HR FORUM
Hiring… Fill or Chill?
When it comes to interviewing job candidates, take your time and follow these steps to finding the right fit
interviews can be the most daunting step in the hiring process. There is more than an 80 percent chance your new hire will fail because they cannot transition into your existing culture. To put the odds in your favor, use this simple formula: hire 40 percent for skill and 60 percent for fit. Following these top tips can help get you there, too.
LOOK AND LISTEN for the characteristics, core competencies, and soft skills you want your successful candidate to have. They include qualities like honesty and adaptability; competencies like practicing conflict management and promoting team work; and soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, and problem solving.
USE WRITING EXERCISES with questions to help in the screening process. These exercises provide a great introduction to how a candidate thinks and will clarify how well they can articulate.
GIVE SELF-ASSESSMENT tests and surveys to final candidates. They are fun to take, easy to access, relatively inexpensive to purchase, and will give you important insights into how a person would interact with current staff or perform in times of stress.
ASK BEHAVIORAL AND SITUATIONAL questions as they provide details about how candidates act and react in certain day-to-day situations and can be predictors of how well a candidate has assimilated the specific skills needed to do the job.
MEASURING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
How someone handles themselves and others in the workplace, known as emotional intelligence (EI), is as important as technical skill. EI is measured through four areas of competency:
❶ Self-awareness
❷ Self-management
❸ Social awareness
❹ Relationship management
High levels of Emotional Intelligence can be a strong indicator of how satisfied and productive a candidate will be in the job. You can turn any interview into an EI interview by asking candidates about what motivated their behavior in a given situation and by having them reflect on the impact of that behavior after the situation occurred.
GO TO THE NEXT LEVEL by using advanced tools like group interviews, working interviews, and skill testing. These can promote a more robust assessment by providing important interaction between candidates and existing staff.
Ultimately, the strongest interviews happen in an environment where candidates feel comfortable talking about themselves. When candidates open up, you will be able to uncover any areas where their values might not match those of your practice.
It is human nature to want to fill a void as quickly as possible. However, slowing down to make even one small change in your interview process can dramatically increase the chances of a successful fit.
— Ginamarie Wells
Ginamarie Wells is senior director of client services of Cleinman Performance partners, a business consultancy specializing in the development of high-performance optometry practices. Information in this column is derived from the database of Cleinman Performance Network and is not intended to represent national average. © 2014 Cleinman Performance Partners, Inc.
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