Interview Techniques Provide Quality ROI

Return on investment, the standard measure of business and industry has evolved over the last several decades as our economy continues its rapid transition to a service and information economy. While many companies maintain "people are our most valuable asset", few genuinely behave as though this is true. It starts at the beginning... in the hiring process.

Over the last twenty five years of my career, I have found that many hiring managers approach the interview with a mixture of fear, trepidation and general annoyance. Interviews are often seen as an interruption to the day as opposed to an opportunity to improve the bottom line. Some of the standard, but mistaken, approaches to interviews include:

• Talking up the company before understanding the candidate.

In one particular situation with which I am familiar, the manager was so enthralled with the company plans and strategies that he spent the entire interview describing the exciting atmosphere and "selling" the opportunity. The candidate nodded and smiled politely at the right times and was then called back for a second interview.

During the second round of interviews representatives from Finance, HR and Operations had the opportunity to meet with the candidate. None of the questions were planned in advance, and there were no specific personality traits or management style being evaluated.

The consensus among the team was that they "liked" the candidate. He was hired the following week to become head of marketing for the company. Within a very short period of time it was clear that the company had made a major hiring mistake. The Marketing Director was dictatorial, brusque and unapproachable. The decisions he made in a vacuum created chaos in the sales field which resulted in the departure of two of the companies strongest sales executives culminating in a loss of 20% of the company's revenues.

• Failing to follow up on candidates' answers with additional questions.

Often interviewing managers take candidates' statements at face value. They fail to "peel back the onion" by asking more directly and specifically things like "so, when you say you had a problem with your former boss' management style, what exactly do you mean?" Or "when you say it is important to you not to be micro-managed, what do you mean by that?" The follow up questions create a meaningful dialogue wherein the interviewing manager can learn a significant amount about the values, working style and temperament of a particular candidate.

• Rushing through the interviewing/allowing interruptions.

I have been witness to managers answering the phone in front of candidates and carrying on a relatively lengthy conversation. Another standard seems to be rushing in to the interview late, breathlessly apologizing about how "busy" the interviewer is, then rushing through questions rather than engaging in a dialogue.

What comes of this process? The really quality candidates generally take themselves out of the running. If, they reason, the company cannot put its best foot forward when trying to recruit individuals to the organization... then how do they behave once someone is on board. The process seems to favor the less than ideal candidates who breeze through the chaos with seeming easy... only to then fall down on the job.

Of course, the opposite of these techniques are what allow an effective interview and subsequent hire to occur. Critical to creating a quality atmosphere for this critical task are:

• The development of job specifications: Know what you need, why you need it and exactly what you will want the individual to do once hired. Make sure you get the candidate "on the record' with respect to the specifications of the job before you start "pitching" the company.
• The development of questions that specifically measure aspects of the job specifications. For example, if you are looking for someone with strong negotiation skills asking "are you a good negotiator" will get a predictable response. On the other hand, questions like:
• Tell me how you go about getting people to see an issue from your point of view.
• How do you respond when you are told "no" but are convinced of the "rightness" of your plan?
• When you need to develop a consensus among a team of people, describe for me the steps you take to make that happen.

The response to these questions will allow follow up questions to occur naturally during the course of the interview. The interview becomes less of a social opportunity to decide if you "like" someone, and more of a research opportunity to determine if the person can bring real value to your organization.

• Be prepared. Don't allow interruptions. Remember, first impressions are lasting. You would never think of rushing a customer, keeping him or her waiting or chatting it up on the phone with another customer in their presence... consider your interviewee as you would a customer. They in fact are making a choice between your offering and others.
• Last but not least-remember the 80/20 rule. The candidate should do 80% of the talking and you should do 20%. Your 20% should include a warm greeting; your questions and follow up questions; your answer to their questions and a warm and timely conclusion with a committed plan to follow up.

Companies that follow this formula consistently hire, retain and perform better than those that don't. Getting the best return on your payroll investment is not luck, it's not magic, it is just the simple formula of planning and consistent execution.

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