Job interviewing: an overview of IRS's research
Selection interviews remain the central focus of recruitment in the UK, and IRS’s large-scale research project shows how employers are attempting to make them as objective and effective as possible. Here, we provide an overview of the project’s findings. Other sections
On this page:
Interviewers: their roles, responsibilities, numbers and training
Telephone interviewing
Question formats
Using interview structures, schedules and guides
Scoring systems used by interviewers
Keeping records of job interviews
Our research
How our survey findings are broken down by sector and size
Resources
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Key points
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Interviewers: their roles, responsibilities, numbers and training
The first part of our guide considers interviewers’ roles, responsibilities and training. We find that line managers now take overall responsibility for conducting and leading job interviews in two out of three employers.
The devolution of responsibility for recruitment has reached the stage where few organisations now have a dedicated recruitment specialist in their HR team. Even generalist HR staff are not present in job interviews in almost half of the employers covered by our study.
Almost all employers will hold job interviews that involve more than one interviewer. However, fewer than one in three of these employers do so for every vacancy. Most organisations adapt the number of interviewers present to the nature of the job being filled. That said, the public sector will rarely conduct an interview where just one interviewer is present.
Pairs and panels of interviewers benefit greatly from prior discussion of their roles and the way in which the interviews will be conducted. Employers recognise such benefits and almost 90% of them organise a pre-meeting of the interviewers.
The importance attached to the role of line managers in interviewing candidates and making appointment decisions places a premium on their competence in conducting objective and fair recruitment.
Therefore, most employers take steps to ensure that line managers receive training in the necessary skills and knowledge. Most commonly, they organise in-house courses specifically on recruitment and selection issues. These are usually delivered by HR staff. A significant minority of employers, however, incorporates recruitment in broader in-house courses for their supervisors and managers.
Telephone interviewing
The second part of our guide considers two issues: the use of telephone interviewing; and the use of competency-based, behavioural and situational questions.
Telephone interviewing has attracted considerable attention in recent years as a means of ensuring that jobseekers satisfy some minimum job requirements. It also provides a useful method of checking individuals’ telephone manner and verbal communication skills for jobs that require these competencies. And it enables interviewers to speak to candidates who may not be able to attend for interview, such as individuals who are overseas.
Our study finds that almost four in 10 employers use telephone interviewing for some of their vacancies.
Question formats
The second topic covered by part two of our guide considers employers’ use of three types of interview question: competency-based, behavioural and situational.
We find that these questioning methods are widely used by employers as a means of improving the relevance, objectivity and consistency of their selection interviews. They tend to use them in combination, as and when required in a particular interview, rather than favouring one approach exclusively.
The use of competencies to develop interviews is practised by two-thirds of organisations taking part in our research. Behavioural questioning is employed by just over a half of them, and situational questions by four in 10. Part two of our guide provides explanations of these techniques.
Using interview structures, schedules and guides
The third part of the IRS guide considers employers’ practices in improving job interviews through structured interviews, question lists, interview guides and assessment guides.
These techniques are popular with employers because they help to provide more objectivity, consistency and fairness in job-interviewing practices.
More than two-thirds of organisations use the formal structured interviewing technique. However, many organisations prefer a more informal approach. More than one in three, for example, favour semi-structured interviewing.
The most popular approach involves the compilation of question lists, practised by more than nine in 10 employers in our study.
Question lists tend to be derived from the vacancy’s job description, person specification and competency framework.
These lists together with interview structures and other guidance are usually developed by line managers and HR staff working collaboratively. Although line managers generally take the lead in job interviews, only 5% of employers allow them to produce these aids on their own.
Scoring systems used by interviewers
The fourth and final part of the IRS guide considers employers’ practices in the use of interview scoring systems and keeping records of interviews.
Scoring systems can greatly help interviewers’ objectivity and record-keeping. Our study finds that more than two-thirds of employers now ensure that their interviewers use them when assessing candidates.
The process of attaching scores to an interviewee’s responses requires deliberation and discussion between people on the interview panel. Therefore, it is the practice in more than eight in 10 employers that the scoring is undertaken immediately after the interview, rather than during it.
Keeping records of job interviews
The practice of maintaining records of job interviews is now almost universal, according to our research. Most commonly, the records consist of notes that interviewers make during the interview. However, almost half of employers go further and store information that interviewers note down after the interview has finished.
Employers fall roughly into two groups in terms of the storage of interview records. Almost half of them delete their records within 12 months of the interview taking place. The remainder store them for longer periods, including 20% that keep them for upwards of three years. Such long storage times are not recommended, however.
More than one in five employers have received requests from interviewees under the Data Protection Act to see their interview notes. Such requests are twice as prevalent among public sector bodies as in the private sector.
This article was written by Noelle Murphy, researcher/writer, Employment Review.
Our research
This IRS guide to employers’ selection interviewing practices is based on research that Noelle Murphy and Ed Cronin of IRS conducted in January and February 2007. The research obtained information from 234 employers about their selection interviewing practices. These employers have a combined workforce of more than three-quarters of a million people (753,000 employees). Half (50%) of the employers are based in the services part of the private sector. Just over one in five (22.2%) are based in the manufacturing and production part of the private sector. The remaining three in 10 (27.8%) are public sector bodies. Broken down by workforce size, the employers in our research comprise: 28.4% that are small and medium-sized enterprises (those with 1–249 employees); 32.3% that are classed as large employers (having 250–999 employees); and 39.2% that are very large employers (having 1,000+ employees). The large and very large employers in our study employ 1 in 20 (4.9%) of all employees in the UK who work in organisations of this size.
How our survey findings are broken down by sector and size
The tables of survey findings in this IRS guide are analysed in two different ways.
1. By broad economic sector: We divide the economy into three broad sectors: private sector services; manufacturing and production; and the public sector.
Manufacturing and production includes the parts of the economy that are not state-owned or state controlled that are engaged in the manufacture or production of goods, including engineering, construction and the utilities.
Private sector services includes the parts of the economy that are not state owned or state controlled that provide services, ie all the parts of the private sector that are not covered by manufacturing and production. Private sector services includes financial services, retailing, hospitality, consultancies, housing associations and charities.
The public sector comprises state-owned or controlled bodies, and includes local authorities, central government, the NHS, public agencies, and further and higher education.
2. By workforce size: We use three bands of employee numbers. The first band corresponds to the official definition of small and medium-sized enterprises (those with 1–249 employees). The second band includes large employers (those with 250–999 employees). Our third band is for very large employers (those with 1,000-plus employees).
Resources
“Got your number: using telephone interviewing”, Employment Review 832.
“In the hiring line: boosting managers’ recruitment skills”, Employment Review 846.
“How to interview candidates”, XpertHR How To series.
Selection Interviewing, on the CIPD website, Factsheets, 2007.
“Line manager briefing on interviewing”, XpertHR.
Recruiting Staff: Guidance for Managers and Supervisors (PDF format, 91.2K) (on the EOC website), IRS for the Equal Opportunities Commission, 2006.
“Accentuate the positive: making the best of selection”, Employment Review 768.
“Using competencies in selection and recruitment”, Employment Review 853.
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Other sections Interviewers’ roles, responsibilities and training. This part of the IRS guide focuses on the key players in job interviews and the typical number present at each interview. It also examines the training in interviewing skills that employers provide. Question styles and formats of job interviewing. This part of the IRS guide finds that telephone interviews are now used by many employers. It also shows that organisations use a battery of question styles and techniques when interviewing candidates, often within the same interview. Job interview structures, schedules and criteria. This part of the IRS guide considers the ways in which employers ensure structure, objectivity and fairness in interviewing through the use of interview structures and guides, question lists and assessment aids. Job interview scoring systems and record keeping. This final part of the IRS guide to selection interviewing practices covers employers’ use of scoring systems, their record-keeping policies and their experience of access requests from candidates who want to see their interview notes. |
