The selection process is long and getting longer as rising unemployment means that more people are sending out job applications far and wide. From a management perspective, as BiS-Henderson International and Business Development Director Larry Woelk explains, this generates more noise than signal.
Top quality staff will tend to stay put rather than chance a change in a difficult economic climate, while employers are less likely to shed them anyway. The result is a growing pool of potential misfits looking for posts, trying to get back into employment.
Preliminary checks and reference checking will eliminate a lot of the obviously unsuitable, but may not pick up those who tick enough of the right boxes without setting off any warning signals. This is where a good interviewing technique is essential, since it gives the interviewing executive clear signs as to the suitability of each candidate.
Screening candidates with a preliminary telephone interview has the advantage that the procedure can be standardised and fitted precisely to a company’s needs. Interviewers can be available without undue disruption and candidates do not need to make a potentially stressful journey unless they are shortlisted.
In a face-to-face interview, employers need to get spontaneous responses. So when asking candidates to say something about themselves (the predictable “…tell me something about yourself…” prompt), try framing it as a two-minute summary of what is already in the CV.
The intention is to get an unfiltered view of how the candidate sees himself or herself. What actually comes back over the table can be very different.
What a candidate can add on the spot adds insight to what is already in front of you both on paper: how an interviewee responds says as much as what is said. Since everybody present will have already read the CV several times, there is no point in being walked through its content.
As well as gathering information about the candidate, executives need to take the time to find out just how much candidates know about a potential future employer. If there is little sign of more than a cursory visit to the website, then the outlook is not good. Signs of animation and engagement, on the other hand, coupled with an idea of current issues in the sector are more encouraging. A clear understanding of what your organisation is doing is a basic requirement for hiring someone.
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