Hiring and Interviewing

At some point you’ll be faced with hiring people. It’s a tricky process, and one that can often go wrong. As a manager hiring someone, you need to take responsibility for the process and the outcome. While bad hires can be a result of many factors, the manager shares some responsibility for the failure. Either you hired the wrong person or you failed in some way to support them once they were hired. This is yet another area where a good manager should take responsibility for both successes and failures.

And remember, you should expect the candidate to be prepared for the interview, but they have every right to expect the same courtesy from you. Interviewing without planning is a waste of everyone’s time. Make sure everyone is clear on the role and responsibilities involved, and what key traits you are looking for in a candidate. You should also take notes during the interview - just enough detail to remind you of key things the candidate said.

What follows are some suggestions to help with the interviewing process.

Summary

When hiring there are three questions that have to be answered:

A) Can the candidate do the job?

B) Will the candidate do the job?

C) Will the candidate fit in with the rest of the team/company

Hopefully (A) is pretty obvious. The candidate may not have exactly the skills and experience you need, but they have to convince you that they are able to do the job.

(B) is all about the candidate’s motivation, whether they can manage themselves and their general attitude to getting work done.

(C) is really about personality and interpersonal skills. Some people may be able and willing to do the job and just not be a fit for the company. In a perfect world you really want a candidate that will fit with the rest of your team. If they don’t, it’s a recipe for trouble down the road.

How you establish answers to these three areas is up to you. What follows are some general guidelines.

Process

As a general rule, any prospective hire should be interviewed by at least two people within your company. However, other than for very senior staff or very early hires, it is my opinion that “full day” interviews where candidates meet everyone including the company dog are largely a waste of time.

Ideally, the candidate should be interviewed by their prospective manager and a prospective peer within the company. The manager should focus on (A) and spend some time on (B). The peer should also spend some time on (B) but primarily focus on (C).

Why shouldn’t the manager focus on (C)? Except in the smallest of companies, the manager will not be the one working directly with the candidate on a daily basis. Conversely, while a peer may have an idea of the skills necessary to do the job, a manager should be better qualified to make that call.

Generally you should keep the interview relatively informal. Not unprofessional, just informal. Most candidates will be nervous and a draconian environment isn’t going to help. A perfectly capable candidate for a demanding job can still suffer from nerves. Besides, the more relaxed the candidate is, the more likely they are to be themselves (for better or for worse). Remember, while you are hiring the ideal candidate, what you end up with is the “real” candidate. Anyone can make themselves look good for a couple of hours in an interview. That’s pretty far removed from 40 hours a week.

Finally, always always always follow up after an interview. Even if the answer is “no”. Don’t keep people hanging on indefinitely and let them know what their status is regardless of whether it’s good news or not. Why? First of all, it’s just not good business practice. Secondly, they may be right for a different position in the future, or know someone else who may be ideal for the position. A bad reputation travels faster and lasts longer than a good reputation. Don’t let something as trivial as interview follow up impact your company.

Comments

[Tara Anderson]

Great post Nick. This is something I'm currently working on and it's not easy. Thanks for the tips.

[DisMonkey]

Thanks! More stuff coming soon...