I received a call from a former client recently who is losing a valued employee. She said, “You know Beth, we weren’t using your process back then, and this employee would never have gotten past the third interview.”
I said to her “Do you know why?”
She said, “Yes! The third interview is all about passion for a position and this employee doesn’t love what we do.”
I have had so many hiring managers and CEOs want to shorten the interview process and rob themselves of one of the most critical steps in the hiring process. I completely understand why. Many of them are in a hurry and impatient to fill a position. Some are afraid that they will lose the candidate to another opportunity or worse, they are afraid they will NEVER find anyone and just hire someone already! All of this is a perfect recipe to a bad hire.
As Warren Buffet so aptly stated, “Money flows from the impatient to the patient.” So do candidates, houses, opportunities, etc.
The third interview measures how passionate the candidate is for the work that you are offering them. If they aren’t loving the job you offer, their skill set doesn’t matter, their availability doesn’t matter, their experience doesn’t matter.
Another client called me today and said “Thank GOD for the third interview! I just avoided a horrible hiring mistake because I followed the process completely! Thank you, Beth!”
You’re welcome! Keep following your interviewing system! It is designed to find you great employees, not “good enough” employees.
There are 3 important reasons why you should respond to every candidate who applies for a job within your company. Beth Smith of A-list Interviews explains in this one-minute interview essential video.
For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a total nerd when it comes to interviewing. I read everything I can get my hands on about this particular topic. As an expert in the interview process for hiring employees, I was particularly struck by this Fast Company article called, “What if we killed the job interview?”
According to the author, organizations make better hiring decisions when they use artificial intelligence (AI) based tools as opposed to actual interviews, so he advocates rather strongly that we ditch interviews altogether. His main point is that hiring managers and recruiters “overestimate their ability ‘to interview and evaluate a potential candidates’ suitability for the job.’ ” In other words, their ego gets the better of them.
I agree with him completely that the ego can play a detrimental role when interviewing for new hires. In 1994, Martin Yate wrote in his book, Hiring The Best, “(Interviewing) is something that we feel we are expected to know, or that comes with experience. Couple that feeling with the average ego, and you get ‘It’s easy enough to interview; I know a good one when I see one; it’s sort of a gut feeling’.” And yet, the numbers prove otherwise. 2/3 of all hires are found to be a mistake within the year.
But does that mean we should completely stop job interviews? Not in my opinion.
The author in the Fast Company article continues, “Interviews are more useful when they are totally structured and standardized.” Exactly. Yet why don’t we do this? Structured and standardized interviews provide better data. Most employers will tell you it is because, before now, no one has ever created a structured interview process that works. I have interviewed almost 20,000 candidates using a structured interview system that I needed to create myself and with great success. Intrigued? The whole system is spelled out in my book “Why Can’t I Hire Good People?” available on Amazon.
Killing the job interview is a terrible suggestion. Improving the structure of the hiring/ interview process makes way more sense.
This week, I am making four job offers, which is rather unusual for me. After the third interview, once we have selected THE candidate, I call their references. Reference calls are a big debate in my industry. Should you? Shouldn’t you? As one client so eloquently stated, “Why do I want to call a bunch of people who love this person?”
Here is why. Because they love this person.
I made 12 reference calls in 2 days. As a result, my faith in humanity and my ability to interview and hire great people was reinforced. Some of the comments I heard about the 4 candidates about to receive a job offer were:
“I know that you will love working with him as much as I did.”
“You are so lucky to have her!”
“He is welcome back here anytime.”
“What a great guy. If I could hire him away from you, I would.”
Reference calls are specifically designed to get a feel for someone outside of the interview process to give you additional insight into the person you are about to hire. The information that you get can aid in your assessment of a person’s work ethic, likeability, cultural fit and integrity. Good references are eager to help their friend/co-worker/employee get to the next phase of their career. Not only do their words speak volumes. It is a telling sign of a great new employee when their references call back quickly.
Get at least three references from your potential new hires. Ask for bosses and co-workers and tailor the questions to that particular candidate. Then, pick up the phone and call those references. If you feel like I did yesterday, you can make the job offer with confidence.
Happy, happy hiring!
Ready to turn your hiring process to an effective and efficient system that recruits A-list players? Contact Beth Smith to learn more.
Most of my clients would probably tell you that I have seen everything there is to see when it comes to interviewing candidates. I will tell you this just isn’t true. People in general continue to surprise me, even more so during the interview process. This past week, I encountered a “first” when interviewing a candidate. While conducting a phone interview with an applicant for a high-level position, his dog barked consistently in the background. To attempt to keep the dog quiet, the gentleman used a squeaky toy to try to distract the dog, which of course, only excited the dog more. Squeak! Squeak! Bark! Bark! “I am definitely the best fit for this role!” he yelled over the barking dog.
I am all about having dogs. I love them and support companies that allow employees to bring their dogs to work. Studies have shown that dogs help de-stress their owners and I am always an advocate for a less stressful workplace. I also believe in taking excellent care of our beloved pets by providing all the squeaky toys that they can handle.
Do I believe that dogs belong in an interview for employment? No, I do not.
An interview is a first impression. We are evaluating a candidates’ ability to focus, to think on their feet, and to listen to the questions asked. If they are busy playing with their dog during an interview, they are telling their potential employer that they are less concerned about you and more concerned with their four-legged friend. It may also be a sign they will become distracted easily. If this occurs during one of your interviews for an A-list employee, I recommend a hard pass.
This past weekend was homecoming for my daughter Katy, a Junior in High School. She is also a cheerleader, and somehow she is now responsible for doing everyone’s hair on the squad before the game.
Katy’s role as squad hairdresser started last year, when she created a beautiful complicated braid for her own hair. Then, all of the other girls wanted that hair style as well. Katy googled hairstyles, watched Youtube videos, and practiced on her hair (and everyone else’s) in order to be promoted to Head Hair Stylist for the Cardinal Cheer Squad.
I asked her “What are they going to do when you graduate?!”
She shot right back “Oh, I am training Jordan to do this job when I graduate.” Of course she is.
This process of having people hire and train their own replacement when they advance is exactly how successful companies grow, develop their staff and how innovation occurs. Those people who are on the front lines do research, they learn, they improve the company’s processes and they teach the next generation to do the same. I would imagine that the Cardinal Cheer Squad will have the best hair styles for years to come, thanks to Katy!
So, when you have an employee who wants to learn something new and take on a new task, let them. After all…
