Hiring manager toolkit

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is totally committed to a program of affirmative action, ensuring equal opportunities for all faculty, staff and students. Concern for fellow human beings dictates these principles. At the same time, federal regulations have created a need for employers to have specific knowledge of legal obligations concerning employment. This brochure is a summary of “Guidelines for Contemporary Employment Interviewing” and serves as a reference guide about appropriate kinds of questions to ask on application forms or during interviews. It is intended to serve as a useful tool for departments and units in the interviewing process, and it is designed to help make the university’s philosophy of equal opportunity a reality for all. Information provided here should not be taken as a substitute for legal counsel or a full study of employment laws.

• LEGISLATION
  A number of federal and state laws and regulations are applicable to ensure fair employment practices. Most of the items contained in the four-panel table in this brochure reflect several of the usually quoted laws. For your convenience, these laws and regulations are cited in part below.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11246 (as amended by 11375)
  Prohibits discrimination in employment - including hiring, upgrading, salaries, fringe benefits, training, and other conditions of employment - on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or sex.
• TITLE IX (of Education Amendments of 1972)
  “No person…shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance…”
• REHABILITATION ACT OF 1973 (as amended by the Amendments of 1974)
  Prohibits discrimination in employment under any program or activity against any qualified handicapped person on the basis of handicap.
• WISCONSIN’S FAIR EMPLOYMENT ACT (Chapter 111.31 to 111.37)
  Prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, handicap, sex, creed, national origin, ancestry, arrest or conviction record or sexual orientation. The act also prohibits harassment or retaliation against employees or applicants for employment or licensing.
• TITLE VII (of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
  Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, and religion under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
• AGE DISCRIMINATION ACT OF 1975
  It is unlawful to discriminate against employees or job applicants on the basis of age.
• WISCONSIN CIVIL SERVICE REFORM LAW (Chapter 230)
  It is the policy of Wisconsin State government to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to age, race, creed or religion, color, handicap, sex, national origin, ancestry, political affiliation or sexual orientation, and to take affirmative action to correct civil service workforce racial, ethnic, gender or handicap imbalances and to eliminate the present effects of past discrimination.
• EQUAL PAY ACT OF 1963 (as amended by the Educational Amendments of 1972)
  Prohibits discrimination in salaries – including almost all fringe benefits – on the basis of sex.
• AGE DISCRIMINATION ACT OF 1967 (as amended in 1978)
  It is unlawful to discriminate against employees or job applicants because of age when they are between the ages of 40 and 70.
• AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT OF 1990
  Prohibits employers from discriminating against applicants or employees with disabilities in regard to any employment practices or terms, conditions, and privileges of employment including: application, testing, hiring, assignments, evaluation, disciplinary actions, training, promotion, medical examinations, layoff/recall, termination, compensation, leave or benefits.
• VIETNAM ERA VETERANS READJUSTMENT ACT OF 1974
  To promote the employment of, and job advancement opportunities for, qualified disabled veterans of the Vietnam era.

Behavioral Interviewing is the systematic use of job-related, open-ended questions to help you measure a candidate’s skills for a particular job. The Behavioral Interviewing process involves 5 steps:

1. Conduct a skills analysis in order to determine the skills important for doing the job well.
2. Develop written skill definitions to identify what needs to be assessed in the candidate.
3. Create a structured interview form by writing open-ended questions about past work experiences to ask candidates.
4. Gain specific examples in the interview of times when the candidate used skills important for the job.
5. Use the candidate’s examples after the interview to rate the evidence of job-related skills.

As a reward for your efforts, you should experience reduced turnover and higher performance of new hires. You can also expect to feel more confident about the fairness and legality of your interviews.

Step 1: Complete skills analysis

What is a skills analysis?

A skills analysis will determine what skills are important for doing the job well. Through the skills analysis, the interviewer knows what to look for in the job candidate. This will reduce “snap judgments” and set the stage for staffing a diverse workforce.

Why is a skills analysis important?

To match a person to a job, it is essential to define the skills required to do the job. A skills analysis provides an objective basis for deciding who is qualified and who is not. You must be able to document the job-related reasons for your selection choices. Understanding and describing the job is necessary for this documentation.

Step 2: Select skill definitions

What is a skill?

A skill is a set of behaviors which leads to the attainment of a pre-determined goal or objective. In other words, a skill refers to a category of related behaviors that you do in a job (ie. Word processing, negotiating, analyzing spreadsheets).

What kinds of skills are assessed?

Technical/job skills. These are the specific knowledge and skills with tools required to perform the work and are typically learned in an educational environment or through on-the-job experiences and training.

Performance skills. These skills include behaviors and work habits that are used in and out of the workplace such as coping, commitment to task, and leadership.

Step 3: Develop questions

Purpose of questions

Questions should generate responses that can be used to rate job-related skills. In particular, candidates are asked to provide examples from their past, showing a specific time when the skill was used. Past behavior predicts future performance.

Generation of questions

Questions should be selected and edited to maximize the chances of obtaining information about the selected skills.

Creation of the interview

A structured interview contains a series of written questions to ask candidates. These questions are developed prior to the interview and should be designed to link with job requirements. They should be organized under the skills they are designed to assess with space provided for the interviewer’s notes.

Check for bias

Be sure all questions are job-related and legal. Plan to conduct equivalent interviews for different applicants. Ask similar questions of both men and women. Be sure that the questions you ask are respectful of the cultural diversity offered by many candidates.

Step 4: Conduct the interview

Build rapport

Make the candidate and yourself feel comfortable by asking rapport-building questions, without becoming personal (ie. Did you have any problems finding UW-L? How was your flight?). Avoid making snap judgments based on your gut feeling.

Gain behavioral examples

A behavioral example is a job candidate’s description of a past event which provides evidence for or against a skill. During the interview, it is important to ask open-ended questions about past events to help the candidate recall and describe specific times when a particular skill was used.

Take descriptive notes

During the interview, take descriptive notes on the candidate’s answer to interview questions. The notes should be accurate summaries of exactly what the candidate did in the situation. Notes are used to compare the candidate’s responses to the skills required for the job and will help you document the basis for your decision.

Probe based on the skill being assessed

During the interview, it is important for you to ask follow-up probes to give you more information about the skill to be assessed.

Step 5: Rate skills

Use reliable information 

Careful adherence to behavioral interviewing techniques will generate objective, reliable information.

Compare notes to required skills

The interviewer’s task is to rate job-related skills, not personality. This is accomplished by comparing the interview notes to the required skills determined in Steps 1 and 2.

Match the person to the job

Selection decisions should be guided by matching the person’s skills to job requirements. In some cases, selecting a person based on organizational culture and team-fit may apply, but in most cases the basis for a selection decision should be guided by the candidate’s predicted skill in doing the job.

Consider diversity

As you make your selection decision, you should consider filling the position with a candidate who has different skills and characteristics from the persons who are already on the team. It may be best to staff positions with persons who will offer new ways of thinking and different perspectives to an existing team.