De-risking the interview process
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Hiring is always a difficult time. You’re worried whether the right candidates will apply and if they’ll make it through the process. We have explored selecting great talent before, but what else can you do to make sure that the best talent gets into your team?
I’m assuming that you’ve already thought about finding the right people from those that you know would be a good fit for the role, and asked around to find people who are looking for just the kind of role that you have to fill. Today we’ll build on that with some alternative thinking.
- Engage potential candidates in the process
Encourage candidates to make contact with you during the selection process, in particular either before they apply or before you’ve interviewed them. Get your name on the internal advertisement and invite people with questions to come and speak to you. In reality you’ll find that few candidates will call, but those that make the extra effort will often be high quality candidates you’re looking for. They might not have quite the expertise you’ve listed as desirable – but if you think they are good candidates, you can make sure they survive the shortlisting process!
When people make contact, either talk to them over the phone or, if they’re local, encourage them to visit and ask your other team members to spend time with them. This gives you a chance to get to know them without interview nerves. You can see how they fit into the team, and the quality of questions they ask. And they will know better if the role is right for them. If you think visits are too much, by all means restrict it to the people you know you are interviewing – but it’s a great thing to do and will make a huge difference to how well you get to know the candidates – and the quality of the decision you make. If you’re very busy, why not let them sit in on a team meeting, or let a team member chat to them? That way you can get a second opinion on the fit to the team. Some people are only nice to the hiring manager and reveal their true selves to people they see as lower in the hierarchy!
Meeting applicants informally also allows you to build up your network, your knowledge of the talent in the organisation who are actively seeking to move on – which could be useful in future. - Examine their CV
I don’t want to teach you how to suck eggs, so I just want to highlight a few things that make really good candidates stand out:- Have they got a track record of internal promotions? Internal promotion means that the people who’ve worked closely with them thought they were really good and deserved a higher-level job.
- What extra responsibilities have they taken on, either in their job or a volunteer capacity? Often we’re not just looking for what they’ve done that’s good in delivering the job, but how they went over and above that.
- Have they held elected office? Whether that’s in the world of local politics, student unions, or an outside organisation – have people chosen them to lead them or take responsibility?
- Focus them on achievements
During the interview you’ll probably need to get specific with competency questions, but general questions about their achievements in work and life, what they’re proud of and what challenges they’ve enjoyed tells you a lot about them. Likewise, as we’ve blogged before, ask them about their strengths and get them to show how those strengths have led to achievements. - Use social media
You might think that this is a little bit sneaky, but increasingly, recruitment teams are taking to social media to find out more about candidates. To vary degrees LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can all be accessed anonymously to understand more about the candidate you’re meeting. - Consider other types of contracts
If you’re still not sure about the candidate, ask yourself if you have to dive into a permanent, long-term appointment? Is there anything you can do to make the role more short-term, perhaps through a fixed term contract or a secondment – so that you can get to know the candidate better?
Focus on getting better and better at finding and recruiting talent. Next time try adding some of these ideas into the mix. See how they help you get better results and make better hires.