Develop structured interview questions (both situational and behavioral), along
ID: 348606 • Letter: D
Question
Develop structured interview questions (both situational and behavioral), along with anchored rating scales, for the job of Sales Clerk.
You will develop questions for two performance dimensions: Customer Service and Sales Ability. You will write one situational question and one behavioral question for each of these dimensions. Thus, you will write a total of four questions (1 situational Customer Service, 1 situational Sales Ability, 1 behavioral Customer Service, and 1 behavioral Sales Ability)
In addition, you will prepare behavioral response anchors for three levels of performance (poor, acceptable, and excellent). Write 2 anchors for each level.
Additional guidelines and information about developing structured interviews is provided below and on the following pages, along with examples of questions and anchors. You are not permitted to use any of the example questions or responses that I have provided (or from other classes, the textbook, or the Internet) as your questions and anchors.
Question and Response Development
The first step is to identify the critical performance dimensions for the job title. The second step is to develop job-specific interview questions, based on critical incidents of performance. The last step is to create rating scales for each performance dimension identified as important. The purpose of this is to help guide you through the steps of question and rating scale development.
Step 1: Identifying Critical Dimensions
Based on a Job Analysis, identify the dimensions that are important for effective performance. However, because we would like to limit the number of questions asked during the interview, we needed to determine which dimensions are the most critical so that you could develop questions based on those dimensions. Typically, you would have Subject Matter Experts rate and rank the job dimensions to determine which were the most important.
For this exercise, you will use the job of Sales Clerk. I have already identified the important performance dimensions for you. In the exercise you will use two dimensions: Customer Service and Sales Ability.
Step 2: Prepare to Develop Job-Related Interview Questions
Job-Related Questions
A good interview includes questions about situations that candidates are likely to encounter on the job (i.e., are job-related). Asking job-related questions during the interview enhances our ability to predict whether a candidate will perform well in the job. Furthermore, organizations are legally obligated to include only job-related questions on employment selection tests, such as interviews.
Thus, it is helpful when creating questions to think of critical incidents of excellent, average or acceptable, and poor performance on job tasks. Using these incidents as guides, you will be able to more easily develop interview questions for each competency.
Question Formats
There are several ways to phrase an interview question so as to provide the candidate with an opportunity to illustrate his or her level of the competency being assessed. The following section illustrates two of the question formats commonly used.
Behavioral Questions – Open-ended questions designed to evaluate how a candidate has acted in past situations. These questions assume that if a person could perform well in the past, this same person would perform well in the future. Behavioral questions ask the candidate to describe a specific situation, the actions he/she took, and the results or outcomes of his/her actions. For an entry-level job, such questions may be very general.
Example (Teamwork): We have all encountered situations where we needed a team member’s help to complete a task or project, and the person was uncooperative. Describe a time when that happened to you. How did you handle the situation and what were the results?
Situational Questions – Open-ended questions designed to identify the candidate’s intentions by presenting a job-related situation and asking what he or she would do in that situation. These questions provide the candidate with an opportunity to describe his/her intentions regarding the job-related incident.
Example (Teamwork): You are a waiter/waitress and the restaurant is packed full. One of your co-workers is new, and seems to be in some trouble—he keeps getting orders mixed up, forgets to refill drinks, etc. Suddenly he spills a tray of drinks on a customer. You are slammed with your own tables. What, if anything, would you do in this situation?
Notice that both formats ask the candidate about job-relevant information. Behavioral questions ask about job-related situations encountered in the past, and situational questions ask about job-related situations that a candidate is likely to encounter on the job.
Tips on how to Develop Good Interview Questions
Please refer to the following tips when developing your interview questions.
Be as clear as possible.
Word the questions such that they assess primarily only one dimension.
Try not to ask leading questions. Sometimes the way the question is worded can give away the correct response.
Avoid wordy language. Questions should have enough detail to provide a well-understood context but not so much that the candidates get bogged down by the details.
Avoid organization-specific knowledge, jargon, or terminology.
Step 3: Develop Rating Scales
For each of the interview questions, you will also need to develop rating scales or anchors which will help standardize the scoring of candidate responses. Rating scales are critical in providing a fair and common "yardstick" by which to judge each interviewee. In other words, such scales help interviewers develop a picture of what differentiates a good response from a poor response. The more specific these examples can be, the more helpful such anchors will be for all interviewers. You will develop three levels of anchors (e.g., poor, acceptable, and excellent). These anchors should describe typical behaviors on the job. Each level should have at least 2-3 response anchors.
Examples of Both Types of Questions and Behavioral Anchors
Initiative Situational Question:
You have received a request from your manager to prepare an important report, which must be completed early tomorrow morning. Your manager has left for the day when you discover that he has left out information which you must have to complete the report. What would you do in this situation?
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Wait until the manager is in tomorrow morning to start working on the report.
Complete the report without the information, blaming the manager if it’s wrong.
Pass the request along to a co-worker.
Complete as much of the report as possible, and ask the manager for the information tomorrow morning.
Ask for a team member’s help in completing the report.
Complete the report with your best guesses, and verify it with the manager in the morning.
Attempt to contact the manager at home or by cell phone to obtain the information.
Attempt to contact others in the organization who might have the necessary information.
Complete the report as best you can, and email it to your manager to get the needed information.
Teamwork Behavioral Question:
We have all encountered situations where we needed a team member’s help to complete a task or project, and the person was uncooperative. Describe a time when that happened to you. How did you handle the situation and what were the results?
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Did nothing.
Demanded team member’s help.
Project was late, incomplete, or a failure.
Politely requested team member’s help, and received some help.
Went to manager for assistance in obtaining team member’s cooperation.
Project was completed.
Persuaded team member to help by emphasizing project’s importance.
Sought help from other team members to get team member to cooperate.
Project was a success.
Template for Developing Interview Questions
Customer Service Situational Question:
Type question here
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Poor anchor
Poor anchor
Acceptable anchor
Acceptable anchor
Excellent anchor
Excellent anchor
Sales Ability Situational Question:
Type question here
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Poor anchor
Poor anchor
Acceptable anchor
Acceptable anchor
Excellent anchor
Excellent anchor
Customer Service Behavioral Question:
Type question here
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Poor anchor
Poor anchor
Acceptable anchor
Acceptable anchor
Excellent anchor
Excellent anchor
Sales Ability Behavioral Question:
Type question here
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Poor anchor
Poor anchor
Acceptable anchor
Acceptable anchor
Excellent anchor
Excellent anchor
Initiative Situational Question:
You have received a request from your manager to prepare an important report, which must be completed early tomorrow morning. Your manager has left for the day when you discover that he has left out information which you must have to complete the report. What would you do in this situation?
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Wait until the manager is in tomorrow morning to start working on the report.
Complete the report without the information, blaming the manager if it’s wrong.
Pass the request along to a co-worker.
Complete as much of the report as possible, and ask the manager for the information tomorrow morning.
Ask for a team member’s help in completing the report.
Complete the report with your best guesses, and verify it with the manager in the morning.
Attempt to contact the manager at home or by cell phone to obtain the information.
Attempt to contact others in the organization who might have the necessary information.
Complete the report as best you can, and email it to your manager to get the needed information.
Explanation / Answer
Template for Developing Interview Questions
Customer Service Behavioral Question:
You have a very irate customer at your store who was creating chaos & disturbing the atmosphere of the store. . In this situation ,as a store manager, what would you do?
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Will ask security guards to throw him out of the store
Will talk to that customer and ask him to decorum the decorum politely
Will confront the customer politely , ask him to come in my cabin, offer him a cup of coffee and discuss about the issue he has and try to find its solution.
Sales Ability Behavioral Question:
You are the sales supervisor of ABC pvt ltd handling FMCG business. You have 10 subordinates working uder you. Due to some reason 5 of them went on a leave . You have to provide service to all the market as it is the festive season. In this situation what will you do?
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Will not do anything as I don’t have enough manpower
I will work along with the available subordinate. Will ask them to do extra work out of their limit.
Will realign the market beat, first cover the key retail outlets that gives 80% of the business & then rest 20% .
Customer Service Situational Question:
How would you deal an unhappy customer ? Nothing wrong was done from your side they’re actually the ones who have made the mistake?
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Will not entertain him as we are not wrong .He is at fault, he should realize it.
Will apologies him & politely tell him about his mistake and try to make him realize that.
Its my job to make sure that they are treated with respect irrespective of the reason behind their unhappiness.I would not miss any opportunity to satisfy the customer and eliminate the negativity from his mind about the service.
Sales Ability Situational Question:
You’re a team leader. The sales target of one of your subordinate team members is at 50% whereas the other team members are doing above 90% . You have 7 more days left & team’s target is not meeting the expectation due to that one subordinate. What would you do in such situation?
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Will pressurize him to achieve the target or give him ultimatum
Will have a conversation with him regarding the sales target, ask him to get it done by motivating him and keep on monitoring him
Will talk to him , try to figure out the problem why he is unable to achieve, motivate him , discuss with the team members to achieve extra targets so that the team target is accomplished.
Customer Service Behavioral Question:
You have a very irate customer at your store who was creating chaos & disturbing the atmosphere of the store. . In this situation ,as a store manager, what would you do?
Poor
Acceptable
Excellent
1
2
3
4
5
Will ask security guards to throw him out of the store
Will talk to that customer and ask him to decorum the decorum politely
Will confront the customer politely , ask him to come in my cabin, offer him a cup of coffee and discuss about the issue he has and try to find its solution.
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