招聘官如何为面试“加分”?.

　　It&aposs not always a candidate&aposs fault when a job interview goes south.

　　Hiring managers can commit a litany of sins, such as interrupting interviews to answer phone calls, failing to take notes, acting bored or distracted, bad-mouthing their own companies, bullying applicants, or asking &aposgotcha&apos questions for no reason at all, say human-resources consultants. The cost of poor interviews ranges from bad hires to alienated job applicants. At worst, untrained hiring managers can open their employers to lawsuits by asking questions deemed illegal by federal nondiscrimination standards.

　　That&aposs why companies are bringing in coaches and launching training programs to boost managers&apos interviewing skills. A relatively small investment -- anywhere from $3,500 to $30,000 -- can make the difference, hiring experts say, between a team that operates at peak performance and one where bad hires drag on productivity and morale.

　　At iD Tech Camps, a Campbell, Calif., camp provider with 655 permanent and seasonal staff, regional managers were required to complete a daylong interview workshop this past winter. Propane seller J.S. West & Co., of Modesto, Calif., had branch managers participate in a two-day seminar to standardize and enhance interview procedures. And Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics NV is rolling out a program next month that will place thousands of U.S. managers in small-group classes to help them improve the quality of hires and candidates&apos experience with the company.

　　Companies tend to assume that practically anyone can conduct a good interview, says Pamela Skillings, founder of New York-based career consulting firm Skillful Communications, which has provided interview training to iD Tech Camps and Columbia University, among others.

　　Interviewing is a job skill in its own right.

　　Most managers &aposwing it,&apos said Ms. Skillings, and incorrectly assume they can simply follow their instincts to the right hire. That can mean that one candidate gets a thorough interview, while another gets a shorter sit-down if the boss is in a bad mood or busy, she added.

　　Such inconsistency may lead to unintentionally biased hiring decisions, said Lauren Rivera, an assistant professor at Northwestern University&aposs Kellogg School of Management. Her research has found that interviewers gravitate toward people like themselves, who share their educational backgrounds or interests. &aposThat&aposs a natural human thing, but firms need to counterbalance that&apos by requiring a set of prepared questions and a consistent means of scoring and evaluating each applicant, she says.

　　After seeing too many candidates decline job offers, iD Tech Camps wanted its regional managers, who each hire more than 80 seasonal camp directors and staff annually, to probe more deeply into applicants&apos abilities and interest level.

　　Through role-playing exercises in which the &aposapplicant&apos had a hidden agenda -- viewing the job as backup in case plans to move to Paris fell through, for example -- participants worked on &aposnot letting candidates get away with vague, generic responses,&apos said Joy Meserve, vice president of camp operations.

　　Now managers ask all candidates if they&aposre interviewing at other companies and whether they would accept an offer if one is extended. &aposWe want people to be absolutely committed,&apos says Ms. Meserve.

　　Since the training, Jen Devine, a regional manager based in Weymouth, Mass., said she no longer assumes a candidate is the right fit just because of the relevant experience on their resumes, and she stops herself bore giving candidates too many clues about what she wants to hear. For instance, when asking for an example of how a candidate once taught a skill to another person, she rrains from offering anecdotes from her own life.

　　Ms. Meserve said camp directors&apos and instructors&apos evaluations of their teams for this year were the strongest she has seen since the company&aposs founding 13 years ago.

　　At Philips, managers can take &aposInterview Process&apos classes to practice coaxing usul answers from applicants. In the program starting up next month, the company&aposs human-resources staff will help managers make interviews more pleasant and ficient on both sides of the table.

　　That means more pre-interview preparation, no trick questions, and reducing the number of times a candidate &aposgoes through the wringer,&apos said Russell Schramm, head of talent acquisition for Philips&aposs North America operations.

　　&aposWe&aposve heard about candidates interviewing with 20 people over three days. That&aposs absolutely absurd&apos from the applicant&aposs point of view and unnecessary for making hiring decisions, said Mr. Schramm, who added that Philips found itself losing qualified candidates who got fed up with the company&aposs hiring process.

　　Troubling patterns of employee turnover and workers&apos compensation claims led J.S. West human-resources manager Brandi Fuller to spend $12,000 on an interviewing coach.

　　During a training session for the company&aposs 20 managers last month, the coach warned against questions relating to sensitive areas such as a candidate&aposs age or personal circumstances, which are illegal to ask. Managers seemed surprised, a reaction that had Ms. Fuller &aposcringing . . . I thought we&aposd made all of that clear bore.&apos

　　Most interview coaches also target listening skills.

　　Bosses must do some talking to give job candidates a sense of the company&aposs culture, says Manny Avramidis, head of global human resources at the American Management Association, a professional-development group. But beware managers who talk too much. The candidate should get 80% of the airtime, says Mr. Avramidis. Otherwise, &aposit&aposs a commercial, not an interview.&apos

　　Jason Schne人力资源顾问指出，面试官在面试过程中可能会犯下各种各样的错误，比如面试过程中接听电话、不做记录、表现出感到无聊或是心不在焉、说公司的坏话、吓唬求职者，或是无缘无故地给求职者设陷阱。招聘面试不成功造成的后果是，企业聘用到不合适的员工，求职者从此对这家企业敬而远之，等等。最糟糕的情况下，不专业的面试官可能会因为提问违反联邦非歧视法规的问题导致其雇主被起诉。

　　这就是一些公司开始聘请培训师并实施培训项目以提高招聘经理面试求职者的能力的原因。招聘专家说，糟糕的招聘会拖累团队的工作效率和士气，只需一笔3,500美元到三万美元这样数额不大的投资，就可以让企业拥有一支表现卓越的团队。

　　加州坎贝尔市(Campbell)的训练营提供商ID Tech Camps拥有655名长期员工和季节性员工。去年冬天，该公司地区经理被要求参加一个长达一天的面试研讨小组。加州丙烷销售商ModestoJ.S. West & Co.让部门经理参与了两天的研讨会，目的是使公司的面试过程更加标准化和完善。总部位于荷兰的皇家飞利浦电子公司(Royal Philips Electronics NV)将于本月推出一个项目，在该项目中，数千名美国经理将分成若干个小班级，学习如何招聘到更好的员工，以及使应聘者对公司拥有良好印象。

　　纽约职业咨询公司Skillful Communications的创始人帕梅拉•斯基林(Pamela Skillings)说，企业往往会认为所有人都能当好一个面试官。该公司为iD Tech Camps和哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)等机构提供面试方面的培训。

　　面试他人本身就是一种职业技能。

　　斯基林说，大多数面试官在对求职者进行面试时即兴发挥，以为自己凭直觉就能招到好的员工。她补充说，这意味著有些求职者的面试过程是完整的，而由于老板心情不好或是过于忙碌，另外一些求职者的面试时间非常短暂。

　　西北大学凯洛格管理学院(Northwestern University&aposs Kellogg School of Management)的助理教授劳伦•里维拉(Lauren Rivera)说，这样不统一的面试过程可能会导致面试官做出不公正的决定。她通过研究发现，面试考官倾向于录用与自己相似的应聘者，比如与自己拥有同样教育背景或兴趣的应聘者。她说：“这是人之常情，但是企业需要消除这个因素的影响”，方法是预先准备一些问题，以及对每一位应聘者采取同样的评分和评估方法。

　　在太多应聘者在通过面试后回绝工作邀请之后，iD Tech Camps希望其地区招聘经理在面试中更深入地调查应聘者的能力和对公司的兴趣程度。这些地区经理每人每年会招聘超过80名季节性训练营总监和员工。

　　负责训练营业务的副总裁乔伊•莫瑟夫(Joy Meserve)说，在角色扮演练习中，求职者要试图隐瞒他们的计划，比如，求职者如果去不了巴黎才会接受这份工作，参与者的任务是“不让求职者用模棱两可的应答蒙混过关”。

　　在接受培训后，如今，面试官会询问每一位应聘者：是否还在参加其他公司的面试，以及如果收到工作邀请是否会接受。莫瑟夫说：“我们希望应聘者的求职态度是认真的。”

　　马萨诸塞州韦茅斯(Weymouth)的地区经理仁•迪瓦恩(Jen Devine)说，自从接受培训以后，她不再仅仅因为候选人简历上有相关经历就认为对方是合适人选，她也会控制住自己，不给应聘者任何自己想听到何种答案的暗示。例如，在要求候选人举例如何教会他人一项技能时，她不会再举自己生活中的例子。

　　莫瑟夫说，在她看来，今年训练营总监和辅导员对团队的评价是公司创办13年以来最好的。

　　在飞利浦，经理们可以参加“面试过程”培训班，练习如何从应聘者那里获得有用的答案。在本月的课程中，公司的人力资源团队将帮助招聘经理学会如何使面试过程变得对于双方来说都愉快和有效率。

　　飞利浦北美业务人才招聘负责人罗素•施拉姆(Russell Schramm)说，这意味着在面试前进行更多准备工作，不问晦涩难懂的问题，减少候选人受折磨的时间。

　　施拉姆说，“我们听说有些求职者三天在同一家公司接受了20位考官的面试”，从求职者的角度来说，“这太荒谬了”，而且也没必要。他补充说，飞利浦发现，由于一些求职者对公司的招聘过程感到无法忍受，公司已经因此失去了一些合适的候选人。

　　由于受到雇员流失率和员工赔偿请求的困扰，J.S.West的人力资源经理布兰迪•富勒(Brandi Fuller)花1.2万美元聘请了一位面试教练。

　　去年11月在对公司的20名招聘经理进行培训时，教练警告招聘经理们说，不要询问与敏感领域有关的问题，比如候选人的年龄或个人状况，因为询问这些问题是违法的。经理们似乎感到很惊讶。富勒说，“这个……我还以为我们已经明确了这一点。”

　　倾听技巧也是大多数面试官培训的重点。

　　职业发展机构美国管理学会(American Management Association)全球人力资源高级副总裁曼尼•阿弗拉米迪斯(Manny Avramidis)说，老板们在面试中必须说话，这样才能让应聘者对公司的文化有所了解。阿弗拉米迪斯说，但面试官要注意不要说得过多。面试时间的80%应该留给求职者。否则的话，“这就不是面试，而是广告了”。