1. How to interview candidates objectively?
‘Interview candidates objectively’ is the first chapter of Hire, the fourth book of The Hiring Playbooks, 5 ebooks that will turn all your hires into wins. Created by the Homerun team.
This chapter will help you avoid human bias, improve hiring success rates and save time and stress by creating structure.
The interview process is your first real impression of a candidate (and
theirs of you). The exact details will differ from team to team and from
position to position — programmers may get a coding test, designers will
have to present a portfolio — but no matter what the job is, your hiring
process needs to be structured, measurable, and repeatable. A series of
consistent interviews will ensure you hire people on the grounds of how
qualified they are for the job, not just how charming they can be on the
day.
How do I create a thoughtful interview process?
1. Communicate your true culture
People increasingly see their work as an extension of their personalities,
and, as such, they want to work for a company that shares their values,
goals, and outlook on life. Nobody wants to fill a position in a company,
they want to part of a cool team — an opportunity that you can and
should offer them. Your career site and job posts will have introduced
the interviewees to your employer brand. Your interview process should
drive its values home.
However, that doesn’t mean that you should wait for the actual
interview to turn on the charm. You can get in touch before the
interview to send each candidate a copy of your mission statement
and a list of your core values, which you can discuss together during
the interview. Not only will this conversation reveal whether you’re a
good match for each other or not, but the early contact will show the
candidate how important you are to them.
2. Make a game plan, and stick to it
Most interviews are decided by judgements made within the first five
seconds. The interviewer (influenced by the candidate’s appearance,
handshake, or tone of voice) either likes the person or not. The rest of
the interview is spent trying to confirm the first impressions. Sadly, we
all do it. Even more regrettably, these judgements normally result in bad
hires.
To make sure you avoid these pitfalls, we strongly recommend that you
implement a structured, repeatable interview process. When conducted
fairly and squarely, this should ensure that every candidate will be
treated the same, no matter how you or any other member of the team
feels about a candidate.
In a structured interview process:
• Every candidate is asked the same questions
• Interviews follow the same order (phone call, onsite interview,
trial day)
• Consistent benchmarks are in place before you progress to the
next stage in the process
• Interviews are conducted by the same hiring team
• Each member of the hiring team has a scorecard during the
interview
Willem van Roosmalen, co-founder Homerun:
“While structure is important, you shouldn’t be afraid to be open to
change. For example, when we started hiring, we didn’t know scorecards
existed. Now we use them every time.”
3. Assemble your hiring team
Hiring as a team improves objectivity by adding more diversity to the
decision making process. The more opinions, the merrier — and the
better the hire. How hiring teams are structured will vary from company
to company, but here’s some broad advice for how to assemble one.
Each team should include:
• A hiring team lead: someone who understands the company’s
hiring process, employer brand, and goals. This person will handle
all the admin stuff like scheduling, contracts, and negotiations.
This could be a recruiter, hiring manager, or founder.
• A senior team member: this should be whoever the new hire will
be reporting to (e.g. manager, team lead, or department head).
They understand the KPIs and deliverables of the job, and have a
vested interest in hiring someone who will deliver for them.
• A future colleague: someone who can evaluate candidates based
on knowledge of the specific team and role. They understand the
day-to-day requirements of the position and know exactly what
skills and traits are necessary to succeed.
4. Use interview scorecards
Equip yourself, and your team, with scorecards before the interview
starts (download a scorecard template here). These play a vital role in levelling the interview playing field, and are a simple way to rate a candidate before, during and after the interview. It can be a lot of fun filling both of them in too.
Your interview scorecards should list all of the traits, skills, and
qualifications that you’re looking for in a candidate, and include space
for notes and observations that pop up as the interview progresses.
It’s also worth considering whether you want to rate candidates on
more qualitative criteria like personality — whether they’re a team player
or pro-active, for example. However, don’t forget that these are based
on opinions, rather than cold hard facts, and as such are more open to
personal bias.
Next, it’s time to choose whether you want a separate scorecard for
each candidate or one for each job with a new row for each candidate.
The first kind makes for smaller scorecards, while the second makes it
easier to compare candidates. Both options will make your interview
process structured, repeatable, and measurable, so you can’t really go
wrong — unless you don’t recycle the paper afterwards, of course.
5. Ask measurable questions that predict performance
Asking a consistent set of questions, with clear criteria for rating the
candidate’s response, is the best way to predict a candidate’s future
performance.
The best kind of questions come in two forms:
• Situational: Questions that present candidates with hypothetical
(job-related) questions such as: “What would you do if you and
your colleague didn’t agree on X?”
• Behavioural: Questions that ask candidates to describe their own
behaviour and prior achievements, such as: “Tell me about a time
when you used data to make a decision?”
Refer to the job brief when devising your questions so they align with
your hiring goals — and make sure every question relates back to the
skills, traits, and characteristics that you’ve identified as essential to
succeeding in the job.
What do I do next?
Assemble your team, print your scorecards, and line up your first round
of interviews.
Before you get started, remember that it’s vital you always apply the
same process to each interview so you can compare equally. Take
the time to prepare it thoroughly, then apply the same process to
each of your candidates. Then enjoy! You’re about to meet your future
colleague. All you have to do is Hire the Right Candidate.
All Images by Studio Spass.
