Template Creation

Lets face it, hiring is tough, time consuming, and typically done reactively. Whether you own a local restaurant or run a major department store, chances are you spend most of your time running the day-to-day operations of your business and not recruiting candidates. The fact is hiring is often a peripheral duty that gets little attention. As a result some of the questions interviewers ask range from what cereal would you be? to the standard where do you see yourself in 5 years? The funny thing about questions like these is that the interviewers rarely have any idea of what answer they are actually looking for. Effectively recruiting, screening, and interviewing candidates is both an art and a science. The more you perfect your techniques the better quality hires you will make. The purpose of this guide is to help you understand the basics of good hiring practice and provide you with techniques and templates that will allow you to more effectively use the Apploi platform in making top quality hiring decisions.

Legal Guidelines
Before developing and conducting any kind of screening or interview its important to note that Federal and state laws prohibit interviewers from asking certain types of questions that are not directly relevant to a candidates ability to perform the essential functions of the job. During the screening and interview process employers must avoid asking any questions that involve: Age Arrest record Children, marital status, spouse Credit history (this can be done during a background check if consent is given by the applicant) Disability Ethnic background, birthplace, national origin Gender and sexual orientation Military discharge Race Religion

Keep in mind, the purpose of the Apploi screening interview is to determine whether the candidate meets the basic qualifications for advancing to the next step in your hiring process.

Template Development
Before developing your Apploi screening template you should have a good handle on what you are looking for in a candidate. Every good recruiter and hiring manager has a basic profile of what a successful candidate should possess in order to be successful on the job. We recommend that you take the time to pull together the necessary background information and develop a basic profile. Basic background information should include a job description/job specification that outlines the education, certifications, knowledge, experience, capabilities, and availability requirements necessary in order to be considered for the position. The next step is to identify and articulate the mission, culture, and values of your organization, so as to provide a clear picture of what your company is about. This will allow prospective candidates to determine if they are the right fit and ultimately self-select out of the process if they are not. In addition, we advise that you build a basic profile of an ideal candidate based on the traits and characteristics that have been demonstrated as critical to success on the job. Understanding the right mix of personality and communication style will help guide who you look for and how you make your hiring decisions. The elements of a good template: Consistent (applied equally to all candidates) Structured (follows a logical flow and has anchored rating system) Job relevant (questions clearly tied to performance on the job) Profile based (questions explore key success factors identified in an analysis of the job)

Types of Questions
Fit with the Organization It is important to determine whether a candidate is the right match for the mission, values, and culture of your organization. Passion and engagement are often driven by ones connection to the mission and feeling of belonging. Poor fit often leads to presenters, disengagement, absenteeism, and ultimately turnover. All of which are costly to your organization. Some examples of questions designed to get at fit: Why are you interested in working here? What is your understanding of our mission?

 How can you contribute to our mission?

Past Behavior Questions The most basic axiom in psychology is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. As much as we like to believe we are constantly changing, we really dont change all that much. A common interview technique is to have candidates discuss how they handled past situations that are similar to potential future situations they would encounter in the new job. Past behavior questions usually are usually written as follows: Tell me about a time when and the steps you took to resolve it. Give me an example of a situation where you and how you resolved it.

A common method for developing and evaluating past behavior questions is the SAR method, which stands for: Situation, Actions, Results. Situation Context is important because it sets the stage for you as an interviewer to understand the circumstances the candidate was operating in and how relevant they are to the job being interviewed for. Always tee-up the question by asking about the where and when. Actions This is about understanding what the candidate actually did to deal with the situation. The idea is to get a sense of their thinking and the types of actions they felt were appropriate. Make sure to look for I as opposed to we because candidates will often fall into talking about their teams actions as opposed to their own. Remember, you are hiring the candidate not their team. Results Look for specific outcomes that the candidate was able to produce based on the actions they describe.

Speculative Behavioral Questions These types of questions pose a common scenario the candidate would likely to face in the new job. These questions are good for entry level jobs where a candidate may not have much relevant past experience to draw on in answering past behavior questions. Similar to the past behavior questions, the SAR method can be applied to evaluating candidate responses with a focus on the types of actions they are able to articulate and the potential results they would strive for. How would you handle an irate customer who claims to have been ripped-off and is making a scene in front of other customers? Outline the steps you would take and the resolutions you would seek.

 The idea here is to look for how the candidate thinks and the way he/she goes about handling a tough situation. Common Areas of Focus for Questions Challenges working with a previous supervisor Past challenges working with a difficult customer Capacity for and interest in learning Attitudes about customer service Style of communication Decision making and difficult choices Being asked to do something counter to their own values or beliefs Conflict with a coworker Functioning under stress Ethics and integrity

Evaluating Responses
Creating Anchored Ratings Consistency is critical to the hiring process. The Apploi template is a great way to build consistency into the process by creating a standard set of questions along with a standard set of measures designed to assist the interviewer in making consistent ratings across all candidates. To start, create a set of anchored ratings based on your expectations for how a qualified candidate would answer the questions. As an example: 1) Does Not Meet Expectations: Candidate did not lay out a specific situation and failed to provide clear actions or a successful resolution 2) Candidate falls between 1 and 3 3) Meets Expectations: Candidate laid out a relevant situation, outlined basic actions, and was able to articulate a resolution 4) Candidate falls between 3 and 5 5) Exceeds Expectations: Candidate clearly articulated the situation, outlined specific actions, and resolved the situation successfully Developing a Scoring System Another way to ensure consistency between different raters who may be evaluating the same candidate as well as consistency across how different candidates are rated is

 to develop and institute a scoring system. Basically determine benchmark scores and use them as ways to categorize candidates. Using the anchored one-five scale in the example above, if you had five questions (rating scale of 1-5 each) the cut-off for making it to the next step may be a total score of 17 out of a total possible 25. What to Look for in Video Responses Its important to be aware of what psychologists refer to as attribution error. In other words, we have a tendency to draw conclusions about individuals based on our interpretations of their appearance and behavior. We are all victims of living in our own heads, so make sure not to attribute behaviors and attitudes to people just because they look a certain way. Pay attention to all aspects of each candidate response and ask yourself: Did the candidate adequately prepare for the interview? Did the candidate listen to and respond to the questions as they were asked? Did the candidate dress appropriately for the interview? Did the candidate stage an appropriate time and place to record their answers? Did the candidate present himself/herself in a manner reflective of your business culture and philosophy