I received over 30 responses to my quick survey on the number of applicants
interviewed by Oral Boards. Attached are the comments that I received in WordPerfect
and text versions. As I expected, no one has a policy, per se, on the size of the
oral board.
It appears that the majority of replies from Finance types agree that it would be
better to have smaller Oral Boards , in the range of 8 to 10 applicants. However,
some of the replies were from HR staff and those responses provide explanations on
why it is not always possible to have smaller Oral Boards ( e.g. EEOC complaints based
on alleged age, sex, and race discrimination because applicants were screened out who
believed they should have been brought in for interviews).
Many replies indicated that the number of applicants will also be very dependent on
the type of position i.e. more applicants generally interviewed for the lower rated
positions and fewer applicants for top managerial positions.
Several replies offer some methods to achieve an intensified screening process which
may be of benefit to all of us.
Thanks for your help.
Ken Schechter
Budget Officer
(805) 583-6312
Our City does not have a policy. I have my own policy that I will not sit
on an oral board if there are more than seven candidates.
Dave Bass
City of Lake Forest
I think you are right on. Especially for the technical/professional
positions, eight is about right. For some of the clerical jobs, 12 is
probably around the high end.
Mark Alvarado
Administrative Services Director
City of Monrovia
(626) 932-5510
From: "Zenda James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I think it really would depend on the type of position you
are recruiting for. I do tend to agree with you that 8
candidates in a day would be my limit in order to do a
proper assessment. You generally allow for 30 -45 minutes
interviewing and then another 15 -20 minutes to collect
your thoughts and allowing for an hour to compare notes at
the end of the day.
I'm not sure that we have a policy, but we try to limit the number of
candidates to about 8, or what can reasonably be accommodated in one day.
You're right, it's hard to really listen and evaluate more than that (and 8
seems like a lot too!) in one day.
Hope this helps,
Joan
Joan Streit
Director, Finance & Administrative Services
City of Albany
1000 San Pablo Ave.
Albany, CA 94706
From: "Dave Millican" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We do not have a policy but we almost never try to do more than 8 people in one day.
Six
is preferred. We will do up to three separate boards comprised of customers,
employees
and technical experts or community members. When numbers increase we cut the
interview time to make sure the board has time to write notes and score the
candidates.
We also reserve time at the end of each day to debrief the boards. We do not assign
detailed scores candidates either are qualified with a strong recommendation,
qualified,
or not recommended. Interviewers are instructed to fail any candidate that they would
not
hire. Hope this helps. We have a rule of the list rather than appointing the highest
ranked
candidate so numerical scores are not relevant to the selection.
There is a lot of flexibility in this process and we add structure and scoring
complexity when
dealing with a lot candidates (e.g. firefighter) but we screen heavily before anyone
gets to
a live interview.
From: "Agnes Walker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Ken -will forward to HR -but am with you -the number of candidates to be
interviewed in one day s/b limited to at least try to do an adequate job in
assessing them...Agnes
From: Bertha Guzman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2000 8:47 AM
To: Agnes Walker
Subject: RE: [CSMFO Members] Oral Boards -Quick Survey
WE USUALLY SCHEDULE 40-MINUTE INTERVIEWS FOR MANAGEMENT LEVEL
EMPLOYEES, 50
MINUTES TO 1 HOUR INTERVIEWS FOR EXECUTIVE LEVEL EMPLOYEES. FOR
ENTRY LEVEL
WE USUALLY DO 30-MINUTES INTERVIEWS.
-
From: Zane Johnston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We have no policy but I think your sentiments are correct. Sometimes
the number is determined by some prior test such as a written exam.
Depending on scores, HR looks for some clean break point. It would
be nice if that is only 8 candidates, but sometimes it's 10 or 12.
Today, we were holding an oral board for an accounting tech position
with 15 candidates!!! This was necessary because so many candidates
received scores close to each other from the written exam. Hope this
helps. Good luck.
From: "Catherine Kuffner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The City of Encinitas has no policy with regard to Oral Boards, number of applicants,
etc.
I agree that it would be nice to limit the number of applicants that come in for
interviews to
eight but sometimes it is difficult to get the number down to a dozen. We have had
EEOC
complaints based on alleged age, sex, and race discrimination because we screened out
applicants who believed they should have been brought in for interviews. An
alternative
is to have two days of interviews, which makes trying to remember the applicants even
more difficult. Please let me know if someone comes up with a suitable alternative to
what
we are doing.
From: Alicia Lara <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We do not have an official policy. However, I am involved in the paper
screening process (here as well as a previous city) and the limit is usually
8. We look at the applicant pool make-up to be certain we interview as
close the profile of applicants as possible. We often only interview 5 or
6, and have interviewed as few as 4 (half day), as we want to be able to
call on some of these panel members again, and wasting their time on
applicants they don't need to see means I am not doing a good job with the
screening committee. Once in a while we will see more candidates (typically
police and fire), but then I try to break it up over two days. We have done
this only for positions where we have several vacancies, like dispatcher in
the police department. In that department we have to have a strong pool, as
many fall out of the process during backgrounds.
I'm not sure that you would want to adopt a policy that specifically limits
you or obligates you to a certain number, as you want to remain as flexible
as possible to meet the ever changing needs of your organization. It seems
like you're going in the right direction, 8 in one day is a controllable
number, with as you said, the emphasis being on the candidate, and not on
staying within the schedule.
Alicia Lara
From: Jim Palm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi Ken. We do not have a written policy. Instead, we handle each
recruitment differently, depending on urgency, number of responses,
availability of panel members, etc. We have been pretty successful at
holding two interviews. The first is a quick, 10 minute screening type
of interview that is usually done with in-house staff. This is an
all-day affair and we cram in as many as time will allow. Staff is
usually brain-dead at the end of the day; it is very tiring. We then
schedule the top 3 -5 candidates for a second interview. The second
interview is 1/2 hour to 45 minutes long and is conducted by an outside
panel. We try to keep this to 1/2 day (easier to get a outside oral
panel for a half day versus a full day). That's it. Naturally, before
we do any interviews we go through the applications/resumes and try to
reduce the number of qualified candidates, but working against this
process is the fact that the more you interview, the greater your
chances of finding the perfect match. Good luck.
Jim Palm
Three Valleys MWD
Claremont, CA
(909) 621-5568
From: "DeAngelis, Lisa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I agree with you. Ten to twelve interviews in one day is too much. I try
to do no more that eight in one day. The City of Brisbane does not have a
written policy regarding our interview panels. However, I more or less have
direct control over the structure of the interview schedule and will
normally schedule more than eight or nine in one day. This can present a
problem in that you need to find panel members who are willing to come back
for more than one day.
If you have any other questions, feel free to call me at 415-508-2115 or
send me an email at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lisa De Angelis
Human Resources Specialist
From: Richard Hare <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We usually try to keep it to 6 -8 applicants per day, however, this isn't a
hard and fast rule. There might be an instance when we had very good
candidates and interviewed more.
From: Mary Gilmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Ken,
The City of Signal Hill does not have a policy but those of us in Personnel
try to schedule more than enough time to rate each candidate and yes, it is
based on the complexity of the interview. If it is a simple entry level
position with no experience or minimal experience required,the interviews
may be every 1/2 hour. If it is a journey level professional position, the
interviews are usually every 50 to 60 minutes which allows ample time to
interview, evaluate and prepare for the next candidate.
From: Carolynn Petru <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Rancho Palos Verdes does not have a written policy
regarding the number of people invited to an oral board.
However, I agree with your point of view. In my experience,
eight is the ideal number of candidates to interview in one
day. The exception is entry level positions, where we have
interviewed as many as fifteen people. These make for long,
exhausting days, but the interviews are generally short (only
20 minutes each usually). I have also seen interviews split
into two days. This works if it's an in-house panel. It's tough
to get people from other agencies to give up two days. I also
wouldn't recommend interviewing more than eight for journeyman
or management positions. If there is a large pool of qualified
applicants, we usually have some type of supplemental
questionnaire or skills test to narrow the field down to a
manageable number.
I hope that this is helpful. Good luck in developing your policy.
Carolynn Petru
Assistant City Manager
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We do not have a policy but we have solicited more panel members and had two
panels covering 15 (7-8 each) applicants on the same day. Even though both
panels are different, I was satisfied that I got the top 7 to go to the next
phase of meeting with my department staff and myself for a final decision.
I would never settle on 10 in one day. That is too much. It is not fair
for the candidate, the panel member or the City.
In the above example, we had 40 applicants which were scaled down to the 15.
I wanted interviews for all 15 and to be considerate to a panelist, only one
day of service was expected.
Matt N. Pressey
Accounting Administrator
City of Pasadena
From: "Cindy Braem" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We don't necessarily have a written policy, however, I try to limit the
number of interviewees to under 10. A good mix is 6-8. Usually if there
has been a written exam the natural grade break gives me a good indication
of how many to interview. Generally, for Dept Head level, I limit the
number to 5.
Hope this helps.
Cindy Braem
City of Ridgecrest
From: Ed Bushong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We do not have a formal policy, but our practice has been to limit the
number of candidates to 7-8 per day. Nine is also a workable number, since
you will usually have at least 1 candidate cancel at the last minute. We
have also found that dividing up the questions each oral board member asks
allows each to focus on their area of inquiry and give time to observe and
evaluate the candidates while other panel members are asking their
questions. Some discussion time (5-10 minutes) is also allowed between
candidates while impressions are still fresh.
For a high level position, we probably would only talk to 2 or 3.
Hope this helps.
Ed Bushong
Ventura Regional Sanitation District
From: Judith Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
we don't have a policy, and I agree with you completely.
From: Michael Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
At the City of Maywood we do not have such a policy, but I would agree with you that
no
more than 6 to 8 interviews a day is plenty. We are a small city and I sit on most of
our oral
boards so I speak from experience.
Hope this helps...
From: "Keene, Leslie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We do not have a formal policy, but tend to keep it to 4 to 6 applicants per
day, allowing an hour each which often will give the interviewers a little
break between each.
Leslie Keene
Fiscal Services Manager
El Dorado Irrigation District
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ----------
From: "Darrel Pyle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
No policy in Porterville. We do 11 or 12 in one day. If we have too many applicants
to
interview, and can weed them down with a written test, we can set the minimum score at
a level that will allow us to interview a smaller number. Our Police Department is
the only
department that is able to get oral board members to sit two days in a row.
Darrel Pyle
Director of Finance
From: "Christine Reeves" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Shafter does not have a written policy but the practice we follow varies on the
position and
the number of candidates. We allow for 15 to 20 minute interview for the entry level
position. More time is spent at the mid to upper management, and promotionals, 30 to
45
minutes.
Interviews are schedules back to back interviews with no breaks except one hour for
lunch.
The time allowed for each interview includes each panel member completing a rating
form
and discussion about the candidates qualifications. Personnel will recap the morning
applicants' rating forms during the lunch hour so that less time spent at the end of
the day
with ranking.
Even when we have 20-40 applicants to interview, we still only use one panel board.
The
same board will meet for 2 days.
Interviewing isn't a skate day. It's tough and mentally exhausting to do the job well.
That's
why it's critical that when selecting panel members, you select ony those who are
committing to doing what it takes to find the right person.
From: "Ron Popp" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Our City does not have such a policy. Our oral boards are geared to the
position and the number of applicants. I do think our Personnel folks try to
pick the top 4 or 5 for the interview but again that must depend on the
position and the apparent qualifications of the candidates. I agree with
you though having just helped another city by setting on their board. We
interviewed 34 applicants in one day for an Account Clerk I position.
Needless to say, I was worn out by day's end (07:30 to 5:30, 10 minutes per
interview with 2 15 min breaks and lunch). All in all it went as well as
could be expected. Test results were an equal determining factor.
Ron Popp
Financial Services Manger
City of Millbrae
From: "Joan Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We have no written policy re the number of oral appraisals to be conducted in one day;
it
depends on the level of the position. It is not unusual to conduct 12 interviews per
day for
entry level positions. For some positions, gen'lly Police Officers, we will run
multiple oral
appraisal boards simultaneously. In all cases, it's very important to take good notes
during
the appraisals and complete the rating forms immediately after the interviews so you
can
distinguish between the candidates. If you want to discuss, please feel free to call
me at
619 441-1749
From: "Jill Sylvain" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Currently the City has no official policy but we historically have limited the number
of
candidates to 13 per day and I agree this is a lot -it allows about 25 minutes of
actual
interviewing time per candidate. . There is a method to our madness for many of the
positions are entry level, e.g Maint. Wrker, Office Assist., and we want as many
people on
the eligibility list as possible because then the various departments have more
candidates
to select from. The second interview, conducted by the department needing to fill a
position, becomes very important and often goes on for several hours with each
candidate.
I believe this works well for these types of positions; I have observed thousands of
interviews and a good oral board will usually i.d. the good, the bad and the ugly even
in this
short amount of time. I should add that more and more we are adding a "practical
exam"
portion to the process where another group of folks (usually employees of the hiring
department) get to spend time w/candidates and have very informal input into ranking
the
candidates.
However, our process for mid and upper management positions is different. We do have
fewer candidates (6-8) per day and the interview times are longer. Many times these
are
assessment centers and the candidates can appear before 3 different boards in a day.
We
are still establishing an eligibility list and want strong "back-up" califates but we
are really
looking for the one perfect candidate so we can afford to go with a smaller pool.
For Police Officer and Firefighter we do a minimum of two days of orals putting as
many
candidates as we can through the process because in police so many candidates wash-out
in the backgrounds that we need "numbers" . Not true in Fire but our list is good for
2
years so we want numbers there also.
If you have any questions, call me at 805 781-7251. Jill Sylvain HR Analyst
From: "Carolyn Wertheim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We have various schedules for oral boards that are evaluated on two factors,
1. The position being recruited for
2. Number of applicants.
We have scheduled 15 applicants in one day. I have also participated in other cities'
oral
boards with the same level (ie 15 candidates).
While it may be a long day for the oral board members, when asked, they have
consistently
expressed a preference for completing the board in one day rather than returning for a
second day.
One city currently utilizes a 'restaurants on the run' delivery service and rather
than the oral
board leaving for lunch, a separate lunch room is prepared for the members The
members
select their preferred meal item and then the restaurant delivers is at the designated
time.
This helps reduce the time needed for lunch and provides a few minutes more for the
interviews.
On other suggestion is to have two separate oral boards on the same day interviewing.
We have used this approach when needed, and I have participated in other cities where
the same technique is also used.
Another technique is to limit the number of questions. We utilize a supplemental
questionaire with our applications so that we have the opportunity to find out more
about
the applicant's knowledge and abilities up front. We can concentrate on a second
level of
information at the time of the oral interview.
The final suggestion I have is with regard to preparing for the interviews. Having
easily
completed rating / evaluation sheets and organized materials for each oral board
member
that they can review prior to the interview day has been a wonderful tool for many
cities.
Raters receive the books in advance, so there is time to review the application
materials.
Hope this helps!
Carolyn Wertheim
City of Mission Viejo
From: "Jill Olsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Town of Truckee does not have a formal policy, but we recommend no more
than 6-8 applicants for interviewing. If we should have more than 6-8
applicants that meet or exceed the minimum qualifications of the position
(we have not yet experienced that), we would make an exception to the
recommended limit. It works both ways for us...if we have no more than 3-4
that meet or exceed minimum qualifications, we only interview 3-4. Good
luck!
Jill Olsen
Administrative Services Director
Town of Truckee
fax: (530) 582-7710
From: "Linda Downing" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Ken Schechter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 3/24/00 10:00:40 AM
Subject: Re: [CSMFO Members] Oral Boards -Quick Survey
The City of Marina does not have a formal policy to limit the number of individuals
interviewed by an oral board. We try to keep the number managable so that interviews
can
be conducted in one work day.
The length of the interview depends on the classification: Clerical 30 minutes;
Management an hour. An eligibility list is established for future hirings on
classifications
with high turnover.
Linda R. Downing
Administrative Services Manager
City of Marina
From: "Narayan, Tarun" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We don't have a specific policy on how many applicants are scheduled for an
Oral Board interview. In general the average is 5 per day with a possibility
of 8 per day. The number of applicants scheduled per day depends on the
position and/or the needs of the departments. If we have more than 5 or 8
candidates we will have oral board over multiple days.
From: Sabrina Miranda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Your questions has been forwarded to me and I will try to answer it. I
should start by letting you know that I am a Personnel Analyst here in the
City of Vacaville, and one of my major responsibilities is to plan,
coordinate and administer oral examinations. There are no set rules on exam
planning, and analysts have a lot of discretion on how they handle their
assigned exams, but I will be glad to share with you what I do --which I
think is typical.
When scheduling candidates for an oral board I take into consideration the
level of the position and the number of questions the oral board will ask,
then I estimate how long it would take to give an average answer. Time
permitting I go through a mock interview to try it out and see how it flows.
I have found that you need less time for clerical and labor/maintenance oral
board interviews, about 20 minutes. On the other hand, I've also found you
need more time for professional and management positions, anywhere from 30
minutes to 45 minutes.
Cut-off decisions also impact the number of candidates who will be invited
to the oral board. The cut-off is the place where you draw the line as to
who will be selected to participate in the oral board interview. Ideally
cut-off decisions should be made objectively; for example, by ranking
candidates based on their score from a written exam or screening criteria.
The cut-off is not always a neat and optimal process because you have to
treat everyone with the same score equally. This means that you have to
either invite everyone with that score or no one with that score. If you
make the cut-off score higher you may not have enough candidates to meet the
agency's needs. Yet if you go just one rank or score lower sometimes you
have more candidates than you want or can interview in one day. If this is
the case then you hope for a cancellation, and/or you reduce the number of
questions to be asked. As you can see this is not an exact science, and
that's why analyst have so much discretion. I hope this information is
helpful.
Sabrina
From: "Haney, Stacey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The City of Roseville does not have a specific number of candidates
who are invited to the oral exam. We too schedule numerous (up to 21)
candidates in a day. This "overscheduling" helps us to get oral board
members. In this day and age it is difficult to get people to commit to
more than one day of oral exams, therefore we try to get as many done in one
day as possible.
Stacey Haney
City of Roseville
From: "Sherry Stewart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
We do not have a specific policy for limiting the number of participants in an oral
board.
However, we typically keep the number of interviewees to 10 or less.
From: "Shairon Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hello there!
To answer your question, the City of Morgan Hill's HR dept do not have a policy or any
rule
on how many applicants would allow for a more productive day of interviews.
As the HR Analyst, and a person who facilitates many Oral Boards, I find a manageable
number of applicant to be around 9. However that depends on the position we are
interviewing for.
If for some reason we have to "load" an Oral Board, I would generally review the
questions
and limit those to the most pertinent. In doing that, we are able to keep the
interview to
alittle less than 20 mins, giving the raters ample time to complete the scoring sheet.
I believe that raters should rate as they go along throughout the day. We give two
breaks,
and one and one half hours for lunch. This way -if a rater needs to catch up -there
is time
to do so.
Clear as mud?
Call me if you would like to talk about this some more.
Sincerely,
Shairon Williams
(408) 779-7278 ext. 440
From: "Alexis Heinz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Ken, if you don't mind, Barbara Boswell forwarded this inquiry down to us in HR.
We do not have a formal policy on interview panels. We have some guidelines we
have always tried to stay consistant with, but are also flexible to each set of
interviews we hold. We hope we are able to meet the needs of that particular
department, division, time frame by this.
Indeed it is not optimal to have 10-12 candidates, but we have done it many
times. In fact we would rather have 10 good ones than 8 unless the timing
prohibits. (We try to discourage any more than that though.) If there are any
internal applicants then, we have a good number of outsiders to consider for
competition with 9-10 of them. We usually start our panel orientation at 8:15
or 8:45, with the first interviews at either 9:00 or 9:30. This way HR can sit
with the panel & go over the pre-arranged questions, the rating sheets, our
expectations of them as raters, & provide a light morning refreshment before
they start.
We try to provide an hour and a half for lunch for a a nice break, and wrap up
by 4:30 or sooner. It is a long day, which is why we try to provide a nice
lunch and the a.m. refreshment. We try to schedule not more than 1/2 hour
interviews (or less) if possible. Longer if there are less candidates, shorter
if the dept. can't narrow it down to less than 11 or 12. We try to have the
dept. create only 5-8 questions, then add a opening ice-breaker & a wrap up
question. We encourage our panelists to take notes during the interviews, & to
keep on track, & to discuss throughout the day once the candidate leaves, if
they wish. That way they are not so crunched to remember everything at the end
of the day, and we can offer constructive feedback if the candidate requests it.
We don't use formulas, percentages or number rankings. We use pass/no pass as
to whether they can perform the job, and seem appropriate to the level & a
general City fit. Then the dept. rep. can choose at the end, who is strongest
v. weakest, to bring back a second time to meet their division staff or dept.
head.
Occasionally we administer a written assessment, computer exercise, or plan
identification, on the same day as interviews, separately from the orals.
Sometimes a practical "hands on" may also be administered on second round of
interviews to top candidates, or a "ride around" for some of the field
positions. Sometimes the candidates may have already participated in a formal
exam for the position.
I hope this helps. Please feel free to call or write if you want eny other
feedback! Alexis Heinz
Administrative Analyst, Human Resources, Santa Clarita. Ph. (661)255-4320
From: "Candis Hong" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Although Thousand Oaks does not have an official policy, we do limit interviews to
about
8 or 10 on management positions. We have had two oral boards (at the same time) in
the
past for our general unit positions, most recently customer service representative,
and they
together interviewed about 18 people. You are right, it is hard to remember everyone
by
the end of the day if you have more than 10.
On another note, could you e-mail me, or send me your job description, for Budget
Officer?
I have been trying to convince our City Manager that we need a position in Finance
like
you have in Simi Valley. Thanks.
Candis Hong
Finance Director/Treasurer
2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
Phone 805-449-2241
Fax 805-449-2250
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WordPerfect 6.1
