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Home » HR Processes » Recruitment and Selection » HRM Role at Job Interview

HRM Role at Job Interview

The job interview is not just about the selection of the best candidate for the vacancy in the organization. The role of the HRM Function during job interviews is to keep the alignment of the candidates with the corporate culture and overall recruitment strategy of the organization.

The HR Recruiter has to know all the details about the corporate culture and the HR Recruiter is the person to test the fit between the candidate and the conditions inside the organization. The HR Recruiter has to be skilled and trained to recognize the values and drivers of the candidate to have a quick opinion about the fit of the candidate and the corporate culture.

The HR Recruiter has two different roles in the recruitment and selection process. The HR Recruiter is responsible for the efficiency of the whole recruitment and selection process and he/she is responsible for the fit of the candidates with the organization and the final department. The HR Recruiter uses the brief from the HR Business Partner to match the age, sex and the behavior of the candidate to fit in the department, but the HR Recruiter is never briefed on the corporate culture.

The HRM Function does not test the skills needed for the job tasks, the HR Recruiter focuses on the soft skills part of the candidate. The HR Recruiter asks those “stupid HR questions” to find out more about the candidate. The most skilled HR Recruiters do not ask the questions, they use the technique of the “behavioral job interview”, where the candidate is put to the different situations during the job interview. The HR Recruiter just observes the reactions and answers provided by the candidate. There are no right and bad answers, but the behavior can indicate the fit with the corporate culture and the team dynamics.

The working role of the HRM Function in the recruitment and selection process needs a clear split of responsibilities between the HRM Function and the line manager. The HRM Function has to have the right to say “NO” to the candidate, which is really skilled, but his profile does not match with the organization and its corporate culture.

The managers tend to favor the hard skills as they see as the benefit for the beginning of the candidate in the new job position. But the role of the HRM Function in the recruitment and selection process is to provide the manager with the honest feedback during the process to make clear agreement about the fit with the corporate culture. The hard skills can be learned, but the fit with the corporate culture does not have to make an immediate impact, but it can generate huge conflicts later. The role of the HRM Function in the recruitment process is to protect the organization from such conflicts and to help building the common corporate culture.