Progression up the corporate ladder tends to necessitate more involvement in your organisation’s employment processes. At some point, most of us will be tasked with recruiting a new staff member to bolster the team or replace an employee who is leaving. But, unless you are a recruitment consultant or HR professional, it’s unlikely you will have received any structured coaching in interview techniques. For most individuals, it’s a case of learning on the job.
While it is possible to become a competent interviewer through experience, it is worth investing time and effort to develop your approach. Not only do hiring mistakes have a detrimental effect on productivity and team morale, they can also seriously impact on your bottom line.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development estimates that the average cost of hiring the wrong person is £8,200, rising to £12,000 for senior managers or directors. Conversely, employing a person with the right skill set and cultural fit for your organisation can have huge benefits. A practised and proficient interview technique will maximise your chances of employing the best person for the job.
The most effective interview processes should begin well before the prospective employee is sitting in front of you, starting with a well-thought-out job specification. Many job specifications focus on ideal experience requirements and a list of duties and responsibilities. By including expected performance outcomes for the role, however, job specifications can become an effective tool for the interview itself, and a useful basis for benchmarks by which to compare multiple candidates.
Areas to cover could include major objectives; change management; technical challenges and problem solving; and staff responsibility. You should also detail information that ‘sells’ the role and organisation. For example, career development potential and an ‘elevator pitch’ that outlines the company and the team.
Circulate the job specification to colleagues who will be involved in the recruitment process to ensure that everyone agrees with what the company is looking for in a candidate. This also ensures that come the time for face-to-face interviews, all interviewers will be asking the same types of questions, allowing for a more fair and comprehensive appraisal of candidates.
It may seem obvious, but it’s important to read CVs thoroughly – if you already know the broad details of the CV, such as education, qualifications and previous roles, you will have more time during the interview to delve deeper. You can also use this opportunity to pick out some questions about hobbies or achievements to get the ball rolling in the interview. This will put the candidate at ease and encourage a good rapport.
Encourage candidates to expand upon how they dealt with previous workplace situations, relating to the key competencies you have defined
It’s helpful to develop a list of four to five questions that you will consistently ask each candidate, particularly if you are interviewing multiple applicants and want to compare answers later. This is a good time to refer back to the job specification to establish the core competencies for the role, in order to develop probing questions that will explore these in depth. Examples of competencies in treasury roles may include communication skills; problem solving; decision making; and results orientation. Your goal should be to encourage candidates to expand upon how they reacted to, and dealt with, previous workplace situations, relating to the key competencies you have defined, since this will provide a valuable indicator as to how they will react in future scenarios.
One way to compare candidates fairly and accurately, particularly if you have a number of applicants being interviewed by several stakeholders within the company, is by developing a rating system based on core competencies. For instance, you may choose to give each defined competency a score out of five. This technique removes subjectivity and discrimination from the process and allows you to compare the best candidates for the job rather than the ones you take a natural liking to or who are the best out of a bad bunch.
In terms of the interview itself, it’s important not to forget the practical details. Ensure you have sufficient time blocked out in your diary and have a suitable room where you won’t be interrupted. Also, think about how you come across personally from the interviewee’s standpoint. You want to sell the opportunity and get the best out of each person, so consider your own body language.
The interview should then lead naturally on to more demanding questions, which will allow you to assess the candidate’s competencies in more detail. Again, if you’ve done your preparation, ideally you will have a list of potential questions already noted down. For example, in the case of a treasury role – where the candidate is required to influence internal or external stakeholders – a possible line of enquiry might be: “Tell me about the most difficult time you have had getting people to agree with you.”
Once you have given the candidate the opportunity to respond with factual information, you can then drill down further with more probing questions along the lines of ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’. For example, your earlier line of enquiry might be followed up with questions such as “Why was this challenging?”; “What steps did you take to try to obtain agreement?”; and “What was the outcome?”
Ensure that throughout the process, applicants are given the chance both to answer your questions fully and ask questions of their own to determine if the job and the company are right for them. Candidates’ questions can also help you to assess whether they have adequately prepared for the interview and are genuinely interested in the job. An effective strategy is the 80/20 rule: You do 80% of the listening and 20% of the talking.
Once the interview draws to a close, provide a timeline of the decision process so the applicant knows the length of time until final selection will be made.
A final point to note is that throughout the interview process, you are selling as well as buying, particularly in today’s increasingly candidate-driven market. Not only will selling the opportunity create a positive impression, it will also significantly reduce the chances of candidates accepting a counter-offer. By the end of the process, you will have invested a significant amount of time and effort – if you find the ideal person for the job, it’s vital to ensure that they want you, too.
Simon Lant is senior manager of the private sector finance division at Venn Group, a provider of professional contract and interim staff. www.venngroup.com