With a bottomless pile of resumes to chose from, you miraculously have narrowed it down to people that you want to interview. Now, how do you prepare yourself to conduct an effective interview?
It doesn't matter how many interviews you have conducted or how strong your "gut feelings" are, you must have an outline of questions you would like to ask. Many companies have identified and published their core values and supply interview forms to use based on those values. These are generally great tools to have available, especially if your company has created job specific forms. If you don't have this available to you, or do not have job specific forms, it would benefit you to create them. Again, you must identify your core values for the store and for the position. Then formulate questions that will address ALL of them.
Using the core values that I have kept consistent with me (S.M.I.L.E), here are some examples of "core value" focused questions.
S-(sales) What was the volume of your last store? What was your contribution to that? What did comp (this year vs last year sales) figures look like when you started? When you left? What do you feel is the best way to drive sales? To motivate others to sell?
M- (merchandising) What impact do you feel visuals had in the success of your last store? What do you think customers want to see when walking into a store like this (your store, not theirs)? Have you worked floor changes before? Did you lead or follow directions? How do you approach a directive that is inconsistent with the space you have?
I- (integrity) What does integrity mean to you? Have you ever caught a shoplifter? How did that make you feel? What does loss prevention mean? How can you spot a shoplifter? What kind of shrink results have you seen in your past? What do you think you have done to influence those results?
L- (leadership) What has challenged you as a manager? How did you respond? What kind of goals do you set for yourself? Staff? Store? What do you think is the most important characteristic of a good leader?
E- (everything else) What are you most proud of? What has been your biggest success? Your biggest failure? Strengths/Weaknesses? What kind of manager do you like to work for?
Those are some general examples of questions I might use in an interview, but again, make sure your questions fit the position you are hiring for. After you have your interview outline prepared, set aside an appropriate amount of time for your interview and be ready when the candidate arrives. As you would consider it unprofessional for a candidate to show up late, it is equally unprofessional to schedule time for someone, and not be prepared at that time.
Stay tuned...conducting the interview is next!!
It doesn't matter how many interviews you have conducted or how strong your "gut feelings" are, you must have an outline of questions you would like to ask. Many companies have identified and published their core values and supply interview forms to use based on those values. These are generally great tools to have available, especially if your company has created job specific forms. If you don't have this available to you, or do not have job specific forms, it would benefit you to create them. Again, you must identify your core values for the store and for the position. Then formulate questions that will address ALL of them.
Using the core values that I have kept consistent with me (S.M.I.L.E), here are some examples of "core value" focused questions.
S-(sales) What was the volume of your last store? What was your contribution to that? What did comp (this year vs last year sales) figures look like when you started? When you left? What do you feel is the best way to drive sales? To motivate others to sell?
M- (merchandising) What impact do you feel visuals had in the success of your last store? What do you think customers want to see when walking into a store like this (your store, not theirs)? Have you worked floor changes before? Did you lead or follow directions? How do you approach a directive that is inconsistent with the space you have?
I- (integrity) What does integrity mean to you? Have you ever caught a shoplifter? How did that make you feel? What does loss prevention mean? How can you spot a shoplifter? What kind of shrink results have you seen in your past? What do you think you have done to influence those results?
L- (leadership) What has challenged you as a manager? How did you respond? What kind of goals do you set for yourself? Staff? Store? What do you think is the most important characteristic of a good leader?
E- (everything else) What are you most proud of? What has been your biggest success? Your biggest failure? Strengths/Weaknesses? What kind of manager do you like to work for?
Those are some general examples of questions I might use in an interview, but again, make sure your questions fit the position you are hiring for. After you have your interview outline prepared, set aside an appropriate amount of time for your interview and be ready when the candidate arrives. As you would consider it unprofessional for a candidate to show up late, it is equally unprofessional to schedule time for someone, and not be prepared at that time.
Stay tuned...conducting the interview is next!!
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