Personnel Dynamics, Inc.

Do you rely on a "good gut reaction" or that "special feeling" when interviewing perspective employees? Are you confident that your new hires will be successful? Are you good at interviewing prospective employees? When I talk with executives and ask if they are good at selecting successful employees, they often indicate they have (or have not) been lucky lately.

It’s not a matter of luck any more than picking a $50,000 piece of capital equipment is a matter of luck. Recruiting is should be based on planning, excellent interviewing skills, and due diligence.

Today we are dealing with sophisticated applicants, many of whom are better interviewees than you may be an interviewer. They may have their resume professionally prepared or use sophisticated word processors with spell checkers and grammar checkers. Additionally, there are books, computer programs, tapes and classes to prepare a resume’ and to develop the ability to mask unpleasant information. How many times do you finish an interview feeling that you just sat through a rehearsed script. If this is happening, you are probably not digging deep enough to get through the practiced veneer of the interviewee.

An interview should be more than a conversation but less than an inquisition. An interview is a listening process to ferret out specific information to make a decision to hire or not hire. If you are doing more than 40% of the talking you are not spending enough time listening. Furthermore, you should not be silently formulating the next question while the interviewee answers your previous question. When this happens, you’ve stopped listening.

In a naturally flowing interview, the candidate often telegraphs a weakness or an area to question. Follow your natural instincts when interacting with candidates. If something does not make sense, ask the candidate to clarify their statement and be sure to ask follow-up questions. Another area be aware of is when a candidate says starts down a logic path and then reverses themselves or corrects a misstatement. When this happens; he or she is often making an effort to restate the practiced response. Go back to the original idea to determine which is the accurate answer.

If the candidate uses terms such as, "we," or "they" or refers to a group or team, find out who was in the group, and what specifically was their role. Be aware of body language. If their hands are clutched and they have white knuckles, if they suddenly lean back after you ask a question, if they are evasive, this may be a "trouble" spot, so pursue the issue. There is probably is information in that area that you will want to know.

As interviewers, we all have been advised to ask open ended questions such as "tell me how you would manage the sales process." Open-ended questions, which deal in hypothetical situations, are theory questions. It may be more beneficial to ask open-ended behavioral questions, especially if the individual is an experienced interviewee. For example, How did you ..., What happened when..., How did you get ...., When were (weren’t) you ...., With a practiced interviewee, it is important to move from the theoretical to the behavioral line of questions. An experienced interviewer listens to the candidate’s answers and asked the follow-on questions, who, what, where, when, why. tell me more about ... , etc.

Checking References -- Due Diligence

If you have come this far, conduct a thorough reference check. When checking references do not go to personnel or payroll. Try to talk to the individual’s supervisor. Ask for information about performance, interpersonal relations, ability, motivation, attendance as well as dates, titles and compensation. Listen carefully and if necessary push a little in order to get complete information. Often, you will learn something that will either solidify your decision or knock the candidate out of contention. Sometimes you will only be told the basics but even that information has value.

Remember that when selecting an employee your organization’ reputation, sales goals, products, and financial well being are at stake. Proceed with caution. A human asset doesn’t come with a guarantee and may turn around and sue you.

Planning means that a position’s requirements and responsibilities should be well thought out, not a string of broad generalizations. Recently, while discussing a search assignment in financial services, I was told the requirements for the sales position was "a person with a friendly personality, good quantitative skills and a solid work ethic." I suggested that they needed to be more specific. Otherwise, with those requirements, half the applicants we see would probably qualify.

Before beginning the interview process, set up a grid of "Musts" and "Wants" like the one below. Write down the requirements, skills, responsibilities and standards for success. It you cannot complete this step you should not begin interviewing. Go back and rethink the position and its composition. Clear-up requirements, reporting relationships, responsibilities and standards for success. Uncertainty on critical points may cause you to lose good candidates and probably result in hiring the wrong candidate.

FACTORS	MUSTS(Go -- No Go Decision)	WANTS(Nice to Have)
Knowledge
Experience
Personal Traits
Standards of Success

Hopefully the interviews will identify a candidate that can, and will do the job. If the process is positive end the interview with some sales presentation about the pluses of working for the company. Provide positive feedback to keep the candidate interested until a decision or offer can be made and references checked.

Picking Winners