Overcoming Hiring Mistake #2: Superficial Interviewing
The sole purpose of an
employment interview is to investigate whether the candidate can succeed in
the open position. Uncovering that information requires a rigorous,
disciplined interview process that leaves no question unasked and no stone
unturned.
Yet, according to
Vistage speakers Barry Deutsch and Brad Remillard, the second
most common hiring mistake at the executive level involves just the
opposite.
In too many cases,
executive hires involve a sloppy, undisciplined process that fails to put
candidates under the magnifying glass, verify claims or check facts. And
when hiring managers accept at face value everything candidates say during
job interviews, a bad hiring decision almost always follows.
"In our workshops and
training sessions, we routinely ask executives what percentage of job
applicants embellish or exaggerate their accomplishments during the
interview," says Deutsch. "In most cases, we hear a number from 100 to 125
percent, because many candidates embellish more than once.
"Granted, not every job
candidate is guilty of what we call ‘interview puffery,' but it does happen
on a regular basis. And unless you take adequate steps to guard against it,
you can easily end up with a hiring decision that ends in failure."
The solution to
eliminating candidate puffery and avoiding hiring mistake #2?
Become a great
interview detective. And that, suggest Deutsch and Remillard, requires a
rigorous three-step process.
Step One: The "Five
Key Question" Interview
Through 20 years of
experience recruiting and hiring top five percent talent, Deutsch and
Remillard have identified five keys traits that are universal predictors of
success at the senior executive level. To uncover whether candidates possess
these essential traits, ask five key questions:
1.
Can you
give me an example of a situation where you have demonstrated high
initiative?
Initiative is a
lifelong pattern, not an anomaly. The top performers will be able to give
you example after example.
2.
Would you
please give me an example of when you have executed a project or a strategy
flawlessly?
Top performers
don't make excuses; they do what it takes to get the job done. They hit
deadlines, achieve goals and meet budgets in spite of all the problems,
bottlenecks, roadblocks and speed bumps that get in the way.
3.
Tell me
about your most successful accomplishment in leading a cross-functional team
on a major project or initiative? Top performers excel at team leadership. They know how to rally the
troops and motivate people (even under difficult circumstances), and will
have a minimum of several examples where they have built and led successful
teams. "Be sure to insist on examples of cross-functional teams," advises
Remillard, "because strong leadership requires the ability to influence
others not directly under your control."
4.
One of
our most critical objectives is . Would you please describe your most
comparable accomplishment?
Before you extend a
high-level job offer, you need to feel confident that the candidate can
achieve the Success Factors you've outline for the position. Comparative
means "similar in scope, size, complexity, resources, budget and timeframe."
(Note: See
Overcoming Hiring Mistake #1: Inadequate Job Descriptions on Vistage
View for the importance of Success Factors in the hiring process.)
5.
Please
walk me through how you would go about achieving in our environment?
This question
addresses the candidate's ability to adapt to your specific situation,
environment or timeline. Does he or she understand what's different in terms
of size, scope, teams, people, changes, standards, resources, values and
culture? More important, does the candidate ask intelligent questions and
problem-solve to answer this question?
"Often, the questions
the candidate asks during this discussion are more important and revealing
than any statement they make," says Remillard. "So pay close attention to
their questions and the assumptions behind them. The only real wrong answer
is ‘The same way I did before.'"
Step Two: Put The
Candidate Under the Glass
To validate the
candidate's answers to the five key questions, Deutsch and Remillard
recommend the "Magnifying Glass" approach, a technique that involves asking
for multiple examples of each answer to make sure the behavior isn't the
exception to the rule.
"Put on your reporter's
hat and ask ‘who, what, when, where and why?' with several ‘how' questions
thrown in for good measure," suggests Deutsch. "In other words, ask
candidates to describe, in specific terms, who did what, where and when they
did it, how they did it and why they did it that way. Then ask for the
outcome/results to determine if their approach succeeded."
Examples of generic
magnifying glass questions include:
-
Could you give me an example of that?
-
Can you be more specific about that?
-
Can you give me a bit more information about that?
-
What were the most important details about that situation?
-
Tell me about another time when you faced a similar situation.
The idea is to gather
as many specific details as possible about each key question. To drill down
further, ask questions more focused questions, such as:
-
What was your role in the project?
-
How did you define and measure success?
-
Can you give me a few examples of your personal initiative on the project?
-
When have you faced a comparable challenge?
-
How did you and the team make midcourse corrections?
-
What did you learn from this project?
-
With the benefit of hindsight, what would you do differently next time?
"Be prepared to spend
15 to 30 minutes exploring the details of each example the candidate gives
you," adds Deutsch. "Keep going until you uncover what you need to know or
it become apparent the candidate is being elusive or outright lying, at
which point you might as well cut your losses and end the interview."
Step Three: Homework
Assignments
Once you've narrowed
the candidate pool down to two finalists, it's time to come up with some
homework assignments to observe their thought processes, analytical skills
and problem solving capabilities in real time.
According to Deutsch
and Remillard, effective homework assignments involve projects of reasonable
size and scope that relate to one of the most critical Success Factors
listed in your Success Factor Snapshot. The candidate should be given all
the support he or she needs to complete the assignment, and should report
back to the interview panel to present his or her results and conclusions
based on the homework.
Examples of homework
assignments include:
-
Bring in a sales plan/board presentation/financial statement you've
created in a previous position, present it to the panel and be prepared to
discuss it in detail. (Note: never ask candidates to divulge confidential
information during a homework assignment.)
-
Based upon what you know about our company and our needs, create a
high-level strategy to address Success Factor X. We will give you access
to the personnel and materials you need to complete the assignment.
-
Take home this set of financial statements and analyze them. When you
return, tell us where you see problems and how you would go about fixing
them.
-
Prepare a PowerPoint presentation on how you would begin to approach each
Success Factor if you were offered this position.
-
Outline the steps you would take to crate a vendor qualification program.
"Homework is one of the
best ways to assess how a candidate thinks," points out Remillard. "It also
provides useful ancillary information about the candidate's current work
environment, resources, communication capabilities, strategy and planning
techniques.
"In addition, some of
the most qualified candidates are poor interviewers, while others are great
at giving interviews but not so good when it comes to actually tackling
problems. Homework levels the playing field and allows every final candidate
the chance to demonstrate his or her aptitude and work style in your
work environment."
Some candidates may
balk at the homework assignment because they perceive it as unpaid work.
However, most top five percent talent, because of their self-motivated
nature, will embrace the challenge and jump into the assignment with gusto.
Either way, it helps to reassure the candidate that you don't expect them to
come up with the "right answer." Instead, your goal is to assess their
analytical, problem solving and presentation skills in your work
environment.
"Successful
interviewing is all about drilling down and getting to the facts," concludes
Deutsch. "By asking for example after example, you will discover a critical
truth about the interviewing process -- that candidates can't make up false
answers quickly enough. They have either done what they say they have done
and can describe it in infinite detail, or they will implode in front of
you.
"To ensure that your
interviewing process uncovers the information you need to know, ask the five
key questions, probe for relevant details and give a meaningful homework
assignment. You'll get a very accurate picture of the candidate's ability to
perform on the job and, more important, you'll make better hiring
decisions."
Created for Vistage View.
Copyright 2006, Vistage International, Inc.
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