Who Should Interview?
Depending on which big consulting firm your organization is listening to, you should either be centralizing your human resources or pushing it out to your business units. The pros and cons of either approach can be argued ad nauseam, but let’s consider the impact on interviewing.
If the interview process (everything up to actually conducting the interview—which should be done by the hiring manager) is in a central location, there’s a better chance that it will be standardized. For instance, using a set of established competencies, questions and scoring anchors. All of these things are likely to make your interview more valid. This will lead to better hires and less interviewing. The downside to bringing this to one location is service. The people responsible for interview development will certainly be responsible for other tasks and there is no guarantee that they will be available for every, “We need this interview yesterday” request.
If the interview process is conducted in the business units, there is no guarantee that they service level will be any better, but at least they’ll suffer the consequences of their own poor planning. It is also likely that the interviews will be more job specific due to a better understanding of the technical skills/knowledge required. However, it is also less likely that the interviews will adhere to quality standards in terms of addressing core competencies and using established scoring procedures.
So, what’s the best way for line organizations to get valid interviews when they need them? Try this:
- Frequent training. As opposed to HR conducting one interview training session and sprinkling certification dust on the participants, hold workshops periodically and review the interviews for quality and share war stories.
- Have all interviewers contribute their questions/anchors to an accessible database. This will streamline the process by allowing interview developers to draw on questions/anchors that have worked well for others. Additionally, HR can weed out the poorly constructed questions/anchors and let the authors know why they are substandard.
There no magic to interviewing, it’s a learned skill. From a business perspective, it’s a process that should be managed to ensure that they are done in a timely fashion (so you don’t lose good applicants) and valid (so you can identify the good applicants). If you are interested in developing a better interviewing process, please contact Warren Bobrow.
Know What You Want
Even before you get to the interviewing stage, it’s important to be crystal clear on what you’re looking for in an applicant. While it may seem easier to recycle old job descriptions or on-line postings, you can save yourself time and effort by reviewing those materials to make sure they accurately reflect what you need right now (and in the near future) and making the necessary updates.
For example, the last time you hired a project manager, you may have been looking for someone to handle several short-term projects with small teams. Perhaps the scope of work has changed and/or you’re on the verge of implementing some new technology which means that projects may last years and have armies of people involved. Those types of changes can have a tremendous impact on the level and type of skills that the applicant needs to be successful. In this case, update the your job description and postings so that you don’t misrepresent the position.
Here’s the bottom line, think carefully and be specific about the responsibilities and duties required. Don’t waste time recruiting, screening, and interviewing candidates that aren’t prepared to handle the job.
Please contact Kammy Haynes if you want to learn more ways to improve your recruiting and screening processes.
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