THE INTERVIEW (PT 3)

Continuing on from last time, the key to ensuring you find the right person from your interviewing is to ask good questions.

So far we have established the styles of questions to ask and these had five key criteria, namely:

• Ask Historic Questions
• Ask Questions Related To The Job
• Ask Work- And Role-Relevant Questions
• Ask Questions That Are Simple To Answer
• Preclude Waffle

With the styles of question clearly defined, we can now look at the types of question to ask. (In the next issue we'll combine these styles and types to create 'real world' examples of the kind of things to ask in interviews, to ensure you make the best possible recruitment decisions.)

The Right Type

• Ask Factual Questions. These are very straightforward and elicit a response with a fact which can then be questioned more closely with additional follow-up questions.

So, to use my own industry, recruitment, as an example, a factual question I will use to someone experienced in sales will be: “How many marketing calls did you make yesterday?”  There is only one answer - a number! Further questions will establish the truth of the answer and whether it meets the criteria I am looking for.

• Ask Behavioural Questions. Remembering that past behaviours are usually duplicated by your candidates, these are vital questions. From them you can deduce how they carried out a task.

Continuing my example with the answer to the factual question above, my follow up behavioural question might be: “How did you put your marketing pitch together?” I want to understand their thinking and the research they put in prior to the pitch as this will provide the insight into what I can expect in the future.

• Ask Specific Questions. Experience has taught me that most CVs are quite general and 'broad-brush-stroke' as they are supposed to be no longer than two or three pages long.  The candidate's CV will have indicated that they've been involved in various activities and disciplines and this is what made you 'screen them in' in the first place. The second stage phone screening you did then ensured that they were indeed likely to be what was required. Now, in the interview, you should be asking questions which deal with the specific situations they've worked in. These will provide the guidance you need as to exactly what the candidate did in a particular situation and allow you to delve beyond the CV.

For instance, my business has a strong IT focus and when we search for people for clients we see many CVs with the skills required by the client. With a detailed job description to work from, we can ascertain the best possible recruits by discovering the specific tasks they carried out within a project. So when a candidate has stated that they worked on X project doing Y we ask what they were specifically doing and break this down as far as we can.

To return to the recruitment consultant example, a specific question I might ask would be:  “How many marketing calls that actually connected with people you needed to speak to did you make yesterday?” I will already have obtained a good understanding of what it is they sell and would then follow up with: “How many sales did you make?” or “How many appointments did you set?” This is giving me a picture of their success rates.

• Ask Detail Questions. These allow you to gather more information to ensure you know everything you need to know to make the right decision. A cardinal sin is to hear someone talk authoritatively, assume that they will be good in the post and not ask the detailed questions. A sales phrase is “never assume as it makes an ass out of you and me.” It is crass but it is also very true and most mistakes are made through assuming rather than knowing. So, keep asking detailed questions until you are sure that you have made no assumptions. If the interviewee becomes uncomfortable and struggles the chances are you moving away from his/her general answers to specifics and establishing that they might have carried out the roles that their CV mentions, but not necessarily successfully. This is good - it is helping you towards making a decision.

Detail questions I would ask in an interview for a recruitment consultant would include:  “Where did you obtain the information for the pitch?” “What criteria did you use to decide which information to use and which information to exclude in the pitch?”

• Ask for Examples. The examples need to be similar to those that the person will face with the post you're trying to fill, so that you can mirror their behaviours against the requirements for your job. (Learning about behaviours that aren’t necessary for your position is not using the interview time effectively and creates clutter in your mind so that it is harder to establish the right person from the wrong person.) The more examples you can obtain against each of your required behaviours, the more informed your decision can be.

In recruitment I am looking to hire people who can work under pressure and react on their feet to what the clients and candidates throw at them. This is particularly true when on the phone making cold sales calls. Therefore, my questions might include:  “Okay let’s assume it is yesterday, can you now please role-play with me the pitch you used when making sales calls yesterday?” This is as direct an example as I can expect. It does put the candidate under pressure but reacting to pressure and thinking on your feet is a specific behavioural requirement for the position. It also establishes whether the pitch is well constructed and introduces itself effectively. They are all very important in sales. I might follow up with: “What are the three main objections that you encounter?” Then we would role-play these too.

Next Time

Constructing questions 'for real'.