Recently, I was working with a manufacturing client to recruit and hire an operations manager for their Las Vegas plant. The position had been open for several months, and without coordinated management, production volume and quality were suffering greatly. As a result, the plant’s GM was getting pressure from the company President to fix the problems, and fast. Then something remarkable happened – a seemingly qualified candidate applied. After an interview and dinner meeting with key staff, the GM was ready to extend a lucrative offer. I asked him to slow down and vet this candidate further. He pushed back, and rushed the hiring and start date of this new manager. The new manager lasted a little over 4 months, disrupted an already troubled operation, and left the company in semi chaos. The GM was asked to fly up to the national headquarters for a rather unpleasant meeting with the President.
Interviewing is like dating. You typically get the best version of the person in this setting. It doesn’t get better once you move in together. Ironically, the purpose of interviewing and screening is to eliminate all but the ideal candidates. Falling in love with charming people who say the right things is the best way to ensure you will be replacing them and cleaning up their mess months later.
In Part 1 of this article, we outlined how to develop a proactive mindset, compellingly define the ideal employee, and develop a robust pool of candidates (practices 1-3). Below, we discuss how to interview, vet, and verify an A-Player (practices 4-6).
Practice 4. Eliminate Interview BS with Strategic Interviewing
Most managers think they are good at interviewing. They are not. Most managers botch behavioral based questioning, allow personal biases to cloud judgement, and are conned by charming candidates. Worse yet, most managers are just complacent. They do not invest the time, preparation, or mental energy required to interview effectively.
The goal of an interview is not to bond and make people comfortable. Interviewing is a set of skills and best practices like any other. Doing it well requires knowledge, training, and practice. While books can and have been written on best practices, a few fundamentals can be found below.
- Create a structure and thoughtful list of questions to be asked of each candidate. Do not wing it. Feel free to contact me at doug@thebeckleygrooup.com for our interview question guide.
- The best predictor of future performance is past performance. Make sure you probe effectively about prior job performance including how this performance was assessed by their manager.
- Understand the practice of behavioral (descriptive) interviewing and elicit authentic and real answers.
- Ask for specific examples/situations
- Probe deeply into every answer
- Ask who, what, why, where, how
- Do not allow vague, gloss-over answers
- Get as close to the truth as possible. If you utilize the probing, comprehensive approach above, the candidate will either a) demonstrate confidence and authenticity b) back themselves into conversational corners and reveal themselves to be a poor fit for the role.
- Instruct the candidate to arrange reference calls (see below)
For example, suppose you ask the candidate to tell you about a time they were asked by a manager to do something that violated their personal ethics and what they did. Most interviewers will listen to the story, ask some follow up questions and move on. I would suggest they probe deeper – they have an opportunity to glimpse the truth. Perhaps you ask the candidate questions such as: “Why do you think your manager asked you to do this?”, “Who else was involved and what did they do?”, “Tell me about your conversations – what was said?”, “How did your manager react?”, “What was the specific impact or consequence”. The candidate will either confidently reveal the truth – or collapse with anxiety. Either way, you now have real information to assist in your decision.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Although an interview should not be confrontational, it should not be necessarily comfortable either. Top talent will expect and respect a discerning screening process. In addition to getting at the truth, you want people to gain a sense of the standards and performance you will expect.
Practice 6. Candidate Arranged Reference Calls
So, the interviews have been concluded and you have found your ideal candidate! You dream of help on the way and company goals being achieved.
What should you do now? Keep digging. Validate and verify. All you have at this point is the candidate’s version of the story. Now you want to go to the source.
In his book, Topgrading, Bradford Smart outlines a reference check process that is a hiring game changer. We have used it in our hiring process, and it has been highly effective. The Topgrading method is summarized below.
Professional reference checks have become relegated to an often unrevealing, HR checkbox – and as a result are often skipped. It is a misconception is that most employers won’t provide a meaningful reference. When the process is done strategically, employers will open up and critical information is gained to validate the hiring decision. Some of the key elements of the process include:
- Rather than calling on the candidates suggested references (who will obviously say nice things), ask the candidate to contact their last three direct managers (i.e., the managers that conducted the candidate’s performance review). Instruct the candidate to “cue up” the reference interview for you and provide current reference contact information.
- When you contact these managers, they’ll be expecting your call. 90% of former bosses accept the calls. In addition to their assessment of the candidates’ strengths, weaknesses, etc., you want to get their definitive assessment of the candidate’s overall performance.
- If a candidate is evasive or unwilling, you now have additional probing to do! Find out the story of this employer, why the candidate left, and why obtaining a reference isn’t possible. It doesn’t necessarily eliminate the candidate, but it is information you absolutely need. In hiring, information is the mother of success.
Great employees don’t burn bridges. Normally their former managers are eager to help them.
Step 6: Additional Assessment
In hiring, the probability of success increases with the amount of objective information you have. Think of the screening process like an information iceberg. Traditional hiring processes only reveal the tip. But there is a whole person below the surface. The right assessments can provide objective data on their communicate approach, work style and job match. And these assessments are often easy and inexpensive.