Up close and personal (well 2m close)

If you interviewed potential hires for your business via video conference during the lockdown, do you feel like you really met them, and know them yet?

We were fortunate enough during Level three to be able to work on some new opportunities and meet some new talent (online of course) in the market. This got us thinking, we all know when it comes to interviewing there is so much more to assess than the answers given to a set of competency or behavioural based questions. Punctuality, appearance, energy, rapport, EQ, engagement, attention, and much more all play a significant part in our assessment and ultimately whether that person is a match to the role and your business.  

This was certainly evidenced last week when catching up with a client for a coffee they remarked that between the first video meet and the following face to face that it felt like they were meeting a different person. Of course, these are quite different situations for a candidate to be in, nerves, the need to impress, what happened that morning in their personal lives all can have an impact on how the interviewee performs.

Let’s be careful not to let this newfound agility of our businesses potentially impact the future hires we make. We will (already have) become a “work anywhere” workforce, so we should be careful when it comes to hiring new talent. As we safely recover from recent events, with care please make the effort to meet, engage, have the coffee or wine, meet the team, trust our gut, and ensure we get it right.