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“Working with HR Solutions, LLC has been an eye-opening experience. Renee and Carn have helped us to update our policies and procedures to ensure compliance and minimize liabilities. More importantly, I have been amazed at how these changes have affected our staff. Everyone seems to be more focused and energized, and I cannot help but think that this will have a positive effect on our bottomline. My only regret is that we did not start this process with HR Solutions years ago. My advice is to not make the same mistake, but call them today.”

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HR Solutions Weblog

How to Conduct an Effective Employment Interview

Renee McNally - Sunday, October 11, 2009
A question we always get about interviewing is "How do you know the potential employee is telling the truth?" I often have to remind managers and owners that they are the ones conducting the interview and that they have control over it. If someone gives you an answer you doubt, don't understand, doesn't make sense, or you just don't believe, keep asking questions that will clarify the response. When the interviewee doesn't fully answer your question, ask them further questions. You will only get out of an interview the questions you put into it. 

Managers frequently don't get the connection between the interview they conducted, and the employee they are now looking to terminate. What went wrong? Probably, nothing went wrong - it was just never right. Believe me, every manager has a bad hire at some point in their career. But striving to hire the right person, the first time around, is usually the best way to go, even if it takes a little longer.

So how do you do this?

Interviewing is not as easy as some may think. It is a learned skill. The more you conduct interviews, the easier it gets, and the better you get at it. But you have to look back through your interviews and realize what you have learned.

We are often able to train our clients by doing interviews with them. After the interviews are over, we go through an interview review exercise to find the 'red flags' in the candidate's interview. What did they say? How did they say it? Did they answer the question you asked? Did they give you enough information? Our client usually can find 1 or 2 of the red flags, and then we point out 10 more and they say, "Ohhhh." This is one of many ways in which HR Solutions is able to help our clients conduct more effective employment interviews.

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