Hiring: It pays to be smart with your interview process
James Caan CBE
Recruitment Entrepreneur Chairman | Serial Entrepreneur | Investor on BBC's Dragons’ Den (2007-2010)
Most of the companies I've either worked for or started myself have been in the recruitment sector.
The hiring techniques I use have been refined and honed over the years and, right at the heart of the selection procedure is the interview process.
You can never be one hundred per cent sure you are taking on the right person but my overall aim is to keep mistakes to a minimum, after all recruitment can be incredibly expensive and time consuming.
At my organisation, no matter what role we are recruiting for, we meet with candidates at least three times. Sometimes as many as five.
I always think it's important to get someone in my team involved in the first interview. As well as knowing what questions to ask they can also give the candidate a good idea of what to expect from the job they are applying for.
Those on the coalface of a business are usually the ones who know what qualities are needed for that role so why not make full use of that expertise and knowledge?
When we get down to the final two or three candidates we always try and get them to carry out a practical task such as a presentation or a preparing a report. It sounds like common sense but there is no point taking someone on if they can’t actually deliver from a brief on something that is relevant to their job. At that stage I would invite two or three of my team members to sit in on the presentation and be prepared to ask questions.
Another curve ball is to invite a promising candidate to one of our social events. No matter how skilled and experienced you are as an interviewer, it's always difficult to get people to lower their guard.
Obviously when people are out of the work place, they tend to relax and that's when you really get to know them and see how they interact with others. As well as discovering how well they communicate it's also a good way to see if they will fit in with the rest of the team.
In the past I've even asked candidates to come and work for me for a week if I'm not a hundred per cent sure about their ability or character.
There are plenty of techniques you can use to assess people properly.Like I said you can never be totally sure of your decisions to hire. But for mea rigorous and properly thought out recruitment strategy takes a lot of risk out of the process.
Agile Program Manager | PMP | PSM | SAFe RTE| Six Sigma Black Belt | OCJP | Strategic Management from XLRI
11 年We cannot judge a person's skills in a matter of hours or days or putting few questions related to the job. Every one is having talent and having there own style of working which will lead to the organizations profit ultimately and also for the individual .Here both employee and employer are equally important both has to work hand in hand as team then only organization leads success. When a person joining an organization both employee and employer are at equal risk. Both will be having there own strategies and plans. But things will workout when both decide to work together both has to understand the future requirements and move together.
Broughton Prototyping Interface at Airbus
11 年When you see things that others dont, and have offered litterly hundreds of ideas to your employer with little reward, where do you go when you dont have money for a new business and support your family?
A goal properly set is halfway reached. (Abraham Lincoln)
11 年Dear Mr. Caan, thank you for your skills presentation. It′s new view for me as an employe... Dana
Director ALCS Engineering at Altria
11 年The approach that has worked extremely well for us is to use internships. No matter how many interviews you do you really can't get a sense for how someone interacts and gets work done over the long term. We usually bring in twice the number of interns for the total positions we intend to hire and make offers at the end of the summer to the best of the bunch. Of course this requires long range planning (you have to think at least 1 year ahead) and only works well if you are consistently hiring multiple positions, but the quality of our full time hires is really incredible.
Tech Solutions Architect
11 年interview a candidate 3 times?! easy for you mr cann, since you don't travel specifically to interview, but bad news for the job candidates. in the past i've always asked what the interview process was, if it's more than 1 meet up to get the job or involves lots of silly tests then I just turn them down. doing alright where I am today too.