The Team Leader Readiness Structured Employment Interview (SEI) is a skills-based behavioral interview system created specifically for team leaders in a call center environment. SEI gives you the tools to conduct more accurate interviews that will increase your ability identify team leaders with the skills necessary to succeed on the job. SEI questions require participants to describe situations they have handled in the past that relate to those they will encounter as team leaders. Standardized rating criteria are also provided to ensure that interviews are accurately and consistently evaluated.

SEI makes it easy to prepare for, conduct, and rate interviews. SEI includes a step-by-step interviewing guide, two sets of interview questions, standardized rating criteria, and interview rating forms. Using SEI consistently will greatly increase the accuracy, consistency, and legal defensibility of your interview process.

Employment Technologies also offers professional training and certification in the SEI process. For additional information about SEI training, please contact us.

SEI questions are based on the tasks and skills required to successfully perform the team leader job. Each interview question is structured to encourage the participant to fully describe his or her experience in a specific skill or situation. SEI contains two complete, parallel sets of questions to allow multiple people to interview the candidate. A sample question is provided below.

Question 1A - Coaching
Skill Definition	Identifying performance problems and their solutions, communicating positive as well as negative feedback, adapting coaching style depending on the situation, providing feedback that is specific and constructive, and encouraging all team members in incremental performance improvement.
Primary Question 1A	Team Leaders must provide specific guidance to team members to help them improve. Sometimes team members may not accept guidance or may become defensive. Describe a time when you attempted to provide guidance to someone who was not receptive or became defensive.
Follow-Up Questions	To whom were you providing guidance? What was your role on the team? What were you providing guidance about? What did you do to provide guidance to the team member? Why was he or she unreceptive or defensive? How did you respond? What was the outcome of your actions?

SEI includes standard rating criteria for each question. The rating criteria include a numeric rating scale (from 1 to 5) and behavioral descriptors to help interviewers accurately evaluate interview responses. Sample rating criteria are provided below.

Rating Criteria for Question 1A - Coaching
Exceeds Expectations	5	Quickly and independently identified the need to provide guidance Delivered guidance one-on-one in a non-threatening setting Described clear and specific actions that would help the other person to quickly improve Asked questions to determine the reasons why the other person was defensive Remained calm and persistent even if the other person remained defensive Supported the need for guidance with objective data and examples Explained how a change in behavior would benefit everyone involved Provided ongoing guidance and successfully helped the individual to improve Recognized and celebrated improved performance
	4
Fully Meets Expectations	3	Understood and accepted the need to provide guidance Delivered the feedback in an appropriate setting Described clear and specific actions that would help the other person to quickly improve Acknowledged the other person’s perspective when he or she became defensive Remained calm and persistent even if the other person remained defensive Provided ongoing guidance to help the individual to improve
	2
Below Expectations	1	Did not recognize, had to be told by someone else, or ignored the need to provide guidance Delivered the guidance in front of other team members or in an inappropriate setting Provided unclear or vague feedback (e.g.,“ you need to try harder”) Became angry or defensive when the other person became defensive Did not provide reasons why the guidance was needed (e.g., “because I said so”) Quickly dropped the subject and acquiesced when the other person became defensive Avoided providing guidance to that person in the future to avoid confrontation Ignored reoccurring performance issues instead of providing further guidance

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