Running head: HUMAN RESOURCES INTERVIEW 1

Human Resources Interview

Michael Miller

Concordia University, St. Paul

EDL 507 Human Resources and Diversity, Cohort 378

Professor Rico Bohren

November 6, 2015
HUMAN RESOURCES INTERVIEW 2

Human Resources Interview

In order to ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn and grow, it is important

to hire highly qualified and competent teachers. Unfortunately for schools, it can be difficult to

determine if a candidate is going to be an effective classroom teacher in a short amount of time

that is available for an interview. While some district have had success by requiring teacher

candidate to teach a mini lesson as part of the interview process, this can be difficult for many

schools that do the bulk of their hiring in the summer months. To improve this process it is

important to have a strong Human Resources Department that can look at each teacher candidate

and make sure that only the best teacher candidates get interviews. Human Resources also has a

significant role on a teacher satisfaction in a particular district based on their experiences with

Human Resources and level of satisfaction with benefits and compensation. This can ultimately

impact teacher retention within a school district.

In Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), Human Resources has two different functions.

The first function, Human Resource Operations, most directly relates to compensation. Human

Resource Operations oversees benefits, compensation structures, employee relations and contract

negotiations (Mary Ilhen, personal communication, November 6, 2015). Minneapolis Public

Schools utilizes an alternative pay plan in order to motivate teachers to continue to develop

professionally and participate on various leadership teams within a school. Through Quality

Compensation (Q-Comp), MPS offers small stipends for teachers who are involved in leadership

positions such as PDPLC leads, Instructional Leadership Team members and Professional

Development leaders. Minneapolis Public Schools has also used Q-Comp money to develop a

number of Pro-Pay courses designed around various professional development opportunities

that provide teachers with a lane change upon successful completion of the Pro-Pay course.
HUMAN RESOURCES INTERVIEW 3

The second function, Human Capital, most directly relates with the hiring of teachers,

paraprofessionals, Special Education Assistances (SEAs) and other school employees. According

to Mary Ilhen, Human Capital provides systems and services for talent acquisition, instructional

support, performance management, quality compensation grant, succession planning, retention

and talent strategy (personal communication, November 6, 2015). While Human Resources

doesnt technically hire new employees, their main objective is to screen and vet candidates

before schools interview them. Most of the responsibility for determining if a candidate is a good

fit for a school falls on the building principal who will complete the face-to-face interview with

the candidate. This author believes the vetting of teacher candidates is the most significant

responsibility of Human Resources.

In Minneapolis Public Schools, one of the most difficult duties of Human Capital is to

retain teachers. While Minnesota may not have a significant teacher shortage, MPS frequently

faces not only a shortage of teachers, but also a shortage of qualified SEAs and substitute

teachers. According to Seyfarth (2008), maintaining an ample supply of qualified applicants is a

primary mission of human resource managers (p. 13). Ms. Ilhen as echoed this same idea when

she described the importance of talent acquisition, retention and talent strategy. This author

believes that this process does not always work the best in MPS because of the delayed hiring

process. These inefficient hiring processes can often lead highly qualified candidates to accept

positions outside of Minneapolis Public Schools while they are waiting to hear back if they were

hired in Minneapolis.

In order to help find the best qualified teachers available, Minneapolis Public Schools

uses and online application that is followed by a Human Resources phone interview. The online

application uses a different system than most districts, which may discourage some qualified
HUMAN RESOURCES INTERVIEW 4

candidates from taking the time to apply. Once applicants have applied and been selected for

interview they will receive a phone call from Human Resources. According to Mary Ilhen, the

goal of the MPS Human Resource department is to be direct, authentic and rigorous and to get

candidates to do the same through their modeling (personal communication, November 6,

2015). This author believes challenging questions are necessary in order to truly get to know a

teacher candidate and determine if they are going to be the best fit in a school or district.

The screening interview questions in MPS are designed to give candidate multiple

opportunities to highlight and describe their strengths, experiences and accomplishments (Mary

Ilhen, personal communication, November 6, 2015). While this information is all essential to the

hiring process, this author believes it is all less valuable when it occurs over the phone. In order

to truly determine the quality of a candidates response, this author believes it is essential to be

able to see their body language. According to Seyfarth (2008), body language, including facial

expressions, eye contact, posture, animation, eye blinks, throat clearing and pauses can yield

clues to the individuals state of mind (p. 45). This author would go a step further to say that it

could tell you about the candidates honesty and integrity when you are able to read their body

language while listening to them answer a question. These are all important character traits for a

good teacher that can be better determined through a face-to-face interview.

Another goal of the screening interview questions is to determine if candidates have the

characteristics and personality traits that Human Resources believes are the most important for

effective classroom teachers. Ms. Ilhen describes the most important traits as strong critical

thinking skills, high expectations and professionalism (personal communication, November 6,

2015). Since teachers constantly have a variety of different tasks and teams all vying for their
HUMAN RESOURCES INTERVIEW 5

time, it is important for Human Resources to determine if candidates are able to balance multiple

responsibilities as once and prioritize their time.

Research shows that holding high expectations for all students can be one the impactful

factors in raising student achievement, especially for our black male students (Jackson, 2011).

This author believes this research and has used it to push all of his students to be successful,

regardless of prior academic achievement or course placement. Ms. Ilhen describes high

expectations as, a believe that students can perform at high levels, having a commitment to

excellence and equity, a desire to overcome challenges, a willing ness to take responsibility for

student achievement and speaking respectfully about students and families (personal

communication, November 6, 2015).

The final characteristic, professionalism is important because teaching is continually

becoming more of a collaborative career. Teachers are expected to work in teams and effectively

communicate with a number of different individuals. According to Seyfarth (2008),

superintendents polled in Georgia and Tennessee said, team building and the ability to

communicate effectively were the most important skills for building administrators (p. 59). This

is also true of teachers. In order to determine if candidates possess these essential characteristics

and personality traits, Human Resources in Minneapolis Public Schools falls back on their direct,

authentic and rigorous questioning of candidates (Mary Ilhen, personal communication,

November 6, 2015). Unfortunately for school districts, including MPS, it can often be very

difficult to determine if candidates possess all of these characteristics in a single phone interview,

which makes the face-to-face site interview even more important.

In the final component of the MPS Human Resources screening interview is a question

that requires candidates to consider a realistic challenge or circumstance. Most often, these
HUMAN RESOURCES INTERVIEW 6

questions relate to a challenge that will come up in the classroom and will have a way for

candidates to relate their response to the important characteristics of critical thinking, high

expectations and professionalism. Mary Ilhen describes that this part of the interview allows

candidates to provide examples of similar situations theyve experienced in the past and

describe how they handled the situation then (personal communication, November 6, 2015).

This allows the interviewer the opportunity to see how the candidate works and thinks and can

provide valuable insight about how the candidate will react to a difficult situation in the future.

Ms. Ilhen goes on to explain that these types of interview conversations help interviewers

understand how candidates problem solve, access resources and communicate with others

(personal communication, November 6, 2015). This author believes that this type of critical

incident interview question can be one of the most helpful tools in determining if a teacher will

be effective in a particular school.

Human Resources in Minneapolis Public Schools has two functions. The first function,

Human Resources Operations, is rather defined by the teacher contract and most directly relates

to compensation and benefits. The second function, Human Capital, deals with the recruiting,

hiring and retention of teachers. This author believes the interview and select process in MPS

gives a district a great opportunity to determine the quality of a candidate before hiring the

candidate, but the process is a little ineffective in the amount of time it takes. The hiring process

takes a significant amount of time, which can lead qualified teacher candidates to accept jobs in

other districts. While some well-qualified candidates are lost, the process does the best it can to

ensure that a highly qualified and competent teacher is in every classroom in Minneapolis Public

Schools.
HUMAN RESOURCES INTERVIEW 7

References

Jackson, V. (2011). The Pedagogy of Confidence: Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in

Urban Schools. New York, NY: Columbia University.

Seyfarth, J. (2008). Human Resources Leadership for Effective Schools. Boston, MA: Pearson.
HUMAN RESOURCES INTERVIEW 8

Appendix

1. What is the function of human resources?

2. What is the most challenging and rewarding part of being involved in human resources?
3. How do you structure questions to get people to show what they dont want to show?
4. Do you have any questions that you ask in the interview that you believe best help you

understand if a teacher will be successful with our students?

5. What are the most important components of the online application that need to be done

well in order to get an interview?

6. What characteristics/personality traits are you looking for in teacher candidates?