How Not To Interview
Recently retailer B&Q were criticised by unions for asking job candidates to dance before being interviewed.
Applicants for jobs as van drivers were asked to pull funny faces and dance to the Jackson Five hit, “Blame it on the Boogie” whilst being photographed by managers. B&Q claimed it was to help the candidates relax before their interview but unions denounced the practice as just bizarre. Interestingly the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development backed B&Q saying the dancing was a clever way of judging the personalities of the interviewees, adding that “this is a creative and innovative way of checking that people have the right attitude to fit in with the company's culture. Other HR staff could definitely take lessons from this."But is this the worst example of interview technique?
One manager, Saeed Akba, tried to conduct a naked interview with a female candidate. Akba left the room, returning naked except for a clipboard. When the candidate refused to strip off as well, Akba put his clothes back on and attempted to continue the interview as normal.
He said that he had wanted a "bit of excitement". But what he actually got was three years' probation, and a listing on the sex offenders' register.
In Russia, the “stressovoye” or stressful interview is increasingly used to help hire staff. Interviewers shout at the applicants, throw water over them, insult them or ask intimate personal questions. Recruiters claim unconventional methods help them to assess potential staff more accurately. Throwing a glass of water in someone’s face is said to be especially revealing: the interviewee is considered to have strength of character and leadership qualities if they react aggressively. If the humiliation fails to provoke a reaction, the candidate is seen as ideal for a boss seeking a submissive deputy with little ambition who will pose no threat. Some firms call new employees with a bogus job offer from another company. Those who express an interest are sacked for disloyalty.
In 2006 the BBC actually broadcast live one of their interview disasters. Guy Goma, a business graduate from the Congo turned up to be interviewed for an IT job. At the same time, Guy Kewney, editor of the website Newswireless.net arrived at the BBC for a live 10.30am studio interview about the Apple court case judgement. A spectacular failure in communications meant that the somewhat bemused Goma was taken to makeup and questioned live on BBC News 24 about his thoughts on the Apple decision.
Google has dispensed with interview technique all together and has developed a robot algorithm to scan job applications and rank candidates with a score from 0 – 100. Whilst Google say that this is to ensure that they don’t overlook some of the best candidates, cynics would say that because demand for jobs at Google outstrips supply, the robot is used to simply accelerate the rejection process.
Perhaps this interview avoidance technique is just a variation on the David Brent business rule from the first series of “The Office”: “Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them”.
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