4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. BLR’s Human Resources Training Presentations Interviewing Skills

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Goals Find out about the two main styles of interviews. Learn about the many different set-ups for interviews. Review a list of precautions you should take when interviewing. See how the ADA affects the way you handle interviews. Learn about rating sheets.

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Interview Formats Two main styles of interviews – Traditional – Behavioral

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Setting Up Interviews Different ways of setting up interviews: Screening Multiple Stress Situational Targeted Group

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. General Interviewing Cautions Do not ask discriminatory questions Do not ask personal questions Do not allow false notions to influence your decision

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. General Interviewing Cautions (cont.) Beware of tendencies toward stereotypes Focus on job-related items

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Do’s & Don’ts of Interviewing Bona fide occupational qualifications

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Do’s & Don’ts of Interviewing (cont.) More questions to avoid Ask the same questions of all applicants – Keep records of interviews

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. The ADA Don’t ask about disability Don’t require a medical exam before making a job offer

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. The ADA (cont.) Additional information you can or cannot ask The key: A consistent interview and employment processing system

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Taking Notes The list of questions from the interview Rating sheets

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Summary Traditional and behavioral are the two main types of interviewing styles. You need to tread carefully when conducting interviews. There are many legal pitfalls involved. Bona fide occupational qualifications are generally a safe harbor. Follow ADA guidelines when conducting an interview. You can use your interview questions as a basis for your rating sheet.

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Case Study Your job announcement included a job description that stated that the employee will have to be able to drive a truck, unload boxes of cereal, take them into the store, and stack them. You find that your last interviewee is a young man who comes to the interview in a wheelchair and does not have any legs. Your immediate reaction is not to consider him, but you know that legally, you must consider him as a viable applicant unless there are other compelling reasons not to hire him.

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Case Study (cont.) You also know that you cannot ask him about his disability or about any reasonable accommodations that he may need to perform the essential functions of the job. As the interview goes on, you find yourself really liking the guy and wishing you could hire him, but you cannot justify doing so. In the end, you give the job to someone else, and you even come up with a good reason (aside from his disability) for not hiring him. There was someone else who was well qualified, even though you didn’t like the other applicant’s attitude very much.

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Case Study Analysis If you really wanted to hire the disabled applicant, you had ways of finding out the information you needed to find out. First of all, he probably wouldn’t have applied if he was unable to do the job. You had the qualifications listed in the job description. Therefore, you should have assumed that he could do the job. You also have the right to ask him (without bringing up his disability) to describe or demonstrate how he would do the job. However, you would need to ask this of every applicant.

4/00/ © 2000 Business & Legal Reports, Inc. Case Study Analysis (cont.) You do a disservice to your company to discount applicants on the basis of assumptions you have made about their condition. It’s also illegal. This case actually occurred at a major corporation. The disabled applicant was hired and became one of the company’s best employees.