CLOSING THE INTERVIEW (PT 1)

During the last few editions we have run through the interview questions to ask and how to construct them; how to spot and deal with issues which could lead you to lose control of an interview; and how to guard against information being gathered which is inaccurate or does not provide guidance as to the suitability for the role.

It will only take a couple of interviews to become confident and competent with this process. You will then be able to ascertain whether the person in front of you is the right person for the post, and you will have eliminated the “he looked and sounded the part and we got on well” approach to interviewing which can and has resulted in so many recruiting calamities.

So, What Now?

Once you have the required information you're in a position to close the interview with a high level of certainty as to whether the candidate is the right person for you or not.

My recommendation is that you do not make an offer at this stage and instead give yourself some time afterwards, just to run through the answers that were given, to ensure that you have not missed anything. I would particularly advocate this if this is one of your first interviews. (The only exception would be if you are hiring a temp or a contractor and they have to start the next day.) However, taking this approach doesn't mean that you can’t close the interview so that the candidate is left feeling very keen on working for you, over and above any other opportunities they may have.

When I have the detailed answers I require from my questions I move the interview towards the close with a statement along the lines of:

“Well thanks for answering the questions in such good detail for me. It provides a really good insight into how you can contribute to our business. Before we conclude, I will talk you through the opportunity with us and discuss the company background and where we are going. Then I will answer any questions you have, although I may cover some of them in the next few minutes anyway. Once we have covered your questions then I will quickly run through what happens next. Is that okay? Do you have any questions before I start?”

Then I talk about the opportunity and the company. I will take longer and go into greater detail with the good candidates than with the candidates I am sure that I will not be progressing with.

Sell The Opportunity And Your Company:

'Selling' the job you're offering and your company is very important, but by waiting and only doing this at the end of the interview, then

1. You'll know what the candidate wants from their next career move and you can now focus on these needs as you 'sell' the position to them. It is very difficult to sell at the beginning of the interview when you don’t know what the candidate wants or expects.
2. You'll be able to lessen the focus on the specific opportunity if you know you're not going to hire the candidate. You should still aim to sell your company overall, so that it is spoken of positively and further - as we discussed in earlier editions - by doing so there's always the chance that the candidate will refer someone they know who is a better fit for the specific post.

These tips should help you maximise the chances of being a candidate’s number one option:

When presenting the opportunity and your company remember to talk about where the role will take the candidate in the longer term, so that they have some objectives beyond completing the role you have today. This is very important in securing the very best people. (Always remember, the top candidates will almost certainly have other options as you will not be the only person to spot a highly motivated, talented individual.)

Be honest and talk about any aspirations that have been expressed by the candidate that may not be met within the role or within their expected timeframe. Talk about why they won’t and discuss alternatives, with the aim of making those alternatives just as attractive. The candidate is sat with you, so this is the best time to have this conversation. If you make an offer and they accept you want them to settle in well and if they discover that important information was not forthcoming from you, their motivation will plummet. (A new recruit is at the greatest risk of leaving in the first few months of employment, so it's always worth doing as much as you can to stop this happening.)

Make sure you cover the financial package, any other benefits and holiday entitlement well. Candidates always want to know this but many are reluctant to ask as it may convey the wrong message about their motivation. By presenting and discussing what is and isn’t available the candidate will gain a clear understanding and will either a) leave the interview happy with what's on the table or b) leave you knowing there is an aspect to what you're offering that you may have to think further about if you choose to make an offer to this particular candidate.

The detailed, probing and well-informed questions asked by you during the interview will have demonstrated to the top candidates that you know what you want and that things are happening at your company. This, combined with the discussion about the opportunity at the end, will hopefully create a stronger desire for the post you're offering vis-à-vis any alternatives.

Answer The Candidate’s Questions:

Candidates are advised to have some questions to ask at the end of an interview so you can be sure that a well prepared candidate will have some. Now is the time to take them.

If you sell the company and opportunity well, many of the questions will have been covered but take as long as needed to answer the questions of the good candidate so that they have all the information they require. Remember, recruitment is a two way process so both parties have to be sure that this is a good idea for them. (For a candidate I am not so interested in, I will answer the questions satisfactorily but I won't spend the same amount of time on them.)

Bear in mind that questions arise through interest. You can sensibly conclude that there is interest by the candidate in the job you're offering on the basis of good questions being asked of you about the role and future developments. Answering these questions well means that you are still selling the opportunity and your company.

Next Time:

Establishing whether the candidate has other options, and what happens next.

INTERVIEW ISSUES (PT 2)

Last time we started to look at some of the unplanned issues that arise during an interview, with the focus on candidates providing too much or too little information, or wandering off on tangents. We'll now continue the theme and look at how to handle some other curve balls that can derail your well planned interview, so that you can still find out the information you need.

The Candidate Avoids The Question:

This is quite common, particularly amongst sales people: the candidate avoids your question or provides an answer to a question they would rather you had asked. This might be a good trait if you are looking to hire a politician but it doesn't help you in the slightest if you are trying to decide if they have the right experience and behaviours for your role.

If this happens in an interview you're conducting, don't be afraid to interrupt them and ask the same question again. Do this a second and third time if necessary - until they do answer the question you have asked. The information is important to you, otherwise you would not have asked for it.

If obtaining an answer to the question is proving very problematic then don't hesitate to be upfront and ask for an explanation as to why they're not answering your question. Interviews shouldn’t descend into a battle of wills but you need the information and you now need to know why it's not forthcoming.

A candidate answering the wrong question once or maybe twice during an interview can be acceptable because it could be the result of their enthusiasm to impart information that they believe will help them win the role. If this is the reason, they should be easy to bring on track by asking the same question again.

Looking at judging whether you'd employ someone who's been hard to get straight answers out of, you will have to consider how easy it will be to manage them and obtain straight answers when they are working for you. To reiterate, avoiding questions once or maybe twice is probably going to be OK, but if it happens several times it should raise concerns about their listening skills or - even worse - their integrity.

If these concerns are starting to arise, then tackle them during the interview with follow- up questions which probe their listening skills and integrity.

• For listening skills try: “Describe the last time a miscommunication at work arose?” Or “Talk me through the last time you misunderstood a client requirement?” Then probe the answer.
• For integrity try: “How far have you gone in order to close a deal?” Or “Talk me through the rules in your current role that you do not agree with?” Then probe the answer.

The Candidates Doesn’t Tell The Truth:

I believe that most people are honest and think that most of the time the information received during an interview is true, but you do need to be primed to spot the untruths or the exaggeration of their contribution to particular pieces of work.

The key is in your preparation - this will ensure that that you are armed with your probing questions and requests for plenty of examples. By listening closely and asking questions during the candidate’s answers you will be able to get to the level of detail that will spot untruths or exaggerations. Asking for more than one example will provide validation. Most people can create one example but creating more which are congruent is very difficult and will frequently generate anomalies. Remember, we are not making assumptions. To prevent issues arising further down the line, keep questioning and obtaining detail until you are sure you have received all the information you need.

Differentiate between 'I did' and 'we did'. 'We' can conceal the candidate’s individual contribution. Letting it go means that you are assuming their contribution and making judgements on poor information. Interrupt when 'we' is used, and ask what the candidate specifically did. A couple of such interruptions and the candidate will provide “I” answers from thereon and talk about their contributions only.

Volunteered Information:

Discussing information that is proffered by the candidate is a great way of losing control of the interview and allowing the candidate to tell you what they want to tell you. You have your questions and these are what you want answered to ascertain whether they have the experience and behaviours suitable for your requirements.

Most volunteered information will not help much and as such will be a distraction. Interrupt the candidate politely, along the lines of: “Many thanks for this, it may be useful and if so we can come back to it but it is important for you and I that we both make the right decision and as such I have some questions to run through first to help me with my decision making. We can run through your questions and any additional information that you think will help afterwards. Is that OK?” Then you can come back to your questions and you have control of the interview again.

Candidate Nerves:

We have looked at this in previous issues but it is worth highlighting again. The candidate will be nervous even though you put them at ease before you started the interview. They will provide you with a clear picture of whether they are the right person for you as long as they remain positive during the interview so there are some dos and don'ts to ensure that this happens:

• Do compliment achievements during the interview. The candidate feels good and happily provides the rest of the information you require. You can then accurately assess whether this is what you want.
• Do show that you are 'on their side'. Some of your questions will be seeking responses to negative questions and you want the candidate to be open with you. Instead of asking; talk me through the last time you had to deal with an angry client? Make an empathetic statement first, for example: "Despite our best efforts we all have events that conspire against us which result in an angry client. What were the circumstances around your last angry client?"
• Don’t put down a candidate. The information is what it is and even if it seems insignificant to you it may be important to the candidate. The quickest way to have an ineffective interview is to damage the confidence of the candidate. If the experience and behaviour is not what you want then you have the information you need to make your decision but the candidate should leave feeling pleased they met you and keen to extol the virtues of you and your company, even if you do not move forward with them.

Failure to maintain a positive environment during the interview will result in poorly answered questions which could lead you to exclude a candidate from your final selection whereas a more conducive environment would have established that you had an excellent potential employee who was going to take your business forward.

Even worse, if you do decide that the candidate is the ideal person you want, if you've failed to keep the interview positive you may find that they decide against working with you, which would leave you having to either accept second best (which you shouldn’t) or start the whole process again.

In Summary:

If, despite your best efforts, an interview remains hard to control in terms of establishing what the person has and hasn’t done then there is a good chance that your working life with this person will be challenging too. So if the interview has been a struggle to keep on track there are two areas to consider:

• Were the interview questions you prepared prior to the interview not specific enough? Did that mean the candidate did not have enough information to understand what you were looking for, so was it the case that they answered as best they could.

or

• Was it the case that the candidate was reluctant to provide the specifics you were looking for and this happened throughout the interview, despite your questions being clear and appropriately specific. If this is the case then the candidate will be unlikely to have the experience or the behavioural patterns you're looking for. Ultimately, you would have to ask yourself whether you want to have someone working for you who cannot communicate clearly with you and is reluctant to let you know what and how they are doing?

Next Time:

Closing the interview for maximum effect.

INTERVIEW ISSUES

In recent weeks we have looked at your preparation to conduct the interview, the type and style of questions to ask and how to prepare them so that you can be sure that you are making a fully informed decision. There you are, all set and ready to go ... and then the curve balls arrive. In this and the next edition we will look at how to deal with the main issues that can arise to derail an interview, despite your best preparation.

Crucially, whilst making sure you're controlling an interview so you get what you want out of it (the ability to ask the questions you need, to elicit the information you require to make informed an decision), you should always remember that (generally) a candidate will never intend to derail the process. However, they may be nervous and the feedback they get from you during the course of the interview, if it is going awry, might be making that nervousness even worse, which can all contribute to an interview going wrong. If that happens, then it's not just bad for the candidate - it can mean you don't see all they have to offer, with the result that you may end up not employing the best candidate.

What all this means is that keeping control of proceedings is as vital as any other aspect to making sure you employ the best person you can. The good news is that it is easy to bring an interview back on track - as long as you are able to recognise that you are losing control of it.

So, what situations can arise that could derail the information gathering process?

Too Much Information:

One of my employees, in many ways an absolutely exemplary member of staff, would always provide me with the whole 'back-story' to any information I ask about, and only then tell me what I needed to know. Bluntly, it was frustrating, but over time we worked out an effective communication process to resolve the issue.

Many candidates will be similar and, understandably, seek to impart as much information as possible. They might feel it will help make themselves look good, or it might just be their nature to provide lots of information that they feel is relevant. It doesn’t mean they won't be able to do the job (although you may want to satisfy yourself about their likely productivity and ability to stay focused on one task if they continually ramble). However, in an interview you neither have the time to work out a sensible modus operandi to get over this kind of problem, nor to listen to a lot of rambling about a topic that isn't telling you anything you need to know.

If you feel a candidate is saying too much about nothing, you must firstly be clear in your own mind that that is what's occurring and secondly then be assertive and interrupt the candidate to bring them back on track. To do this, simply interrupt with a new question or re-frame the original question so they provide the information that you are specifically looking for.

Quite possibly, you might be at least partially at fault in not asking a sufficiently specific question - it's easily done. If you've made the mistake of asking a general question such as "Can you please talk me through your career to date?" and in response the candidate has just spent five minutes discussing a job they've done which has no relevance to the role you're interviewing for, step in with something along the lines of  “Sorry, my question wasn’t specific enough. Could you talk about your specific experience doing XXX at YYY company please?”

Too Little Information:

On the other hand, short answers can be equally detrimental to an interview. You end up having to think quickly for the next question which puts you under pressure, and you may not be obtaining enough information to decide whether the candidate can carry out your role.

Experience has taught me that candidates want to provide the information necessary to ensure they are offered the role. That's why they're there! Therefore, if you find you're only getting short answers back, it's most likely to be down to poor questions.

If this is the case, then for future reference you'll need to re-visit how you're framing questions. You may well find you are asking closed questions which can only be answered yes or no with a sentence or so in addition.

However, on the day, if you find yourself only getting brief responses, then you have do something to address the problem there and then to draw the candidate out. These are some follow-on questions and techniques that can help you:

• Reply with “Good, and?” Then just be silent and look at them enquiringly.
• Just be silent and leave the candidate to fill in the gaps.
• Ask the candidate: "Please elaborate".
• Ask a specific follow-up question which will require a more detailed answer like “so when you did xxx how did you do it?” or “Take me through the steps you took to carry out this task?”

A general point is to ask an open question around the last answer you received. This always works and you can try it in daily life. People will think you are interesting because you allow them to open up and hardly said anything yourself! For example:

• Q - How are you today?
• A – Fine.
• Q – What do you mean by fine?

You'll probably receive a very detailed answer about their various aches and pains and wished you hadn’t asked, but it is effective.

• Q – What did you think of the football last night?
• A – It was good.
• Q – What did you think was good?

You will now be regaled with a detailed synopsis of the game!

You will find that as your questions become more effective the short uninformative answers happen less often. When you do need more information, an open follow-up question about the too-brief answer will generally help you out of the cul-de-sac.

Tangents:

You ask a question and the conversation shifts to an area you were not expecting or planning to discuss. (My wife is good at this!) My advice is that if the information is useful allow the conversation to proceed, probe in greater detail and ask for examples. Assuming all the candidates turn out to be of a similar calibre, this additional information could be a differentiator.

However, if the tangent is not producing useful information, or even if it is but the question you wanted answering is being avoided, then you could start to lose control. In these instances, politely cut the point they are making short and re-focus the candidate on your question. Ask the same question again and be more specific about the piece of information you want to obtain in the same way as you would if you were being provided with too much information.

Next Time

Dealing with candidates who don’t tell the truth, who avoid answering your questions and who seek to take credit for work they did not carry out.

CONSTRUCTING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

In recent editions we have looked at the right type and style of questions to use to successfully establish whether your interviewee is of the calibre that you are looking for and established that preparation prior to the interview is essential to ensure that you recruit the right person. This preparation culminates in preparing interview questions that will get to the detail of work the candidate actually has done and whether they were successful or otherwise whilst performing other roles.

As I discussed earlier in this blog, when the need to recruit someone originally arises, the sensible thing to do is to create a job description detailing:

• the results that we would require from a new employee during their first few months of employment,  to enable us to measure whether or not we had made a good hiring decision;
• the behaviours we needed to see from previous roles so that that we could be confident that the candidate would achieve the results we expected.

The effort you had to put in at the start of the process creating that job description now starts to pay off, as you can base your interview questions around it.

The process flows as follows:

• The requirement.
• What information do you need?
• Look for a time they had to demonstrate the behaviour.
• Question the behaviour.
• Ask for in-depth detail.

The easiest way to demonstrate this is to use the example job we started out with when detailing the success and behaviour measures we expect for our job specification. In that example we defined one such measure and desired behaviour as follows:

• The requirement:

Within 30 days, the new recruit must be fully cognisant of our database and able to demonstrate an in-depth ability to perform searches and enter all conversations on it.

• So, this means the information we need is:

What is the candidate's knowledge of databases.

• And we need to look for a time they had to demonstrate the behaviour:

This can usually be found on the CV where there's a mention of using a database or storing information on it. Failing that, the first question might be "At xxx company how was customer information stored and maintained?" Or, more directly, "At xxx company did you use a database?"

• With the fact that they have used a database established, this line of enquiry then needs to extend to question the behaviour:

You want to know whether they were required to input detailed information and extract the information they required. So, the next question might be: "Can you describe in detail how you used the database?"

• And you then want to follow this up by asking for  in-depth information:

This could be a seemingly simple question, such as "How did you ensure the data you added was accurate?"

Once you have followed this process of finding out whether they have carried out the activity you want and displayed the right behaviours in doing so, you should then seek to obtain as many examples and as much detail as possible. The idea is to guard against making any assumptions.

This style of follow-up example questioning follows a simple process:

• Ask for the example
• Ask for detail so that you can understand the example and keep the answer on track to provide the information you are looking for.
• Ask about the actions they undertook.
• Ask for more detail so that you understand their actions and why they took them.
• Ask about the results of their actions.

So, for the above requirement concerning using databases, the questioning would be along the lines of:

• What was the hardest task you had to carry out in using the database?
• What made this more challenging than the other tasks?
• Can you take me through the steps you had to go through to carry out the task?
• How did you decide that this was the right process?
• What else did you try?
• What was the result?

Once mastered, this is a simple process that you can always follow for all the activities and behaviours you want from a potential employee. It means your questions will have been prepared in advance and, crucially, will be the same for all of the interviewees. This means you will be able to accurately compare the answers from all the candidates afterwards.

If an interviewer is ill-prepared, experience has shown that interviewing last is the best time from a candidate’s perspective they are more likely to be hired (all other things being equal) simply because they are the most fresh in the recruiter's mind. By taking the trouble to prepare and then ask the same questions of every candidate, and then writing down their answers, you will be able to make meaningful comparisons between everyone you've seen.

Next Time:

Situations which can lead the interview astray and how to bring it back on track.