Developing an Interview Plan

Develop and submit a 5–6 page plan for interviewing candidates for a sales position within a retail organization.

Expand All

Introduction

The candidate interview is an important component of the hiring process. To hire the most qualified candidates, HR professionals and hiring managers must understand how to conduct interviews effectively and be skilled with different interview methods. In this assessment, you will develop a plan for interviewing candidates for a sales position within a retail organization.

Overview

As an HR professional for a retail organization, you have been asked to develop a plan for interviewing candidates for a sales position within a retail organization. The hiring managers in the organization will be conducting the interviews.

Planning

The time it takes to complete an assessment can vary greatly. But it often takes longer than we think to explore the scope of a task, research it, write a draft, and then come back and revise it. Consider the following as rough guideposts for setting aside the time you need to do your work. You will want to adjust these as you learn more about your own pace and working style.

  • Research and reading: 4 hours.
  • Interactive activities: 30 minutes.
  • Writing: 6 hours.
  • Revising: 2 hours.

Instructions

Write a 5–6 page interview plan. In the plan:

  • Assess whether structured or unstructured interviews are the best option for the interview process.
    • Decide whether structured or unstructured interviews are the best option for your interview process. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of your selection.
  • Describe interview question styles to use during the interview process:
    • Behavioral questions (provide insight into how the candidate has dealt with specific situations in the past).
    • Situational (designed to see how a candidate thinks and reacts in certain situations).
    • Competency-based (designed to determine if a candidate possesses certain skills or attributes).
    • Or a combination of these three options.
  • Describe instructions hiring managers will be given to avoid illegal questions during the interview process.
    • Describe the instructions you will provide the hiring managers regarding illegal interview questions that they must avoid.
  • Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations of members of the human resources profession.
    • Be sure you communicate in a scholarly, professional manner that addresses the intended audience and is free of grammatical and mechanical errors.