The frustration good corporate recruiters have (and this probably holds true for external recruiters and staffing firms as well) is doing everything right, yet failing to get a hire due to things outside the range of control.  Some of these are naturally occurring and can never be controlled (i.e. candidate changes mind about accepting a position).  In the case of hiring managers (HMs) during the interview process, this can be just as frustrating.

Have you ever found a candidate that meets all specifications, only to find the HM:

• later adds additional criteria that screens out the candidate.
• uses questionable information to screen out the candidate (hearsay, gut feelings, insignificant data, etc.).
• practices inconsistent interview techniques that screen out great candidates.

In previous posts, I’ve discussed concerns about HMs in the recruitment process (Corporate Recruiting 101 – What to fix first?).  Considering they have lots of other work outside of recruiting and may recruit so infrequently that they don’t remember best practices or process, it’s understandable that HMs aren’t always the best interviewers.  The question is, what can you do about it?  Let’s take a look at the cost of bad interviewing and practical approaches to alleviating the problem.

It’s well documented that hiring the wrong employees is costly to companies:

• According to a CareerBuilder study, 74% of employers reported hiring the wrong person for a position.  It’s a common issue!
• A study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that a single bad hire can cost a company up to five times the employee’s annual salary. When considering the impact on team dynamics and potential client relationships, and other factors, the real cost can be even higher.

How to reduce the amount of bad hires:

• Create and reinforce a consistent interview process.
• Create interview guides that provide consistency and a measurable and repeatable way to assess candidates, while giving managers an interview framework (no more winging it as acceptable interviewing behavior).

Create a Consistent Interviewing Environment

There are many types of interviewing techniques.  The most popular, unstructured interviews, tend to cause the most problems because:

• It’s hard to duplicate similar interviews across multiple candidates and therefore hard to get a consistent assessment of skills.
• When multiple interviewers assess multiple candidates, the “best” candidate tends to be the one who is liked the most rather than the one that is the best fit for the role.

There are many other interview techniques that can be used throughout the process. It’s helpful to work with HMs to establish the best type of interview for their roles and work with them to understand and practice that technique. In addition to the mode in which the interview takes place (phone, video, in-person), here are some popular interview techniques:

• Behavioral-based Interviews – this technique focuses on past experiences to predict future performance.  If you have ever been asked, “Tell me about a time when…”, you were part of a behavior-based interview.
• Situational Interviews – Instead of past experiences, situational interviews present hypothetical scenarios relevant to the job.  You can expect questions like, “Your top client is upset with a product delay.  How would you handle the situation?”
• Panel Interviews – when multiple interviewers assess a candidate at the same time, it’s helps to confirm what is being observed and can reduce interview biases.
• Technical Interviews – these focus specifically on technical skills.  For example, an IT candidate is asked to do a coding exercise.

Using Interview Guides

No matter what interview technique is chosen, the best way to create consistency and fairness in the interview process is to use interview guides.  Why?

• Asking similar questions across multiple candidates helps create an “apples to apples” comparison.
• Managers do not have to be expert interviewers.  Interview guides present a structure they can easily adopt no matter how often they interview.  They do not have to start from scratch each time they need to fill another role.
• It helps provide appropriate questions in areas outside of technical expertise, where the manager may be less familiar.  For example, steering interviewers away from inappropriate questions (see below) or providing them examples for questions around company culture or benefits the manager may be less familiar with.

Components of a good interview guide

So what makes a good interview guide?  The best guides are used as intended and used by everybody in the process.  And they are most effective when there is a debrief session after the interview for all to share their notes and opinions.  As for the information contained in a guide, it can have these components:

Implementing and consistently using interview guides can be transformative for an organization.  In my travels, it’s common to see clients screen out the best candidates because of faulty interview techniques.  And, while it may have the biggest positive impact on a company’s hiring practices, it can also take a lot of time to get the entire organization onboard.  Don’t’ give up!  The end results for your organization are worth every bit of the effort.

If you would like more information on using interview guides, read Neelie Verlindend’s article written for Academy to Innovate HR, “The Interview Guide: 7 Key Elements”  or visit the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) for detailed information on the subject.

ES Talent Solutions has helped many companies improve their interview processes by creating interview guides that align consistently and efficiently.  Visit our website  ES Talent Solutions) or contact Eddie directly (estewart@ESTalentSolutions.com)  to learn more.