Are you a first-time hiring manager? Or even a hiring manager that has hired many times but never been taught or trained on how to hire and what to look for? The interview can become quite awkward if you haven’t received the appropriate training, after all nerves can hit both sides of the table, its not just limited to the person being interviewed.
A lot of my clients have either never interviewed and do not know what they are doing, or long-term hiring managers who have “googled” their way through. The issue that ties both together is very simple, a bad hire can equal a costly hire. I’m not just talking in terms of money but also in terms of time invested by people who must provide training etc.
Here are some tips for you to enhance your chances of making a successful hire.
1. Be clear on the type of person you are looking for
Don’t waste time interviewing candidates who from the onset are a bad fit for the role.
2. Get the opinion of your team/ colleague– you don’t need to be the last step in the interview process. If you have a team, make meeting the team or others in the office as part of the interview process and then get the opinion of those. After all even though you may be their manager, the team will be the person who has to liaise with them daily.
3. There’s no need to rush the interview – so take your time. Let the interviews flow naturally, you don’t need to rush the process. Especially if you are new to the interview process, then start slowly. Maybe start with what you are familiar with which is about the company and the type of candidate you are looking for. This will then allow you to seamlessly flow into finding out about the candidate and what they can bring to the role and to the company.
4. Be prepared – make sure you have gone through their CV in advance. Have a list of baseline questions that you ask all candidates, so you have something to compare each of them against. You can then follow this up with questions that are specific to the candidates experience which you may have after going through the CV. The last thing you want is to go in blind.
5. Ask the right questions – What do I mean by this? Simple, ask behavioural type of questions so that you can extract real world knowledge of whether your candidate has the skills that you require. More importantly have follow-up questions to the FAQ behavioural based interview questions.
6. Take down notes – this is a must, because more than likely you will forget what they have said, also take down things like body language or any other nuances which you notice.
7. If you like someone – don’t procrastinate or play games. Interviewers seem to believe that they need to play games with candidates and not give them insight into their thoughts and feelings. I’m totally against this, now don’t get me wrong – I am not saying that you need to offer someone on the spot or give them any indication of such, however if you like them let them know and then see what you can do to speed up the process. Remember good candidates do not last long in the market.
8. Trust your instinct – this can be seen as a bone of contention especially if it’s your first time interviewing. However, sometimes with candidates you do get a feeling which cannot be put down to anything in particular. Where you need to be careful is that whilst you should trust your instinct, make sure you do this in line with the tips above. Do not just go by instinct alone, have something to back it up.
9. Hire someone who enhances the value and culture of your company -The ideal candidate is not someone who has got every single skill that you have listed down. Remember that culture is a major part of your team/company. A candidate can have all the skills but culturally not represent you at all, in which case they would not be ideal, however someone may epitomise your company culture and you can teach them the skills that they may not have.
Do you need help with your interview/hiring skills or would you like me to run an interview workshop for your hiring manager contact me and lets see how we can work together.
