Sue, the HR manager, and Mark, one of the HR assistants, were both conducting interviews of candidates for the post of sales assistant in a large media organisation. The sales assistant job would entail a high level of customer interaction, meaning that the person would require good customer facing and communication skills. In order to expedite the process, Sue and Mark had decided to interview the candidates separately and then get together to compare the results. Mark was rather inexperienced at interviewing as he was new to HR. However, he liked to approach work in a calm, methodical manner. Mark particularly liked one of the candidates, Sam Jones. Not only did Mark and Sam like the same music, they were also avid gamers. Although Sam seemed somewhat tense at the beginning of the interview, Mark got Sam to relax by talking about his interests. Mark went on to tell Sam a little about the job, and Sam said he thought it sounded very interesting. Mark also confirmed that Sam, whist not actually having a great deal of experience in sales, did have a lot of experience of dealing with customers. 

Mark noted the following points in his assessment of Sam: 

• was professional and appropriately dressed, 

• was enthusiastic about the job, 

• has relevant experience for the job, 

• made a good impression, 

• will be good at the job.

Mark wasn’t very enthused about the other two candidates he’d interviewed that morning. They hadn’t seemed as enthusiastic as Sam, weren’t as smart in appearance and hadn’t been very expansive about their experience in response to open questions about dealing with customers. When they got together to discuss the candidates afterwards, Mark recommended Sam to Sue, but Sue responded by saying: ‘He’s the person I’d least likely appoint. Despite what he said in his CV, he’s got too little sales experience. The other candidates have far more sales experience.’ 

Questions

1. Identify the errors that may have occurred in this case. 

2. Suggest what Sue might do to help Mark to avoid such errors in the future. 

3. Assume that the interviews conducted by Sue and Mark, followed by line manager interviews, constituted the entire selection process. Suggest how the process might be improved, giving the rationale for your choice of selection methods and the order in which you would use them.