Sometimes, companies involve more than one person or department in the hiring process.  In these cases, the candidates may have to liaise with other departments to accomplish their goals.  The recruiters have sourced, screened and interviewed several potential candidates and are now ready to have them interviewed by the company hiring team.  Here’s where the fun starts – Accounting thinks candidate 1 is not assertive enough, Purchasing likes candidate 2, Merchandising thinks candidate 2 will get bored quickly, and….well, it is easy to see that this process is a waste of valuable time and resources.

Your team needs a streamlined process to ensure that any candidate meets the majority of the company’s needs.  Their system must include several key elements to take the guesswork out of the interview.  The interviewing team must be involved in getting these elements right.  Job analysis, clear and concise job descriptions, behavioural questions, testing and other assessments will mitigate the subjectivity of interviewing.  Each person on the interview panel can contribute questions that will identify key competencies and traits, allowing the decision making process to take everyone’s needs into consideration.

Your system needs to have several elements including key competency questions, behavioral testing, and objective assessments that allows the guesswork and subjective nature of the interview process to be removed.

If you are working with recruiters, internal or external, be sure they ask lots of questions about all aspects of the available position.  They need to understand not just the job content, but also the context in which the work will take place.  Wherever possible, incumbents should be asked to comment on competencies and traits they brought to the role that make them successful.

Like many things in life, the more time you spend on the footwork, the better the result will be.  Recruiting is no different.  Spend your time and money on preparation and your interview process will be stress-free and accurate. Call Valley Personnel today for assistance with your recruiting needs.