By Amelia Zwecher
 When beginning the interview process, hiring managers must be cognizant of best practices and laws to ensure compliance. |
The SEMA Career Center wants to help your company conduct the best interviews to ensure that you hire top talent that fits your organizational culture. When beginning the interview process, hiring managers must be cognizant of best practices and laws to ensure compliance.
Do’s
- Open the meeting by introducing yourself and putting the applicant and yourself at ease with some casual remarks.
- Be aware of your personal prejudices and biases.
- Use open-ended, behavioral and situational questions (job-specific).
- Allow for periods of silence to let the applicant clarify thoughts.
- Summarize the applicant’s statements.
- Take notes.
- Ask job-related questions.
- Be mindful of employment laws (local, city, county, state and federal).
Don’ts
- Don’t use casual remarks that might be “indirectly revelatory” and that may be EEO sensitive and not job-related.
- Don’t get trapped by the halo effect, the mirror image or the reversed halo effect. Generally, avoid closed-ended questions and double questions.
- Don’t fill every second of the interview with words, but don’t allow silence to become over-extended either.
- Don’t use the exact words the applicant used to summarize or paraphrase the applicant’s thoughts and feelings.
- Don’t let note taking interfere with the flow of the interview.
A training packet was designed to provide members with an overview of the issues arising from the latest developments in employment law. This presentation is designed to be informative and should not be considered legal advice. It’s important to be aware of local, city and county laws or ordinances, as well as state-specific laws that may provide greater employment-law-related protections to employees working in that particular city, county or state than under federal law.
View the full presentation packet on SEMA’s website.
To find additional guidance, visit the SEMA HR Hub. For more information, contact manager of career services Amelia F. Zwecher, PhD, PHR, at ameliaz@sema.org.