There are a myriad of books, articles and experts out there coaching job seekers on how to present themselves in the best possible light at an interview. However to date, very little has been written for the interviewer to help them conduct the best possible interview.
One of the biggest challenges we face in Australia today, is that many interviewers will immediately form an opinion on whether they like the interviewee, and then seek to confirm this first-opinion during the rest of the interview. It can make the interview one dimensional and lead to statements afterwards like 'I did not see that side of the person in the interview'.
Well there is a better way.
A successful recruitment process should involve ways of attracting candidates, good interviewing, reference checking and if necessary independent testing.
In this article I will outline some of the best practices available on interviewing candidates and how to use them. I believe that good interviewing is something that can be learnt and as the golfer, Gary Player once said 'it's surprising how good I get, the more I practice'.
First things first
Forget the ways of recruiting from the 80s or 90s. It's no use asking a candidate for their strengths, as they would have this one pretty well rehearsed. Invariably you will get the same sorts of answers what they think you want to hear, like 'hard working', 'diligent', 'loyal' and so on.
The interviewing framework
There are three questions you need answered:
Can they do the job? Start by assessing and rating the candidate based on the critical competencies of the job. The criteria are set after discussion and agreement at the start of the recruitment cycle.
Will they do the job? Here you are looking for signs that the candidate will be there for the long haul. Assess their interest in working for you and ensure their motivations are sound. If the role is for a contract period, can the candidate commit for that period?
Will they fit in? Getting the best results requires an understanding of how things are done in the business and the management style of their supervisor.
Framing questions
What do you want to know?
You must decide what it is you want to find out. The best way of doing this is to have a job description that details fully what the person is meant to do, what important personal attributes and skills they need to have and how you will decide whether they are doing a good job or not. These are known as key performance indicators (KPIs).
Information included in a job description typically consists of:
job title
who the position reports to
who the person interacts with
responsibilities (e.g. manage payments of superannuation, PAYE tax and payroll tax)
personal attributes (e.g. ability work without supervision)
skills (e.g. intermediate Microsoft Excel)
salary or salary range
key performance indicators (e.g. accuracy of reports)
I would say that in at least 50 per cent of the placements we do for clients there are no job descriptions. I am not sure why clients don't wish to spell out the role.
The commitment of documenting the role is for you and the candidate to have clarity on what you expect from them and what they can expect from you from moment zero. That is the first time they meet up with you. There is no problem later if you wish to change the job description that just comes down to negotiation. Perhaps having to negotiate is what people are afraid of and choose to keep the job description in their heads.
After deciding on a list of skills, attributes and KPIs, the next step is to write down questions to ask each of the candidates that will give you some insight into whether they can meet your list of requirements.
For example, to address the KPI of improved reporting time you could ask 'Can you give me an example of a situation where you had to improve the reporting process? Please give details of the project and of the outcome.'
If they say they have not worked on this sort of project you can ask them to give you an idea about how they think they might tackle it. This will indicate whether they can complete the task and if they can't, what likelihood they will complete the task. Once you are in the interview you need not limit yourself to the questions on this list. However, having a fairly structured line of questioning helps ensure that you do not forget to ask important questions, and that you keep on the right track throughout the interview.
Asking the same questions to each candidate is a good way of assessing each candidate objectively.
Relax
We want the candidate to relax when they are about to do the interview. A good tip is to find something in their resume that you can open with. Like, 'I see you went to Melbourne University I went there but it was a while ago now' or 'Did you have any trouble finding our offices?'
Making good notes
For each of the questions write down the response. I have found the memory lets me down if I have to interview several candidates. Another useful thing to do is to have a rating of 1-10 on the important key performance indicators, skills and personal attributes. As you receive the response from the candidate place a rating against that attribute. If you don't have the time during the interview then take some time immediately after to note your impressions. Do it soon after as the memory will fade and impressions of candidates will slide into one another.
Other questions you can ask
Remember that you must tie your questions to your skills, attributes and KPIs. The questions you ask and the information you receive from the candidate must be relevant to the position if it is to be of any real use to you.
Discuss the candidate's current and previous positions and their major duties there, the software they used, why they left
Go through the duties they performed in each of their last three roles and if unsure of any of the duties ask the candidate to explain
Ask about the duties they most enjoy performing and what they do not enjoy so much, and the ideal sort of position they would like
Perhaps present them with a few 'tell me about a time when ' scenarios, to see how they have coped with difficult situations in the past. For example in an accounting role how they coped with getting information from other departments who did not place the same emphasis on preparing monthly reports.
Ask questions about practical things which may be important to you, such as have they been required to travel in their previous positions, and would they be prepared to do it in this position
And one of my favourites ask them to imagine that one of their past supervisors was in the room. Then ask them what they think the supervisor would say about them. If they don't address any of their weaknesses in the interview then ask 'what do you think your MD would say is the biggest challenge in managing you?'
Ask the candidate where their role finished and their supervisors started. You will find this simple question sorts out very quickly what your candidate has really been doing.
Ask questions like 'Why have you not started your CPA as yet?' or 'Why did you not go into accounting after you completed your degree?'
Create an assumption-free zone
Ask questions, don't make assumptions. Just because a person has a CPA, do not assume they know everything. They may know lots of things but not the one thing that is crucial for your role.
I had a client who recently told me he made a disastrous placement as they assumed the candidate with taxation qualifications, knew about capital gains tax. The candidate knew very little. This is easily fixed by going through your files and selecting a typical scenario of what they may face once in the role.
If a candidate in an interview says something like 'I did some month end work' it's very important to stop and ask what they mean by that. My favourite question to this would be 'I think I know what month end means, however can you explain what you mean by it?'
Sometimes we are on the same wave length, other times the candidates will surprise me with a completely different definition. You can learn so much more by seeking clarification.
To ensure that you have understood, it can be useful to give feedback to the candidate on what you have just heard. Something like 'so it sounds like you drafted the journal entries for month end and presented them to your manager for their approval, is that right?'
A knowledge base
The bigger picture for this approach to the recruitment process is once you have done a few, you start to document a process for your business. This will help get uniformity into the process, improve the quality and provide a pathway for the inexperienced on how to conduct the recruitment process.
With so much now being put back on the line managers to conduct the recruitment, anything that makes the process faster will free the senior manager or partners to move onto other things.
The flawless interview
There is no such thing as a perfect interview, but rather it is about ensuring you are able to get the information you require to make an informed decision. A lot of our clients have missed out on good candidates searching for the perfect interview. I believe that working towards a flawless interview is a work in progress and it starts with your next interview.
This page is available online at:
http://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/cpa/hs.xsl/720_7851_ENA_HTML.htm
