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• Recruiting and Managing Diversity in the Workplace
  • Overview
  • Cultural Diversity at Work in New Zealand
  • Whats Unique About International Talent
  • Perceptions of Difference
  • How Do We Unlock The Potential Of Diversity
  • The Recruitment Process Applying An Intercultural Lens
  • Prepare The Job Profile
  • Advertise The Job
  • Short List The Candidates
  • Conduct The Interview
  • Award The Job
  • Monitor The Recruitment Process
  • Acquaint The Newcomer To The Workplace
  • We Welcome Your Comments
  • Acknowledgements
  • References and Suggested Reading

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Conduct The Interview

No employer can afford to overlook talent; an inability to see skills and abilities across ethnic boundaries is business blindness. Wilson et al (2005)

The attitude of recruiters plays a significant role in the outcome. A fair result can be achieved if recruiters make a concerted effort to:

• be consistent and fair in the treatment of candidates
• focus on the genuine and essential requirements of the position
• set aside prejudices, assumptions and stereotypes
• disregard information about candidate’s irrelevant personal attributes.

The role of the interviewer is to elicit adequate information about the candidate’s potential. Some people interview better than others. Interviewers may need to amend their interview style to draw out information, at the same time maintaining consistency across interviews.

Standard practice (link to DIA standard recruitment practice)

An intercultural lens

• The Questions
• Cultural Homework
• The Interview
• Testing Applicants
• Use of Referees

Preparation

The Questions

Behavioural event interviewing is common practice in New Zealand. This interview style asks applicants for specific examples of past behaviours that relate to the requirements of the job. Questions such as “describe an occasion when you made a mistake and the steps that you took to remedy it”, or “tell me about a time when you had to handle a difficult team member/client” are common. This direct style of questioning can pose difficulties for people who are used to a more indirect style of communication.

Suggested alternatives:

• prepare some workplace scenarios based on the job profile and then ask the candidate what they would do in that situation. This will give candidates a context in which to describe their actions. Hopefully they will be able to give a clearer picture of themselves and their skills
• rather than ask ‘what are your greatest strengths?’ try the question another way such as, ‘how would someone else describe your work.’ What might be called ‘giving yourself credit’ in one culture could be regarded as ‘boasting’ in another.

Cultural Homework

Interviewers can’t hope to know everything about a candidate’s culture but it can be useful to understand how some cultures may behave and how body language may have different meanings. For example, down-cast eyes in one culture may be a mark of respect, but in another culture may be considered as ‘shifty’.

Suggested readings and references: http://www.culturalsavvy.com

The Interview

It is your role as the interviewer to elicit adequate information about the candidate’s potential. Take the time to get to know the candidates.

Interviewing checklist:

• use information in the CVs to prompt candidates to talk about their previous experience. Some newcomers find it difficult to talk about themselves and give examples of their work without this type of help.
• encourage candidates to draw on their experience outside the workplace when giving examples of how they meet the requirements
• ask the same questions of all candidates with follow-up questions if needed
• be prepared to re-phrase questions where necessary
• clear up any misunderstandings as they occur
• provide more background about the New Zealand environment so that all candidates can respond appropriately
• show appreciation of a candidate’s point of view before moving on to elicit more relevant answers
• be comfortable with silence. In New Zealand, we can feel uncomfortable with those periods of silence that we often refer to as awkward pauses. For many cultures, these periods of silence in the conversation indicate contemplation
• speak clearly in jargon-free English. The New Zealand accent is rarely heard outside of New Zealand and can be a challenge for all newcomers
• avoid favouring candidates who are most similar to you
• reserve judgement about the candidate’s suitability for longer
• only record information that is relevant to the job despite any other information that may be volunteered
• avoid personal questions that are irrelevant to the job requirements.

Testing Applicants

Conduct tests with care. Ensure tests are relevant to the job and are non-discriminatory. Some tests may be developed around culture specific knowledge that is unfamiliar to the candidate. When selecting candidates, consider test results in conjunction with other information gathered during the recruitment process.

Use of Referees

Check references when you have already formed an opinion, such as after the interview.