interview questions not to ask please

hi folks
one of my friends has been selected by the company that he works for to conduct interviews
he is very concerned by the questions he can and cannot ask, no guidance from the company
and is afraid of getting into trouble by asking wrong questions to interviewees
so could someone give me a list of questions that he is not allowed to ask please

"You look like you're carrying a few pounds...are you pregnant?"

"Are you married, gay, bi-curious?"

Common sense approach here, don't ask anything you wouldn't want to be asked yourself. Stick to questions related to the job.

Stay away from anything to do with religion, sex or appearance. Stick to the same questions for each candidate but depending how the interview is going obviously he can ask clarification/follow up questions. Use open ended questions, "tell me about a time you had to deal with a customer complaint" as opposed to "do you deal with customer complaints"

I would be more concerned by the fact that the company has provided him with no guidance/training on the task. It is an area where he, and the company, can leave themselves open to a lot of grief.

Even the notes taken during an interview can be requested by a freedom of information request. So you have to be careful of what you write as well as what you say.

I'd agree with the above, our company will not allow anyone onto an interview panel until they've completed a training course, they also provide a full guide on how to conduct interviews effectively and what to avoid. Time invested in that prep can save a lot of hassle down the line.

Take a look at the guidelines on the 9 grounds for discrimination here, steer clear of questions that might be perceived to touch on any of these. As a rule, stick to questions that have a direct relevance to the job at hand, don't try to break the ice by talking about where they came from, kids, etc.. If the job is physical in nature you are allowed ascertain whether they are capable of performing the duties, but must be very careful not to stray beyond the boundaries of the role.

Leo said:

Take a look at the guidelines on the 9 grounds for discrimination here, steer clear of questions that might be perceived to touch on any of these. As a rule, stick to questions that have a direct relevance to the job at hand, don't try to break the ice by talking about where they came from, kids, etc.. If the job is physical in nature you are allowed ascertain whether they are capable of performing the duties, but must be very careful not to stray beyond the boundaries of the role.

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I agree on the question about kids and family. Don't make any small talk.

"Are you a nutter?" is a good one to ask!

I've interviewed people over the years and I generally prefer to ask only a few vague questions....after they have answered each I will then dig deeper and deeper into their answers until I get an understanding of their expertise level.

Buddyboy said:

I would be more concerned by the fact that the company has provided him with no guidance/training on the task. It is an area where he, and the company, can leave themselves open to a lot of grief.

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Unbelievable, clearly they have no idea of how much a mine field it has become, which is why a lot of companies outsource the work, for at least the prelim screening.

Buddyboy said:

Even the notes taken during an interview can be requested by a freedom of information request. So you have to be careful of what you write as well as what you say.

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Best advice these days is not to write notes for the kept file, use some sort of numerical grading system on the kept file, all other stuff shredded before the meeting ends after the interviewee leaves the room.
Same as our Govne does since FOI came in

Buddyboy said:

Even the notes taken during an interview can be requested by a freedom of information request. So you have to be careful of what you write as well as what you say.

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... so no pornographic doodles in the margins.

As long as they are not identifiable as body parts of the person you are interviewing
I suppose you're ok.

\ (.)(.) /

Hello,

I cannot believe the company are suggesting he/she conduct interviews, with no prior coaching or at least a list of questions to help him / her figure out what they are going to say, maintain consistency between interviews etc.

Has your friend actually asked them directly to give him / her some pre-interview guidance ? .. if not, they should and press for some assitance.

On closing, your friend should offer each candidiate the opportunity to ask their own questions (anything your friend doesn't know the answer to, just refer to the HR person in the room).

Also, your friend should know what the steps in the recruitment process are and when the candidate should expect to get an update on how the interview has gone (ensure everyone gets feedback by the way, even if it's a decline ... don't just ignore them, as it's very disrespectful).

Purple said:

..... Don't make any small talk.

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I disagree with that Purple.

By all means use common sense and don't go asking silly questions ... but equally, you want to put both yourself and the interview candidate at ease, so a little small talk helps at the beginning and end of the interview, imho. Just keep it simple - sport is an old reliable, or social / community events which may be taking place.

Also, remember - you are proposing to hire a person that could be working with you for the next 20 years, so it is important to see if you are both compatible, or if the candidate seems like someone who would fit in, within the organisation at large.

MrEarl said:

By all means use common sense and don't go asking silly questions ... but equally, you want to put both yourself and the interview candidate at ease, so a little small talk helps at the beginning and end of the interview, imho. Just keep it simple - sport is an old reliable, or social / community events which may be taking place.

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If you ask about family, kids, where they live, anything about whether they are in a relationship etc you are leaving yourself open to a discrimination claim.

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MrEarl said:

By all means use common sense and don't go asking silly questions ... but equally, you want to put both yourself and the interview candidate at ease, so a little small talk helps at the beginning and end of the interview, imho. Just keep it simple - sport is an old reliable, or social / community events which may be taking place.

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I've interviewed in Northern Ireland and you can't ask about sports or events up there because it could be deemed to be trying to find out a person's religion and political beliefs.

my advice would be to be polite and friendly, stick to the old "tell me about" and "give me an example of when" type questions. Also if you are interviewing for a leadership role, one question I would always ask is "if you delegate a task who has responsibility for that task". Amazing how many people get that wrong.

thedaddyman said:

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I've interviewed in Northern Ireland and you can't ask about sports or events up there because it could be deemed to be trying to find out a person's religion and political beliefs.

my advice would be to be polite and friendly, stick to the old "tell me about" and "give me an example of when" type questions. Also if you are interviewing for a leadership role, one question I would always ask is "if you delegate a task who has responsibility for that task". Amazing how many people get that wrong.

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I'm sure there are other sports one could talk about, besides the old GAA

... F1, Tennis, Cycling etc. etc. .....

or cricket, lacrosse, teague-baiting, ...

Basically, avoid asking any personal questions that aren't listed on the CV. Major things to avoid are
age
relationship status
family

You can make small talk about things like whether they found the place easily enough.

MrEarl said:

I'm sure there are other sports one could talk about, besides the old GAA

... F1, Tennis, Cycling etc. etc. .....

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we were told that you can't discuss GAA, soccer, rugby, cricket or any sport that takes place on a Sunday. On that basis, safer to ignore them all

I can't believe that OP's friend is being let down (or set up) by his/her employer. 30 years ago working for a multi-national we were coached to participate on interview panels with a multi-disciplinary approach; HR, role expertise, team-working, etc. No training, no interviewing. Sometimes even with training and re-training, no interviewing!

It is bizarre that they would let someone onto an interview panel with absolutely no training or guidelines, given the repercussions that can come from a seemingly innocuous question. Certainly, we're not allowed anywhere near interviews without having done training.