As we move forward on the tail end of the worst recession in our lifetime, it is time to learn from our mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes that we make in our businesses is our blatant disregard for a professionally run interview process. We spend so much time, energy and money trying to replace the actual interviews. We use recruiters, phone interviews, and employee testing just so we don’t have to interview candidates. But, guess what? You can NEVER avoid the actual interview. Even if you decide to hire someone without having met them, you still have to speak to the candidate and perform that initial interview. You can’t avoid it. So, how do we fix this? Simply by talking about the big white elephant in the room, and acknowledging what Martin Yates calls a “dirty secret.”
We as companies promote people to management, tell them to hire a team of people, hold them accountable for that team, and never teach them how to conduct an effective interview. When someone makes a big hiring mistake, they assume that they “are just not good at interviewing.” That is not true. People can be taught to conduct fast, effective interviews. However, until we begin the conversation about it, the interview process will remain in the dark. And, our company culture will continue to deteriorate.