Smarter Hires

Friends still shake their heads in amazement when I tell them about the “interviews” I was subjected to when I applied for a job at a major US media company.

No, I wasn’t asked to name my favorite animal. Nor was I quizzed about how I would resolve some theoretical problem of the sort that one would only encounter in the most obscure Harvard Business School case study.

What was remarkable about my “interviews,” with more than a half-dozen senior executives, is that no one asked me a single question. That’s right.  You heard me. No. One. Asked. Me. A. Single. Question.

And by the way, I got the job!

Over the years I’ve learned that my experience wasn’t so unusual. Because most supervisors or managers spend relatively little time hiring employees, many companies haven’t put much energy into coming up with a standard process that ensures the employer learns what he or she needs to know. At the company where I was interviewing, busy managers spent their allotted half hour telling me their perceptions of the requirements of the job.

Notice my use of the word “standard.” At many companies, prospective employees are quizzed to a farethewell.  But the questions aren’t organized or standardized.  So while one interviewer is focused on a candidate’s experience implementing change, another is focused on a candidate’s attention to detail, and a third is focused on a candidate’s ability to think strategically.  When the three interviewers get together to compare notes, they find it hard to construct a coherent picture of the candidate.

What to do?  Here’s where the human resources department comes into play. The HR staffer overseeing the hiring process should sit individually with each of the people who will be interviewing candidates and quiz them about what the position entails, what kind of candidate is likely to be best suited for it, and what questions are needed to elicit the information required to make a hiring decision.

Likely as not, the HR manager will discover some differences in focus, if not downright conflict. There’s no better time than before the job posting to discover that the VP Sales is looking for someone with a strong network of contacts while the CEO is looking for someone whose primary strength is managing a team. These two goals don’t necessarily conflict. But making sure that everyone on the hiring team knows what’s needed in the position is key to a successful hire.

Once the HR manager has established the qualifications needed for the position (and established what the position is all about), he or she can set out to draft some questions. These aren’t questions that interviewing managers have to ask in a rote form.  But they should provide the interviewers with some guidance on the most important issues and qualities to look for.

Once the interviews are over, the interviewers can meet with the HR manager to discuss what they’ve heard. Obviously areas where different interviewers hear different answers to the same question demand some follow up.

In addition to the detailed, position-specific questions that are necessary, some interviewers like to answer a general set of questions that can be helpful in determining a candidate’s “fit” in an organizational culture.  One set I like comes from the ghSmart & Company and Smart & Associates consulting firms, who describe their approach as a TopGrading interview.

Here are questions they suggest:

SCREENING INTERVIEW GUIDE (used in initial screening of candidates)

•    What are your career goals?

•    What are you really good at professionally?

•    What are you not good at or not interested in doing professionally?

•    Who were your last five bosses, and how will they each rate your performance on a 1-10 scale when we talk to them?

THE TOPGRADING INTERVIEW GUIDE (used in a follow up round of interviews)

•    What were you hired to do?

•    What accomplishments are you most proud of?

•    What were some low points during that job?

•    Who were the people you worked with?  Specifically:

o    What was your boss’s name, and how do you spell that?
o    What was it like working with him/her?
o    What will he/she tell me were your biggest strengths?
o    What will he/she tell me were areas where you needed improvement?

•    Why did you leave that job?

THE FOCUSED INTERVIEW GUIDE (used to hone in on specific skills and responsibilities)

•    The purpose of this interview is to talk about ________________.

•    What are your biggest accomplishments in this area during your career?

•    What are your insights into your biggest mistakes and lessons learned in this area?