Rate Communication Skills When Interviewing Job Applicants

Conducting job interviews is critically important in the hiring process. Applicants may enlist the aid of consulting services or acquaintances to help them compose resumes, fill out job applications and cover letters. When applicants show up for the interview, however, they arrive without their protective armor. What you see is what you'll get, so you must be a discerning observer and listener.
As a result of abuses in previous years, government regulations have restricted the kinds of questions that interviewers may ask, as well as the types of tests that they can administer. Questions about age, religion, marital status, birthplace, accents and other topics that could form the basis for discrimination are prohibited.
If you pose your legally permissible questions carefully and deliberately, however, you may be able to elicit responses that reveal information not only about applicants' education, job experience, teamwork and leadership skills, but also about their proficiency in spoken and written communication.
Here are seven indicators that can help you score an applicant's ability to organize thoughts and express them clearly, concisely and intelligently.

1. Courtesy

Thank the applicant for appearing on time for the interview or for elaborating on a previous answer. Listen carefully to the response.

Score points if the applicant answers, "you're welcome" or "my pleasure" or "certainly."

Detract points if the applicant answers, "no problem." On the contrary, such a curt, flippant, colloquial response is problematic. Your organization's customers should be able to expect more courtesy and respect than that. For more about that, please read the June 2000 edition of EditPros News.

2. Misuse of personal pronouns

Ask the applicant to describe past participation in a project that required teamwork, and listen carefully for use of the personal pronouns "I, "me" and "myself."

Score points if the applicant says something like, "The sales manager, Bill Clark, and I attended a conference to help us learn how to collect from past-due accounts more effectively" or "the company president gave the assignment to Bill Clark and me."

Detract points if the applicant says "Bill Clark and me attended a conference..." or "the president gave the assignment to Bill Clark and I" or "...gave the assignment to Bill Clark and myself." Such jarring abuse of language is indicative of lack of sophistication. You can read more about that in the December 2002 edition of EditPros News.

3. Specificity

Ask the applicant to describe prior work experience and achievements.

Score points if the applicant replies, "I was manager of the contracts department, and I composed binding agreements with about two dozen consultants."

Detract points if the applicant replies, "I was involved with contracts that established relationships with vendors" or "I was responsible for contracts." In what sense was the applicant involved or "responsible"? Such vague terminology could reflect an attempt to inflate importance; perhaps the applicant had peripheral rather than pivotal involvement. Ask for greater specificity.

4. Buzzwords

Make sure the candidate can express thoughts in plain English, without resorting to "buzzwords" or arcane jargon. Suppose you ask an applicant to identify emerging trends in your industry.

Score points if one applicant responds, "Although electronic commerce constitutes competition, it also is a means through which to expand the company's geographic territory."

Detract points if another replies, "Electronic commerce is among the issues impacting companies in this business." Electronic commerce isn't an issue; it's a process or marketing channel. And used as a verb, the word "impact" is imprecise. Does the applicant mean impede or benefit? Other bothersome buzzwords and fatuous phrases include "mission-critical," "codify," "transparency," "skill set," "traction," "repurpose," "leverage" (as a verb), "effort" (as a verb), "transition" (as a verb), "negative growth" and "core competencies."

5. Imprecision

Notice the ability of applicants to choose words that precisely explain their responses to experiences or conditions.

Score points for an applicant who describes an experience as "fulfilling" or "distressing," a business executive as "perceptive" or "abrasive," or an article as "captivating," "influential" or "alarming."

Detract points for an applicant whose descriptive vocabulary appears restricted to vague adjectives such as "great," "OK," "cool" or "bad."

6. Pretension

Listen for clear, concise, unembellished responses.

Score points if the applicant says, for example, "I'm now looking for a position..." or "the results were unsatisfactory" or "I met the governor...."

Detract points for applicants who inflate their speech with pompous expressions, resulting in declarations such as, "At this point in time, I'm looking for a position..." or "the results were unexceptional, if you will" or "I had the opportunity to meet the governor...." (Did you take advantage of that opportunity?) Be suspicious of excessive reliance upon trite, pompous expressions.

7. Colloquialisms

Take notice of the use of slang terms and other colloquialisms that should be excluded from business-level conversations. Listen for exclamations, for example, in reaction to your description of job attributes and benefits.

Score points for applicants who respond by saying "that appears promising," "I'm encouraged," "that appeals to me," "the position sounds rewarding" or similar expressions of approval.

Detract points from applicants who exclaim "awesome" or "cool," or who say "gonna" rather than "going to." Also take notice of applicants who habitually use "like" as an interjection throughout their speech, or who use "go" or "like" as part of an idiomatic expression in place of the verb "say" (as in "so he goes, 'it was your idea'" or "she was like, 'we've never done that before.'"

Linguistic proficiency is less critical for some jobs than for others. But supervisory, customer service and leadership personnel should be able to express ideas and instructions articulately and explicitly. As you listen to what job applicants say, pay equal attention to how they say it.