Given the poor state of the economy over the past ten years, its effect on the employment rate, and in turn on the questionable state of the candidate pool, executive search and hiring procedures, while already daunting tasks in the eyes of most employers, have now become even more complex than ever as a result. Due to these additional complications, it has become more important than ever that employers begin fine tuning their skills when it comes to assessing candidates and ensuring that they find the best individual for the job. Not only will this mean that new and improved assessment tactics should be applied, but even those most basic interview strategies and practices will need to be honed to ensure that no mistakes are made on the part of the interviewer. To guide employers as they begin beefing up their interview skills, here are a few tips from executive search firms.
Finding the 90/10 Ratio
Given the difficult nature of finding high quality, talented individuals in a candidate pool now being overrun with mediocrity, once an interviewer believes that they have identified a promising individual, more often than not the dynamic of an interview will shift, with the focus of assessing the candidate becoming a matter of the interviewer selling this individual on the company and position. This is just a bad practice. Studies have shown time and again that in order for employers to make a thorough and accurate assessment of a candidate, the candidate in question should be made to talk for ninety percent of the duration of the interview, leaving the interviewer the remaining ten to outline the job, the company, and ask a well-developed line of questioning.
Settling for Just Okay
It has become al all too frequent as of late, due to the generally subpar quality of most applicants, that employers have quickly become desperate in their search for a suitable individual, to the point that they have lowered their standards and are no longer looking for a great candidate but simply any passable individual. More often than not nowadays interviewers will revert to keeping a mental checklist in their minds by which to grade candidates and assess whether or not they have the necessary skills and history to do the job at all, forget great. However, despite the seeming impossibility of finding the perfect person for the job amongst so many individuals who are desperately applying for anything they can find, it is critical at this time that companies not lower their standards, but instead redouble their efforts and stay confident that the ideal candidate is out there and that it is only a matter of time until they find them.
Look for All Input
When an individual comes into a job interview they have doubtless put a great deal of time and effort into preparation and are now ready to put their best face on for the interviewer. While this may sound like what the employer wants to see, someone who is committed to doing their best to get the job, at the same time it is important that interviewers see how candidates act in more relaxed situations. There are a number of ways this can be done, the simplest of which would be to question the receptionist after the interview about how the candidate acted towards them, their demeanor while waiting, etc. Silly though this may seem, a surprising number of candidates might be eliminated this way.
Published by Conselium Executive Search, the global leader in compliance search.
