INTERVIEWER PLAYBOOK FOR ADVANCED HR & TA

WHY AM I GOOD?

? STEP 1 - PRE-SCREENING

There are 5 key Success Factors that every candidate must be assessed, before even meeting them for the first preliminary interview. Do you know what they are and why they are extremely important?

#1 Responsiveness - Because this determines how fast they will work/act, and also how badly they really want this job. This avoids ghosting the interview or the job even if they signed the contract to start work.

#2 Compliance - Because this shows their ability and attitude towards following instructions and to take strict orders when absolutely needed.

#3 Consistency - Because if it is not consistent, they end up paying lip service as an employee and work quality suffers.

#4 Responsibility - Because if they can do it even before they are paid or need to do it, they will be sure to do it when they are paid.

#5 Attitude & Values - Because this is the most important aspect of hiring or working with anyone.

Most companies I know have absolutely no foolproof way to measure these 5 pointers with any absolute metrics that are data-driven. They simply leave it or do not know how to measure these.

AS THE BOSS, WHAT QUESTIONS SHOULD I ASK MY TALENT ACQUISITION OR HR LEADER?

#1 Responsiveness - How do I know you have measured their responsiveness? What metrics did you come up with that shows they are responsive, even before they are being interviewed?

#2 Compliance - What extraordinary tasks did I give them to show they follow instructions, other than the norm of submitting their resume or filling up an application? How do I know they are compliant for the sake of acted compliance?

#3 Consistency - How do you know for sure what they say and what they do is consistent and congruent? Words versus Actions. How do you measure this?

#4 Responsibility - How do you validate that they are responsible from the answers they gave you? How do you know its real versus a theory or made up answers? How do you measure that? How do you know they are telling the truth?

#5 Attitude & Values - What values are their intrinsic tendencies? How do they make decisions? What drives their behaviors and mindsets? How do you know they have positive attitude? How do you measure that?

? HOW DO WE PRE-SCREEN?

★ Responsiveness - We check how long it takes them to revert with the required drawings

★ Compliance - We give them a deadline (usually very short notice) to comply. If they can't for whatever reasons, it is a mini-red flag.

★ Consistency - We measure what they say they will do versus what actually gets done. This must be tasks they are given within a short time to complete and see how responsive and compliant they are. We do it numerous times to measure consistency.

★ Responsibility - We test their ability to take ownership of any tasks they are asked to do and measure the time taken to complete the tasks, again measuring their responsiveness, compliance and consistency again and again.

★ Attitude & Values - This is everything. Without this, the above 4 pointers did not matter. We use Drawmetrics to measure all the required values we desire in an ideal hire.

? STEP 2 - SCREENING INTERVIEW

We conduct screening interviews after we have validated the 5 key Success Factors above. Screening Interviews are done in person or via zoom using customized interview questions to assess the following:

#1 Real Answers - Answers given must be real. We use questioning techniques to obtain real answers by asking for real examples. We have a methodology that can prove these examples are real.

#2 Validate Values - We validate attitude and values drawn upon from Drawmetrics by asking Real life examples from the candidates past experiences.

#3 Validate language skills (spoken & written), communications skills, listening skills, interpersonal, understanding aptitude, accent, decorum and demeanor.

#4 Assess technical and functional skills needed for the job. Take technical assessment as needed.

#5 Assess Resume for transferable skills.

#6 Other behavioral assessment such as: Wit, Humor, Reflex, Creativity etc.

? HOW DO WE KNOW SOMEONE IS TELLING THE TRUTH?

I would only know if you are telling the truth, if I have already gotten privy information about the authenticity of the data I am going to ask you about.

Take an example: "How much do you have in your Citi-bank?"

If I already saw your latest Citi-bank statement, then I would know for sure if you are telling the truth.

The same is true about candidates interview. We can only know for sure if we have an accurate and unbiased assessment of who they are and what their current careers are at, or state of their personal relationships or how they make decisions, especially the negative ones, will we know for sure if they are telling the truth.

By asking questions that leads to real examples, we can validate if the examples are real and therefore more likely to be truthful than not.

? STEP 3 - ASSESSMENT CENTER FOR MASS HIRING

Mass Hiring is only accurate with Assessment Center, where candidates are forced to argue about a very controversial topic. This methodology allows for hiring managers to see team dynamics, behavioral traits, communication skills and diplomacy. Validating these observations against their Drawmetrics provides yet another filtering and screening process in a teams/work environment.

? STEP 4 - FINAL INTERVIEW

Final interviews are conducted by the Hiring Managers whose main job is to assess cultural and chemistry fit as well as discuss joining formalities, salary expectations, validate job expectations, performance indicators, targets, bonuses, welfare, onboarding processes, Q&A and most importantly, values alignment between Hiring Managers and Staff.

If within the first 5 minutes of meeting the finalist, the Hiring Manager feels the candidate is not a good fit, then the Talent Acquisition and Recruiter/Interviewer did not go a good job from Step 1 - 3 and expectations are totally misaligned. This is a red flag that the TA & HR team needs to be re-trained on techniques, assessment tools and interviewing skills. Anything longer than 5 minutes to assess the initial gut feel chemistry allows human bias to creep in. Either the hiring manager is unsure or looking for confirmation bias that the candidate is right. Almost right means it's a wrong fit.

★ QUESTIONS THAT HIRING MANAGERS NEED ANSWERS TO AFTER THE FINAL INTERVIEW

#1 What challenges am I personally facing that this candidate can help me solve?

#2 How would I like this candidate to support the changes I am trying to make?

#3 What is the biggest challenge the organization is going through now?

#4 If resources were not an issue, how many more of this candidate would I like to hire?

#5 Can I see this candidate eventually taking over my job? Or someone else's job?

? WHAT ARE THE TYPICAL VALUES WE LOOK FOR?

? THE BIG TEN VALUES

Some positive values include (we also exclude the negatives):

★ Open Minded

★ Flexible / Adaptable

★ Hardworking & Fun Loving

★ Down to Earth

★ Considerate & Kind Hearted

★ Not Money-Driven

★ Trusting

★ Honesty & Integrity

★ Ethical

★ Humble

? STEP 5 - ONGOING ASSESSMENTS

The best way to assess anyone is when they are not in an interview room. Ongoing assessments must be behavioral and requires astute (verbatim) listening and observation skills. Any minor reactions or body language from the candidates can mean the difference between headaches and complete peace of mind of a good hire.

Behavioral assessments include some of the following:

#1 Situational awareness

#2 Cross cultural sensitivity

#3 Diplomacy and tact

#4 Service delivery and recovery

#5 An eye for details

? EXECUTIVE DECISIONS ARE TRAINED, NOT BORN

Consider training your Talent Acquisition & Recruiting team to interview better with better assessment capabilities and know-how. It will save you headaches and wasted salaries on wasted opportunity costs.