Your Interview Process is Broken. Good News - You Can Fix It.

If you made a poor hiring decision last year, industry experts estimate that cost you between $12,500 and $50,000 – more when accounting for customer satisfaction and employee morale. And chances are, if you hired more than a handful of employees last year, you have some regrets.

Why do firms struggle to get this right? Industry experts tend to agree that personal biases and urgency to hire may be to blame, which are tough factors to combat. There’s an even greater roadblock, however, that’s well within our control and typically ignored – and that’s our interview process.

When organizations fail to establish a strong interview framework in advance, dangerous patterns trend to emerge. Any of these sound familiar?

The “See What Sticks”

Typical Culprits: Small teams/growing businesses

Behaviors: Inconsistent team participation, ill-defined (or no) interview stages, lack of defined role qualifications

Consequences: An impromptu hiring decision, usually made on poorly defined criteria

The “Let’s be Absolutely Certain”

Typical Culprits: Leaders historically impacted by poor hiring, or with severe resource constraints

Behaviors: Involves an excessive number of employees and “rounds” in the interview process, and still can’t make a decision. Keeps highly rated candidates “in play” for months.

Consequences: Long time to fill, loss of great candidates to other companies

The “I’m the Boss”

Typical Culprits: Insecure leaders (to be blunt)

Behaviors:  Won’t invite participation from their team, or disregards their feedback

Consequences:  Sub-par, low-threat hire; highly ambitious and qualified candidates are excluded

The “I’m Lost - But Won’t Ask for Directions”

Typical Culprits: “Peter Principle” Managers lacking domain expertise

Behaviors: Relies on poor criteria that don’t and may turn off great candidates

Consequences: Decisions made on the primary basis of industry accreditations, education, and name brand company history – may or may not prove valid criteria, and will prove expensive!

The “I'm Super Busy”

Typical Culprits: Managers who are overworked, struggle to prioritize, or can’t delegate

Behaviors: Shows inconsistent attention to recruiting activities (full steam one day, unresponsive the next), and displays increasing frustration when needed resources aren’t hired.

Consequences: Won’t hire, or may become desperate and make an ill-considered decision. Blames everyone else involved (usually the recruiter).

We ask a tremendous amount of our managers in today’s workforce, and quite simply, hiring is hard – it’s easy to fall into one of these traps. Putting an effective process framework in place ensures your hiring managers are on the right path from day one.

A General Outline for a Successful Interview Process

An ounce of preparation…??

Spend time with your talent acquisition partner discussing the job description, needed qualifications, and the interview process. In considering whom to involve, consider your employees’ time constraints, attitudes, and relation to the position.

As you prepare to start interviewing, take the time to sync up with your team about the nature of the position, and the qualifications you’re seeking, or everyone will infuse their own biases.

Make it Count

If a recruiter or HR team member conducts your first interview, spend time helping him understand the position and needed qualifications in depth with sample questions and examples. Otherwise, this will be a call reviewing a candidate’s resume – and you can read that yourself.

Be Progressive

Whether your second interview is in person or via phone, take this opportunity to deep dive – don’t repeat round one. Review and discuss work samples, go through a relevant exercise to assess skills, or dig into examples of successful projects and leadership.

The onsite interview round should be thorough, and should happen once and once only to be respectful of working candidates. But don’t be afraid to make it a half or full day – chances are they had to take the day off. Let’s make the time count, for you and for them!

Debrief

Make sure to set a scheduled after each interview or day of interviews, to ensure you get your team’s timely feedback and allow for discussion. Memories get fuzzy quickly!

Decide

Don’t let urgency force you into a bad hire, but don’t let the stress of finding the perfect fit cause analysis paralysis. Take a measured approach, and allow yourself to make a decision – you won’t get it right every time, but an effective process puts you on the right path.

Not sure? Call references and address areas of uncertainty with insightful questions.

This is of course just a framework – build within it on the basis of what makes sense for your company, and don’t be afraid to constantly assess the effectiveness of your interviewing and hiring practices. It’s one of the most important things you can do in building a great company.

How about you? What successful hiring practices have you implemented to ensure you make great hiring decisions in an efficient manner?