How many tennis balls fit into a swimming pool? How to interview your next recruiter…

We all know a variety of left-field interview questions. What would I find in your refrigerator right now? Who would win a fight between Spiderman and Batman? Give me seven things you can do with this pen? That last one might prove painful, but In truth, do you really think any of these will make the crucial difference when you are interviewing a potential new member of your TA team?

As I noted in a previous blog, attrition in recruitment is generally far higher than in most other industries. Sometimes I wonder whether the questions TA managers ask (or, more likely, fail to ask) at interviews are part of the problem – and whether we are too risk-averse or, in more general terms, too small ‘c’ conservative when it comes to hiring for our own teams?

?In truth, do you really think any of these will make the crucial difference when you are interviewing a potential new member of your TA team??

As you set out to hire a new member of your team, you must think deeply about what you need and what you want. These are not necessarily mutually compatible: for example, frequently what is needed is a short-term, quick win, whereas what you really need is an organised individual to support you and, in time, stand out from the pack and help you lead the team. Squaring this circle is your job – that’s why you’re the TA Head!

Next, I find it helpful to compartmentalise the interview so that I am sure that I cover the key areas outlined. I have also included 6 interview questions to help you when you are hiring your next recruiter.

The person

?I want to find out what the interviewee is like as a person: not just their personality and how they project themselves in the formal interview setting but also what makes them tick inside and outside work.?

Key questions here involve their relationships with their existing colleagues, whether that’s in-house or at an agency, and, in particular, how well they engage upwards and downwards, both within a TA team and within the broader business as a

whole. I’m also keen to find out about their networking and how they build their personal ‘brand’ in their own market. For example, do they write blogs, create videos, interview industry figures, promote themselves on social media, attend events and keep up to speed with current recruitment trends and new ideas?

Are they a technophile or technophobe?

I specifically want to find out how technologically adept they are and whether they see rec-tech and data as an opportunity or a threat.

I want interviewees to have prepared by finding out what tech we already use and, ideally, have some constructive opinion about it. In addition, I want to find out how much they know about the rec-tech world in general, what they believe are the benefits and pitfalls technology brings and how it can be harnessed to improve efficiency and make the business of recruitment easier, without ever losing the vital human touch.

What are their technical recruitment skills like?

Here, I want to go into a detailed analysis of their recruitment career to date. In particular, I want to know about their success against a range of key metrics. These include, but are not limited to: writing adverts; media knowledge (where will they find passive candidates – what role do social media have, etc.?), what do they do when recruitment goes wrong; how do they handle rejection; what are their interpersonal/communication skills (both oral and written) like across all levels of an organisation; how do they ensure new hires don’t leave at the first available opportunity; and, the most difficult but in many ways the most important, how do they judge ‘quality of hire’?

?In my experience, the best members of my TA teams are the ones who haven't necessarily had the required skills and experience?

However, what they do have is a passion for people and a track record of delivering the ‘wow’ experience. These people invariably come from slightly left-field and usually don’t have a recruitment background. I think this is an area many TA Heads are uncomfortable with: we tend to want someone who has ‘been there, done it.’ Unfortunately, some seasoned recruiters are in it simply for the big bonuses and the big cars. I do want people who are ambitious and prepared to work to earn, but not those whose ultimate customer is themselves…

Instead, I tend to focus on individuals who are more customer-oriented rather than sales-oriented. When I was at Philip Morris International, we worked across several team zones and the focus was to provide a high-touch experience to our candidates, so I needed people who understood that and were prepared to go out of their way in providing the ‘wow’ in everything they did.

Indeed, I’d go further. I am particularly interested in hiring what I describe as ‘curious’ individuals from outside the sector. By ‘curious’ I mean having a sense of curiosity and a willingness to investigate new ideas, challenge conventions and put in place viable alternatives. I believe that questioning any existing, embedded “as-is” mentality often helps foment effective change and supports the creation of fresh, new thinking.

Occasionally, I find that other senior managers think that it’s vital that the recruiter they are working with has specific experience of their industry or discipline. I tell them firmly that it’s not essential: if it were, would an FD be fit to pronounce on sales (as they do!), or should a Sales Director tell the Head of Procurement that they don’t know what they are doing? Perhaps an even better example would be a Sales Director who insisted that only those with industry-specific sales skills need apply, when we all know that sales skills are readily transferable to different sectors. No, what matters is that your TA team understands recruitment procedures and processes. Then, the line managers, who, let’s be honest, often simply want to shift the problem to the TA team, need to get more involved. This requires you to hire recruiters who can forge and develop strong relationships across the organisation and ‘play back the hiring manager’s needs.’ In other words, you need recruiters who will challenge line managers and testing candidates on this ought to form a central part of the interview.

To find out if someone will be a top recruiter, try asking these six questions at the interview…

1. Tell me about how you work with your stakeholders?

The single biggest factor in being a successful recruiter is building strong relationships with your stakeholders and that means working as a partner and offering insights and expertise.

Understanding how a recruiter has worked with their stakeholders — or better still, their last two or three — will give you a valuable insight in how they handle relationships and manage expectations.

Do they describe situations where the hiring manager has led or even dictated the process and they were simply reactive to outcomes? Or have they influenced the recruitment process and managed expectations, providing insights using external market data and their knowledge of best practices?

2. How do you treat candidates who don’t get the job?

Providing a good candidate experience in today's market is not a nice to have, it's a prerequisite.

Unsuccessful candidates can be great advocates for your employee and consumer brand. Often, we only invest time in candidates we have actually hired and, by not providing feedback or updates on the status of their application, don't recognise the time and effort the unsuccessful candidates have invested in the process.

A great recruiter should always provide a positive experience to every candidate, even if they don’t make it to the next stage. This means you should personally phone every interviewee who doesn’t get the job. It also means that when you interview for your own recruitment team, you must listen for answers that show the recruiter is committed to updating candidates throughout the process so no-one is left wondering where they stand.

3. Tell me how you use data to help you recruit?

With data an integral part of a recruiter's day-to-day life, it's important to embrace all the information available and use it to provide insights and become more of a strategic partner with your hiring managers.

A top-tier candidate should be able to describe to you, using actual examples, how they have used data to help them recruit and how they can comb the nooks and crannies of the candidate marketplace to identify available talent. Conversely, candidates who are unable to provide examples of how they use data to recruit are the ones who are not using all the tools necessary to be successful. Reject them (nicely).

4. Describe a time in which you hired someone who wasn’t right for the role. What went wrong, and what did you learn from the experience?

A bad hire is often more memorable and costly than a great hire for all the wrong reasons. If we put as much effort into getting the right people as we (have to) put into getting rid of the wrong ones, we’d have more of the former and fewer of the latter!

A candidate should be able to acknowledge when something that went bad and how they turned this into a learning experience, putting into place actions to militate against similar episodes in the future.

5. How have you built your own personal brand and why is it important to you?

Writing a job advert or sending an inmail to a qualified candidate is simply not enough these days. Recruiters need to start building relationships with prospects digitally, making it easier to source positions later.

Today a recruiter needs to have a strong Linkedin profile and to share content with a view to inspiring, engaging with and nurturing future talent. How they have done this in the past will demonstrate that they understand the importance of building a compelling, personal brand,

6. What’s the most rewarding part of being a recruiter?

Passion is infectious! When a recruiter is truly passionate about what they do, candidates feel it — growing more excited about the job as a result. Listen for answers that get to the root of why the recruiter got into the business.

They might simply like talking to people and finding out more about them, or perhaps they are motivated when they hear how good their recent hire is performing and the added-value they (the recruiter) have made to the company by attracting talent.

Final Thoughts

1. Invest time in writing down what are your negotiables and non-negotiables when looking to hire an additional member of your team.
2. Understand that different personality traits combined make a great team and different styles also have greater success with different stakeholder groups
3. Candidates today have multiple employment options and job offers: a recruiter's brand can be your new talent magnet
4. When hiring a recruiter, look for someone who has a passion. In particular, this means someone who is passionate about your company and who genuinely cares about every candidate who walks through the door. If they have that, along with the skills, knowledge, and curiosity needed to do this job well, then you will have made a great hire.