Not Doing a Thorough Enough Interview
Common Hiring Mistakes: Part 13
Your accounting manager, Sharon, is getting married and moving to another city. You are faced with the daunting task of having to replace her. Sharon is the backbone of your company and you know it will be a huge challenge to find someone close to her skill level and character.
Luckily Sharon has given you plenty of notice and found five qualified candidates to choose from. Now you have to interview them and choose one.
Any hiring situation, especially in a small company, is sort of like an adoption hearing. You are inviting this person into your group and you hope they will get along and add to the dynamics of the group. You normally have only a few hours with the candidate before you make your decision. Worst of all, you know that a bad choice now can cause huge problems later on. So how do you decide?
- 1. Start with the skill set required for the job. If you have written a good job description (see Mistake #12), you should easily be able to determine if your candidate possesses the skills required to do the job. If the candidate has gaps in their skills, you can determine what training they will require to be fully competent.
You can easily create a grid with these skill sets to evaluate different candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. This can include their scores on pre-employment testing (see Mistake # 5).
- 2. Evaluate the candidate’s appearance and presence. Did the candidate dress appropriately? Did they shake your hand with confidence and look you in the eye? Was there anything that put you off in their appearance or manner? Realize if it bothers you now, it will only get worse.
- 3. Discover how prepared the candidate is for the interview. Did they take the time to research your web site? What do they know about your company or the job? The more pro-active a candidate is at the beginning, will tell you how much the candidate wants the job as well as a great deal about how they will approach the tasks of the job. I recently had a candidate tell me all the reasons she had no time to look up our web site. That told me all the reasons she would have for not doing her job later. Needless to say, she did not get hired.
- 4. Develop a list of questions you want to ask during the interview so that you are prepared. Some sample questions:
- • Tell me about yourself.
• How did you get into this line of work?
• What are your strengths? Weaknesses?
• Why should I hire you rather than someone else?
• How can you help me solve (specific problem)?
• What would you like to ask me? (shows if they are truly interested in your company and the job) - 5. Find out how comfortable you are with the candidate. This is very important in key positions. One skilled interviewer I knew had a key test – “Would I enjoy going to dinner with the candidate?” If not, he knew he would not enjoy spending long work days with them.
- 6. Schedule follow up interviews with the candidates that you like. Include the incumbent if possible and other employees in the company who the candidate will be working with. Do at least one interview over lunch if you can. (See mistake # 4). Take your time and don’t rush into a decision. A third or even fourth interview may reveal a serious flaw in the candidate.
Though interviewing may be only an occasional part of your job, it is an extremely important one. Continental assists clients in locating and selecting the best candidates for the position. Feel free to call us anytime with your questions or concerns about interviewing.
