I recently got a new/used car, and at the end of a long day of interviewing, I got in it to go home. It has one of those keyless buttons that you press to make it start (this is new technology to me). I pushed the button and… nothing. I began to try everything I could think of to get the vehicle to start. I discovered the “key” in the key fob where I turned the car off, then on again. I opened and shut all the doors. Nothing happened.
One of the employees who was leaving at the same time offered, “Beth, do you need some jumper cables? I don’t have any, but I could call somebody!” I gracefully declined. Even if she had jumper cables, I would not have known what to do with them; regardless, I was pretty sure the issue with the car was user error, not engine failure.
As I continued my discovery process (which really involved me sitting in the front seat staring out the window in amazement, hoping a solution would just present itself), my client walked by and said “Is the car in park?” The car was in reverse. I put the car in park and it started right up at the push of the button. Boy, did I feel like an idiot, and I can guarantee you that I have not heard the end of this from my client, beloved husband and friends (nor will I EVER)! It was such a simple fix!
“What is the point?” you may be asking yourself. Last week, an article came out about a tech company failing to attract female candidates. After some conversations, they realized that the job title they’d used for years (“hacker”) was not perceived as inclusive by potential candidates. Once they changed their verbiage from “hacker” to “developer”, they began to attract many more female candidates. Sometimes a very simple change (in this case, of one word) can make all the difference in the world. Read the article here.
The next time you find yourself not attracting the types of candidates that you want (or when your new/used car will not start), take a second look. Put your process (and car) in park. Take a second to review your job ad to ensure that the language you are using directly reflects the message you want to portray. Then, press the button and GO!
Meanwhile, I will be reading the manual for my car…
I love the salad bar at Whole Foods! I mean, I LOVE it! It is a luxury that I rarely allow myself, but I will eat vegetables there that I would NEVER eat at home. I love having the ability to choose which high quality ingredients go into my salad, and my mouth just waters. I get excited just by thinking about it, because I know that it will be the BEST salad I have had in a long time.
What would it be like if you could choose your next employee that way? What if you could hand pick the qualities of your potential candidate like you can the vegetables at a salad bar? What if you walked around the bar and were able to choose the qualities in a great employee that got you excited? For example, pick up the tongs over the “Loves Coming to Work” container, or pass over the “Can’t See The Big Picture” container. After all, if you don’t like mushrooms, don’t put them in your salad! It will just ruin your experience.
In essence, it really is that easy if you have a strategic interviewing process in place. You begin with the Ideal Candidate List (step one in the A-list Interview process). Make a list of all the qualities that make up your Ideal Candidate and post that list on your wall. Look at it every day, and continue interviewing until you find that person. Then your new employee experience will be just like going to Whole Foods and walking around the salad bar: exciting, full of anticipation and a wholly satisfying, memorable experience.
We all know what we need to do to lose weight. Eat less, work out more. Eat more vegetables and less sugar. Cut out the sodas and too much salt. Cross train in your workouts so that your body is constantly doing different activities. Eat out less and at home more. There are no short cuts. No pills to swallow that lead to long term weight loss, and no quick fixes. No one can do it for you. You have to do it yourself.
The same could be said for hiring. There are no short cuts or quick fixes. You have to run a strategic process which means you will interview a lot of people, not just a few. You have to know what you want, and you can never second guess yourself. And, NO ONE can do it for you… not even me.
While I am considered an expert on the interview process with an average 30-50 people interviewed each week and over 13,000 people in my career, I still cannot interview FOR you. I can only interview with you. I can show you how to prepare, conduct and perform an interview to find the very best people for your team. I can share my expertise with you, but I cannot do it for you. The minute you step away from the process, the effectiveness of your hiring process goes down.
So, how do you lose weight while interviewing? You eat a spinach salad at lunch and take a quick walk around to building on your break. You leave the cookies in the break room for others to eat, and you do not go into the break room until they are all gone. You drink a ton of water, and you keep your eye on the prize… a fantastic new candidate and new dress in a smaller size.
At the end of an interview, a candidate asked me, “Can I ask you a fun question?” I responded with, “Sure!” The candidate then went on to ask me, “If you were stranded on a desert island, and you could only have 1 c.d. for your c.d. player, which one would it be?“ I said “Patsy Cline’s greatest hits.” “Awesome,” he sighed.
I began to ask myself about the point of his question. Through his question, what did he discover about the company culture? Nothing. What does he now know about the job? Nothing. What information does he now have that he didn’t before? None. So, why ask the question?
People are constantly asking me what questions I ask a candidate in an interview so I tell them. It is no secret. I want to know about your relationship with your past managers and co-workers, how you handle being overwhelmed, and how much research was done on the company for which they are interviewing. These questions all apply to the job. I do not ask about deserted islands, how many golf balls fill an airplane, or if you were a cheese, which one would it be, because those questions cannot be evaluated. Whether you consider yourself as blue cheese or swiss cheese does not help me determine if you can do the job that I am asking you to do and if you want to do the job that I am asking you to do. Questions related to Patsy Cline can come later after they have been hired.
And truth be told, I would actually not be listening to Patsy on that island. I would use the c.d. to reflect the sun to a passing airplane so that I could be rescued.
In a recent interview, we asked candidates some questions about project management. One candidate was talking about how their part of a project was completed when their bosses’ portion had not been finished. I said to the potential employee, “What would you do should this happen again?” and without missing a beat, he said “I’d chew her out. Just joking!”
After the interview was over, I said to my client “You know that we cannot hire that candidate based on that statement.”
The client responded, “But he was just joking, Beth.”
I replied, “Maybe so, but chewing out your boss? That’s not funny.”
In an interview, our job as hiring managers is to listen actively to the exact words of the candidate’s response. Remember, a job seeker will attempt to put their very best foot forward to impress a potential employer. If you listen to the actual language they are using within their finely tuned responses, you can identify personality traits and core values around work. Through this knowledge, you can identify how a person will fit into your culture, what type of management style they will thrive under and more. Therefore, if you are going to listen to the candidate’s “just joking” comment, then you also have to pay attention to the “chewing out” part.
When we are conducting interviews, we tend to listen to what we want to hear because we want to hire someone. We want the candidates to succeed and become our next new employee! And we are often willing to do whatever it takes to make the candidate ideal, including dismissing a comment like “just joking.”
We do not know what the candidate meant when he said that he was just joking. Maybe he was. But maybe he was not. Can you take that chance with a critical function like a new hire? If you do take that chance and he was not joking, do you want to work with an employee who will “chew you out?” While it may appear the language being used was positioned as a joke, hiring is no laughing matter.
I love the salad bar at Whole Foods! I mean, I LOVE it! It is a luxury that I rarely allow myself, but I will eat vegetables there that I would NEVER eat at home. I love having the ability to choose which high quality ingredients go into my salad, and my mouth just waters. I get excited just by thinking about it, because I know that it will be the BEST salad I have had in a long time.
At the end of an interview, a candidate asked me, “Can I ask you a fun question?” I responded with, “Sure!” The candidate then went on to ask me, “If you were stranded on a desert island, and you could only have 1 c.d. for your c.d. player, which one would it be?“ I said “Patsy Cline’s greatest hits.” “Awesome,” he sighed.