MightyRecruiterSuccessful hiring has always been important; after all, a business spends a lot of money to replace each employee who leaves. When you think about successful hiring, your first goal should be to define ïsuccessful.ï In general, aim to choose an employee who strikes the right mix of personality fit and technical know-how, and who stays with the company for at least five years. To that end, here are a few interview strategies for successful hiring.
Have the Right People Conduct Interviews
Successful job interviewers are one of the best interview strategies for successful hiring. First up, it is important to involve the person who will supervise the new employee. Other good people to involve are at least one member of the team the new employee will join, possibly someone from human resources, and a figure higher-up in the organization. For a nighttime newspaper copy editor job, for example, people typically involved in the interview process include the night editor, the copy desk chief, managing editor and a staffer from human resources. Each person should know which topics or questions are under his or her purview to cover. While it is okay to tread over some of the same ground, the point of having different interviewers is for each to bring unique assets and expertise to the table. Each person sees a slightly different side to the job candidate and gleans different information.
Use Interview Evaluation Forms
Try not to rely on your memory, even if you are interviewing only one or two candidates. Interview evaluation forms give you points on which to assess candidates and keep the various interviewers on the same page, so to speak. The forms are also useful for helping to jog your memory and for sparking discussion. Common ranking factors on such forms include nonverbal skills (how well a candidate maintained his posture and did not fidget), appropriate dress, confidence, knowledge of the company and position, and whether he thanked the interviewer. You can rate on a numeric scale such as 1 for poor and 5 for excellent.
Structure Interviews to Give Candidates Plenty of Time to Talk
While allowing candidates to talk seems like common sense among interview strategies for successful hiring, this concept can be difficult in practice for some people. Plan to spend about 20 percent of your time talking, allowing the applicant to talk about 80 percent of the time. To refine this aspect of the process, ask a few folks to participate in mock interviews. Most of your talking time should be spent on greeting the candidate, icebreakers, describing the job and company culture, and even offering career advice. To promote genuine responses, ask applicants about their understanding of company culture and the job description rather than simply offering it up front. Then after they respond, you can explain in further detail or clarify any misunderstandings. When you discuss company brand, talk about benefits like telecommuting, professional development opportunities and health plans. Discuss why people like to work at your company, and talk about any programs employees may have spearheaded.
Ask Useful Questions
Interview strategies for successful hiring include asking pertinent questions. When applicants prepare for job interviews, they invariably come up with canned responses to questions like, ïWhere do you see yourself five years from now?ï and ïWhat are your strengths and weaknesses?ï Instead, ask scenario-based, open-ended questions. Some examples: – What do you wish companies would do to better support folks who have your job? – What work-related mistake have you most learned from? – What was the last job skill you needed to learn, and how did you go about it? – How do you motivate yourself at work? – How do you accept and give criticism? – How do you motivate co-workers? – What was your greatest challenge in getting a project completed, and how did you overcome these roadblocks? – What was the easiest project you ever completed?
Learn from Experience
Sometimes, you know quickly when someone simply will not work out. However, you should not cut such interviews short. For one, it’s often obvious why you do that, and for another thing, you do not want to get bad word-of-mouth buzz from acting unprofessionally. Use that time wisely to learn from the experience. What exactly tipped you off as to why this person would not work out? Is there any way to prevent such occurrences in the future? At the same time, have there been interviews when you just knew this person was a perfect fit, and he turned out to not be? Keep an eye out for patterns in your interviewing and in candidates’ later job performance so that you can sharpen your interview strategies for successful hiring. As you work to make all-star hires, turn to the resources here at Mighty Recruiter to guide you.