Applications/Resumes: Unless you are receiving hundreds of applications or resumes for each job opening, its best not to be too picky about who gets screened out at this stage. Screen for the core qualifications that have already been determined from your skills inventory. The core qualifications you will want to check for include years of experience, essential education/training, and if a license is essential to complete the duties.

Interview: The interview process should be at least a two stage process. The first interview is a quick technical interview. It should last 30-45 minutes and can be completed by either one or two people. The technical interview is composed of asking the applicant if they have the necessary technical skills or qualifications to perform the essential functions of the job. It is a structured interview with pre-developed technical questions. Before the technical questions are asked the interviewer(s) provides information about the job duties and gives the applicant a job description.

After the technical questions are completed the interviewer answers questions from the employee. When the employee has completed asking their questions, you should ask if the candidate is interested in the position. If they say "yes," you should ask if he or she believes they can perform the essential job functions with or without an accommodation. The next round of applicants are picked from those candidates that answer the technical questions correctly. All applicants that answer the questions correctly are applicants that have the skills to perform the duties of the job successfully.

TIP: If you interview all your applicants in your office and then decide to interview the last candidate outside at the picnic table because you want fresh air, you could be creating a discriminatory environment if the candidate is over age 40. An applicant who is interviewed in an informal setting may feel that you are not interested in taking their application seriously; thereby, making them feel that discrimination is occurring. It is important to keep your interview style consistent from one candidate to the next.

The second interview is composed of all applicants that can successfully perform the work. So, why have the second interview if the applicants can perform the work successfully? Just because an applicant can complete the work successfully does not mean that he/she is going to be a successful employee. Each employee spends a large part of each day working with customers, coworkers, supervisors, and in some cases teams. It is therefore important that you gain a "feeling" for the candidates social and emotional intelligence. You gain this "feeling" by asking the candidate real life workplace scenario questions and listening to their answers.

You can easily develop social and emotional questions at the same time you complete your skills inventory. Simply ask your employees for real life problem solving incidents that they have encountered, and what they did to successfully resolve the problem. For example, an employee relates that one time he received an angry call from a customer who stated that he had made a mistake and started to yell at him. The employee listened to the angry customer knowing that it was not him who really made the mistake but the customer. The employee also realized that the customer really was not angry but frustrated with not having the product as promised. After listening and calming the frustrated customer the employee offered his help. He tracked the shipment date and destination and discovered that the customer gave the company the wrong shipping address. The customer felt embarrassed that he had made the mistake, and the employee offered to immediately contact the shipping vendor to see if they could make an overnight delivery. The employee and the customer ended the conversation both satisfied with the resolution.

The above situations points to four important social and emotional intelligence skills. 1.) The ability to listen to an angry person without becoming defensive or angry. 2.) The ability to show empathy by understanding that the customer was not angry but frustrated. 3.) The ability to stay calm and be logical under pressure. 4.) The ability to place the goals of the company, a happy customer, above their personal gain.

An employee lacking enough social and emotional intelligence may respond with such answers as: 1.) I would get my supervisor to talk with the customer. 2.) I would tell the customer to call back when they could speak calmly. 3.) I would place the customer on hold until I could find the solution. All the above answers ignore the customer and create a situation where the customer is likely to become more frustrated with the company.

Develop two or three of these type of real life problem scenarios to present to each candidate. In additional, ask open ended questions about why the candidate wants to work for the company, what they know about the company, what interests them about the job, how their last or current position relates to this position, and ask the applicant to tell you about their strengths and weaknesses. The second interview should last about 45-60 minutes and be conducted with at least two trained interviewers.Click here to continue/


Gary Vikesland, MA LP CEAP