New Jersey Enterpreneur - Small Business, Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital

It’s a real challenge to learn everything you need to know about a candidate in an hour or so. Ideally you’d like to "try them out" before you make a decision. If you can do that, great. However in today’s very competitive job market it’s unrealistic.

Here are some ways you can make your interviewing process more productive.

Choose five or six competencies that are critical to the job and that the person must have in order to succeed. Competence is the ability to use knowledge, understanding, practical and thinking skills to perform effectively as an employee.

     Competencies come in five basic categories as follows:

• Intellectual (analytical, project management, technical skills)
• Interpersonal (customer service, teamwork, communications)
• Leadership (vision, delegation, quality management)
• Organization (cost consciousness, strategic thinking, ethics)
• Self Management (adaptability, dependability, initiative)

  There may be thirty or more competencies required to do a specific job but I caution you to choose only 5 or 6 so that your interviewing can stay on point. Not everyone is good at everything and some jobs require more of one thing than another. If you focus on a few you’re more likely to get a candidate who is good at the most important ones.

  Keep score. List your competencies on a sheet of paper with a series of check boxes off to the right. Label each column of boxes far exceeds, exceeds, meets, somewhat meets, does not meet. After you have interviewed each candidate, score them on your document. This will help you remember who was a shining example of each. If there’s more than one interviewer (always should be if practical), have each interviewer fill out the score sheet. When you get together to discuss

  the candidates you’ll have a documented, objective view of where they stand.

  Look for indications of results. Interview gurus will all tell you that "past performance is the best indicator of future success." Get your candidates to tell stores about their accomplishments in the past. Ask them for specific examples and to tell in measurable ways what they achieved. This can apply to all levels of jobs where measurements may be in time saved, dollars earned, sales made, goals met, changes documented, etc. Wouldn’t you rather hire the machine operator who can tell you how much faster than others he/she was able to complete the work process? Or with how many fewer errors.

  Try panel interviews. If you have a selection committee, you may want to stage a panel discussion as a second interview so that everyone is hearing what each candidate is saying in the same context. Be careful not to overwhelm the candidate by firing questions. Put one person in charge of asking the questions that you’ve agreed upon in advance. Others should be restricted to asking for clarification or examples. Have a scoring mechanism in front of each panelist. This will also help you see how your candidate operates under pressure.

  Use a strict validation process. Before you make an offer, check references, do background and drug tests and use an assessment system of some kind. There are many skills and competency based assessment tools on the market made readily accessible through the wonders of the interview. Hiring someone and making a mistake is expensive, why not invest a few dollars to make sure the individual knows their stuff. Assessment tests, depending on much detail information you want, can range from a low of $50 to around $500. This is cheap at the price if you eliminate even one potential problem before it joins your organization. For hourly positions you can even try a "counter productive behavior indicator" which will tell you if your candidate is likely to steal, use drugs or even show up on time.

Research shows that interviews alone only give you a 50% chance of hiring the right person. By adding discipline, structure and assessments, you can increase your chances to 88%.

Susan T. Gauff is Founder and CEO of The Growth Solutions Group and Predictive Hiring Partners, Inc., a consulting firm that helps its clients select, retain and motivate star employees. The firm has offices in Princeton, NJ and Charlotte, NC.