recruitloop complete managers interview guide

All you need to know to conduct a thorough interview every time

Paul Slezak

The Complete Managers Interview Guide

2 recruitloop.com.au

The Complete Managers Interview Guide: All you need to know to conduct a thorough interview every time. By Paul Slezak

Copyright RecruitLoop 2012 First published May 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.


About RecruitLoop

RecruitLoop gives employers a smarter way to recruit through technology and services that slash the cost and time it takes to find new staff.

The model consists of two primary components:

1. Recruitment marketplace:

A global network of independent recruitment professionals

RecruitLoop aggregates a network of independent, professional recruiters who help employers find new staff. This gives employers access to professional recruitment support, with a charging model providing 80% lower cost than a traditional recruitment agency.

2. Recorded video interview platform:

A game-changing innovation in the recruitment process.

RecruitLoop has developed a technology for recorded video interviews. This is not a live video-capability like Skype, but an automated one that records candidate responses to customised written questions, via their webcam. This innovation removes hours from the screening process, for both employers and recruiters.


Contents

Introduction

Part 1 What type of interview do you plan to run?

Part 2 Preparing for the interview

Part 3 The first five minutes

Part 4 The body of the interview

Part 5 The five essential questions

Part 6 Considering motivation and cultural fit

Part 7 Interview bias

Part 8 Providing candidate feedback

Conclusion

About the author


Introduction

For anyone looking to hire staff, running the full end-to-end recruitment process can be an extremely time consuming task. Often you will invest a lot of time up front to ensure that youve got a perfectly crafted ad to either post on to an on-line job board or to run in the press.

Youll watch as your in-box explodes with a tsunami of applications, and youll then spend hours sifting through a mountain of CVs until youre satisfied that youve been able to identify a decent shortlist.

At the back end of the recruitment process youll more than likely conduct your own in-depth reference checks not to mention some lengthy research through various social media channels to ensure that the person you plan to bring on board is exactly who you want (or more importantly need) them to be.

When it comes to getting an offer across the line, you might even invite your star candidate to lunch with your team, ensuring that everyone is on their best behaviour and singing the praises of the organisation.

What have I left out here? Oh thats right the interview. The time when you actually meet your short-listed candidates for the first time and also the first chance for you to promote your vacancy and your business.

For any business owner or manager choosing to run the entire recruitment process themselves as opposed to engaging the services of a recruitment consultant, the actual interview is undoubtedly the most time consuming part of the process.

This white paper will take hiring managers through the entire interview process - from that first handshake and ensuring the candidate is offered a glass of water, step by step through the structured behavioural- or competency-based questions, to how and when to best position your organisation as an employer of choice, through to finally walking the candidate to the elevator at the end of the interview.

Although most interviews will only last about an hour, its critical that you make the most of this hour in terms of the information you are able to extract from your candidate as well as the positive impression you are able to convey to the candidates sitting opposite you.

When the face to face interview is perhaps the most important part of the process, why is it far too often the most poorly run?


What type of interview do you plan to run?

Unfortunately there are still too many employers today who run an unstructured interview where, as the name would suggest, the disjointed approach often results in an inexperienced interviewer losing focus (and control) during the interview.

Without wanting to make the process seem even more daunting than you might already feel it is, you need to decide what style of interview works best for you.

Firstly you need to decide whether you will be running the interview by yourself, or whether you will have any other colleagues either sitting in the room with you simply to observe, or to actually help run the interview.

If you plan to have a colleague join you, its also important to let your candidates know that they will be meeting with more than one person. Interviews can be intimidating on the best of days, but to walk into a room and have to sit opposite more than one interviewer without any warning, can in fact derail even the best candidate.

You then need to ask yourself whether you are comfortable running a structured interview, where you ask every candidate exactly the same set of questions without deviating at all.

For a more inexperienced interviewer, a structured interview will allow you to work systematically through a set of predetermined questions - examples of which will be outlined in more detail below.

What is worse is that the candidate can often walk out feeling like the interview was a waste of their time.

Over the years I have been on the receiving end of some pretty strange unstructured interview questions

What modern pop song can you relate to most, and why? If you were stuck on an island, what three possessions would you want to have with you? If I was to speak to your grandmother, your old boss, your biggest client, and your second grade teacher, what would be the main differences in the way they described you?

Ineffective. Pointless. Futile.

Whilst the answers to these questions may be interesting, in no way do they help you accurately assess your candidate.

On the flip-side, behavioural-based, competency-based, and situational interviews will definitely help you determine your candidates past behaviour, core competencies or ability to in fact do the job in question.

Each of these interview techniques will also be outlined in more detail below.


Preparing for the interview

Unfortunately one of the most common reasons that a candidate will turn down a job offer is because they felt the person who interviewed them wasnt actually prepared for the interview or the candidate felt the interviewer was simply going through the motions and didnt show any genuine interest in the candidate as an individual.

Any guide designed for candidates will highlight the importance of being well prepared for an interview - researching the organisation, being familiar with the profile or background of the person interviewing them, and of course having a list of questions prepared that they would like to ask the interviewer.

Its no different for the hiring manager or person responsible for

interviewing candidates for an organisation. You cant walk in unprepared and expect to run a professional interview.


You must be familiar with your candidates CV and job history prior to the interview.

Dont wait for the call telling you that your candidate is waiting for you in reception before quickly printing the CV and grabbing it off the printer on your way to meet the candidate. Its not a good look if you start flicking through the CV in front of them making it very apparent that no preparation has taken place.

I remember helping out a client once by observing him running a series of interviews. I was quite shocked when two minutes into the first interview the candidate pointed out that my client wasnt even looking at her CV. It was a bit embarrassing for all parties.

Heres a hint: If you are booking a candidate in to meet with you at 3:00pm, block your calendar from 2:45pm, allowing you sufficient time to print the (correct) CV, and to sufficiently familiarise yourself with the candidates work history and background. This is also the perfect opportunity to prepare four or five key interview questions before you walk into the interview.

Finally whilst this might sound pretty obvious in terms of preparation, if you plan to meet prospective candidates in your actual office (as opposed to in a meeting room), ensure that your office space is tidy or at least presentable.

I went for an interview many years ago and right in front of me on my potential future employers desk was a final reminder for an overdue company phone bill for nearly $6,000. To my right was a plate with remnants of an aged half eaten California roll and some dried soy sauce, and when I stretched my legs under the desk I knocked over a stack of at least a dozen cardboard coffee cup trays. Needless to say I wasnt overly impressed.

Reviewing the candidates details


No matter how qualified or experienced a candidate is, a job interview can still be a daunting situation. So as an interviewer its important that you make the candidate feel comfortable and relaxed.

Where possible, try not to keep them waiting. Assuming they are on time, then meet with them immediately. Making them wait in your reception is like a dentist keeping a patient waiting in their waiting room unsure of how painful the next 45 minutes will be.

Common sense should prevail here and you should always offer your candidate a glass of water. Its also a chance for you to have a glass of water in there with you too.

Once the firm handshake and initial introductions are out of the way, make sure you establish rapport with your candidate. But please avoid the all too clichd (not to mention overused) So did you get here OK?. Unless they look like they fell off the ferry or have been caught in a tornado, then just assume that they had no problems finding your office.

Again while this might seem totally obvious to you, it really helps candidates get comfortable and mentally prepare before the interrogation begins.

The first five minutes

Explain to the candidate how the interview will work.

Even go so far as to mention that you will be taking notes.


The body of the interview

If you are lucky enough to have identified that diamond in the rough, and you have them sitting right there in front of you, you need to ensure you make the most of the situation and not waste either partys time. This can be achieved by collecting, confirming and clarifying as much information as possible through thorough questioning.

Gone are the days of just asking about strengths and weaknesses. And hypothetical questions are definitely a thing of the past. The only way to determine how a candidate will perform in a role, is to ask questions around how they performed a similar task in the past.

Now before you even think about what specific questions you will ask, you need to think carefully about your style of questioning. I know this might seem a little confusing, so let me explain.

Ask open-ended questions Where possible avoid closed questions which usually result in a simple yes or no answer. Rather than asking can you ..., do you ... or even have you ... type questions where technically the candidate could just nod or shake their head in response, ensure that your questions really open up communication between you and the candidate. This is where the competency, behavioural and targeted selection questioning framework will apply.

Avoid asking leading questions You also need to avoid asking leading questions - where you basically tell the candidate what you need to hear. An example of such a question is: There are a few tough personalities in the team here. You seem like the type of person who could keep them in line, right?

Dont ask multiple questions Multiple questions will most likely result in your candidate getting confused or losing their train of thought, so please try to avoid them too.

This often happens when an interviewer starts to feel pushed for time and literally hits the candidate with a barrage of questions in quick succession - something along the lines of: When have you been responsible for a team made up of really different personalities? How did you keep them in line? Did it ever get too much to handle alone? How did you address the problem with the individual team members?.

Whilst in isolation some of these questions may give you a good insight into your candidate, under rapid fire, its unlikely you will receive sufficient detail in response to any of the questions.


You know the behaviours, competencies or attributes you want the successful candidate to demonstrate, so identify these behaviours and make a list of a series of questions suitable for each of them.

Remember you are not just looking at your candidates ability to get the job. More importantly you are looking for your candidates ability to do and ideally excel in the role.

So here are a few common core competencies or behaviours and questions that you could ask to determine a candidates suitability.

Strong communicator: When have you ever had to sell an idea to a co-worker? How did you do it?

Decision making: Can you give me an example of a time when you had to be quick in coming to a decision. What obstacles did you face?

Time management / planning: Please describe a situation requiring you to do a number of things at the same time.? What was the result?

Hopefully you are seeing a bit of a pattern here.

Above all ensure that your questions have a purpose, are tied to your decision making criteria, are related to the job in question, arent vague in

any way, and will definitely open up communication and result in a meaningful discussion.



Ensure the candidate talks about their past experience. In order to assess the quality of their responses, just think about the word STAR.

Situation

Task

Action

Result

Whether you choose to create a list of targeted selection-, behavioural- or competency-based interview questions, the best responses will reveal the specific situation that the candidate had found themselves in, the task they were faced with, the action or steps they took to solve the problem and then the outcome whether good or bad.

Asking questions such as these will certainly bring more structure to the interview and allow you to compare the responses from different candidates. You will also be able to evaluate the candidates against the core job competencies and relevant behaviours more easily.

Drawing on a candidates past experience will also result in more factual responses, helping you create a more comprehensive picture of your candidates potential and suitability for the role.

The one thing you need to be aware of, are those experienced interviewees who know what to expect and whose responses to some of your questions may even appear somewhat rehearsed.

Dont let them take control of the interview. Refer to your list of questions, and ask them some of the tougher ones. Believe it or not if you make it too easy for someone to get through an interview, they may not want the job as much. If you make it more challenging, theyll want it more.



Having spent at least half an hour taking your candidate through the set of specific behavioural or competency related questions and you are satisfied with the responses, you should then ask the five essential questions that will prove invaluable to any hiring manager.

Whilst these specific questions dont focus at all on a candidates past behaviour or personal attributes, they will tell you (very quickly) just how serious the person sitting in front of you is about their job search and ultimately about working for your organisation.

1: Why are you really sitting in front of me today?The answer to this question will reveal whether your candidate is running away from something (eg a hostile working environment, bad manager, job they have grown to dislike etc), or whether they are running toward something (eg a better job, a new career direction, or a new challenge through a more senior position etc).

Candidates that I like to refer to as run aways are more likely to simply take the first new opportunity presented to them even if its not the right one just to get out of where they are today.

Believe me you dont want to be their rebound employer because the likelihood of them sticking around with you for very long is close to zero.

Run toward candidates will be more strategic in their job search, will have more questions for you as their next potential employer and will be less likely to have just applied for every job they possibly can.

2: What are you ideally looking for in your next position?This is where you basically ask your candidate to create a wish list for their next role. Get them to talk through it right there in front of you (and remember to write it all down). Ask them to think about everything from:

- What type of manager they want to work for; - What hours they want to work; - Whether they want any more flexible working arrangements (eg to work from home one day per week); - Whether they expect any particular benefits (eg car allowance, parking, mobile phone re-imbursement); or - What additional training they may be expecting etc.

Once you have a full understanding of what theyre looking for, you will know whether you are able to meet their wishes.You will also be able to come back to this list at the time you make them an offer and remind them of exactly what they told you they wanted. No last minute or unexpected demands.

The five essential questions


The five essential questions

3: What salary are you on now?Its an unfortunate fact but the majority of people will typically stretch the truth slightly in response to this particular question. Even if its just by a few thousand dollars, candidates will always inflate their current salary. Fortunately there is a way to prevent this.

Ask for proof.

If a bank is allowed to ask to see a pay slip to approve a credit card for $2,000, why cant you ask to see a pay slip when discussing a salary of $40,000?

Another way to phrase the question might be, If I were to ask for a payslip, what salary will it indicate you are currently on?. Whilst it might cause the candidate to become fidgety for a minute, or to break eye contact for a second, you are more likely to get a straight answer.

4: Who else is involved in your decision making process?No matter how independent or confident a candidate may appear to be to you, nobody ever makes a decision about a job change completely on their own. So its your job to find out who else is involved.

You dont want to get to offer stage and then have a candidate say, actually my wife isnt happy with the long hours weve talked about, my husband doesnt want me doing so much travel, or even my parents arent comfortable with me taking this job. I have heard all these (and many more) before.

Im certainly not suggesting you invite husbands, wives and partners into the interview with your candidate. Nor am I saying you run the interview over a Sunday dinner with the parents. But by stating up front that you are aware there will be other decision makers involved, it will get them talking up front and not when its too late.

5: How will your manager react when you resign?Again this might seem like bit of an odd question to ask the first time you meet a candidate, but it will tell you a lot.

If your candidate tells you that the manager would completely understand and respect their decision or perhaps even that they wouldnt be at all surprised, then youre OK.

But if the candidate responds by saying their manager will probably offer them more money, there is only one thing for you to do. Send them back to work, suggest they call a meeting with their current employer and to actually ask for a pay rise. If the request isnt granted, tell them to then come back to you. After all, why should you waste your time going through the entire recruitment process with a great candidate who, when they resign, is offered more money and then turns your offer down? Theyll be happy but youll be back to square one.


Considering motivation and cultural fit

Assessing a candidates motivation and cultural suitability is an extremely

important part of the interview process.

You might have experienced this before - where you have sat opposite a great candidate, their past performance is exemplary, their responses to your questions are polished, but deep down you just know that as an individual, they wouldnt be right for your team or the business.

After all if you decide to hire the person, they will be spending a lot of time with you and your team.

Right now you are probably thinking that there is a lot to fit into a single interview. I understand the concern, but if there is someone you feel really wants the role and who wants to work with you, determining whether or not they would fit your culture isnt something that can really wait for a later stage.

Think about the values held by your business and then ask the candidate when they have been most satisfied working for a particular organisation or team.

Their response will start to reveal why they were most satisfied - which will often be a result of the culture and work environment. Get them to elaborate on what specifically made it so satisfying.

What you are really looking for here is whether the candidate felt a strong connection to the support or appreciation they received from colleagues or management. Perhaps it was the learning and development they gained while working for that organisation. Or maybe the strong sense of cohesive culture, or the fulfillment they gained from working on particular types of projects or with certain types of clients.

Will your position give them at least a similar level of satisfaction?

Then ask them when they have felt least satisfied in the workplace.

At this point if you detect that some of their frustrations may resurface in your own environment because you have similar procedures in place or a similar culture, then at least you know that the candidate wouldnt necessarily be right for you. Perhaps more importantly your role wouldnt necessarily be right for them.


Interview bias

Heres a true story about one particular interview I know I will never forget. One that reinforced the importance of never letting first impressions take over and of always sticking to a structured behavioural or competency based format.

It was back in 2003 and I had booked a candidate in to see me. For the purposes of this story lets just call him Serge.

I walked into meeting room #4 and was greeted by a rather large gentleman wearing a bright fluorescent green short-sleeved shirt, a Charlie Chaplin like bowler hat, and a bow tie that illumi-nated red flashing lights every few seconds. It was a hot day and Serge was perspiring a lot.

If Id ever been inclined to go on gut feeling, this would have been the moment. I was sitting opposite a combination of Hagrid from Harry Potter and Krusty the Clown. To be honest many would have wrapped the interview up pretty quickly, perhaps even writing Serge off as totally unsuitable.

Instead I put all my first impressions aside and, once hed switched off the illuminating red lights on his bowtie, I ran through a series of detailed behavioural based questions. I pretty much grilled Serge for 40 minutes on his past work experiences and I have to admit his answers were fantastic. He was more than capable of fulfilling the responsibilities outlined by my client.

In preparing him to meet with my client, I completely refined his wardrobe and suggested he arrive in their lobby at least half an hour before the interview to cool off.

Serge was successful at interview and was offered the job on the spot. And I know that he stayed in that role (and did very well) for the next five years.

Only then will you be in a better position to determine whether or not your candidate is suitable for your role.

Dont let your emotions take over. Dont hire in your own image. Dont make a decision based on non-job related criteria such as where a candidate lives, where they went to school, what theyre wearing etc.

The lesson here for anyone conducting interviews with candidates is to control your emotions, put aside any first impressions or bias (either positive or negative), and focus on asking questions based solely around the key competencies, the job criteria or core traits and attributes required for the role.


Closing the interview

Another common reason for a candidate to turn down a job offer is if they felt the interviewer just talked to / at them as opposed to asking them any meaningful or relevant questions. In other words the interviewer just went into sales overdrive and talked about themselves or the company for 45 minutes.

Dont oversell your organisation or the role. Make sure you make the candidate feel comfortable but dont spend the hour just chatting. You want to make the right hire. So make sure you run a professional and effective interview.

When the time comes to bring the meeting to an end you will naturally ask the candidate if they have any specific questions about the role or the organisation that may have not been answered during the course of the interview.

There is no way that you could have possibly covered everything, so hopefully they have at least a few questions. Often its the quality of these questions that can reveal how serious the candidate is about the role.

Cover off next steps with the candidate.

If you dont discuss this up front, you will just leave yourself open to being harassed by your candidates.

Earlier I referred to common sense and interview etiquette. At the end of the interview, please walk your candidate either to the elevator or to the main the door to the office. Dont make them wait for the lift alone. After all they could be waiting for a while, and the last impression they will then have of the interview was how frustrated they felt waiting to leave - even if the interview itself went well.

A decent interview should last approximately one hour. But during that

time, please remember that you have two ears and one mouth. This means that you should listen twice as much as you talk.

Be transparent about how many other candidates you are meeting, when

you think you might be in a position to make a decision, and what other steps might form part of the recruitment process.


Providing candidate feedback

Its always nice to call a candidate, tell them how impressed you were with them at interview and either invite them back in for another meeting, or to perhaps even verbally offer them a job.

Its not so nice to have to call a candidate, thank them for their time, but let them down gently and tell them that they have been unsuccessful. But this is still something you must do if nothing else to maintain a professional reputation in the market.

Please dont send a standard email letting them know your decision to not pursue with their application. They more than likely took time off work to come to meet with you, probably did the best they could at interview, so please have the decency to call them let them know your decision over the phone.

Whatever happens please dont let days (or weeks) go by without any news. Some candidates might think that no news is good news, while others might think that silence can only mean one thing. Dont keep the unsuccessful candidates in a state of uncertainty.

They will be grateful either way and more importantly will respect your level of professionalism.

Provide them with feedback - whether it be positive or constructive - regardless of the outcome of their interview.


Conclusion

As you can see there is a great deal to think about if you want to run a thorough interview, not only to determine the best person for your business, but also to ensure that the candidate walks away knowing how seriously you are treating the recruitment process.

A thorough and professionally run interview is a strong indicator of an organisation with solid processes in place. It is also an indication of the level of professionalism within the business which for many candidates is often one of their key decision making criteria.

Heres an easy acronym which will help you remember all the steps outlined above. You might want to think of it as your interview S.C.R.I.P.T.

Structured interview: Running a structured interview will ensure there is a framework to your questioning and a purpose for asking your candidate the set of specific questions you have selected.

Competency based questioning: Remember hypothetical questions are a thing of the past. Determine what competencies are most relevant for your role and then select the most appropriate questions.

Results focused assessment: Unless your candidate can describe real results and real situations from past experience, their answers shouldnt be deemed complete. Keep probing until you can see what the outcome was for every competency or behavioural based scenario.

Interview bias eliminated: Control your emotions, put aside any first impressions or bias (either positive or negative), and focus on asking questions based solely around the key competencies or the job criteria.

Process explained: Dont let the candidate walk out of the interview assuming next steps. If you dont explain how you plan to run your recruitment process, you will just leave yourself open to being stalked by ber keen candidates.

Timely feedback: Remember that on average people tell one friend about a positive experience and at least 10 friends about a negative experience. If you dont provide feedback to your candidate and you just hope that by not hearing from you they will assume they have been unsuccessful, you will start to develop a bad reputation in the market.

If you are still feeling overwhelmed by the idea of running the interview process alone, but dread the idea of being hit with an exorbitant fee from a traditional recruitment agency, you can always get in touch with RecruitLoop.

Well provide you with stress-free and flexible recruitment support, the opportunity to pay an experienced recruiter only for the hours they put into your project, as well as the chance to view candidates on line through high quality recorded video interviews.

We call it a smarter way to recruit.

Happy interviewing!


About the author

Paul Slezak has built market-leading businesses in the highly competitive recruitment and advertising sectors. His success stems from his ability to influence and motivate key decision makers, executive management, clients, colleagues and team members alike.

With nearly 20 years in the recruitment industry and having worked for both an international publicly listed group as well as a global niche recruitment business, Paul has been a hands-on recruiter, manager, trainer, coach, mentor, and speaker across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

Paul holds Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Arts from Macquarie University. He is the co-author of 21 things to do to get a new job NOW! He is also the author of Attract. Select. Retain Recruitment Secrets Exposed!

OK so now the boring blurb is out of the way heres the real deal.

Paul grew up in Sydney as a somewhat overprotected first-born child. When he didnt quite get into Law, his parents suggested he study Economics so he did. Then they suggested that he study some more so he did. Then like so many others who couldnt find their dream, he fell into recruitment. But then unlike so many others he has stayed in recruitment for a long time. For nearly two decades he has been an active ambassador for the recruitment industry and now as a cofounder and the Recruitment Guru at RecruitLoop, the chance to now break away from the traditional recruitment model and really shake things up is very exciting.

The Complete Managers Interview GuideAbout RecruitLoopContentsIntroductionWhat type of interview do you plan to run?Preparing for the interviewReviewing the candidates detailsThe first five minutesThe body of the interviewThe five essential questionsConsidering motivation and cultural fitInterview biasClosing the interviewProviding candidate feedbackConclusionAbout the author

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