An Overview of Face-to-Face Interviews

 

Face-to-face interviews are characterized by synchronous communication in both time and place. Because of this synchronous communication face-to-Face interviews can take advantage of social cues. Social cues such as the interviewee's voice, intonation, and body language can provide the interviewer with a range of additional information that can be supplemented to the interviewee's verbal response to a question (Opdenakker, 2006). The interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee in face-to-face interviews is always direct and absent of technical obstacles. The interviewer can see body language, facial expressions, and other nonverbal social signs. The physical meeting can enhance the chances of generating a safe and comfortable environment. Face-to-face interviews can be time-consuming and costly, as they require expensive travel. In some circumstances, there is also a risk if the interviewer or interviewee must travel through or to places where personal safety is at risk (Saarijarvi and Bratt, 2021).

Interviews can be structured to a greater or lesser extent, or they might be unstructured. A structured interview is one that is built around a prepared collection of questions that may be related to the ordinary circumstances faced by holders of the post for which the candidate is being considered, or the competences required as specified in the person specification. An unstructured interview is one that was not planned using predetermined questions, yet it may have some structure in the form of the sequence of topics covered, such as a biographical interview that simply goes through a candidate's education, training, and experience (Armstrong, 2009, 542).

Advantages of Face-to-Face interviews

     ·       The fundamental advantage of face-to-face interviews is direct human contact. Respondent collaboration and motivation are increased by direct human interaction. The response rate of face-to-face interviews is the greatest (Newman, 2012).

     ·       When compared to other interview approaches, terminating a face-to-face interview is simple. The interplay between interviewer and interviewee can provide adequate cues that the interview is coming to an end. An express method to end the interview is to thank the interviewee for their cooperation and ask if they have any more comments about the topic or the interview process. This can result in the emergence of a completely new area of information (Opdenakker, 2006).

     ·       Allow candidates to ask questions about the job and explain problems such as training, career potential, the organization, and employment terms and circumstances (Armstrong, 2009, 544).

     ·       Face-to-face interviews also enable for the surveying of relatively difficult subjects. Visual displays such as response lists, calendar displays, and photographs can be used to enhance the interview. The interviewer can provide considerably more detailed explanations of questions and activities than would be possible with self-administered questionnaires. If respondents are doubtful about something, interviewers can explain it in further detail, investigate if the respondent's answer does not fit the question and motivate the respondent to answer all of the questions (Schroder, 2016).

     ·       Face-to-face surveys is longer interviews that can be conducted than in the case of the other survey modes. Face-to-face interviews often last one hour (Schroder, 2016).

Disadvantages of Face-to-Face interviews

     ·       Can be unreliable in the sense of assessing the same things for various candidates and lacking validity as a technique of producing accurate performance predictions (Armstrong, 2009, 544).

     ·       Face-to-face surveys are considerably more expensive than the other survey modes. The high costs are due mainly to the interviewer costs (Schroder, 2016).

     ·       The face-to-face interview has the ‘interviewer effect’ which become ‘interviewer bias’ (Newman, 2012). 

     ·       Respondents might give expected and normative answers and hide embarrassing personal details (Newman, 2012).

     Below video demonstrates about a practical way to conduct a face-to-face interview. As per the video, there are eight parts to a great interview. Those are icebreaking, the first question, the resume, the written responses, The DISC profile evaluation, question & answer session, skilled based tests and reference request. By using a DISC profile organization can indicates how the candidate approach their own work and roles. (Source: HR party of one, 2021).

Source: (HR party of one, 2021)

References

     ·       Armstrong, M. (2009) Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. 11^th edition. Kogan page: London and Philadelphia.

    ·       HR party of one (2021) How to Conduct a Face to Face Interview Tutorial. [Online video] Available from https://youtu.be/56KG2Sb-w6I?list=LL [Accessed 23^rd August 2022]

     ·       Newman, W.L. (2012) The handbook of survey methodology in social sciences. Springer science+Business media New York.

     ·       Opdenakker, R. (2006) Advantages and disadvantages of four interview techniques in qualitative research. Qualitative Social Research, 7(4), pp. 1-4.

     ·       Saarijarvi, M. and Bratt, E. (2021) When face-to-face interviews are not possible: tips and tricks for video, telephone, online chat, and email interviews in qualitative research. European Society of Cardiology, 20, p.393.

     ·       Schroder,J. (2016) Face-to-Face Surveys. GESIS Survey Guidelines, 2, pp.1-2.