Essential tips for effective recruitment - interview http://www.qed-consultancy.co.uk Copyright Jeremy Thorn QED www.qed-consultancy.co.uk en-us Try to ensure that more than one person in your organisation is engaged in the interview process This will avoid any personal prejudices or favourites distorting your selection decisions. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Insist that all your interviewers are trained in interview techniques and know what the Job Specification and Candidate Profile cover Together with the preferred personal skills and qualities. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Train your interviewers to plan and then ask open-ended questions ie ones that do not just need a 'yes/no' answer, that do not indicate your preferred answer and which relate directly to the job in question. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Make sure that all your interviewers are aware of legal requirements to avoid discrimination (eg race and ethnic origin, gender or sexual orientation, religion, age, disability). If in doubt, ask an expert to vet the questions you or they may wish to ask, to ensure they do not contain even hidden or unintentional bias. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Set up a clear interview schedule and allow interviewers enough time between interviews to write up their notes And reflect on the information they have gathered. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Be clear on the tasks of each interviewer and ensure that there are neither gaps in the information they seek, nor too much overlap Some duplication of questions can be very effective between different interviewers, so that notes can be compared afterwards to establish consistency, but too much duplication may suggest to candidates that your organisation is disorganised and muddled. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Interview candidates where there is some privacy and no clutter Try to avoid having a desk between you and the candidate if you can and ensure that there will be no interruptions. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Ensure that candidates are made welcome when they come for interview. Put candidates at their ease before you start the formal interview process and ensure that they are relaxed, by offering them some refreshment and engaging in some neutral topic of conversation (eg their journey) first. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Note that all good interviews allow the candidate to speak for the majority of the time not the interviewer! Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Probe past career and educational history carefully, but sensitively Ask a) why candidates made the choices they did, b) what did their job role or studies actually entail, c) what they achieved and how, d) what they learned, e) what they liked best and were most proud of, f) what they liked least and how they coped with this, and g) why they moved on. Asking open questions about the past may provide much more reliable indicators of future performance and behaviour than questions about candidates' future intentions and aspirations. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Ask about relationships with previous bosses and colleagues and how they were handled in past jobs, as well as tasks and achievements Inter-personal skills are often at least as critical as technical and functional skills. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Find out why the candidate is interested in a) working for your organisation and b) applying for this post Not all will be able to say honestly that they have always wanted to work for you - but you might reasonably expect a fuller explanation from many applicants that they 'just saw your advertisement'! Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Be aware that good candidates should normally be expected, and allowed, to ask you relevant questions If they don't, they may not be truly interested. Candidates may well reveal as much about themselves by the quality of their questions, as their answers to your questions. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Make sure that candidates are given adequate time to answer your questions Part of your judgement might also be to see if they know when to stop talking! Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Recognise that interviewing should be a two-way process You need to know about the candidates, why they have applied, what they hope to achieve and whether they can do the job. But they also need to know whether yours is an organisation they might want to work for, and a job they want to do. It is much better to establish this at the interview stage than afterwards. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Encourage mutual honesty. You need to be ready to 'sell' the job, just as candidates will want to sell themselves to you But there is no point in misleading a candidate about the realities of a job, any more than it is sensible for a candidate to try to mislead you about their capabilities. Either may result in early and wasteful termination of employment, with cost to both parties. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Make sure that interviewers keep good records of each interview and then make time afterwards to compare notes and share impressions, openly Ensure that interviewers record all answers to their questions, and note not just what the candidate says (and doesn't say), but also body language and style (eg was the candidate relaxed and dressed appropriately, did the candidate smile, maintain eye-contact and speak confidently and clearly?) Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Review the evidence obtained by all your interviewers about a candidate before making your decision Value the insight of all your interviewers and their 'gut-reactions', but be ready to guard against possible prejudice. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Agree your selection priorities with those involved in the selection process before you start interviewing, to avoid wasteful debate afterwards Consider an objective process of weighting all the selection criteria against the established Job Specification, to help your subsequent candidate reviews. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Be aware that traditional interviews on their own have a poor track record of selecting good candidates Interviewers may easily be influenced by superficially likeable candidates (the 'halo effect'), who may not have the skills you need, or by candidates who are notably different from the interviewer and may therefore be marked down (the 'horns effect'), who may still ably meet your organisation's requirements Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Obtain further information about your candidates from other assessment techniques, not just interviews, wherever you can Use these to test objectively both the functional skills of candidates and the behavioural preferences and qualities you have identified as being necessary. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Consider using additional assessment techniques such as work-based exercises eg role play, presentation, group discussion, in-tray exercises, perhaps technical tests of competence and broader ability tests (such as verbal, abstract and numerical reasoning), to acquire further objective evidence of your candidates' abilities and development potential. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Try to design your selection process so that the required skills and behaviours are examined in more than one way This should ensure you are not misled by either an uncharacteristically good performance in just one type of exercise, or by a potentially good but perhaps nervous candidate giving an uncharacteristically poor performance. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Ensure that the assessors of the recruitment exercises you have chosen are trained to assess the evidence produced by each candidate impartially and accurately, Record it completely (for subsequent discussion), and to understand exactly what your requirements are - rather than what they think they should be! Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Consider using a skilled and qualified occupational psychologist who is fully trained and approved to apply relevant and validated psychometric tests To reveal candidates' preferred behaviours and aptitudes relevant to the post. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Know that some psychometric tests, some of which are heavily promoted, are not fully validated (ie they do not work equally well with all types of candidates and personalities) and can give spurious results NB The incorrect choice of such a test can give potentially very powerful psychometric test instruments an unwarranted poor reputation, which may discourage otherwise strong candidates from continuing with their application. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Be aware that tests such as graphology and astrology are not generally validated From research in the UK at least, they have zero correlation with likely job performance in the all the research that is available to us. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Put your candidates at their ease, as best you can Many will be nervous and may not give of their best without your help. This is not to suggest you should make it to easy for them, just that you should treat them as intelligent people who may well have just what the skills are looking for. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Ask your candidates whether they are still interested at the end of each selection stage, and ask why There is little point in progressing with candidates who are not interested, or have doubts that are not resolved. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Make it clear to your candidates at the end of each assessment and interviewing process what the subsequent stages will be, and check for their availability It is also smart to ask what other options candidates may be exploring, in case you need to respond particularly quickly to a strong candidate who may be about to receive offers of employment from elsewhere. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 However well or badly candidates perform, be sure to thank them for their interest and treat them courteously They could be customers, competitors or suppliers one day, if not colleagues! Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Tell candidates who want to know immediately how well they have done, that you will need to review other applicants and discuss the results with your colleagues Unless you are already absolutely sure that you wish to invite the candidate to the next stage of selection. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Note that it is usually not considered good practice to give unsuccessful candidates detailed advice on what they should have said or done to have been more successful, immediately after the end of an interview or overall assessment process This may be premature and could possibly generate inappropriate and unhelpful debate before either party is ready for it. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Let all candidates know their results as soon as possible after the interview or selection process Do not keep them waiting any longer than you have to. Otherwise, you may lose good candidates and cause unnecessary ill will amongst those who are left. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Be ready to give some feedback on overall performance to maintain goodwill. Note this is mandatory for many psychometric tests at the time of testing, not just to validate the results. It is also an ethical requirement of the British Psychological Society and many others who govern licensed practitioners. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25 Copyright Jeremy Thorn QED www.qed-consultancy.co.uk Jeremy Thorn is a prize-winning author and Chairman of Quantum Enterprise Development (QED), a multi-functional management consultancy and development company based in Doncaster, England, dedicated to making good businesses better, encouraging customers to be more loyal and to helping employees and suppliers be more effective. Engineering Adventures Ltd 2007-03-25