Recruitment matters. Great employees deliver great outcomes, which is why hiring the best person for your role makes an enormous impact on the success of your organisation. 

BBC shares insights from author Alison Green, creator of workplace advice column, Ask a Manager. 

“You’d think that employers would put real effort into how they interview and hire. You’d expect that they’d conduct rigorous screening of job applicants, and use real data to figure out which interview questions vet candidates most effectively. Yet in many cases, you’d be wrong.” 

“They give their interviewers little or no training and often leave them completely on their own when it comes to figuring out what to ask job candidates. As a result, we’ve got some really bad interviews happenings out there.” 

Here are common mistakes that make some job interviews downright weird. 

Unstructured, social get-togethers

There are hiring managers who conduct unstructured interviews, treating them more like social events. The chat pleasantly with candidates in a casual, “get to know you” way, instead of diving into their key skills and experience to truly understand if they will succeed in the role 

“Sometimes candidates leave these interviews feeling like they really built rapport – but they realise later that they never really got to talk about the job and how they’d approach it. And, no surprise, this interview-style leaves hiring managers hiring the candidate who they clicked with the most – which doesn’t have any correlation to who’s best matched with the job.” 

Using the wrong questions

Many of us are familiar with strange questions, such as, “if you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?” or even “What would I find in your refrigerator right now?”

These questions, while they may seem clever or relevant, they actually have no connection to the role and can make candidates uneasy. Candidates worry if there’s a “correct” answer they don’t know about, or overthink the question. 

As Green shares, “I even once heard from a job seeker whose interviewer asked to look in her handbag – saying that it would show him how organised she was.” 

Using the wrong type of skills testing 

Some interviewers have clearly been told that it’s helpful to devise exercises or simulations to see candidates in action – which it is – but they don’t quite get the execution right.

“I heard from one job seeker, interviewing for a job in education, whose interview took place in a crowded sandwich shop. During the meeting, her interviewers pretended to be rowdy children who she had to manage – they started running around the restaurant and throwing things at each other, while innocent bystanders tried to eat lunch.” 

Making interviews a one-way conversation 

Bad interviewing techniques won’t help you evaluate candidates as well as you need to. You need to remember interviews are two-way streets, and as much about your candidates as they are about you and your organisation. 

Strong candidates will evaluate you right back and pass their own judgments. In the cases that Green shares, sometimes not good ones!

The best way to conduct interviews 

We need to get serious about hiring. This means training your hiring managers on what skills and experience they need to look for and assess for new hires to truly excel in their roles. It means designing and developing interview structures that test for these things, instead of leaving them to wing it and conduct interviews without rigour. 

“On the candidate side of things, it’s easy to feel like you’re at the mercy of terrible interviewers, and to some extent that’s true. But candidates can also push back when an interview seems to be going off the rails. If you’re asked a silly question like what breakfast cereal you most identify with, you can say, ‘That’s an interesting question. Why do you ask?’” 

For candidates stuck with an interviewer who isn’t actually talking about the job or your possible fit for it, simply ask, “Would it be all right for me to talk you through my professional background?” Ask directly for them to tell you more about the job and what they’re looking for in a new hire.

“Ultimately, this one is on employers to fix, and the only way to do it is with real training in how to hire – something you wouldn’t think would be so hard to find.” 

Source

Why some interviews are downright weird

BBC 

The post Interview blunders that are downright weird  appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

What makes a question better? When it’s easily understood. Too often, our questions are confusing. We use too many words, overwhelming the listener.

There’s a science to asking great questions. Questions posed in the right manner are easily understood, allowing listeners to think carefully about their answers. You can actually see this happen. When people are asked compelling questions, they pause, think, and then respond. Their response is more thorough, accurate, and satisfying for everyone in the conversation.

The most effective manner of querying candidates is using “launching” questions. These provocative, open-ended questions are 12 words or less. Their brevity ensures that they are easily understood, launching people into giving detailed answers. Launching questions create conversational quid pro quo: The questioner wants to understand, and the respondent gets to be understood. Every response by the candidate can be turned into a new launching question, allowing you to develop an even deeper understanding.

What do launching questions sound like? Here are three such questions often used during a telephone interview.

“Why us?”

Motives are important. Knowing if your candidate is inspired by your organisation’s mission or just needs a job will help you pick the best people.

“Why now?”

When a candidate is actively searching for a job, knowing what’s driving that decision is important. Is the candidate desperate to make a change, ready to leap at the first offer? Or, is she simply open to a new opportunity that could make life even better? Knowing what’s driving someone’s behaviour is vital in choosing the right people for your organisation.

“What job suits you best?”

Too often, interviewers ask candidates about their perfect job. Such a question sets the candidate and the employer up for failure since jobs and companies are rarely perfect. Instead of asking about perfection, ask about personal fit.

The mutually beneficial experience created by these questions has a number of payoffs. In a matter of minutes, you’ll gain insights as to what’s driving the candidate’s interest in the opportunity. You’ll quickly experience her listening skills and hear how effective she is in responding to your query. Her personality will show up, letting you begin to determine whether or not she’ll fit your culture. At the same time, she has a positive and engaging experience of being thoroughly heard, especially as you take her responses and ask additional launching questions.

Launching questions are particularly important when you speak with passive candidates. Since these individuals aren’t actively looking for work, engaging them in a meaningful conversation can be a challenge. Not so when using launching questions. For example, when someone says they aren’t looking for a job, you could ask, “Under what circumstances would you consider something new?” If someone says they’re happy in their current role, you could pose, “What would make you happier?” Both examples engage talented people in a conversation about possibilities.

Many efforts to improve candidate experience and engagement are time-consuming and costly. Some of these efforts work well, creating a positive ROI. Others fall short, wasting time and money. Launching questions is quick, cost-free to implement, and will create guaranteed ROI. The investment of time in asking better questions will inform and inspire both interviewers and candidates, creating an engaging and memorable hiring experience.

What questions do you ask during candidate interviews? Share a comment below. 

Scott Wintrip is the author of High Velocity Hiring: How to Hire Top Talent in an Instant, named a must-read book by SHRM’s HR Magazine. Over the past 19 years, Scott has led the Wintrip Consulting Group, a global consultancy that has helped more than 22,000 organisations build talent-rich companies that have eliminated their hiring delays forever. For five consecutive years, Staffing Industry Analysts, a Crain Communications company, awarded Scott a place on the “Staffing 100,” a list of the world’s 100 most influential leaders. He’s also a member of the Million Dollar Consultant Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Staffing 100 Hall of Fame.

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