ASSESSING THE DATA
If you have carried out a good interview you should have the
data to assess the extent to which candidates meet each of the
key points in the person specification. You can summarize your
assessments by marking candidates against each of the points –
‘exceeds specification’, ‘fully meets specification’, ‘just meets the
minimum specification’, ‘does not meet the minimum specifica-
tion’.
You can assess motivation broadly as ‘highly motivated’,
‘reasonably well motivated’, ‘not very well motivated’.
You should also draw some conclusions from the candidates’
career history and the other information you have gained about
their behaviour at work. Credit should be given for a career that
has progressed steadily, even if there have been several job
changes. But a lot of job-hopping for no good reason and without
making progress can lead you to suspect that a candidate is not
particularly stable. No blame should be attached to a single
setback – it can happen to anyone. Redundancy is not a stigma –
it is happening all the time. But if the pattern is repeated, you can
reasonably be suspicious.
Finally, there is the delicate question of whether you think
you will be able to work with the candidate, and whether you
think he or she will fit into the team. You have to be very careful
about making judgements about how you will get on with
someone. But if you are absolutely certain that the chemistry will
not work, then you have to take account of that feeling, as long as
you ensure that you have reasonable grounds for it on the basis
of the behaviour of the candidate at the interview. But be aware
of the common mistakes that interviewers can make. These
include:
■ jumping to conclusions on a single piece of favourable
evidence – the ‘halo effect’;
■ jumping to conclusions on a single piece of unfavourable
evidence – the ‘horns effect’;
■ not weighing up the balance between the favourable and
unfavourable evidence logically and objectively;
■ coming to firm conclusions on the basis of inadequate
evidence;
■ making snap or hurried judgements;
How to Interview 115