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.
I ate lunch with a client at an adorable café in Denver, CO. They had listed on the menu a kale and quinoa salad that included “Market Finds”.
I asked the kind server, “What is a Market Find?”
She smiled widely and replied, “We go to the market every day to buy our ingredients. A market find is whatever we find that looks good at the market that day.” That day the market find was golden beets. YUM!
Her statement suddenly struck me as relevant to interviewing for employees. I teach my clients about the importance of an ideal candidate description, and yet, this server reminded me that we can sometimes be too rigid with our expectations.
When we are hiring for a new employee, we can make the requirements so strict that we miss what is amazing about a person and their potential contributions to our teams. Common examples that I hear for firm requirements often relate to experience levels and skill sets. There are some jobs where specific certifications, education and/or skill level are required, but often employers get hung up on a candidate having a skill set that can be easily taught.
Yes, I am an advocate for having a base line to measure for a great candidate. Be sure to also leave room for “Market Finds” which opens the door to out-of-the-box candidates. These hidden treasures can often be what life is all about, and you can’t “beet” that.
My daughter, Katy, will be 17 this fall. Recently, she was sitting around with her two BFF’s when one girl asked, “Katy, how many boyfriends do you have?” The other girl jumped in with a reply: “I know! She has 3 full-time and 2 part-time boyfriends!”
When the first girl looked puzzled, Katy replied, “Well, I get different things from each of them!” She explained that boyfriend #1 provides freedom and challenges her intellectually, boyfriend #2 brings flowers and is fiercely loyal, and boyfriend #3 is the perfect group date as his best friends are dating Katy’s best friends. As for the other two, part-time boyfriend #1 provides companionship and reliability, while part-time boyfriend #2: is convenient as she sees him every day.
My husband Randy (Katy’s father) said to her, “Katy, do not settle for someone who doesn’t meet ALL of your criteria. You shouldn’t settle, because you deserve the best of the best.”
In hiring, we often see similar situations with candidates. One will possess the experience the employer feels is vital, another will be a proven team player, yet another exudes enthusiasm. Just this past week, one of my clients exclaimed, “Beth, if we could just combine these two candidates, we’d have the perfect employee!”
Since combining two people into one is only possible in science fiction (and those stories almost always end up badly anyway), many people in this position will try to convince themselves to hire Candidate A because he or she is a BETTER fit than any of the other candidates. This path almost always ends up badly as well, except the result isn’t fiction – it’s your business reality.
If you find yourself in this situation, the better plan of action is to re-read your vision for the ideal candidate, redouble your efforts and hold out for the right fit! Remember what Randy said to Katy: “You shouldn’t settle, because you deserve the best of the best.”
Did you know that Colorado currently has the lowest unemployment rate in over 40 years? This is very good news! Having lots of people with jobs is something to celebrate. However, it can make for a very long recruiting process. If you are hiring, this is the time that you can make fear-based mistakes, so here are 3 tips to keep you calm and focused while you are searching for your amazing hire.
Create your Ideal List and stick to it. Regardless of the unemployment rate, employers needing to fill a position feel the pressure of urgency – hurry up already and just find someone! But rushing a hiring decision rarely, if ever, results in a good hire. Envision the employee you really want and stick to your vision, even when you feel that pressure. Read over your Ideal List. Get excited over how much better things will be when you find your great hire, and then read your Ideal list again!
Get creative and thorough with your outreach. You never know where your great hire will be found, so make sure you’re looking everywhere you can. Utilize the network of people you know – talk to your neighbors, your friends, your children’s friends’ parents… everyone. Also, make sure that your message appears everywhere online, not only in the networks you yourself frequent. For instance, people who regularly use Facebook might post their message there, but they’ll never reach the ideal candidate who doesn’t log on to Facebook but who regularly uses Craigslist. Your outreach should be as large as possible, and may include some unconventional methods: I talked to one employer who leaves her business card with people that she thinks will be good hires.
Check your brand online. Jobseekers will research you and your company, and if they see negative information they will be less likely to apply. When is the last time you’ve done a Google search on your company, or checked what Glassdoor and Amazon say about your company? Make sure you know what potential candidates are seeing about you.
Yes, in a market with low unemployment, finding your ideal candidate may take longer than it might under different circumstances. However, keep in mind that even under the best of circumstances, finding your ideal candidate will seem to you like it takes forever! Regardless, it’s a stressful situation, but be comforted in knowing that every other company is in the same boat; let them be the ones who buckle under the fear and stress and make impulsive and costly hiring mistakes. Stay calm, stay focused and hang in there!
“Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it…” – Stephen King, author
Many authors have described writing as a lengthy and arduous process. I myself have been in the process of writing a book for almost seven years now, and it seems I’ve been at it forever! And yet, as I put the final touches on my manuscript to send to the publisher, I am struck by how amazing this process has been (even though there were times when I wanted to pull my hair out). The learning, the soul searching, the patience and persistence have all been incredible lessons.
As I write, rewrite, delete, and continue to revise my vision, I realize that the process of writing a book is much like the process of interviewing for new employees:
Your vision changes as you go along. The book that I thought I was writing when I began this process is not the book that I ended up writing. I envisioned the process of writing a book was similar to the process of reading one – you start at the beginning and write steadily and smoothly until you’ve reached the end. I was unprepared for the amount of revisions, edits, rewrites and rearranging that occurs… and the same thing happens in the process of interviewing candidates for a position. My clients are surprised that midway through the process, we may change the job title, change the scope of the position or change the current department structure because we now have a better idea of what we need. You truly do not know what you are looking for until you begin the search, any more than I knew what book I would be writing until I started to write it.
Never, never, never give up. Wise words uttered from the amazing Winston Churchill. There were SO many times that I wanted to just quit writing. I got stuck, had writer’s block, or just became fed up with the whole process and would exclaim, “That’s it! I give up!” About that time, I would have a breakthrough that gave my book and my vision for it new energy. When you are interviewing for new employees, you will have bad days. You will think, “I am NEVER going to find someone!” Then, suddenly because you kept at it, a person walks in and renews your energy, both in the new employee and in your business.
It’s worth it. Much like completing a book, when you have finished the search, when you have found your Ideal Person and you have completed the hiring process, you feel like you could “leap tall buildings in a single bound!” You forget the times when you got stuck, frustrated, impatient, and the times where you HATED the process. Instead, you feel like you won the lottery!
While you continue the search for A-list employees (and while I complete this final phase of publishing my book), remember: Anything worth having is worth the trouble of making it happen, whether it be writing a book or hiring your next superstar. And stay tuned as my book, “Why Can’t I Hire Good People?” hits the bookshelves this spring!
Many authors have described writing as a lengthy and arduous process. I myself have been in the process of writing a book for almost seven years now, and it seems I’ve been at it forever! And yet, as I put the final touches on my manuscript to send to the publisher, I am struck by how amazing this process has been (even though there were times when I wanted to pull my hair out). The learning, the soul searching, the patience and persistence have all been incredible lessons.