How to ensure you always hire the right person
As Recruiters, we see both a great CV with a not so good interview and vice versa with a not so good CV and a great interview. So here is how to get beyond the polished CVs, pre-screened references and scripted answers. To hire more creative and effective members for your team. And if you’re on the other side of the job hunt, you can gain insight on what your interviewer is really looking for in a candidate.
Avoid a standard interview:
A typical interview is a backwards and forwards predictable choreography. With a meeting room and the standard questions: where do you see yourself in five years time? What do you consider to be your biggest weakness? What are your strengths?
After a standard interview, an offer is made, and fingers are crossed that everything works out. However, there are better ways of interviewing. Here are three principles that can help you hire the right person:
- Be challenging: put the candidate in situations where they are likely to show their true selves. This will give you an idea of how they will work.
- Be creative: every candidate will be prepared for common interview questions. But not all of them will venture outside the box. Find new ways to truly understand how a person thinks, their response may show you how much research they have actually done.
- Get your employees involved. You are not the only person who is going to work with this candidate. there is already a team of employees you trust that will have to interact with him or her every day. Their opinion should matter!
Get away from the desk:
You’ll have a much better sense of your candidate if you get them out from behind a desk, you’ll notice the difference! If you take them out of the office or conference room to see how they interact with others, you’ll get a better sense of their personality. If you make the interview process as relaxed and human as possible you will be surer on whether you want the candidate to join your team.
Take them on a tour:
you can really get a sense of whether someone wants to be working at your company when you walk them through the place. Pay attention to-
- Are they curious?
- Are they asking good questions for example what everybody does and how things work?
- Do they treat everyone they meet with respect and is there a genuine interest in what they do?
Not only is this important for you so you can see their genuine interest, but it also helps the candidate to start understanding the company culture.
Check if they are self-aware:
Curveball/unusual questions will get candidates to open up and provide insights into what makes them tick. If someone is self-aware, they are keen to grow within their role.
Notice that smart candidates will be prepared for typical interview questions and will turn any negative into positives. Although this is great, get beyond the rehearsed answers. Questions such as ‘what is the biggest misperception about you?’ or ‘what qualities of your parents do you like the most?’ show a candidate’s personality rather than them going through a process they have been through with other companies that they interview with. Candidates will also appreciate this; they want to be with a company that are different!
Thank you for reading this Blog, let us know if you have found it useful!