Would you like an apple or an orange?

A key component to having a good employee is, of course, having a good selection process during interviews to find the most qualified person for the job. Because of the importance of the interview and selection process, each year we review everything from our application, background packet, interview boards, written tests, physical tests, and even the first week of administrative training that employees go through.

Over the last couple of years we have added things into our written and oral exams that ask questions that help us identify personalities and temperaments as well as other things that may help us find the right person for the job. To me, this review process is very exciting because I like the study of human behavior and personalities.

I often look at other agencies to see what their interview process is like, and I have found a wide range of methods used. Some agencies I have asked tell me they do not have any questions about personalities or temperaments, while others have taken this process to the extreme.

I spoke to one agency that told me they put three separate chairs in the interview room. One is very nice and has the appearance of an "executive" chair. The second is what you would call an average looking office chair, and the third is a metal fold-up chair. The applicant is taken into the interview room and asked to "pick" a chair and have a seat. My first thought when hearing this was, so what? Is it that big of a deal what chair they pick? The person I was talking to then told me what they observe when this takes place.

Some people just take the closest chair and have a seat. Some look at the old and average chairs like there is mud on them and "push" them out of the way and plop down in the executive chair like they were in their own office. An important note to add is that all the other chairs in the interview room, including the ones the interview board members are sitting in are identical to the "average" looking chair. He also said they have had several people that pause for a long period of time looking at the chairs, and thinking this may be a test, take several minutes to decide where to sit while the interview board quietly waits for them to sit down so the interview can began. He said one person even became so nervous they did not sit down, so the interview was started and completed with the person standing up!

This in itself may not reveal much, and I do not think you can make a hiring decision based on what chair someone picks to sit in, but when you add all of the other questions and tests, it may start giving you some idea of what kind of person they are. Someone who cannot decide what chair to sit in may have trouble making decisions, or they may have picked up on the fact that this is a test and want to have the right answer. The same goes for picking the average chair, or the old chair.

Other things that have been used are asking the person what kind of movies they like, when the last time they read a book was, what their favorite pastime is and so on. If offered a choice, would you pick an apple or an orange? Can anything be learned from that? After I heard that, I started asking people that question and then would ask how they came to their conclusion. I was surprised at the number of people that told me they liked oranges better, but peeling an orange was too much work so they would take the apple. Can that tell you anything about someone when added to dozens of other questions? I am not sure if we will start adding multiple chairs to our interview process, but we will again take on this process of improving our applicant screening program to help select the best candidate to help serve the citizens of Vernon County.