Supervisor Recruitment: A New Way to Interview

1. Supervisor Recruitment:A New Way to Interview Tiffani Balok National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago IFD&TC, May 15-18, 2005

2. Overview • Common Recruitment Practices • Our Challenge and How We Faced It • Process We Followed • Types of Applicants • Reasons for Rejection • Attrition Since Recruitment • Question and Answer Examples • Would We Do It Again?

3. Typical Staff Recruitment Process • In most organizations, the recruitment process goes through a process similar to this: • Job Posting is completed • Potential candidates submit résumés to HR and/or the organizations’ Hiring Manager • The Applicant interviews with HR and/or Hiring Manager (sometimes more than 1 interview) that typically lasts about an hour for each interview • Decision is made whether or not to hire Applicant • The whole process for 1 applicant can take about 2-5 hours

4. Our Challenge • Large recruitment effort of supervisory staff in short period of time • We had a variety of applicants with different levels of experience and from different backgrounds • Applicants applying for the supervisory position totaled 97, consisting of 57 internal and 40 external • 2 Projects in about 3 weeks • Project 1 – 10 supervisors were needed – internal applicants only • Project 2 – 15 supervisors were needed – internal and external applicants

5. What We Did • HR posted the position in numerous places • HR screened and sorted résumés into categories as Internal or External • The hiring manager created a questionnaire that included many of our interview questions in order to shorten the interview process – consisted of 18 questions • Each supervisor candidate was emailed the questionnaire and asked to complete and return it by a certain date in order to have an interview scheduled • Interviews were scheduled for 15 minute sessions for those that responded to the questionnaire

6. The Interview • The interview consisted of at least 2 managers along with the applicant • Question answers were digested prior to the interview, managers were not focused on taking notes during the interview • Managers were able to clarify responses if additional information was needed • The applicants were able to ask questions about the position, company, etc

7. Groups We Looked At • Internal Candidates • 57 applicants • With and without supervisor experience • External Candidates • 40 applicants • Survey Research experience • With and without supervisor experience • Other call center experience

8. Break Down of Each Group

9. Reasons for Rejections • Applicants Interviewed and rejected • Strong question responses, depth of answers during interview were lacking • Limited supervisory experience • Poor presentation skills • Rejected prior to interview • No supervisory experience • No call center experience • Questionnaire answers showed no depth of knowledge of survey research

10. Attrition

11. Attrition continued • Reasons for Attrition • Left for other position’s • Layoff’s • A large study ending • Another large project turned out to be more efficient than originally projected

12. Questionnaire Examples and Answers • Have you worked as a CATI supervisor? If so, what did you most enjoy about supervising CATI interviewers? • “Yes, coaching them the necessary skills to improve their productivity” • “I enjoyed identifying the strengths of the interviewers and encouraging them to recognize their own talents. I believe encouraging interviewers will help them overcome many of the impediments they will inevitably encounter on the phones.” • “Making sure that CATI interviewers adhere to client standards and work to the best of their abilities. Through feedback, coaching and mentoring I gain satisfaction in their improved performance.”

13. Questionnaire Examples and Answers continued • It’s important that we maintain a supportive and collegial work environment. If you were part of our supervisory team, how would you help to accomplish this? • “I would accomplish this by establishing and maintaining open, supportive and collaborative working relations with individuals at all levels, treating people with honesty, dignity and respect and more importantly, always maintaining a positive attitude, which fosters a productive, harmonious work environment for everyone. “ • “We should be able to instill in them the idea that no interviewing obstacle is insurmountable “

14. Questionnaire Examples and Answers continued • What is your experience with the interviewer monitoring process? If you were a supervisor, how would you go about giving feedback to interviewers? • “I view the monitoring process and providing feedback to the interviewers as an important opportunity for learning. By examining representative examples of the interviewer’s performance, I would suggest practical approaches that would improve performance and reduce the likelihood of biasing our respondents’ answers.” • “In giving feedback one should always start with positive things observed. Monitoring should be used as a teaching or training tools to better a interviewers skills.”

15. Questionnaire Examples and Answers continued • Have you conducted interviewer training? Please tell us about your experience with general survey training. • “I personally enjoy these trainings, …there are often many changes that are put into place in an attempt to serve our client with the best possible way to improve the quality of the work that is done in the telephone center. The interviewers often ask questions that are addressed later in the training, which induces a very interactive session.” • Have you conducted project trainings? Please tell us about your experience with project trainings. • “My experience with project trainings placed me in the position where I would have to present a new campaign to not only interviewers, but possibly other supervisors, quality assurance staff members, and other members of management.“

16. Questionnaire Examples and Answers continued • Tell us about your experience with computers. What survey software have you worked with? What office software have you worked with? How would you rate your skill level – beginning, intermediate, advanced? • “I am self trained on Microsoft Office applications and have used Word to create documents including reports, forms, training texts and, naturally, my response to this questionnaire. I have used Excel to maintain production spreadsheets and monitoring reports…I have employed PowerPoint to create training presentations for Refusal Aversion, Bilingual Certification and AT&T Language Line usage. I consider myself at an intermediate level on those applications.” • What is your ideal work schedule? How many hours would you like to work, what times of day, which days of the week?

17. Would we do it again? • Absolutely – we have used it to recruit for another position since hiring the supervisors • The questionnaire allowed management to screen a large number of applicants in a short period of time. • We were able to decrease the amount of time actually spent in each interview • We have hard copy answers to questions to refer back to rather than relying on notes taken during each interview