Posted on June 23rd, 2009 by Jay McGrath
The first priority of the interview process is to find the best candidate for a certain position, and hire them. During a structured interview, therefore, it is important to find out about the candidate, their qualifications, social skills, previous employers, and other aspects of their character that are important in finding the best candidate. One of the major mistakes made while interviewing a candidate is that an unstructured format is used, and early judgments are made on the candidates. If these judgments are positive, more often than not interviewers will provide an easier interview for them. This is where selling a company comes into play and is why this type of behavior is a common mistake amongst interviewers:
“If the interviewer’s first impression is positive in an unstructured interview process, the interviewer usually asks fewer questions of the candidate and quickly switches into a “selling mode” in which the interviewer now tries to “sell” the applicant on the organization.
RECOMMENDATION: Use a structure interview format, which creates a more legally defensible interviewing process because it asks all the candidates the same questions. Also be sure to separate the process of gathering information about the candidate from the processes of promoting (selling) the company, making a decision, and negotiating an offer. Each of these processes, as you will see below, is different.”
This type of behavior in an interview will not allow for the proper filling out of employee evaluation forms, and could lead to an inaccurate performance evaluation process. With this also will come lower rates of hiring success, inevitably, and a skewed job evaluation process for a company. While the interviewer may believe they have the right candidate, it is likely that, by using proper employee review, a better candidate could be found than solely on instinct.
Posted on June 18th, 2009 by Jay McGrath
One of the key components of the interview process is actually figuring out which candidates will be brought in for interviews. One of the first things that should be done is looking at candidates’ hard skills. Hard skills include education and skills revolving around technology and other tangible things. By first seeking out those with superior hard skills, it is likely that during the interview process, at least one of these candidates also will possess leadership qualities or other soft skills necessary for success in the workplace. Of course, there is definitely room in the interview process for those with outstanding soft skills and not extraordinary hard skills, it often is best to largely choose those with hard skills noticeable on a resume for the majority of interview slots.
Hard skills represent the technical skills, education, and/or experience that a candidate must have in order to be considered for a position. Many times we simply accept the hard skills that a candidate lists on a resume or application. However, the interview process and any subsequent reference checking should be designed to verify these hard skills. For our purposes below, I will not be addressing education, but only addressing technical and experience skill sets.
I have included on the CD that accompanies this Program a sample document, Hard Skills Checklist Sample. This document is designed for you to list specific technical or experience skills that a candidate must have in order to effectively perform your open position. This sheet requires a candidate to identify the number of years of experience that he/she has utilizing each skill and his/her opinion as to the level of proficiency on each skill. The sample form on the CD is a checklist for an administrative position that lists the common Microsoft Word and Excel functions that a person may need to know to work effectively in a position. All you need to do is replace the WorFd or Excel skills in the Sample with the specific skills required for your open position and provide the form to your candidates to complete. At the onsite interview, I would either use a test or ask a series of technical questions in order to verify that the person has the hard skills that he/she claims.
After these candidates are chosen, it is essential to test their other skill sets in the structured interview to make sure that they are a suitable candidate for a position. By doing this, it will become much easier to find a candidate with the proper mix of soft and hard skills needed to have success in the workplace. Therefore, it is essential to check leadership qualities, co-worker relationship history, and other social skills while interviewing a candidate.
