Alexis Senge JohnsonProper, well thought out, interview questions are the key to finding the right fit for any company. That’s your chance to ensure you’ll gain as much knowledge as possible in order to be able to select your next employee. What happens when you don’t take the time to deeply evaluate the questions that your team will be asking to ensure they allow you to gain the necessary information? Well, you’re taking a gamble that you’ll get someone that isn’t the best fit and you’re not doing your business any justice with that risk. Underproducing employees and high turnover rates can be costly, so making the right choice more often is not only ideal but it’s cost effective.
Here are five important things to consider when hiring:
1.) Do you know what you’re looking for in a candidate BEFORE the interview and have you used proper selection criteria to develop the questions themselves or are you using a stock form that is used across the board? Without knowing what you’re looking for ahead of time it’s extremely difficult to be sure you’re asking the right questions to gather the information you need. While a stock form might allow you to grasp general answers about their integrity as an individual and leader, it doesn’t necessarily allow you to identify if the candidate has the proper skills and characteristics needed in the specific position they are interviewing for.
2.) Are your interview questions tangible and seeking answers based on experience or are they theory and based on the interviewee knowing ideal answers any interviewer wishes someone will give? Perfect example, I once sat through an entire interview that asked me to answer questions in theory. After leaving I realized that the way the questions were phrased didn’t reflect a desire for me to answer them with hands on experience. That being said, I could have just answered each and every one of the questions based upon a really stellar leadership article I had read before walking into the interview and the team never would have known if those leadership values were actually mine that I’d plan to use in the position or not.
3.) Will your interview questions provide the interviewee a chance to expand upon their background in a way that helps you learn more about whether what they’ve done in the past brings the right skills, knowledge and personality traits to the position you have open? Interview feedback is a valuable piece of growing in everyone’s career path. I’ve received feedback, more than once, that the interviewer wished I had spoken more about a position they never inquired about. While I would have loved to have obliged, there was no way of me knowing that was their desire based upon the questions I was given. If I thought the unmentioned job related to the questions then I would have spoken about it, but it didn’t and therefore I wasn’t prompted to speak about it so that I didn’t provide the interview team information that it appeared they weren’t seeking.
4.) Have you planned an opportunity to let candidates ask questions of the interview team in order to determine if your company is a right fit in their eyes as much as you’re looking to see if they are right in your eyes? While interviews are a way for you to learn about candidates, it’s just as much an opportunity for candidates to learn more about your company. Think of the interviews like a speed date where both side get an opportunity to ask questions. While providing all necessary information about the company background, job itself and the hiring timeline might seem all encompassing to you, the candidate might have other questions that they wish to ask so they can walk away with a feeling of whether the job and your company is a good fit for them.
5.) If the candidate is internal will you do them a disservice by revealing too much about things that don’t relate to the job and might sway another interview panelist when asking your questions? As an example, it’s no secret that being a working mother isn’t always admired by everyone in the workforce. There’s more than a few interviewers that let their unconscious bias from past experiences with working mothers affect the way they look at a candidate. I had an interview three or four years ago where one of the interviewers knew me and the first question upon sitting down was about how my infant was doing and not anything related to the job they were hiring for. It was for a very rigorous position that required someone to have extreme flexibility with their schedule so typically not a position someone would assume a newer mother would be ideal for unless they knew their whole situation. While I didn’t get the job and was told I wasn’t the right fit, I also never missed a day of work for the first 2.5 years of that child’s life while many of my male counter parts were out of office all the time for reasons that were much more frivolous. While I don’t know if learning I had an infant was an unconscious bias that affected their decision during the interview, I do know that I found it unprofessional and as if that interviewer was trying to impose his opinion about my personal life on the rest of the interview panel.
Do your company and your interviewees a courtesy by taking the time to properly develop your interview questions. Lead your company to future success as well as the future success of a well-chosen new hire. It’s more than just an option, it’s the responsible way to conduct business.
