Worst Employer Interview Mistakes

Hiring techniques have not improved much in the last 25 years while I've been a recruiter, certainly not to keep pace with other aspects of business that have grown and improved exponentially. One of the most challenging aspects of the hiring process is the interview itself. Many interviewers really don't find out much about a candidate's capability, because they don't know how. Here are some of the most common mistakes made by interviewers, and my suggested solutions.

No Structure: "Tell me about yourself" is NOT an exciting first question. [Put together a structured interview that finds out exactly what you need to know about the candidate.]

Failing to Discover Capability: Interviewers who don't identify what they need done (performance objectives) can hardly find out if the candidate can do the job. [Clearly define objectives, then ask the candidate to tell you what they've done that relates to your objective.]

Behavioral Interviewing: Nice to know that someone can tell you about their leadership skills, being a "team player", etc., but unless you ask about these skills in the context of your objectives, you will simply get well-rehearsed answers. [Ask how the skill was used in a similar situation to your objective. Example: "How have you exhibited leadership by improving morale and motivation to achieve better productivity?"]

Failing to "Recruit": By staying in "evaluation" mode, some interviewers don't sell the candidate on wanting to work for the company. [Create balance by incorporating recruitment into the interview- like a first date – the meeting goes two ways.]

Repetition: Candidates often meet 5-10 people in the course of an interview day at the prospective company, and sometimes they all ask the same questions, and all give the same company description. The candidate leaves NUMB! [Assign different areas of questioning to different people, if possible, based on their expertise. Example: Have HR ask personality questions; have the Engineering people ask technical questions, etc.]

Trying to Find a Clone: Many interviewers try to find the same traits they already have, not realizing that a complementary set of traits may be of greater benefit. [Seek balance on your team by ensuring you look for people different than yourself.]

Relying on Your Intuition: Too many employers hire based on their "gut" feeling. [Use objective interviewing questions first, to discover the true fit, and only then let your intuition enter the scene.]

Lessons are repeated until learned. I hope some interviews improve as a result of these ideas.

Getting the Real Truth From Candidates

Recently I read a list of the Top Five Lies Told by Job Candidates, as reported by HireRight, a candidate screening organization. The article focuses on some obvious, but superficial issues: Exaggerating dates of employment, falsifying education, inflating salary or title, hiding a criminal record, and hiding a drug habit. Most of these can be easily caught by a decent background check. You can ask for a W-2 to verify compensation. Simple diligence can help you avoid hiring a person who is lying about these issues.

Much more significant are the really important lies told by candidates that can be harder to detect, and that can cause you real harm, because you will hire the candidate despite the lies. Candidates will misrepresent their capabilities more often than the five items above. Some of the misrepresentation isn’t even their fault!! Employers ask leading questions, like, "You've set up a sales department before, right?" When the candidate readily agrees, without being asked for evidence, a check mark goes in the "plus" column. Behavioral based interviewing, where candidates are asked to illustrate a trait (like leadership, teamwork), with specific examples from their work history, can also cloud the issue. Most people can dredge up a good story to illustrate a trait, but did they actually accomplish anything with this trait?

If a candidate does not have strong capability to do the critical tasks of the job, the result can be very costly: lost opportunities, critical mistakes, lost morale, cost of replacing the hire, etc. Employers have to ask the right questions to help the candidate tell the truth. When employers take the time to develop SMART performance objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound), they can turn those objectives into interview questions that make it far more likely a candidate will have to tell the truth.

An example: Let's say that a Sales Executive has to grow sales by setting up multi-state distribution and establishing a key strategic alliance. The employer can ask: "One of our most important goals is to establish multi-state distribution as a key method of growing sales. What is there specifically in your background that would enable you to achieve this?" You keep drilling until the details emerge: Who were the distributors? Did the program succeed? How much in sales? All of these details could be verified, so the candidate must tell the truth. This is a great way to evaluate candidates, but also a great recruitment tool: Mediocre candidates hate these questions, and excellent candidates love them, because they have the answers, and are delighted to talk about how they will respond to the employers real, well-defined challenges. The truth emerges, and it is helpful to both the candidate and the prospective employer.

You can easily check on the basic lies, but make sure you have a process to protect yourself from the biggest, most expensive lies - and get an accurate, truthful answer to the most important question: can the candidate really do the job?

Poll on Availability of “A” Players

I posted a one-question poll on LinkedIN, and got 17 responses. The question:

More job seekers are available. How difficult is it to hire "A" players?

The responses:

• Very hard to find "A" players: 11%


• Still a bit hard to find "A"s: 35%


• Much easier to find "A" player: 5%


• The same - "A"s still rare: 47%
  

My conclusion (which confirms what I thought was the case up front): The wider availability of candidates due to the economic downturn, layoffs, etc. has NOT produced a better pool of people. The “A” players are still productive, working, and not looking for a job.
To record your vote, click here.

Job Hunting Tips - #1 “What is Your Biggest Weakness?”

Since there are so many people looking right now, I’ve decided to start offering job hunting tips. Today’s blog is the first in what will be a periodic series. Subscribe to the blog to get the rest!

Employers often ask job candidates to cite a weakness, a shortcoming, or an area that needs improvement. Most interview books advise creating an artificial weakness, such as “I’ve been accused of being a workaholic”, or, “I can sometimes be too driven to succeed.” Those aren’t really weaknesses, and giving that kind of pat, prepared answer can seem a bit insincere.

I recommend finding a true weakness or shortcoming from your past, that you have worked to partly or completely overcome. Then describe what you discovered about yourself, what actions you took, and what the outcome has been. Here’s an example:

“I was told in a review that I could be stronger with my team in driving them toward results, so I took a closer look at what was preventing me from doing that, and found that I had some concern about being too much of a taskmaster. I then discovered that helping my people understand how their individual goals tied into the organization both empowered and encouraged them, and made them more productive. It was a paradigm shift for me that helped me to be better at getting results.”

This comes across as self-awareness, self-revelation, sound personal insight, growth, etc., and these will be perceived by the interviewer as strengths, even though you have discussed a genuine weakness.

Job Hunting Tips #2 – The “Informational Interview”

Many job hunting coaches advocate trying to get “Informational Interviews”, where you aren’t specifically aiming at a job, but just gathering information, getting advice, networking, etc. What can you try to accomplish in this meeting to improve the quality of the discussion? Here are some tips:

1. Treat it as a customer visit - what is the "benefit to the buyer" of having this conversation with you? Maybe they just feel better, at having given back. Maybe you give them specific value too, in the conversation.
2. Find the pain - what is this person's biggest business issue right now? What keeps him/her up at night? How could you offer a solution?
3. Be a resource - offer to help them network to find the things and people they need, now and in the future. Then really do it – send them info on things that are relevant to their needs; ask how you can help periodically.
4. Ask questions, don't "tell" or “sell”: Ask questions, use the two ears, one mouth ratio (2:1), let them talk. Gain insight. Don't sell yourself. The more you hear from them, the more you can find the way your background might fit, the way you could help, then you can close rather than sell: "If I could help you solve that issue, would that be of interest?"
5. Find the referral. Be prepared to state your benefit to your next employer (not a recitation of your resume), and ask "WHO do you know that could use that skill?"