fault of their own and unable to prevent gaps in their employment history. Pursuing the issue in a neutral, diplomatic way is important. Try to get specific, factual answers that you can verify later. Candidates with a spotty employment history, at the very least, ought to be able to account for all extended periods of unemployment and to demonstrate whether they used that time productively – getting an advanced degree, for example.

Reviewing these five good interview questions to ask will help you prepare for the interview process. Brainstorm others and browse our other tips on interviewing to conduct a successful meeting.

Recruiting: interviewing & hiring | HHRR tips !

/ brain perks by mvm

Bad Interview, Good Hire?

It’s not unusual for hiring managers to meet job seekers who present interview challenges. But just because someone is a bad interview doesn’t mean the meeting is a waste of time. Following are examples of hard-to-interview personality types and advice to help small business owners elicit the information they need to evaluate candidates effectively. Use the tips below to turn bad interviews around – and potentially uncover a diamond in the rough.

The Clam.

As you might assume, this type of candidate isn’t much of a conversationalist. Yes, her resume is impressive, but you feel like you have to pry information out of the applicant. Although you may be tempted to fill the void with more questions, asked in ever-faster succession, try slowing the pace of the interview instead. The candidate may simply be shy and need more time to warm up to speak at length. Don’t worry, it’s possible to get past this bad interview and actually get to know the candidate. Just be sure that the questions you’re asking are sufficiently open-ended and designed to prompt more than one-sentence replies.

The Motormouth.

This job hopeful is the polar opposite of The Clam. His bad interview habit is to elaborate at length in response to questions. Like quiet applicants, those who are overly talkative may suffer from interview anxiety, only it manifests itself in a tsunami of words and possibly a nervous tic of some sort, such as foot tapping. Try not to accelerate your speech in response, as if you’re expecting to be cut off. Rather, be deliberate and calm when you speak. The candidate may pick up on your cue and downshift his delivery a bit. On the other hand, if the candidate seems incapable of engaging in conversational give-and-take, it could be a sign that he’s either not very perceptive or someone who is more interested in talking than listening.

The Sensitive Type.

This applicant seems to internalize her work to an extreme. In discussing her current position, you get the impression that she takes suggestions or procedural changes personally, as if they were a judgment against her competence. It could be that she’s simply a perfectionist who feels disappointed by any less-than-glowing feedback. On the other hand, she may be someone who has an overly fragile or inflated ego. When bad interviews like this come around, delve further to determine if difficulty taking direction is the issue.

The Smooth Talker.

On the surface, this person may seem like the dream candidate. He makes a strong first impression and goes on to answer every question just right – in fact, his answers sound like carefully scripted talking points. The best approach for dealing with this candidate type is to depart from more predictable interview questions and throw a few curveballs. For instance, you might ask, “Tell me about a challenge you faced at work that you weren’t able to overcome and why?” By challenging The Smooth Talker to veer from well-rehearsed answers, you should be able to gain a better sense of his personality and how he would fit in with your firm.

Bad Interviews Aren’t a Dead End

It’s not surprising that some job seekers find interviews highly stressful and have difficulty relaxing and letting their real personalities come through. They recognize that there’s a lot on the line during these brief meetings. When you find yourself in the midst of a bad interview, try to make the candidate feel comfortable enough to reveal what he or she would be like as an employee. Just as you wouldn’t want to hire someone on the basis of a single factor, you also don’t want to eliminate the person too hastily because of a less-than-ideal interview demeanor.

Recruiting Strategy: evaluation methods | HHRR tips !

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The Candidate Evaluation Process

If your candidate outreach has been successful, you’ll soon start to receive resumes. As you begin the evaluation process, keep in mind that the most skilled candidates are those most likely to be in the running for positions with other companies. An inefficient or unnecessarily long hiring process can result in the loss of your top choice to another opportunity.

Your goal shouldn’t be to simply reduce the time you spend on the evaluation process but to also make sure that its most time-consuming aspects, such as interviews, are expended only on the best candidates. The more quickly you can reach the strongest professionals for the job, the greater your ability to add productive members to your team.

No set rules exist for the evaluation process other than common sense. The important thing for small businesses is to have some kind of system or protocol in place before resumes begin to arrive.

The evaluation process should include a set of hard criteria to use as the basis of your decisions. Otherwise, there’s a good chance you’ll end up making choices based on factors that may have no bearing on desired work performance. You need to keep in mind the following three key questions at all times:

What are the prerequisites for the position? These should track with the qualifications listed in the job description, assuming the description is targeted and carefully thought out.
What are the special requirements in your organization, such as certifications or special education? If you own a public accounting firm, for example, you would most likely consider only applicants with a valid CPA credential.

What qualifications and attributes are critical to high performance in this particular position? If your business depends on telemarketing, for instance, some people will be better than others at engaging the interest of the people they call. What attributes make them more effective? One is certainly their ability to not let repeated rejections wear down their spirits. Identify those attributes that you feel will produce superior performance in functions critical to your small business’s competitive strength and look for these attributes in prospective employees.
If you haven’t answered these three questions, you’re not ready to start the applicant evaluation process.

Here’s a basic overview of the evaluation process when reviewing resumes:

Scan resumes first for basic qualifications. If you do a good job of communicating the job’s qualifications to your recruiter or in your posting, you shouldn’t get too many responses from unqualified candidates. Keep in mind, however, that some applicants apply to virtually any job opening, whether they have the requisite skills or not. For example, if you’re seeking to hire a medical technician who will be working on equipment that requires a license, eliminate applicants without this license.

Look for more specific criteria. After you eliminate unqualified candidates, focus on more specific hiring criteria, such as strong organizational skills, supervisory experience or a good driving record.


Set up a process to identify top candidates. At this point, you probably want to separate the wheat from the chaff, which means establishing a separate file for each of the applicants who pass the initial evaluation.

Narrow your list further. Your next move depends on how many applicants remain. If you have only a few, you may want to invite them all to come in for an interview. If you have more applicants than you can handle, consider adding yet another level. Many hiring managers find that a phone conversation is very helpful.

Australian factories with Indian manufacturing, would you still buy a dress made in this way ?

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Are you a fashion victim? Definetely, they are!

Fashion Victims – Bangladesh: The shocking truth behind the real cost of your favourite clothes, Bangladeshi lives.

Everyone loves a bargain, but what’s the real cost of cheap clothes from Bangladesh’s sweat shops? Severed limbs, cruel labour conditions and 1000 dead. How could so many of the West’s top fashion brands have allowed it?

After being trapped in the collapsed Rana Plaza factory, Aruthi’s leg was amputated, leaving her bereft. “What can I do now?”, she asks. It is unlikely that she, or any of the other survivors or families of those who died in the collapse of the Rana Plaza building, will get much compensation. In recent years, international companies have flooded into Bangladesh to take advantage of lax labour laws and the lowest wages in the world, paid to the predominantly young, female workers. Workers describe a miserable existence, long hours, pitiful pay and abuse if deadlines aren’t met. In some of the worst cases there are even threats of jail. “Workers are being arrested, beaten, tortured … you know, sexual harassment, just on and on. This was a miserable sweatshop.” Local factory owners claim they are squeezed so hard by retailers they simply can’t afford to ensure their factories are safe. The explanation is simple according to one European buyer: “It’s price, price, price and profit”.

ABC Australia: Ref-5869

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