Productivity Improvement

Employee Evaluation and Selection

Applying profile analysis to employee evaluation and selection

The chronological evaluation takes from 15 to 30 minutes to construct, with one being developed for each candidate. It is best used when there are not a large number of applicants for the target position, and / or the evaluator/ interviewer desires a guide, which is very specific to an applicant's background and the position to be filled or level of performance / competentance to be achieved.

The guide organizes planned evaluation / interview questions to the unique education and job experience of each applicant. In this format, the questions are asked in chronological sequence, starting with the applicant's earliest job related experiences and working through to the present. Follow these steps when planning, and later to conduct, your evaluation / interview sessions.

  • Have handy a pad of lined paper and the list of target constructs you are responsible for covering in the interview.
  • Study the candidates application material and any other relevant material.
  • Follow the job interview guide
  • Write the applicant's name on top of a sheet of paper and note the steps you will follow in opening the interview.
  • On top of other sheets of paper, write the names of the applicants major career segments, i.e. from, to, position and company. Use a separate sheet of paper for each career segment. Cover all time periods and any other unexplained time periods.
  • Label a sheet of paper 'Job Interview Close' and note the steps you will follow in closing the evaluation nterview.
  • Leaving space for answers, develop questions arising from your review of the applicant's application materials. Write each question on the page devoted to the career segment that question is designed to explore. (N.B. The PDF version of this article contains over 600 targeted job interview questions covering 7 key constructs, with sub-catagories common to most, if not all jobs.)

Review the constructs you are responsible for covering in the interview.

  • Consider the time available to cover each construct ( allow 5 to 10 minutes to cover each construct).
  • Plan more time to cover the most important constructs.
  • Plan to ask more evaluation interview questions about the applicant's most recent jobs / experience.
  • Select planned interview questions, which can be tailored to the unique background of the applicant.
  • Develop your own planned questions for the interview.
  • Consider which career segment is most likely to yield behavioral examples under a given dimension.
  • Which planned questions are most likely to get those behavioral examples.

The interviewer should select a minimum of three planned questions for each construct. The interviewer should not attempt to tap all target construct within a single career segment. The interviewer may use the same planned question to bring out behavior in all of the applicant's career segments.

Some constructs, such as creativity, should only be tapped under career segments that allowed the possibility of showing creativity. Constructs that are best observed during the actual interview (oral communication, impact, listening) should be recorded in the upper right corner of the selected career segment pages. Leave a blank space below the dimension name for notes.

  • Record the evaluation interview questions you have selected / developed on the appropriate career segment page. To the left of each question, note the name of the construct sought. This will serve as an aid in checking your coverage of each construct and when reviewing information obtained in the interview.

Questions about a given segment of the applicant's career should be inserted on the page in an appropriate sequence. For example, if the interview question is asked at the beginning of a discussion of a given job / experience, the question should be positioned at the top of the page devoted to that job / experience; if in the middle of the discussion the middle of the page; if at the end of the discussion the bottom of the page.

  • Number the interview questions on each career segment page in the order in which they should be asked. Ideally, the questions now appear in proper sequence but a more effective sequence may occur to you after you have written the questions down, If this occurs, simply change the number to the left of the question to reflect its new position in the job interview sequence.