The five biggest mistakes hiring managers make when interviewing potential employees:
1. Failure to focus on cultural fit.
All too often hiring decisions are solely based on experience and skills, when hiring for the correct cultural fit is just as important. After all, few terminations are the result of the wrong skill sets or experience.
2. Using a job description that is too generic.
Most job descriptions are worthless as a hiring tool. At best they are a listing of minimum, average, and mediocre qualifications that are misleading in predicting success. It’s not necessarily what a candidate has (education, skills, prior duties) that makes a difference; it’s what they do with these things. Choosing someone based on a list of minimal qualifications might fill a seat, but it is not a recommended solution for consistently hiring top notch talent.
In Lou Adler’s book “HIRE WITH YOUR HEAD” he states that a top person should be able to look at a job description and say, “wow that’s a job I want to consider.” It should be so clearly written that he or she could show it to their circle of friends and easily convince them that this is a true career move, with the compensation being of secondary importance.
3. Fishing in shallow waters
If all you’re seeing are applicants floating near the surface of the pond, you’re doomed to fail before you even start! Not having a good source of talent to choose from results in having to pick from the “best of the worst”. You MUST COMPEL top talent in the deep end of the pond to get excited about your opportunity.
4. Failure to Probe for Specific Core Success Factors.
A lack of deep probing questions to validate candidate stories, examples, and illustrations, leads to embellishment and exaggeration. Accuracy is greatly improved when the person doing the interviewing probes deeply asking questions and then follow up questions based on the answers the candidate gives. Peeling the onion and playing the role of detective are important things to do.
5. Make a “no” answer on a candidate harder to justify than a “yes”
A no can be the safe and easier answer and can too often reward interviewers that are unprepared or just don’t want to be bothered. To prevent this from happening demand more detailed information and evidence from yourself and others to justify the no. Vague reasons like “I just didn’t get a good feeling” about him or her should not be acceptable. Of course a “no” is fine as long as it’s based on factual information gathered during an in depth interview.
Conrad Martin is founder of OnPoint Search Group Inc.
1. Failure to focus on cultural fit.
All too often hiring decisions are solely based on experience and skills, when hiring for the correct cultural fit is just as important. After all, few terminations are the result of the wrong skill sets or experience.
2. Using a job description that is too generic.
Most job descriptions are worthless as a hiring tool. At best they are a listing of minimum, average, and mediocre qualifications that are misleading in predicting success. It’s not necessarily what a candidate has (education, skills, prior duties) that makes a difference; it’s what they do with these things. Choosing someone based on a list of minimal qualifications might fill a seat, but it is not a recommended solution for consistently hiring top notch talent.
In Lou Adler’s book “HIRE WITH YOUR HEAD” he states that a top person should be able to look at a job description and say, “wow that’s a job I want to consider.” It should be so clearly written that he or she could show it to their circle of friends and easily convince them that this is a true career move, with the compensation being of secondary importance.
3. Fishing in shallow waters
If all you’re seeing are applicants floating near the surface of the pond, you’re doomed to fail before you even start! Not having a good source of talent to choose from results in having to pick from the “best of the worst”. You MUST COMPEL top talent in the deep end of the pond to get excited about your opportunity.
4. Failure to Probe for Specific Core Success Factors.
A lack of deep probing questions to validate candidate stories, examples, and illustrations, leads to embellishment and exaggeration. Accuracy is greatly improved when the person doing the interviewing probes deeply asking questions and then follow up questions based on the answers the candidate gives. Peeling the onion and playing the role of detective are important things to do.
5. Make a “no” answer on a candidate harder to justify than a “yes”
A no can be the safe and easier answer and can too often reward interviewers that are unprepared or just don’t want to be bothered. To prevent this from happening demand more detailed information and evidence from yourself and others to justify the no. Vague reasons like “I just didn’t get a good feeling” about him or her should not be acceptable. Of course a “no” is fine as long as it’s based on factual information gathered during an in depth interview.
Conrad Martin is founder of OnPoint Search Group Inc.