Hiring with your head and your heart

#HowIHire

After more than fifteen years in the Talent Acquisition space, and literally thousands of interviews, I thought I would share my personal perspective on what can help to shape a great interview - i.e. one that's a positive experience for the candidate (irrespective of the outcome), and crucially one that provides you with as much detail as possible to help you arrive at your hiring decision.

I can't count the number of times I've reminded hiring managers over the years that interviewing is not something to be nervous about (so many candidates don't realise that often the interviewer is just as nervous as them!), an interview is fundamentally a conversation; one of the most basic human interactions.  A structured conversation for sure, and a conversation that the interviewer should ultimately be in control of (in terms of navigating the journey, not deciding the destination), but in the end it's just that - dialogue that should help both you and the candidate decide whether it's worth continuing the conversation or not. 

the basics

The more at ease the candidate feels, the more likely you are to have a productive conversation, so do take a few minutes when you first meet for general chit chat that will hopefully start to establish if not a rapport at least some common ground.  Begin by signposting the conversation so the candidate knows what to expect: 'we'll have around forty five minutes to an hour together and I expect we'll spend three quarters of that time learning about you, and the remainder will be for you to learn about me/us and to ask any questions that will help you walk away from this meeting with most of the answers you need'.

I think it's incredibly powerful when interviewers kick off the meeting by introducing themselves, their role and crucially what their journey has been: what appealed to them about the company in the first place and what resonates with them now.  It's important to remember that the interview is a two way decision process: great candidates (and hopefully the only kind you're meeting) will have a number of businesses competing for them, and a big factor in their decision process will be your brand touch points - no matter how great your social media or advertising teams are, or how nice your offices, if you don't give them a great impression in the interview then none of that will matter.  There's no need to get stage fright at this point - just be authentic - it's the most powerful tool we have.

'the best, the brightest, the funniest and the nicest'

I coined the above a few years ago when I was leading the TA team at the NET-A-PORTER Group: it resonated with them and became our mantra, and I still stand by it today.  I firmly believe that you can coach/train for most things, but if you're not starting from a place of positive attitude/intent then it's just an enormous waste of time.  Indeed I also believe that when you combine the attributes above with a great team then people learn almost by osmosis: naturally curious people surrounded by a stellar team will inevitably learn and grow just by being there every day:

the best... 

what 'the best' looks like will, of course, be different depending on what your organisation does and what your culture is like, but for me the fundamental principals of grit, determination, hard work, and work ethic are what I want to explore for this corner of my 'perfect square' 

...the brightest...

certainly does not mean having to have an advanced degree (though in some cases it might), but for me is more about whether someone has that entrepreneurial/innovative spark: are they solutions focused and do they have the potential and drive to turn things on their head or to suggest working in a smarter/more efficient way?  To borrow an expression from the tech space - I love that developers call it 'elegant coding' when something is engineered well: can this person code elegantly in their world? 

...the funniest...

does not have to mean hiring a stand up comedian, but rather someone that doesn't take themselves too seriously.  I am lucky enough to work in fashion (which is definitely supposed to be fun) but I firmly believe that whatever work we do should bring us joy and laughter.  Certainly not all day everyday, but when things are tough you want to be surrounded by people who can make you smile and lift your spirits.

...and the nicest

which for me is the most important: ask anyone that's worked closely with me and they'll tell you that I often ask the front of house team for their impressions of a candidate.  If someone is ungracious it's a huge question mark for me. Many years ago I was conducting a fairly late interview for a very senior role and had popped out to Starbucks to get fuel to keep my colleague and me going.  On the way back to the office I shared the lift with someone that decided I was a lowly intern and therefore felt it OK to be fairly hostile. Unfortunately 20 minutes later they were facing me across an interview room. Not ideal. 

My key message is that there's so much more than someone's technical ability to perform a role; yes of course the skills to do the job are important but I believe it's vital to look holistically at the candidate and what they will bring to your culture. We're in a people business after all so why not consider the whole person?